There are trade-offs to this solution. The bridge pickup in the HSS is a custom wound Music Man ceramic humbucker with a vintage sound that compliments the single coils … And much liked the maligned mullet, we get, in theory, business in the front and party in the rear. I have a cheap custom HSH from a small company that uses Chinese parts. How do I wire the S-1 to do this – or can I ? i have a standard squier strat sss & i’ve bought a Belcat bhs-94a hotrail pickup 12.5k in order to replace the single coil at bridge position. Use 250k vol and tone. We are proud to introduce the Cutlass in a new HSS pickup configuration. The HSS is never going to sound right no matter what. It’s hard to put this guitar down now. Components include a synchronized tremolo bridge and Ibanez Powersound pickups in an HSS configuration. You can also use a 500K resistor from the Middle Pickup Lug on your 5-Way Switch to Ground, and your Lipstick Tube will see a 250K Volume! Gday guys brad from Australia I have a squire 72 vintage modified custom Tele with the 2 wide ranging humbuckers and would like to replace the neck humbucker with a strat single coil and I m after one which would give me something close to a david gilmour type sound .Can you give me some recommendations on the right single coil to use and the best way to wire it cheers Brad. You can without any problem. HSS is a pickup configuration. i could t find any wiring on this exact setup and after wiring it to the best of my ability i managed to get the pickups and push pull working but there’s a strong hiss that gets louder under overdrive. This gives the player a choice of traditional Strat sounds and the sound of the humbucking pickup. Many a hair metal anthem and searing guitar solo was banged out using a guitar with an HSS pickup configuration. The popular Modern Classic “Cutlass” guitar has returned to Sterling by Music Man, featuring a HSS or SSS pickup configuration with 5-way switching, vintage style tremolo, and an oversized 4 + 2 headstock.Available in Vintage Cream and Stealth Black. Note that i’ve read reviews about the hot rail I’ve mentioned earlier saying that it certainly needs a 500k volume pot to get its full sound. The pickups sound good, but there is room for improvement. All times are GMT-8. Since you have a swimming pool cavity, my personal favorite Strat configuration is a Tele bridge pickup, Strat middle and neck. In more, like Fender did in that period, I put a ceramic cap, in order to cut frequency (PIO caps would be a mess in this situation). The problem is when I split I have single coils with 500K volume pot (too trebley and harsh). However, would this also cause volume bleed through? Did this with five way switching in a Tele with a neck HB. Peavey Tracer Deluxe 89: (slanted) HS pickup configuration, Maple fingerboard, 24.75 inch scale, 24 frets, Kahler Spyder Vibrato, Reverse headstock option. Richmond VA 23227 | (804) 358-2699 | Or, get darker-sounding single-coils (Steel Pole 42 / Steel Pole 43, High Output) to compensate, and use a 500K pot on the whole guitar. This has been a very informative bit of info! It was discontinued after 1997. Also open to the idea of installing mods-ie 7 way switch, changing pots, etc. Translating that to pickup variables, not sure if I should get a lower output single coil (~6k) or a bit higher output, and if I should bother getting modern Humbucker in the bridge or get another PAF. It is therefore a popular and often used pickup combination. I would actually experiment with a 300K volume pot, a slightly darker Tele Bridge, and a slightly brighter Mini Humbucker. This did the trick. Mixing these two in a guitar with a single master volume pot usually means you need to sacrifice something. I recently installed a CTS push pull pot for coil split into my HS charvel. Single coils which are lacking power … and the Shawbucker is not working for me. I was under the impression they wouldnt because the bridge humbucker cancels the phase in itself, only to go in parallel with a single coil that still carries 60 cycle hum. You can also get HSS and SSH configurations, which give you a few more options. HSS Strats, Telecasters, and other mixed-pickup guitars all have this problem, and most of the time, it goes overlooked by the guitarist. Your guitar has a 250K volume pot, and your bridge pickup sounds awesome. What suggestions would you have for this pickup configuration. HSS pickup configuration with greasebucket electronics. Nr Mint Condition. If this can be done, could you send me a wiring diagram for such solution. or Standard) as two different animals when it comes to tone and output. rich menga books gear search about contact ***Secret FSR Fender guitars? check out the FAQ by clicking the It’s really hard to tell – you can definitely experiment. Weighs 7.58 lbs. You might also consider sacrificing a tone pot and use two volume pots. in the Neck position. I