Fender Strat single coil (bridge) favorites

[skunc]

The DiMarzio Injector is a solid option if you want a bit more output in the bridge. A nice treble bleed will help cover more ground. I prefer using a smaller value tone cap wired 50 Gibson style to add extra tone shaping. Try anything from .001 - .022 for some very musical roll off.

 

[zedeloc]

Maybe you can figure out a creative wiring design where a mini humbucker coil splits whenever it is combined with another pickup. Also, you might want to look into G&L MFD pickups. It's Leo Fender's redesign of the single coil. It has powerful ceramic magnets with less windings resulting in higher output with less noise. Pretty beefy for a single coil

 

[Jarick]

That’s some awesome info about the DiMarzio Area pickups, Jarick. Thanks for sharing that.

This is my third go around with Area pickups. Personally I find they are more finnicky to figure out but when they work they are great. I originally had an Area 67 set with Virtual Solo Pro bridge...loved the bridge tone didn't like the others. Then I tried Injector neck and bridge with Area 67 middle and didn't love any of them. Now I'm trying Area 61 neck and middle and experimenting with bridges and I really like the neck/middle sound.

I did try swapping the middle 61 for a 67 because generally people report they are more open sounding and sound better in the 2 and 4 positions. But it ended up sounding very similar to the Area 61 except with a really annoying high end "zing". A couple weeks later I swapped back and it sounds really good again.

I found and bought a used Injector Neck to try in the bridge this morning after I posted. Hoping the hotter wind with A2 magnet gives me a nice Goldilocks.

Again I don't like traditional single coils that much. Noisy, weak, bright, thin. I found that higher wind alnico 2 magnets help, which is what these Dimarzios are.

 

[Muad'zin]

Ever heard of Blackmore?????

Heard? The man is one of my guitar heroes. Gave me a lifelong thirst for middle eastern scales and Rainbow Rising is the best Blackmore album EVER!!!

He didn't need a single coil in the bridge position and as I recall his tone was all but anaemic

Well, like every 70's guitar player he was always looking for hotter pickups. His current signature guitar has Seymour Duncan SSL-4's, which have 13,4K output, which puts them firmly in way hotter then your average single coil pickup territory, together with humbuckers.

 

[Dave Merrill]

This is true of all stack pickups . Using it in parallel just makes it behave like an overwound single coil.

Yes, but in series I would have thought it's electrically like a humbucker -- higher impedance so less highs, more output.
I'm not doubting that what you're saying is true, I just don't understand how it can be that way.
Maybe I should look further into how stacked singles are built, I may be assuming nonsense.

 

[Dave Merrill]

Have you futzed with the bridge pickup height?

@Budda and anyone, talk to me about what you'd expect the effect of raising or lowering a single coil would be.
I have tried some different arrangements, ended up with my bridge pickup is pretty high I think.
Is that right more fullness?
I don't care a ton about output level.

 

[FractalAudio]

IMO the bridge pickup in a Strat should always be a humbucker with a coil split switch. In fact, if I were to design a strat-style guitar the humbucker would automatically coil split when switching to position 2.

My favorite Strat ever was a Warmoth one I built with a JB in the bridge, a coil split switch and two SD Duckbuckers. The Duckbuckers are pretty good. You still get most of the quack with none of the noise.

 

[darrenw5094]

IMO the bridge pickup in a Strat should always be a humbucker with a coil split switch. In fact, if I were to design a strat-style guitar the humbucker would automatically coil split when switching to position 2.

My favorite Strat ever was a Warmoth one I built with a JB in the bridge, a coil split switch and two SD Duckbuckers. The Duckbuckers are pretty good. You still get most of the quack with none of the noise.

HSS all the way

 

[mr_fender]

I ran a Duncan Lil' 59 in the bridge of my Strat for years. It balanced well with the stock USA neck and middle pickups and made the guitar much more versatile. I eventually went back to stock once I had other humbucker guitars for those tones.

For many years, all three Strat pickups were identical, so the bridge position ended up sounding very weak and thin because the string moves much less closer to the bridge. Most modern Strat bridge pickups are overwound to better balance with the neck and middle, and they often use a reverse wound and reverse polarity middle pup to give hum cancelling in positions 2 and 4.

 

[notalemming]

IMO the bridge pickup in a Strat should always be a humbucker with a coil split switch. In fact, if I were to design a strat-style guitar the humbucker would automatically coil split when switching to position 2.

My favorite Strat ever was a Warmoth one I built with a JB in the bridge, a coil split switch and two SD Duckbuckers. The Duckbuckers are pretty good. You still get most of the quack with none of the noise.

All my Strat style guitars are HSS with the middle-bridge position wired to always auto split on the 5 way. I also always have a push pull or a switch to add the split bridge to the neck PU to get a Tele sound.

