Humbuckers on Strats!?

[fastlanestoner]

does your body have a rout for the humbucker? It shouldn't be too hard really. Is your axe a Fender or Squier?

[jampot]

Originally Posted by fastlanestoner

does your body have a rout for the humbucker? It shouldn't be too hard really. Is your axe a Fender or Squier?

Haven't the foggiest! It's a fender standard/mex

[ears2thesky]

I've been putting humbuckers on Strats since 1979. Love 'em.

I am not a fan of DiMarzio's Super Distortion pickup (13.6 Ohms). I generally prefer a lower-output model closer to PAF's output (around 8 Ohms). I currently have Carvin Holdsworth Humbuckers (8.6 Ohms) in the bridge position on my main guitars with single-coil AP11s at the neck. I can get a super-fat crunch tone as well a vintage twanginess out of the HHs and have more articulate highs than the typical high-output humbucker.
I really prefer to hear complex chords clearly rendered even with full overdrive, so I need great note definition and clarity. I also build my own axes with great care given to the wood choices, so I want to hear the sound of the guitar itself enhanced rather than the pickup's tone clouding things up.

Note: The level references of the pickups noted are actually DC resistance not output level, but these specs usually correlate pretty closely.

[Bill@WelcomeHome]

To my ears, neither fish nor fowl. I'd rather play my Strat when i want a strat sound and play my Les Paul when I want humbucking sound. Don't like DeMarzio super distortions... no tone, just buzzzzzzsaw.

you might like this:

http://www.maggiesfarm.eu/telecaster...teve_morse.jpg

[ersheff]

My main guitar is a 2000 American Double Fat Strat. Bought it on ebay a little over a year ago.
The model I have was after upgrades were made to the American line in 2000 (rolled fingerboard, staggered tuners) but before they switched to Fender humbuckers. It has a Seymour Duncan '59 in the neck and Pearly Gates in the bridge. Before that, they were known as Big Apple Strats.
Anyway, I like it a lot. I use the neck pickup most of the time. The extra midrange and mellowed high end of the humbuckers vs. single coil is nice for me, but the longer scale and snappier response of the strings give it a unique twist.
No offense intended, but don't listen to people that say "a strat is a strat". A guitar can be whatever you want it to be. I prefer my guitar to a standard 3 single coil strat, but also see the benefit of having different guitars with different pickup combinations. Right now, I'm eyeing an Epiphone Casino for a second guitar. Figure that's a totally different animal from what I've currently got.
You don't mention what kind of sound you're after. Are you unhappy with the single coil sound on your existing setup?
As far as I know, most strats made after a certain year are routed internally to accommodate humbuckers even if they came with single coils. Just take off your pickguard and lift it enough to peek inside. That's the easiest way to get that answer.
If it's already routed for humbuckers, then your job is easy. Buy a new pickguard with the right size holes and buy whatever humbucker models you want to try. Do some research on wiring and solder the new ones in yourself. It can be a fun project.
Good luck!

[ears2thesky]

I'd rather play my Strat when i want a strat sound and play my Les Paul when I want humbucking sound.

Good thing Eddie Van Halen didn't subscribe to this ideology.

[vintagelove]

Always liked SSH on a strat.

[Bill@WelcomeHome]

Originally Posted by ears2thesky

Good thing Eddie Van Halen didn't subscribe to this ideology.

Yeah, he didn't play either. At least, not when he 'made it'.

[ksandvik]

Bridge HH makes sense, elsewhere not.

[jampot]

Originally Posted by ears2thesky

Good thing Eddie Van Halen didn't subscribe to this ideology.

This is the kind of thing I'm after. A nice twang that's characteristic of the strat with the versatility of having the chunky humbucker sound. I'm wanting to turn it from a great guitar to a great all round recording and versatile guitar.

[rksguit]

Since 85,and being left handed also,Iv'e put a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge of all the strat ""type" guitars,Iv'e had.

I only got my first real Les Paul a year ago,and its great,however,it has made me realise how good my junkers with decent pickups/real Floyds,were all along!
RK

[Tinderwet]

Originally Posted by ksandvik

Bridge HH makes sense, elsewhere not.

Don't tell that to Elliott Randall.

[nedorama]

if you don't want to rout out the body, numerous duncan (and other pickups that are a humbucker in a strat shape. Add a push/pull pot, and you can have your humbucker and a single coil too. On my mexi strat, I have Duckbuckers in the neck and middle, and a JB Jr. in the back. I'll probably swap out the JB Jr. for something else as I have 2 teles with humbuckers front and rear.

[jampot]

Originally Posted by Tinderwet

Don't tell that to Elliott Randall.