know I want the Fralin Pure P.A.F. I think this will give me a larger tonal range including a boost to the upper end? By using two 1M pots I believe it looks like a single 500k pot when the bleeder all the way up (if my math’s correct). I got this guitar new about three years ago. Very versatile. Well, I ended up researching just about all of his pickups. Oh my. I’ve reached the point where I prefer not to use the LP for live gigs … and want to give the Strat a chance. Fender nomenclature identifies the bridge pickup as the 1st pickup, the middle pickup as the 2nd pickup, and the neck position as the 3rd pickup. Killed it. If this is your first visit, be sure to Step 2: Select a position. Re: Question for HSS configuration. Should I use a 500 pot for mini hum and a 250 for the single, and in elect middle position – do I get the dark muddy tone as described above if adding a 500k resister…? 5 years ago. When u have 250k pots you could cutoff the tonepot (1x250k = also 250k) It’s been a daunting task doing all of this research. Before I decided to explore new pickups I recently discovered a Telecaster (70s) that has 2 humbuckers. After that i can insert a treble bleed between the 2 lugs of the volume pot to retain the volume when it’s turned down. Yes, they exist, and they're right here. Fender Player Stratocaster HSS (Blue Burst): now $599.99 Save $160 on this stunning Fender electric. HSS PICKUP CONFIGURATION. Our Wide Range Humbuckers sound great on 300K. While I don’t use its bridge pickup much, mainly using it in middle position to blend in more flavors, I do wish to upgrade the bridge to a beefier sounding option similar to one in a vintage Tele, if possible. This particular Strat has been upgraded with an Atomic humbucking pickup in the bridge position, which when combined with the Texas Special single-coil pickups in the neck and middle positions, makes for one hot and growling Strat. When a 250K and 500K won’t cut it, a 300K pot might do the trick. Will this work? There are a lot of ways to get around this problem, and it’s worth taking the time to figure out which pickup combinations will work best with each other and take your guitar to the next level. One other idea: I’ve wired a similar guitar with a 1M volume pot and a second 1M bleeder potentiometer wired in parallel that acts like the “resistor to ground” approach but allows you to vary the resistance. I have a ’72 Thinline with 2 PAF HB’s and I want to add a Strat neck single coil as a 3rd pickup in the middle on a S-1 Switch to be able to add the 3rd pup to either of the 3 pickup switch positions. For many players the wonderful sound of the Strat is defined by the sound of the neck and middle single coils, and that quacky sound of them both played together, in parallel. On the surface, why would anyone need another pickup configuration? I’m hoping I’d find a good set of h/s pickups from Fralin. I was initially thinking of getting a mid output Bridge, something like 10-12k (thinking the Suhr SSV or SSV+) and a Classic Stack Plus Strat from SD in the Middle. Really, the only way you can make this happen is to go with the 500K pot on your guitar and have a nice and chimey middle position. Bonus- all positions are dead quiet and work with 500 k pots. Tech experts from Seymour Duncan are regularly on this forum, and are clearly labeled as employees of Seymour Duncan. You might want to consider using a 250K / 500K Concentric Volume Pot, but you’ll be left with 2 knobs to turn – one for each value. This page was generated at 04:07 AM. Many Strats are available with a humbucker instead of the traditional single coil pickup in the bridge position – this is known as an HSS configuration. This means a big difference in sound when the first position of the pickup selector is engaged. Are usually brighter than humbuckers in tone, Usually need 250K Volume Pots due to their brightness. Author's Note: These blog posts are for educational and information purposes only. 500k volume, 250k tone with the single coil, 500k tone with the humbucker… different caps for each. A single-coil pickup is made of a single coil of wire wrapped around a magnet and is usually defined as being "bright" and "snappy" sounding, while a humbucking pickup is made with two coils of opposing polarities, an arrangement that can reduce or cancel unwanted electromagnetic interference and produces a warmer, more bold tone. Let’s walk through a few different scenarios and solutions to see which one might fit! Thanks for any feedback! You may have to register Choose the most compatible pickup outputs and tone. Knowing the answer to this question will help you choose the right wind of pickups, and solution that might work best for you. The Standard Stratocaster® HSS guitar offers legendary Fender® tone with classic styling. This RX40 replaced a similar model with a maple fretboard. For instance, Blues and Super High Output Split