Strat owners….

TD77

TD77

Inspired
Morning all. Posted about this and got some good advice but i have yet to get to a happy place. Here’s a little background but my question is at the end.

I have an HSS strat, which was my first and only strat and it’s definitely a love and hate relationship. My main gripe is the wild volume swing between the neck and bridge pickups. The bridge humbucker is just way loud. When I make my presets I need to be mindful of setting my levels off the humbucker so I don’t clip. Problem is when I want to use the neck setting the volume drops significantly. Thought about using a control switch for patches I know I will be using the neck for but in a live situation I know I’ll get confused with things. Anyhow…

My question and purpose of this thread is to ask if any of you with single coil strats have this problem with the volume swings. Again I never had a strat before this one and curious about the single coils and how you all are finding them with the fm3. Thanks!
 
My strats are SSS and I don’t have the volume difference you described. Way brighter on the bridge though.
I’d like to try an HSS setup.
 
Look at your pick up heights. I have a HSS strat with a dimarzo in the bridge, and the noiseless single coils in the middle, neck. I'm able to balance it out fine. Start with your neck pup, and adjust to that. My bridge pup sits fairly low to creat the balance. Good luck.
 
I was initially annoyed by the difference in output between the singles and humbuckers on HSS guitars as well. I'll give you the same advice that was given to me years ago; setup the tone for the single coil pickups and then use the bridge position as an on board solo boost. Alternatively, setup the tone for the bridge humbucker as a nice crunchy rhythm and then use the single coil positions (with volume rolled off a bit) for a clean tone. It sounds really good with the 6CA7 plexi model.
 
FWIW, that's my gripe about HSS strats too. Never played one where that wasn't true. It's not just volume, that HB is somewhat from a different tonal planet than the singles coils too.

Logically, @OrganicZed has it about right.

Other than that, get an SSS strat, and roll bridge tone down or use fat boosts or scenes to make it not too thin. That's what I do.
 
TD77 said:
My question and purpose of this thread is to ask if any of you with single coil strats have this problem with the volume swings. Again I never had a strat before this one and curious about the single coils and how you all are finding them with the fm3. Thanks!
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I know what you're mentioning and have experienced it with my previous HSH guitars (Ibanez e.g.). My recommendation for setting up your preset levels is a little nuanced and requires on-stage concentration. Dial in your preset on the bridge pickup, but turn your volume pot down to "8" or "7". When you flip to your neck pickup for that fat bluesey tone, roll the pot back to "10". In a live stage scenario, this can be challenging to remember when you're changing pots along with the blade, but it might be a worthwhile experiment.

Keep in mind that particular amp model and pick attack both can dramatically change the volume on a given preset. My go to model is the Capt. Hook 34-2B (Factory Preset 088) scene 3 or 4.

What genre/style music are you primarily playing? That also obviously has an impact on gain staging.

Also, what others have mentioned regarding the placement height of your humbucker can correct this.
 
Budda said:
Tried lowering your humbucker?

The second quickest solution is a lower output humbucker that has a closer output in dB to your singles.

Personally it's never bothered me when I had hss strats. I knew neck would be quieter than bridge and planned accordingly.
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I actually tried raising the neck pup but will do a little more messing around.
 
PRSfreak4 said:
I know what you're mentioning and have experienced it with my previous HSH guitars (Ibanez e.g.). My recommendation for setting up your preset levels is a little nuanced and requires on-stage concentration. Dial in your preset on the bridge pickup, but turn your volume pot down to "8" or "7". When you flip to your neck pickup for that fat bluesey tone, roll the pot back to "10". In a live stage scenario, this can be challenging to remember when you're changing pots along with the blade, but it might be a worthwhile experiment.

Keep in mind that particular amp model and pick attack both can dramatically change the volume on a given preset. My go to model is the Capt. Hook 34-2B (Factory Preset 088) scene 3 or 4.

What genre/style music are you primarily playing? That also obviously has an impact on gain staging.

Also, what others have mentioned regarding the placement height of your humbucker can correct this.
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Thanks. I thought about some potential workarounds like this but you are spot on…I’m gonna forget during a live situation. Lol.
 
It's a catch 22 with HSS strats. Lower the bridge HB too much and you lose all the punch. Raise the neck SC and you get the "stratitis" warble. Its a fine line but if the bridge HB isn't too hot you can usually get it so the perceived difference isn't so bad.
 
Budda said:
The second quickest solution is a lower output humbucker that has a closer output in dB to your singles.
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That was my thought too. A good PAF replica with lower winds can fit nicely with single-coils. An alternate is to replace the single-coils with some good stacked-humbuckers to raise their output.

