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SSS or HSS?

Silenced Fred

By Silenced Fred
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Silenced Fred

Silenced Fred

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Always heard good things about the Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups. My Strat has stayed all original. It's okay. I like having one around in case one of my buddies drops by' date=' I don't let just anyone play my Gibsons. [/quote']

 

That's what I'm thinking, but I will be the one to play my Strat. It's gonna kick ***

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RichCI

RichCI

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I think it depends on your situation and what sort of sounds you're going for. On band rehearsal days, I have to move around whatever guitar(s) I bring with me a lot of times - home to car, car to office, office to brother's house, brother's house to rehearsal, rehearsal to car, car to home - so I'm always trying to minimize the amount of stuff I bring.

 

My Strat is S/S/S and sounds great for a lot of stuff we play but it is not ideal for some of our heavier tunes where my LP would be much better suited. The solution I went with was to buy a "super Strat" - a Peavey Vandenberg - which has a humbucker in the bridge and a single coil at the neck. With that guitar, I can cover practically everything we play even if it's not perfectly what I want.

 

So, if you're playing just at home or hauling two guitars to wherever you play isn't a hassle, I'd go with S/S/S; if you want to travel light, I'd go with H/S/S.

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Notes_Norton

Notes_Norton

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<...>

What I've got against the strat is the neck. <...>

 

I have the same problem with Strats. The radius is too short for me. I bend the strings a lot and the curve on my picking hand is also a bit uncomfortable.

 

The only Strat with a 12" radius neck has gold hardware, and I don't get along with gold hardware. In my corrosive climate and with my body chemistry, the gold partially flakes off leaving it ratty looking.

 

I'd really like a Strat though because they are good looking, the body is comfortable and well balanced, and I like singe coil pickups.

 

Carvin makes a "bolt" with an optional 14" radius neck and a coil tapping humbucker in the bridge position. That might be a good compromise for me, but I just bought a new, expensive saxophone so further investigation on the Carvin is a long way off.

 

I gig for a living. There is one room where I play twice a year that has some terrible interference on stage. I can't bring my ES-330 or Casino there so I bring my modded ESP because one of the P90s is RPRW and if I choose both pups, it acts like a big humbucker (I stay in the middle position all night). My partner plays a Parker and she cannot open the coil taps to put it in the SC position and must stay humbucker all night.

 

A place like this is a rarity, but it does happen.

 

If I were to go SSS, I'd probably want the middle pup RPRW so that in positions 2 and 4 I'd have what were essentially big humbuckers.

 

On the other hand, I've always felt the bridge pup on the Strat is it's weak spot. The bridge pup on a tele is its strong suit. So if I were to build one, I might also add a Tele pup in the bridge position and RPRW in the middle.

 

But I'm not about to build a guitar. I don't have those kinds of skills.

 

Insights and incites by Notes ?

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zigzag

zigzag

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You guys are way over my head. I replaced the stock pups in my American Standard Strat with Dimarzio Virtual Vintage low noise pups- all single coils, of course. I know I probably could have done better, but for what I spent, I was amazed and extremely happy with the results.

 

I also have an issue with a Strat neck. Maybe it's because I am more accustomed to a Gibson neck, and I not only like the Gibson neck more, but I find it easier to play.

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NeoConMan

NeoConMan

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Your Strat does NOT need a humbucker.

 

you could add in a TBX circuit like what clapton has' date=' that is controlled by one of the knobs. [/quote']

My '93 Strat has TBX, I never use it. I see little effect from it. Don't bother.

 

Never liked Lace's either.

They were all the rage in the nineties, everybody was spending big bucks to put them in their Strats.

In a few years, nobody was using them anymore.

I played a few guitars with them, they did nothing for me.

 

Vintage Noiseless or SCN are fine by me.

I know a guy putting a set of Rio Grande's in his Strat, he loves em.

Bigger pole pieces on the bridge and middle for higher output while retaining Strat tones.