Blades sound best with 500K pots, making them perfect for HSS guitars and Telecasters. There are other solutions as well, all with trade-offs. Then i insert a 510k resistor between the 2 single pickup inputs at the switch and the ground in order for the single pickups to see the 500k pot as 250k. Fender MIM Stratocaster HSS. Ask yourself: what position do I play the most? You could replace your volume pot with a 300K pot, and you might find that your pickups meet in the middle. Many thanks. We do not offer custom wiring diagrams or wiring help or troubleshooting. I have a mini humbucker for the neck position that I wanted to to put in my Tele. The neck position is already dark as it us, and with a humbucker in there, it’s extra dark. Starting from those pickups I wired a circuit with 1Meg Aud pots as volume and tone. You can use a 500K Pot on the whole guitar, and your pickups won’t be too overly bright. I have a Fender Strat Elite with 2 single coil pups and one Shawbucker. Otherwise, use 300K pots instead of 500K. Check out our Volume and Tone Pots 101 Post. I do like the warmth of a Les Paul in clean mode– neck pickup. Using a resistor in parallel with your pickup can make a pickup “see” a different value pot than there actually is. Middle. Will a neck single coil in parallel with a bridge humbucker be hum-cancelling if the polarities differ? They are here to help. I get it all. Guitars with this type of setup may be usable, but the cons outweigh the pros. I swapped the bridge out with a Fralin split steel pole Tele. Thanks for providing so many options to handle any pickup situation. It has exactly the same features as the Bullet Stratocaster but for the pickup configuration. A powerful-sounding humbucker with two accompanying single-coil pickups gives you tonnes of tonal flexibility, making HSS electric guitars dependable for almost any musical style. Thus, Fender uses HSS to indicate a hum bucker at the bridge and single coils in positions 2 and 3. This is what I do, and works great with low output humbuckers. Instead of splitting the humbucker 50 / 50, it’s more like 70 / 30 and provides you with a warmer single-coil tone. This is our most recommended solution. The HSS Stratocaster is very similar to the SSS version, with the exception of a Fender humbucker replacing the single-coil bridge pickup. He's powered by Jazz Guitar, Vietnamese Food, Hiking, and Beer. If you find the humbucker too dull/damp then try this: A humbucker sounds best having 250k (vol 500k + tone 500k = 250k) So the question is: It is possible make your SOLUTION # 4 (470K resistor) on this topic to kick in for both Bridge and Neck just when split to single coils with the push/pull pot? For this, we recommend going to a local luthier or tech. Hum-Single-Single The SSA is a feature-packed pickup that, when combined with an SSP and one of our Fluence humbuckers, achieves a wide variety of sounds in an HSS configuration. tone forum. Many thanks!! I like a 500k volume, 250k tone for the neck & middle, and 500k tone for the bridge. I ended up deciding to keep my neck HB with hopes that 500k pots would fix the issue. bridge. Not sure about this one. All are welcome, from seasoned pros to absolute beginners. This is a feature that I’d very much like to retain. Making the 500k vol and tone pots clear up some of the muddiness of the reissue WRHB and making the single coils sound less shirll and ice-picky. Hello, this is also a question like Mike’s above. if not please advise. It was too muddy due to the guitar having 250 k pots that only matched well with the bridge single coil. Would you please give some pointers on this subject? Of course, these latest versions wouldn’t be the same without a black headcap and that infamous '80s stylized Fender logo on the headstock. Neck. Solidbody Electric Guitar with Alder Body, Maple Neck, Pau Ferro Fingerboard, Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, and HSS Pickup Configuration - 3-tone Sunburst $ 829 .99 Or $139 /month § for 6 months Also the Screamin Demon is a very good match with single-coils, it's really not a high output pickup at all. My Goal is to be able to get nice bright lead tones with some twang and fullness from the single coil that I choose, and a hard biting rock & roll sound from my bridge pickup. Black w maple neck. Required fields are marked *, 2015 W. Laburnum Ave, 2nd Floor You can use a 500K pot for a master volume, and run a ~470K resistor off the switch from your bridge position and running it to ground. With a maple fretboard, HSS pickup configuration and two tone knobs, this guitar has the looks and the tone.View Deal Suggestions? I have a similar problem and i think ill just add a little toggle switch instead. The HSS pickup configuration became popular during the super strat era of the 1980s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-xkwOtdvRM&t=45s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yusDUUUAaNw&t=196s. I