It was Elliott that made me think about it really! Seeing him play his strat a couple of times is quite an experience when it sounds as gorgeous as it does!

[JamesN]

Depending on what kind of sound you are looking for it can make a huge difference for not much money. The sound between different humbuckers can be drastic. If you buy a humbucker and don't like it that can be an expensive waste. Also sometimes certain brands of pickups don't mesh so well together. If you have access to a lot of pickups and you know how to solder then it makes sense to experiment a bit. It can also be cool to have two pickguards each having different pickups in them. What kind of sound are you looking for? Gibson-style PAFs are much different than a Duncan Hot Rail which is quite different from say a Bill Lawrence L-500, also you could go with EMGs. Also you will have to figure out for yourself if you like a neck humbucker or not, what works for one person doesn't work for another - and within that, you might like one particular humbucker in the neck spot but not others.

Wanting a humbucker sound doesn't necessarily mean you would like a Les Paul more than a Strat either. I used to build guitars for a boutique guitar company, they built me a guitar and they let me experiment with all of their materials and electronics. Once you want a particular sound it can be tricky getting it perfect. For the most part any setup you can think of is cool for some things, but it might not nail the exact sound you want.

Separate from different pickup types and configurations it is worth trying out different wiring schemes. It can be nice to get the bridge and neck pickups on a strat together - especially when there is a humbucker on the bridge. A middle humbucker can also be cool. I never really liked coil-tapping or phase-switching, but some people do. You can also get into individual volumes for each pickup, tone control or no tone control, master tone or individual tones. On/off switches for all three pickups is a fun way to go. Anything you can think of can usually be wired up.

If you have to buy pickups try finding a guitar in a store with the pickup installed and try it before buying. It can suck buying a $100 pickup that doesn't quite work out.

Lots of people have ripping sounds with humbuckers on Strats. Rivers from Weezer used to have a Strat modded with two Humbuckers and it sounded killer.

[ksandvik]

Originally Posted by Tinderwet

Don't tell that to Elliott Randall.

Well, if I have a Strat I would like to keep the Strat sound, but the bridge pickups might as well be HH. Note there are double-stacked HH Strat pickups so you don't need to do a surgery to insert a HH into the bridge pickup position.

[rksguit]

Originally Posted by nedorama

JB Jr. in the back. I'll probably swap out the JB Jr. for something else as I have 2 teles with humbuckers front and rear.

Hi,is a JB Jr. a mini humbucker?,and why are you going to swap it out?

I have noticed,since getting a LP,which has a 498[bridge, 490 neck],that Gibson call it,well the JB,seems to have much nicer highs,than the 498,almost like the 498 is overwound or something?
RK

[nedorama]

JB Jr is a mini humbucker in a strat shape patterned after their full-size JB hum bucker.

I have the regular JB in my Tele; in my other tele I have a Hot Rails Strat neck and a Hot Rails Tele bridge. Looking for a different sound in the strat bridge.

And what I found is that while the JB Jr. is good, it's not a substitute for the full-size JB.

[ears2thesky]

This is the kind of thing I'm after. A nice twang that's characteristic of the strat with the versatility of having the chunky humbucker sound. I'm wanting to turn it from a great guitar to a great all round recording and versatile guitar.

This is why I like hybrids. Plus the feel of a Strat (scale length, etc.) is quite a bit different than a Les Paul.

The formula on my current main guitar is: One-piece mahogany body, bolt-on maple neck w/ebony 'board, tilt-back headstock, string-thru hardtail bridge, 25.5"-inch scale length, Carvin Holdsworth bridge pup, AP11 neck pup, 3-way LP-style toggle pup selector with 3 push/pull switch-loaded (coil tap, phase, series/parallel) pots configured as bridge vol, neck vol, master tone. It's really a Fender/Gibson tone mash-up in the best possible way.

BTW the body shape is actually an Ovation Breadwinner (w/matching headstock).

[Tinderwet]

Originally Posted by jampot

It was Elliott that made me think about it really! Seeing him play his strat a couple of times is quite an experience when it sounds as gorgeous as it does!

He's such a pro. Plays those endless soaring lines so nonchalantly. I also dig the no hassle strat and that he actually likes the original trebly bridge pickup. lol

[Kronos147]

Originally Posted by nedorama

JB Jr is a mini humbucker in a strat shape patterned after their full-size JB hum bucker.

I have one of those in one of my Strats, bridge position. It is kind of new to me. I think I like it, but not 100% sold yet.

[the donal]

Do you know which wood the body is made from? This can make a big difference to the choice of pickup too.

