Bought a Strat yesterday (AKA: Single Coil Tones Are Ridiculous!)

Best of both worlds for me would be a way to split the bridge humbucker so it acts like it's "angled" when in single coil mode - i.e. it uses the 3 pole pieces closest to the bridge on the G-B-E and further away for the E-A-D. Sort of like a G&L Comanche Z-coil pickup if it was also a full HB. This would actually work for any HB equipped guitar, not just a Strat.

Does somebody make one that I don't know about?
 
If it were my main guitar, I’d probably slap a bucker in the bridge, or at least a stacked single coil. Hell, I still might put a Dimarzio HS-2 in it.

I’ve got enough humbucker guitars and where I’m just writing and recording in my studio, I don’t need to rely on one guitar to get all my sounds, so I’m gonna dig in the single in the bridge for a while as there are tones I’ve yet to discover on my own in that area.
 
iaresee said:
This is the perfect Strat. Just do whatever they do with that.
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You know, I tried one when I got a bug to get a strat, and it was really well crafted, quality work, but I actually didn't think it sounded quite strat-like. When I found my used EJ, it just felt tight.

Since then the bloom is off it a bit. I still like it, but it's got lots of tonal inconsistencies string to string and fret to fret, plus the bridge pickup thing, and I hate hum. Neck is really comfortable, but the action isn't as low as I'd like. Oddly enough, it stays in tune better than any guitar I've ever had.

Might like to try a Silver Sky again, now that I've lived with an actual strat for a while, but it's right about double what my EJ cost, don't think that's happening any time soon.
 
I love having Strat Custom Shop 69s neck & middle with Tom Holmes humbucker in a Tyler Landau Strat. So easy to nail standard old school covers (with Fractal of course). I should add the stock Tyler 5-way splits the humbucker on the bridge/middle combo. The Landau wiring excludes lower tone pot on bridge humbucker. Maybe that "sounds" better, but I'm tempted to bring that option back in.
 
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I've gone back and forth and tried dozens of pickups in my Strat and just can never get along with the single coil bridge. If I could get it to sound like a hot Tele bridge pickup with that balance of bite and warmth I'd love it, but it's never happened.

Right now I have Suhr pickups in mine, ML Standard in the neck and middle and Thornbucker Plus in the bridge. The bridge is low to balance and it's not quite as jarring as other humbuckers as it's low output. And the ML's are a little higher output and fuller sounding but still have that nice A5 attack and quack.

I've also got mine wired up to master volume and tone, except I don't have the tone wired up in the bridge position so it only sees the volume pot and keeps it a little brighter. I want to put a parallel/series switch on the bridge pickup sometime as well.
 
jefferski said:
Best of both worlds for me would be a way to split the bridge humbucker so it acts like it's "angled" when in single coil mode - i.e. it uses the 3 pole pieces closest to the bridge on the G-B-E and further away for the E-A-D. Sort of like a G&L Comanche Z-coil pickup if it was also a full HB. This would actually work for any HB equipped guitar, not just a Strat.

Does somebody make one that I don't know about?
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I approached Becky Lawrence with the idea of a custom build that was set up that way a year or two ago. It had an L45S pickup slanted per usual, plus two individual single rails that would be able to be added to get the extra string area coverage (and output, if hooked in series). She was not interested in taking on the custom build, even given that I was offering it for them to make for others who might want that setup.
20200822_123011.jpg
 
I love my EVH Wofgangs, but I put in a six-way Freeway switch in both of them so I can have 3 HB and 3 SC sounds. My strats are HSS.

I love both kinds of tones, I just don't like having to switch guitars playing out live!
 
Jarick said:
I've gone back and forth and tried dozens of pickups in my Strat and just can never get along with the single coil bridge. If I could get it to sound like a hot Tele bridge pickup with that balance of bite and warmth I'd love it, but it's never happened.

Right now I have Suhr pickups in mine, ML Standard in the neck and middle and Thornbucker Plus in the bridge. The bridge is low to balance and it's not quite as jarring as other humbuckers as it's low output. And the ML's are a little higher output and fuller sounding but still have that nice A5 attack and quack.