I have two guitars that are SSH or HSH. The first is a PRS Studio, but it uses their Narrowfield humbuckers, which are somewhere between a single-coil and a P-90 in sound, and which balance the bridge humbucker well. The second is a PRS 509, and the split humbuckers still balance the middle single coil and their humbucker sound. I haven't opened up the cavity to see what they're doing, but there's no unexpected volume jump when I go to the humbuckers from a single-coil pickup.
 
muudrock said:
It's a catch 22 with HSS strats. Lower the bridge HB too much and you lose all the punch. Raise the neck SC and you get the "stratitis" warble. Its a fine line but if the bridge HB isn't too hot you can usually get it so the perceived difference isn't so bad.
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Thanks. Gonna try lowering the bridge and see if it helps. Last resort will be going for a new lower output pup. It’s just way too unmanageable now. Had a gig on Saturday and did sound check with the bridge pickup. When I went to a clean patch with the neck I basically disappeared. If I can’t get to a good place then I may dump this guitar and go for a single coil one.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
That was my thought too. A good PAF replica with lower winds can fit nicely with single-coils. An alternate is to replace the single-coils with some good stacked-humbuckers to raise their output.

I have two guitars that are SSH or HSH. The first is a PRS Studio, but it uses their Narrowfield humbuckers, which are somewhere between a single-coil and a P-90 in sound, and which balance the bridge humbucker well. The second is a PRS 509, and the split humbuckers still balance the middle single coil and their humbucker sound. I haven't opened up the cavity to see what they're doing, but there's no unexpected volume jump when I go to the humbuckers from a single-coil pickup.
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Thanks Greg. I also have a prs with dual humbuckera and never had these issues. I did some Google searches for my strat and seems I’m in good company with this issue. I love the sound of a strat. That’s why I got it. Just wish the output was more consistent between the settings.
 
TD77 said:
I also have a prs with dual humbuckera and never had these issues.
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Well, that's to be expected, as odds are really good they're a matched set.

I did some Google searches for my strat and seems I’m in good company with this issue. I love the sound of a strat. That’s why I got it. Just wish the output was more consistent between the settings.
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Take it to a good guitar tech and explain the problem. They can work magic.
 
Dave Merrill said:
FWIW, that's my gripe about HSS strats too. Never played one where that wasn't true. It's not just volume, that HB is somewhat from a different tonal planet than the singles coils too.

Logically, @OrganicZed has it about right.

Other than that, get an SSS strat, and roll bridge tone down or use fat boosts or scenes to make it not too thin. That's what I do.
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And just to say it, lest it seem like I've found a perfect world, SSS isn't perfect in this regard either, at least mine isn't. It's still hard to find a place where bridge is nice and full and everything else still has the clarity you want and neck isn't pure vowel sounds.

FWIW...
  • Dimarzio HS-2 wired as a single coil is what's on most of the classic EJ stuff, and on the newish Virginia EJ strat. I've never tried it in my non-Virginia EJ but I'm tempted. I played a Virginia last weekend, and it really did sound great, pickups were nicely balanced. Not sure what neck and middle are in there.
  • There's a demo here somewhere of the Schecter Nick Johnston that sounds great IMO and I think those pickups are available separately. Haven't tried them either.
  • I have list of single coil strat pickups that various folks have said are on the fat end of tones, haven't tried any of them. I can post it here if you like.

Pickup swapping can get expensive though...
 
1. Adjust pickup heights - bridge pup down, neck pup up. As somebody already said - find that fine line just before you get the warbles on the neck pup or lose the balls from the bridge pup.

2. Put a compressor in the line on your presets if there isn't one already there. Adjust it to iron out some of the level differences. If you still want the bridge pup to drive things hard, then put the compressor later in the chain. If you want the bridge pup NOT to drive things so hard, put the compressor just after the input. The function of a compressor is to even out dynamic range, so you can use it to knock the tops of the high output peaks, and allow you to raise the overall level and bring the neck pup volume up from its lower levels.
 
I splurged on a Suhr Classic S this summer with the HSS setup--and it does not suffer from the big volume jump when switching to the bridge bucker.

However, it's wired with a little voodoo as you can see in the pic below. I know they use a 'SuperSwitch' as well as some extra resistors to make the magic happen, but there's no reason such a wiring arrangement couldn't be adapted to your Strat. Unfortunately, Suhr doesn't publish a wiring diagram (though I'm sure there are some out there on the 'net somewhere).

IMG_3375.jpg
 
KissTone said:
I splurged on a Suhr Classic S this summer with the HSS setup--and it does not suffer from the big volume jump when switching to the bridge bucker.

However, it's wired with a little voodoo as you can see in the pic below. I know they use a 'SuperSwitch' as well as some extra resistors to make the magic happen, but there's no reason such a wiring arrangement couldn't be adapted to your Strat. Unfortunately, Suhr doesn't publish a wiring diagram (though I'm sure there are some out there on the 'net somewhere).
Click to expand...

The main reason the classic S models are so balanced is because they have the SSV in the bridge and that is a fairly low output HB. My Suhr standard (which has the same wiring setup as a Classic S) has an SSH+ at the bridge position and there is a substantial output difference between the singles and the HB on that guitar.

The special sauce of their wiring is to help the single coils see 250k Ohms and the HB see 500k Ohms for the potentiometer values.
 
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