I have a Jap HRR Strat with a basswood body that is super lively. It has a Super 3 in the bridge (stock) and a Duncan 59 in the neck position. Sounds amazing. The Super 3 has lots of mid to complement the top end of the wood. The 59 that I had put in complements it perfectly.

If you have alder, it may be mellower than basswood, so you may want a bridge pickup with a little more top and power (my alder Strat Plus doesn't have half the tonal energy or volume as the HRR).

Maybe if you know a good repair shop nearby, take it to them and seek some suggestions.

[JamesN]

Originally Posted by nedorama

JB Jr is a mini humbucker in a strat shape patterned after their full-size JB hum bucker.

I have the regular JB in my Tele; in my other tele I have a Hot Rails Strat neck and a Hot Rails Tele bridge. Looking for a different sound in the strat bridge.

And what I found is that while the JB Jr. is good, it's not a substitute for the full-size JB.

Totally agree, the JB jr. is cool but really not as full or aggressive as the full size JB. So depending on what you want the jr. might work better if you don't want to sound to humbucker-ish.

[JamesN]

Originally Posted by jampot

Hi Guys,

As much as we all love buying guitars, there's always that money issue, and am thinking about making my Strat as versatile as possible and am looking into changing the pick-ups, including adding a humbucker.

It's a Mex and sounds pretty nice, wanting to get a pair of DiMarzio area 61 for middle and bridge, as they're 'silent' and then adding a Super Distortion to the bridge, so I can have the single coil sound with the switch in neck position, and the chunky tone on the bridge switch.

Question is, is it worth it? I'm LH so choice of electrics is sparse enough as it is. How possible/pain staking/potentially expensive is a pick-up change inc. humbucker (barring the fact I'll need a new scratchp plate!)

Thanks,

Jampot

What kind of sound are you looking for?

[MoBeach]

Hot Rails!

[kojo]

before you buy a full size humbucker take a look at the Super Distortion S. Dimarzio made a single coil sized rail humbucker Super Distortion which also allows you to split the coil when you want the "single-coil" sound. You can go on youtube and look at vids of guys with it to see if the tone is up to your standards. I myself just purchased the Dimarzio Injector bridge because I wanted a P90ish fat single coil tone without the hum. I'm getting it installed later this week.

[infiner]

Originally Posted by vintagelove

Always liked SSH on a strat.

^ yeah that

[NEWTON IN ORBIT]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but what the hell.

I did something similar w/ a tele. Duncan makes a pup called a little '59 that fits into a single coil routed body. Somebody initially said it would sound like a Les Paul, and the pickup was designed to sound like 59 LP pup or something.

It is maybe similar, but I have a couple LP's, and have recorded them side by side thousands of times, and while similar, there are obviously more than subtle differences. Mainly due to the body material and bridge design.

It's a pretty hot pup, with decent sustain, and if it weren't for the metal plate thing on the tele bridge, would be capable of high gain metal etc. Problem is on a Tele, is that the plate resonates and rings with super high gain settings. You could probably dampen this somehow, but then it would take away what makes a Tele sound like a tele for every other style I play.

I think in a Strat, this would be ideal, as you wouldn't need to rout the body out.


One thing though. After I did this, I liked it and all ( a LOT actually, still probably my most played gtr, as it can cover most anything), great hard rock tones etc.

That said, I later got on to a Led Zeppelin style kick, and wanted to try and get the tone from LZ 1. Freaking LOVE THAT SOUND. Clearly this was the sound of that single coil in the bridge though, and there is really no other way to get that.In the end I ended up getting another tele for traditional tones, and keeping the modded one because of it's versatility. Had to, as now my modded tele couldn't do this.

I guess what I am saying is, that if you do this, you will gain the humbucker thing, but lose some really cool tones that can only be had w/ a single coil in the bridge position on a strat. Hendrix, Johnson, Trower, Clapton, Blackmore...the list is endless.

If it were me though, I'd do it because if you have only one or two guitars, it will make your strat way more versatile for the short term. I'd put the lil 59 in, and later grab another strat and leave it stock for when you need that.

Here is the link to the aforementioned pup, good luck:
Little '59™ for Tele ST59-1b - Seymour Duncan High Output

john

PS others to check out before routing out the body, are Joe Bardens.

[ears2thesky]

One of the primary distinctions (relative to tone) between double-coil pickups and single-coils is the pole piece. Singles have one row (or blade) that creates a single pick-up point. A double-coil pickup has two rows which slightly cancel each other's signal because of the distance between them. This result is a less sharp, more rounded off frequency response. So a 'bucker that fits two coils rows into a single-coil frame size will sound a bit brighter and peakier than a full-sized double-coil pickup, since the coils are closer together.