 

[greiswig]

I ended up giving up on a single coil in the bridge, routed it for a humbucker, and put a Fralin P-92 in it. Love it.

 

[MisterE]

His current signature guitar has Seymour Duncan SSL-4's, which have 13,4K output, which puts them firmly in way hotter then your average single coil pickup territory, together with humbuckers

I wasn't talking about his current signature guitar.
On Made In Japan and Machine Head he didn't have those yet.
And, although I like HSS strats, for the true start sound, I prefer a single coil in the bridge.
And after having tried almost anything available, I settled on the Kinmans.
The Hx-85 of the Woodstock Plus set is more like a P-90
The Scoop is less fat, a bit brighter and gets me closest to the early Blackmore sound.
The Scoop was formerly called the Blackmore Set but this is now replaced by Impersonators E69.
These are a tad brighter and have a bit more sparkle.
All three sound great but I think the E69 will give you the best of both worlds.
Check out Burg's demo of the E-69- clean and with dirt

 

[Budda]

@Budda and anyone, talk to me about what you'd expect the effect of raising or lowering a single coil would be.
I have tried some different arrangements, ended up with my bridge pickup is pretty high I think.
Is that right more fullness?
I don't care a ton about output level.

Same as a humbucker. Raise the bass side, get more lows and the wound strings get louder. Raise the treble side and the same thing happens. Raise the whole thing and get more of everything lol.

Since the wound strings are physically larger (and vibrate wider when played iirc) the bass side of a pickup will be lower to get the same volume.

 

[Dave Merrill]

Same as a humbucker. Raise the bass side, get more lows and the wound strings get louder. Raise the treble side and the same thing happens. Raise the whole thing and get more of everything lol.

Since the wound strings are physically larger (and vibrate wider when played iirc) the bass side of a pickup will be lower to get the same volume.

Yeah just what I'd expect, mostly affects volume and string balance. I was wondering if there was much of an effect on the tone of individual strings, not hearing you say there is.

 

[guitarnerdswe]

Yeah just what I'd expect, mostly affects volume and string balance. I was wondering if there was much of an effect on the tone of individual strings, not hearing you say there is.

The tone (not just the volume) of any pickup changes with height. Closer will give you more highs and lows compared to lower. An easy experiment is to move a pickup as far away from the strings as you can get. The sparkly highs and some of the lows will be attenuated.

Record A/B clips with a clean tone (or DI) and level match to compare more easily.

 

[Dave Merrill]

The tone (not just the volume) of any pickup changes with height. Closer will give you more highs and lows compared to lower. An easy experiment is to move a pickup as far away from the strings as you can get. The sparkly highs and some of the lows will be attenuated.

Record A/B clips with a clean tone (or DI) and level match to compare more easily.

I should just do that test, which I haven't.
Interesting that you get more of both highs and lows moving the pickup closer.
I'm looking for the magic pickup height trick that gives more fullness, maybe there isn't one.

 

[guitarnerdswe]

I should just do that test, which I haven't.
Interesting that you get more of both highs and lows moving the pickup closer.
I'm looking for the magic pickup height trick that gives more fullness, maybe there isn't one.

Here's a rather nerdy look at the tonal effects of pickup height:

https://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/7998/tonal-effect-pickup-height

It's more complicated than it seems at first, due to harmonics etc. Also note that if you're running a humbucker with a cover (or simply a hot and dark one), you might not notice the changge in highs as much, instead just hearing the difference in lows. So it might sound clearer when it's far away in that scenario.

This might also explain why some call the tone with the pickups far away as "woody". Woody = midrange (I suppose).

 

[Dave Merrill]

Here's a rather nerdy look at the tonal effects of pickup height:

https://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/7998/tonal-effect-pickup-height

It's more complicated than it seems at first, due to harmonics etc. Also note that if you're running a humbucker with a cover (or simply a hot and dark one), you might not notice the changge in highs as much, instead just hearing the difference in lows. So it might sound clearer when it's far away in that scenario.

This might also explain why some call the tone with the pickups far away as "woody". Woody = midrange (I suppose).

What a detailed piece of research!
Among other things, who knew that the tone of a pickup would be significantly affected by moving OTHER pickups closer and further away?
I'm still inclined to go with my gut though

 

[Budda]

I should just do that test, which I haven't.
Interesting that you get more of both highs and lows moving the pickup closer.
I'm looking for the magic pickup height trick that gives more fullness, maybe there isn't one.

Try thicker strings.

 

[Andy Eagle]

Or thinner strings, or some of the newer materials.

Try thicker strings.

Did you watch Rick Beato on strings? It was very interesting.