 

And trust me on this - those ol' boys in Texas know a thing or two about Strat tone.....

 

www.riograndepickups.com

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RichCI

RichCI

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There is another way to cut noise on single coil pickups without changing the character too much - depending on the amount of noise reduction you use. I have the Suhr noiseless backplate installed on my 57 RI and it works very well; if you cut all the noise out, you do lose some high end but I was able to find a good setting in between before the sparkle disappears yet still provides an adequate amount of noise reduction.

 

It ain't cheap and requires that your middle pup is not reverse wound, but I think it was a good purchase.

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NeoConMan

NeoConMan

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The first guitar is the singer and it has a flanger on it' date='

the second guitar ... my Tele with the Lace Sensors

the effect I am using is either a Phaser or Chorus and some delay. The distortion is from the 5150

Cool song G-Man.

But that helps little with the choice in single coils.

 

[blink]

 

That's like getting vanilla ice cream cuz it's your favorite, then adding chocolate syrup, caramel, berries, nuts...

What does the vanilla actually taste like?

 

:D/

 

 

All the blues guys I was running with in the nineties might use Tube Screamer for leads.

The rest of the time, they were plugged straight in.

They were picky about their pickups.

 

I can't make a definitive statement about the Lace Sensors from my playing experience - other than "Eh...."

I can tell you that lotsa guys bought 'em because Eric Clapton told them to.

And a lot of those guys pulled them back out.

 

I don't know exactly why - I never owned a set.

 

But I have three very different Strats, and I can tell you they all have their strong suits.

Even one with humbuckers...

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Silenced Fred

Silenced Fred

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I think I'm gonna go with the Antiquity set then... Prewired, with all my options, its like 280. Considering the pickups themselves sell for around 90, that's not bad.

 

For now, I think I'm gonna route out my current body, throw on a hardtail, throw in the pups, and let that baby rip!

 

GLP1319- I just got home, no one outside my window... I'm safe right?

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Andre S

Andre S

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I think I'm gonna go with the Antiquity set then... Prewired' date=' with all my options, its like 280. Considering the pickups themselves sell for around 90, that's not bad.

 

For now, I think I'm gonna route out my current body, throw on a hardtail, throw in the pups, and let that baby rip!

 

GLP1319- I just got home, no one outside my window...[/quote']

 

did you check outside all the windows? [biggrin][lol][blink]

 

Man...flying from the Caribbean to the US a couple of times a day to stalk you....its tiring.....

 

so excuse me if you see any sloppily hidden cameras near your window...[cool]

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Andre S

Andre S

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I think I'm gonna go with the Antiquity set then... Prewired' date=' with all my options, its like 280. Considering the pickups themselves sell for around 90, that's not bad.

 

For now, I think I'm gonna route out my current body, throw on a hardtail, throw in the pups, and let that baby rip!

[/quote']

 

Why go with a hardtail?

In one of my threads I had asked about unscrewing the arm of a tremolo bar on a strat. You can, and you already have a hard tail LP...

 

It will be more versatile combo with a tremolo as opposed to two hardtails?

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Silenced Fred

Silenced Fred

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Why go with a hardtail?

In one of my threads I had asked about unscrewing the arm of a tremolo bar on a strat. You can' date=' and you already have a hard tail LP...

 

It will be more versatile combo with a tremolo as opposed to two hardtails?[/quote']

 

For the time being, as a broke soon to be college student, and a want for some amps, I already have a strat with single hum (which I don't care for the pickup on) Don't plan on selling it, so why not mod it?

 

I don't really care for a trem, and a hardtail can be around 40 bucks, making the whole build around 350.

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deepblue

deepblue

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The only Strat with a 12" radius neck has gold hardware, and I don't get along with gold hardware. In my corrosive climate and with my body chemistry, the gold partially flakes off leaving it ratty looking.

 

SVR Strat and the Eric Johnson come with a 12" radius.

Get a Warmoth..you can choose what you like.

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