What's the double-coil equovalent of an SSL1?

April 15, 2016 2:48 PM

I have a Fender American Standard HSS strat. If they were all single coil pickups I would install SSL1s. What should I install at the bridge humbucker? I am going for a John Fruiciante Calofornication/By the way sound.
posted by jitterbug perfume to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Response by poster: This is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for. So if you were going for Fruiciante/Mayer moody/pretty but musclely Strat/Marshall Hendrix-y sounds, would that humbucker you suggested mix in well? I honestly am confused by humbuckers with regard to achieving tone. As an expert - what is the humbuckers wheelhouse of sound? What is it there for? I have some decent money to throw at this - should I ditch the attempts at aforementioned vibes from this guitar and devote it to something else, and buy a SSS for my purposes? I'm a professional player.
posted by jitterbug perfume at 3:30 PM on April 15, 2016

Best answer: In general, humbuckers usually have a lot more bass than single coil pickups. IMO, there isn't a humbucker that will effectively mimic the sound of a strat bridge pickup, which are super heavy on the treble. You can cut the bass and mids on your amp settings to get you in the neighborhood, but the thing about strats is that they sound like strats because of that slanted single-coil bridge pickup (among other factors).

American Standard strat bodies are routed in the bridge position to accept humbucker or strat pickups. I'd follow The World Famous' advice and buy an SSS pickguard and those SSL-1's you're dreaming of, and have those installed. No need for a new guitar unless there are other things you don't like about it.
posted by puritycontrol at 3:44 PM on April 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Ok. I've learned a lot here. And - Not so much things I don't like about it as I want to let it shine for what it was meant to do. What kind of sound was this guitar made to make? I had planned on buying a second guitar so I'd rather just start out with a guitar body meant to sound like a strat for that one. Last time I'll come back but could you please either explain to me what sound is meant to be coming out of this guitar I own. Please and thank you so much.
posted by jitterbug perfume at 3:56 PM on April 15, 2016

You could always opt for a humbucker-sized P90. A lot of companies make them, but a nice sounding pickup that is in no-way-will-this-break-the-bank territory is the Dream 90 by GFS. I have them in a couple of guitars and they sound pretty good. If you want something a bit hotter, they also make a slightly-hotter version called the Mean 90.
posted by MrKellyBlah at 3:57 PM on April 15, 2016

And after all is said and done, I'd side with the first suggestion - get a new pickguard and wire it up SSS.
posted by MrKellyBlah at 4:47 PM on April 15, 2016

Not to send you down the rabbit hole of Too Much Information, but you might do better searching/asking on more guitar/music gear-oriented forums.

Also, a pretty fair number of pickup manufacturers (esp. the big ones like Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio) will have sound samples, and graphs/charts/measurements that help compare their various pickups, or even "pickup selector" widgets on their websites to get you some suggestions.

Seconding TWF is that an HSS Strat is intended to be a jack-of-all-trades, or for people who like everything about the Strat except they think the bridge pickup sounds too thin.

One thing you can do with some humbuckers is wire it so you can coil split, basically transforming it into a single coil pickup. Opinions differ (as with everything about guitar tech) about how well this works, but it wouldn't be very expensive to give it a try, especially if you do the work yourself (just a little soldering and swapping the standard volume pot for one that engages a switch when you pull/push the knob.)
posted by soundguy99 at 4:49 PM on April 15, 2016

Response by poster: Update for anyone who may be interested: I kept playing it, kept on feeling like I actually really like the stock pickups - so much that I was curious and googled my guitar. Lo and behold, the fat strat comes with some snazzy non-stock pickups already in it, unlike any other guitar I've personally encountered. What a great surprise!
posted by jitterbug perfume at 2:02 PM on April 22, 2016