I've also got mine wired up to master volume and tone, except I don't have the tone wired up in the bridge position so it only sees the volume pot and keeps it a little brighter. I want to put a parallel/series switch on the bridge pickup sometime as well.
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Been there, done that.
L200SN/L200SM/L298TL.
Plated this combo for quite a few years.

The Tele bridge pickup is at proper angle and location as found in a Tele. The skinny E pole is in the same spot as a Strat, but the pickup slants 5/8" away from the bridge, as opposed to the 3/8" slant on a Strat bridge pickup.

20200822_130924.jpg
 
RevDrucifer said:
That’s essentially what Gilmour’s extra switch does, activates the neck pickup to use with the others.
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The bottom knob on my Strat is a no-load tone pot pressed into service as a blender/switch that links bridge to neck, so you can get a Tele-esque sound if you want to, or all 3....
 
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TG3K said:
Yes...yes you do. 👍 I was a humbucker-only guy for years, then started playing in a band where SSS Strats fit many of the songs better. Then I tried a P-90 guitar and all hell broke loose. :cool:
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While not actual P90s, the DiMarzio "Virtual P90" at the neck captures the vibe fairly well without all the hum. The Super Distortion at the bridge is not nearly as hot as the name implies, compared to some of today's silly-high output pickups, and balances nicely. Both sound great in parallel humbucking mode, and give this guitar a nice range of cleaner and punchier sounds:
20200822_132936.jpg


The original pickups that came in this 2017? SG Special were so overwound and lifeless that the guitar has lower output (and far better tone) with the Virtual P90 and Super Distortion. I watched this guitar hang on the wall at GC for almost a year, until the lowered the price to their "we're tired of looking at this" blowout sale price.... :)
 
Joe Bfstplk said:
I approached Becky Lawrence with the idea of a custom build that was set up that way a year or two ago. It had an L45S pickup slanted per usual, plus two individual single rails that would be able to be added to get the extra string area coverage (and output, if hooked in series). She was not interested in taking on the custom build, even given that I was offering it for them to make for others who might want that setup.
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Interesting! Too bad they didn't go for it.
 
jefferski said:
Interesting! Too bad they didn't go for it.
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I ended up with an L90-4H bridge pickup and doing the series/parallel switching. As it turns out, in parallel, the pickup gets into the same tonal area as the L45S does, though the string area being picked up is still wider, so it's not 100% the same. It does sound good by itself and with the other pickups (especially the bridge/middle combo), and apparently is as good as I am going to get it without building something myself....
 
I've traditionally been a Strat/Tele single coil guy or had an HSS Strat. When I decided I wanted a 2x HB guitar, I wanted to incorporate some single coil goodness. If you're a humbucker guy and you want single coil sounds, don't go split coil, go PARALLEL. I have my Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas HH HT wired up with Suhr SSV & SSV+ on a 5-way super-switch. I tried several split coil wiring configurations but once I went parallel, there was no going back. Parallel wiring isn't identical to a stand alone single coil, as it has its own unique sound. The advantages (IMO) of parallel are that it is a) humbucking (quiet). b) sounds a lot fuller & more balanced, and c) has less of a volume drop than a split coil on a humbucker.

1. Bridge (series)
2. Bridge (parallel)
3. Bridge (series) + Neck (series) (in parallel)
4. Neck (parallel)
5. Neck (series)

Thus in positions #1, 3, & 5, I have my traditional dual HB/Les Paul tones and with positions #2 & #4, I can cop single coil-esque tones by using parallel wiring.

All that said, Strats with low output single coils are a thing of beauty.

2020-08-22 17.47.05.jpg
 
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@Joe Bfstplk - I've strongly considered putting a Tele bridge in my Strat, getting a custom pickguard from Warmoth and giving it a shot. The Suhr Classic T bridge is absolutely brilliant and I just traded off a Tele with that pickup. Maybe, someday.

@Prince - I've been trying to trade into another guitar, especially if I could find one of those Charvels, as the 5-way switching with dual hums is really appealing, especially for drop tuning guitars.
 
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