HSS or dual humbuckers?

Dpoirier said:
In all my playing years, I've only ever owned HSS guitars (except for one HSH). With technologies like coil splitting, series/parallel, and boutique pickup makers, I am not at all current on what can be done with a dual humbucker guitar, or how it can sound.

I'm about to spec a guitar for a build and was going to blindly go into my familiar HSS territory, the only departure being that the pickups will probably be some variation of Bare Knuckles. But then I thought I'd try to educate myself on dual humbuckers first, just in case.

Is there a consensus? Can you get pristine neck cleans from a split humbucker? Can you get a strat in-between tone? Is the middle pickup on an HSS guitar useful for anything other than in combination with the neck or bridge? What's your favorite 5-way switch operation mode on a dual humbucker?

Please be gentle with me. I'm genuinely uneducated about these things, and really need input (while realizing that there are many different opinions). Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
The PRS Custom 24 wiring is pretty nice:
  1. Bridge HB
  2. Bridge HB + Neck HB Split (inside coil)
  3. Bridge HB + Neck HB
  4. Bridge HB Split (inside coil) + Neck HB Split (inside coil)
  5. Neck HB
On mine (59/09s), I tweaked it so 2 was Bridge HB Split (outside coil) + Neck HB Split (outside coil), and I really like it....
 
I love the Strandberg HH layout, 5 positions really usable and with a drastic change in tone!
It looks like this:

RR-HH-wiring.png
I take the chance for a question, maybe @Andy Eagle can have a word...
Can it be that this kind of wiring works better with high output pickups?
I made the same wiring in a custom build that has medium output pickups and position 1, 2 and 5 are great! but 3 and 4 are kinda weak (compared to the Strandberg) so I was guessing if it's a wrong setup or a consequence of the pickup output...
 
Riccardo Ros said:
I love the Strandberg HH layout, 5 positions really usable and with a drastic change in tone!
It looks like this:

View attachment 151440
I take the chance for a question, maybe @Andy Eagle can have a word...
Can it be that this kind of wiring works better with high output pickups?
I made the same wiring in a custom build that has medium output pickups and position 1, 2 and 5 are great! but 3 and 4 are kinda weak (compared to the Strandberg) so I was guessing if it's a wrong setup or a consequence of the pickup output...
Click to expand...
Half a humbucker is half a humbucker so in splits is weaker and can be thin but two coils on together in series or parallel should be usable. It is going to be less output than the normal middle position of a Gibson wiring. This wiring is like this because only a maximum of two coils are on and the only single coil option is the neck that will be louder anyway.
My H/O 6 is basically this. It’s about a balanced as you’re going to get.
 
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