Should I HB My Strat?

[blackscot]

While other guitars have come and gone, the American Standard you see as my avatar has remained as my go-to ax for the past 10 years. It now feels so natural, as if my hands and body have sort-of grown around it.

One of the things that is missing though, is the kind of punch I've enjoyed from humbuckers on a Les Paul (sadly no longer with us) and currently a Gretsch. Especially in the bridge position with moderate-to-high gain, the tone is great. The Strat's single coil sounds thin by comparison, but it overall still has the best feel to me though.

Hence my subject question. What kind of difference can I expect? (I realize the overall sound results from the many sonic elements of the instrument.) Is the concept worth making the attempt?

Also -- if so -- then how? I know that I'll need a new scratch plate with the correct cut-out for the new pick-up.

Speaking of which, what make and model of humbucker is best?

Lastly, do I wire it the same as the current single coil, or is something else needed? Can I use all the existing volume and tone pots?

Thanks for any feedback, recommendations, directions, etc.

 

[MattNZ]

If it's your favourite guitar, do you really want to butcher it?

I read somewhere you could get 'thinline' humbuckers that fit in the existing hole in the bridge - thereby avoiding some pretty scary routing.

Just a thought.

 

[legionserial]

You can get mini humbuckers so you won't have to butcher your guitar. I put one in my strat. Wires up the same as a single coil as I recall.

 

[blackscot]

....do you really want to butcher it?.....some pretty scary routing.....

I'm not contemplating anything that is not reversible. The body is already routed to accept larger pickups (has the single large cavity), and I would be using a whole new scratch plate.

 

[MattNZ]

Well that's alright then! I'm afraid I have little else to add.

Let us know how you get on!

 

[ggunn]

While other guitars have come and gone, the American Standard you see as my avatar has remained as my go-to ax for the past 10 years. It now feels so natural, as if my hands and body have sort-of grown around it.

One of the things that is missing though, is the kind of punch I've enjoyed from humbuckers on a Les Paul (sadly no longer with us) and currently a Gretsch. Especially in the bridge position with moderate-to-high gain, the tone is great. The Strat's single coil sounds thin by comparison, but it overall still has the best feel to me though.

Hence my subject question. What kind of difference can I expect? (I realize the overall sound results from the many sonic elements of the instrument.) Is the concept worth making the attempt?

Also -- if so -- then how? I know that I'll need a new scratch plate with the correct cut-out for the new pick-up.

Speaking of which, what make and model of humbucker is best?

Lastly, do I wire it the same as the current single coil, or is something else needed? Can I use all the existing volume and tone pots?

Thanks for any feedback, recommendations, directions, etc.

If you use the glassy chimy sound of the bridge+middle position, then by putting a 'bucker in the bridge position you will probably lose it.

 

[Light]

I'm not contemplating anything that is not reversible. The body is already routed to accept larger pickups (has the single large cavity), and I would be using a whole new scratch plate.

If that is the case, you may as well try it. A good humbucker isn't that expensive, after all. Try a Lindy Fralin unbucker - you won't be disappointed. Get it with a three wire connection, and wire it up so the humubucker taps in the "in between" position (VERY easy to do - wire the bridge pickup as in THIS DIAGRAM).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[DrewPeterson7]

If that is the case, you may as well try it. A good humbucker isn't that expensive, after all. Try a Lindy Fralin unbucker - you won't be disappointed. Get it with a three wire connection, and wire it up so the humubucker taps in the "in between" position (VERY easy to do - wire the bridge pickup as in THIS DIAGRAM).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

Good advice. You could also put a coil tap on the rear 'bucker, so you have the option of using it as a humbucker or as an almost-sort-of-single coil at the flip of a switch - I have no idea how a middle single wired out of phase with a bridge humbucker would actually sound, but it's certainly worth a try.

 

[Light]

Good advice. You could also put a coil tap on the rear 'bucker, so you have the option of using it as a humbucker or as an almost-sort-of-single coil at the flip of a switch - I have no idea how a middle single wired out of phase with a bridge humbucker would actually sound, but it's certainly worth a try.

Well, if you were putting most humbuckers in with some Fender pickups (because Fender winds their pickups backwards), you would want to reverse the ground and hot wires, but if you did that it wouldn't be out of phase.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Anfontan]

If you can afford it and want to have the old 3 single coils available, just get a new pickguard and wire it up with 2 single coils and the humbucker-and add the switch and volume and tone pots. Then just solder it to the output jack and you can always change it back whenever you need the stock singles.

 

[Horsedoc]

Works for me...

 

[goldtopchas]

Duncan JB jr. You won't have to change your pickguard and they sound pretty fat.

 

[ashley_B_Soton]

Hence my subject question. What kind of difference can I expect? (I realize the overall sound results from the many sonic elements of the instrument.) Is the concept worth making the attempt?

Also -- if so -- then how? I know that I'll need a new scratch plate with the correct cut-out for the new pick-up.