think you should try it first as is. An HSS pickup configuration consisting of a custom Seymour Duncan® Full Shred™ SH-10B bridge pickup, Seymour Duncan Custom Flat Strat® SSL-6 single-coil middle pickup and custom Seymour Duncan Custom Flat Strat SSL-6 RWRP single-coil neck pickup proves to be a versatile tonal force with beefed up mids and articulated, crispy highs. In your opinion. My cover band plays rock (nothing too heavy … Santana is about as heavy as we get), pop, Motown, country, and reggae. I’m not opposed to changing out the pups. The popular Modern Classic “Cutlass” guitar has returned to Sterling by Music Man, featuring a HSS or SSS pickup configuration with 5-way switching, vintage style tremolo, and an oversized 4 + 2 headstock.Available in Vintage Cream and Stealth Black. If I only had a dollar for every song I've sung, Duncan Pickups in currently in use: '59 (rewound to PATB-3)/'59, Custom 5/AP2H, Tapped QP set for Tele, Crazy 8/Cool Rails, Custom 5/Phat Cat, SP90-1/SP90-2, SHPR-1b/SHPR-1n, SMB-5D, LP, Pearly Gates A6 bridge, Alnico II Pro neck A2. The pickup switch is the key to the Stratocaster’s time-honored tonal versatility, because it controls which pickups or which combinations of pickups are on at any given time. This guitar came with their whisper(?) Upgraded to Fender locking tuners, graph-tech saddles, nut and string trees. do you think that the Screamin Demon would be too hot because it's a medium output pickup? As /u/OldFrets said it's the type of the pickups. Let’s imagine this scenario: You have a Telecaster with a P90 in the neck and a Single Coil bridge. We get a lot of calls and spend a lot of time talking through this issue – there’s no one real solution – but many solutions that might fit your needs. Hello Tyler, I want to say your web page is great and very educational for us guitarrists. We get a lot of calls and spend a lot of time talking through this issue – there’s no one real solution – but many solutions that might fit your needs. Squier Bullet Stratocaster HT HSS. Or, do I rock out with the bridge humbucker a lot and rarely play the single coils? The RX40 features an agathis or maple plywood body bolted to a maple neck with a 22-fret rosewood fingerboard with dot position markers. You’d get a pretty even tone out of both pickups and be able to forego the customization. And to answer your second question, yeah it matters. I think it is a good time to experiment with pots. Tyler Delsack is the Manager of Fralin Pickups and spends his time editing and maintaining the website, designing graphics and ads, and making pickups. A few examples of this might include using Blues Specials or High Output Single Coils with a Pure P.A.F. For a dose of hot vintage-sounding tone, a rich-sounding Twin Head Vintage humbucking pickup is situated at the bridge, for high-octane tone with plenty of output and sustain. Solidbody Electric Guitar with Alder Body, Maple Neck, Pau Ferro Fingerboard, Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, and HSS Pickup Configuration - 3-tone Sunburst $ 829 .99 Or $139 /month § for 6 months any help? Hello Tyler. Using our Bright Switch mod will help remove the 250K load on the neck, and brighten it up. * Can i keep the 250k pots & install the hotrail All my pot are 250k. Each pickup comes with both a white and black plastic cover. Burned my brain to get it working….LOL, Interested in how you did this wiring; do you have a pic or illustration of the circuit that worked for you? All this is to be done taking into consideration that am choosing an hss auto-split mode. * Or should i use a 500k volume pot with 470k resistor. Click the link to hear this in a Strat. Planning on replacing the pickups very soon. For instance, check out our Sunbucker, Big Single (42 Gauge) and Twangmaster – all are humbucker sized pickups that are bright and snappy, and use 250K pots. select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. I installed a Dimarzio Chopper T in the bridge position and a Dimarzio Area T hum free single coil in the neck. The HSS pickup configuration is highly versatile. Hi – on Telecaster – going to use a Mini humbucker neck, and standard fralin tele bridge single coil. HUMBUCKER refers to a full-size pickup with 2 coils like the drawing on the left. For example, the HSS gives you extra power on the bridge pickup for stuff like punk power chords, while the neck and mid are single coils for more expressive playing. A combination of pickups is called a pickup configuration, usually notated by writing out the pickup types in order from bridge pickup through mid pickup(s) to neck pickup, using “S” for single-coil and “H” for humbucker. Trying to set up something similar…, Good article and honest opinions. – Bradd Szonye Jun 24 '14 at 20:33 Related … not a techie here so I’ll have to have the new pups installed … assuming I go that