HSS pickup question

W

waylander69

Inspired
Hi
I have a hohner g3t guitar that I use as a travel guitar however the neck single coil has always disappointed me.
The rest of my guitars a prs humbuckers mainly and one prs sss strat style.
But the hohners job is to plug into my fm3 when away from home rig and rock out.
So I've got the itch to change the neck pickup
Thoughts so far are the mini humbucker style that slots into a single coil position with no routing .
Listened to lil 59 , jb jnr, air Norton, satch Track and hot rails all on you tube vids but a lot of people are either using tele style which are different models or strat Bridge position.
So my wish is to drop a mini hb in and have it coil tapped in the neck position to get a bit more umf .
Yes there are people going to say why didn't you get the hh hohner model instead well none were available on ebay when I had a 2 week window to buy a travel guitar. So ended up with this and since 90% of the time I'm on the bridge it works well.
So looking a little advise from the forum what people have found works well

Cheers
G \..
 
The pickups Andy Timmons use’s sound good. I believe they are single coil sized humbuckers.
 
You certainly don't get more of anything coil tapping a rail HB ,I would not recommend it used on it's own tapped.
 
Try series/parallel switching for a single-coil-sized HB. They are narrow enough that the split option doesn't net much over parallel in terms of zing. Another option is a Fralin Split Blade. They zing nicely with zero hum. Lawrence L45 pickups are also quite good, and reasonably priced....
 
Thanks guys for your thoughts but the real question is what single coil humbucker size pick up should I consider to improve / replace the single coil that's in my hohner and is it worth using the split coil function
Cheers
G \../
 
waylander69 said:
Thanks guys for your thoughts but the real question is what single coil humbucker size pick up should I consider to improve / replace the single coil that's in my hohner and is it worth using the split coil function
Cheers
G \../
Click to expand...
I've owned and liked both the Seymour Duncan JB Jr. and Little "59 in the bridge position.

I didn't care for them split and didn't get the quack I'd have liked in position 4.

But, as humbuckers with the look of single-coils (from a distance) and no routing or pickguard swap needed, I thought they were great.
 
Personally I love 50’s style single coils like Fender’s CS54 pickups but if you’re set on a higher output I would recommend the DiMarzio Injector neck.
 
waylander69 said:
Thanks guys for your thoughts but the real question is what single coil humbucker size pick up should I consider to improve / replace the single coil that's in my hohner and is it worth using the split coil function
Cheers
G \../
Click to expand...

FWIW, I've had good luck with the Duncan Cool Rails, although I'm sure many of the other recommendations here would be good, too. I've used Cool Rails in several SSS and HSS guitars, both neck and middle positions, with good results when I've wanted a single-coil-sized pickups that sounded more like a traditional humbucker.

IMHO, the split coil function is not worth it in this case. I'd recommend a series/parallel switch instead, if you want a similar option, as @Joe Bfstplk mentioned earlier.
 
@Churchhill thanks for the recommendation,
I must admit from the you tube videos I'd been listening to the cool rails pups sounded very nice and in the same sound range I like.
The only thing stopping me was everyone had been using them in strats and no HSS type guitars
I'm thinking of not bothering with the split coil function but never know

Just seen a cool rails bridge version on eBay, how bad would a bridge pickup be in the neck position at the right price 🤔

Cheers
G \../
 
Last edited:
waylander69 said:
@Churchhill thanks for the recommendation,
I must admit from the you tube videos I'd been listening to the cool rails pups sounded very nice and in the same sound range I like.
The only thing stopping me was everyone had been using them in strats and no HSS type guitars
I'm thinking of not bothering with the split coil function but never know

Just seen a cool rails bridge version on eBay, how bad would a bridge pickup be in the neck position at the right price 🤔

Cheers
G \../
Click to expand...

Bridge in the neck, in this case, wouldn't be too bad. The Cool Rail neck is 9.8k and the bridge is 10.6, so not terribly different and I've seen hotter neck pickups.

I've used Cool Rails in the neck with both Duncan Distortion and Duncan Custom Custom, both combinations worked really well.
 
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