Speaking of which, what make and model of humbucker is best?

Lastly, do I wire it the same as the current single coil, or is something else needed? Can I use all the existing volume and tone pots?

Thanks for any feedback, recommendations, directions, etc.

First of all yes you should.

Second, yes you would need to buy a pickguard.

Third, you want to go to DiMarzio.com where they have a selector that will aid you in buying one of their humbuckers, I find they are the best, or failing that a seymour duncan pearly gates or if you want an active pickup EMG-HZ are great too, but you will have to butcher the guitar to fit the battery in if you go that route.

Coil tap is a good idea, but, it wont be exactly the same as a standard strat single coil unless you mount it at an angle because the tone is different. if you do mount it at an angle you will have to route the hole to fit the humbucker in.

I say dont bother with the extra switch unless you are really going to use it.

You could wire the five way selector differently which would allow you to keep your four most commonly used positions and have the coil tap.

i.e. position 1-neck only, 2-middle only, 3 middle and single (forward) bridge, 4 single (rear) bridge, 5-humbucking bridge.

Since you already have the hole routed a slimline humbucker would not add the extra functionality as they are not coil tappable (well, most aren't).

If you do decide to go for the extra switch get a small three way one (mine came with a two way coil tap and i always wished it had a three way) this'll mean you can have a forward, a rear and a humbucking option.

 

[Light]

Since you already have the hole routed a slimline humbucker would not add the extra functionality as they are not coil tappable (well, most aren't).

Everyone I've ever used has been a four wire pickup, so yes you can in fact tap them. That would be all of the Seymour Duncan mini humbuckers, and the Joe Bardens.

I've never liked Dimarzio humbuckers. They are just missing something. Seymour Duncans are typically much more appealing to my ears. The Pearly Gates is my favorite bridge humbucker from SD, but they make a lot of other great pickups (the JB, the Seth Lover's, the Alnico II Pro, etc...)

Personally, I use the neck/middle on my Strat more than anything, with the bridge middle coming in second.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[blackscot]

Thanks for all the replies and good info!

Especially specifics on things like pickup recommendations.

Now if I can only find the appropriately routed pickguard in white, like originally came on the guitar......

 

[ashley_B_Soton]

Everyone I've ever used has been a four wire pickup, so yes you can in fact tap them. That would be all of the Seymour Duncan mini humbuckers, and the Joe Bardens.

When i was looking at them (which was admittadly a long time ago) I couldn't fine one that was, in the end i decided against it anyway.

I've never liked Dimarzio humbuckers. They are just missing something. Seymour Duncans are typically much more appealing to my ears. The Pearly Gates is my favorite bridge humbucker from SD, but they make a lot of other great pickups (the JB, the Seth Lover's, the Alnico II Pro, etc...)

I prefer the sound of DiMarzio's myself, its a preference thing i suppose. However the best guitar i ever played had Seymour duncan pearly gates in the bridge and another different syemour duncan (cant remember for the life of me what it was) would have loved to have bought it but it was £1500(around $3000 us) and at the time i couldn't afford it.

The problem is you can never play the same guitar with all of the different pickups you want to test. So a leap of faith is necessary which is why i like the pickup selector on dimarzio's website, not such a big leap of faith.

Personally i rarely use either of the switches on my guitar it just sits in the bridge/humbucking position most of the time. Sometimes i like to mess around with them to see what other sounds i can get.

 

[ashley_B_Soton]

Now if I can only find the appropriately routed pickguard in white, like originally came on the guitar......

Should be easy to get hold of if your using a fender standard strat, as for wiring it look around for wiring diagrams, the ones on guiarelectronics.com helped me no end when i was looking to fix up an old guitar.

 

[ggunn]

When i was looking at them (which was admittadly a long time ago) I couldn't fine one that was, in the end i decided against it anyway.

You can coil tap a two wire humbucker, some of them, anyway. I coil tapped a stock Gibby 'bucker many years ago. I opened it up and found the wire that connected the two coils and cut it, and I soldered a couple of wires to the cut ends and ran them out of the pickup. It wasn't that hard to do.

 

[blackscot]

I'm finding a dizzying selection of humbuckers to choose from. I like the DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan names because they -- as I -- have been around a long time.

As I said earlier, I'm basically just looking for more punch from the bridge position when playing in the moderate-to-high gain range. I play a variety of classic rock and blues, as well as some light jazz and country. Not much really heavy metal or shread though.

With some browsing I isolated a few models described as intended for the bridge position, including the DiMarzio DP152 and DP216, and the Seymour Duncan SH-11 and SH-PG1. Do any of these stand out? Or given my objectives, is something else entirely mandated?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

Well, if you were putting most humbuckers in with some Fender pickups (because Fender winds their pickups backwards), you would want to reverse the ground and hot wires, but if you did that it wouldn't be out of phase.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

Thanks - I've got the soldering abilities of your average medium-rare steak, so this is kind of new to me, lol. Duly noted for future reference.