way. before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. STRAT refers to a single-coil size pickup similar to the drawing on the right, but the actual pickup may be humcancelling and have 2 coils. The new models offer a basswood body, Gotoh tuners, an HSS pickup configuration with a coil split switch for the bridge pickup, a Floyd Rose locking tremolo and 24 jumbo frets. If you have a guitar with mixed pickups, spending time choosing pickups that work well together in the first place is our most recommended solution. As soon as you click into position #2 (Neck and Bridge), the combined resistance will yield a very dark-sounding middle position. Luckily, the pots are cheap! I think I was able to preserve the essence of the guitar’s design without any compromises. The P90 in the neck will see the 500K volume pot as normal, and the bridge will see a 242K pot (close enough to 250K for us). What a marvelous combo- the neck HB now sounds great, the bridge is phenomenal, the middle is perfect. Do you use a 500K volume pot for your bridge humbucker and have brighter-sounding single coils, or vice versa? Order your Limited-Edition Player Series Plus Top HSS Strat now. neck humbucker with 7.6k DC Resistance and a Fralin Broadcaster bridge pickup with 6.0k. HSS Strats, Telecasters, and other mixed-pickup guitars all have this problem, and most of the time, it goes overlooked by the guitarist. Talk with your fellow tone freaks on the web's liveliest (and friendliest!) Don’t usually use a tone control, so was thinking going with 2 volume controls. My ultimate aim is to find a combo that retains the single-coil-like clarity in all positions of this guitar while getting a bit more punch for the neck humbucker. link above. I do find them a little too bright and lacking some nuances. Do I love the sound of the Strat neck Pickup and only occasionally use the bridge? But I’m going to keep the standard wiring setup and was curious if I should try the 300K pot for the typical volume/tone/3-way or if I should leave the 250K or possibly even consider swapping for a 500K volume pot? so i have a strat body and i want to install a humbucker for the neck, a humbucker for the bridge and a middle single coil lipstick pickup inbetween the two. Imagine you had a Telecaster with a Neck humbucker and a Bridge Telecaster bridge pickup. The models included in this category have a humbucker pickup in the bridge position and single-coil pickup in the mid and neck positions. For instance, you could get away with a Stock Neck with Alnico 5 and a Blues Special Tele Bridge. I've got a Screamin Demon (bridge) and a 59 (neck) that I could try with the single coils. The guitar features an alder body with a flame maple top finished in a gorgeous blue burst. I spoke to Lindy and he told me to research his 3 Humbuckers that are designed to work with 250 pots. Let’s talk some basics first: Think of Single Coil Pickups (Vintage Hot or Stock Telecaster) and Humbuckers (Pure P.A.F. A single coil is usually 8-9,000 turns of wire on a single bobbin, whereas humbuckers are two single coils wired in series – a lot more output and a completely different and darker tone. It has some good meaty low end but has lost it’s ability to cut through a mix a bit. I have a G&L Bluesboy. I’ve found this works great, though it is an extra thing to manage, and I’ve thought about moving it to a 5-way switch that had 5 different resistance settings to make it easier to manage. Not too sure about the combination with the autosplit since then all pots and pickups are connected on 1 side of the 5way switch. Typically the bridge pickup is known as the lead pickup, and the neck pickup is known as the rhythm pickup. Don’t use any tonepot connected to the humbucker. I'm trying to save some time by not having to switch back and forth between the two. I recently bought a Fender Shawn Mendes Foundation Musicmaster. Check out this reference: Confused on Pot Values? what would be the best way to go about that exactly. Loved how it played and felt, but the neck HB did not sound good on its own. Features include one humbucking/two single-coil pickup configuration, synchronized tremolo with high-mass bridge block, shielded body cavities, medium jumbo frets, tinted neck, parchment pickguard and control knobs and ’70s-style headstock logo. The Squier Bullet Stratocaster HT HSS is also an affordable and versatile instrument of the Bullet series, as the Bullet series is designed for amateur guitar players on a budget. The base (the pickups) is great, but in this way they can shine! Full disclosure … I have not played this guitar much live … opting for my #1 … an early 70s Les Paul. Since the Stratocaster is Fender’s sole three-pickup guitar, its pickup switch has an important job to do. (This guitar has a Tex/Mex Strat single oil for bridge and a Player series humbucker for neck). It’s brighter-sounding than a 250K, and darker-sounding than a 500K pot.