Anyone Play a Strat with a Humbucker?

[ch willie]

EDIT: I've posted this question some time ago, I think. But while we were down, I figured that a good deal of gear has been acquired in the meantime.

Do any of you have a Strat w/HB? If so, how do you like it, and how would you describe the tones you get?

I'm getting two Gibson BBs from the Les Paul Standard Faded that I just sold put into my blizzard pearl Strat (known by many as Vonnegut's Bung). Can't wait to hear what I can get out of the HBs, but I do not expect a Les Paul or general Gibson sound

Here is a before pic of Vonnegut's Bung:

[Offshore Angler]

Are you going to change the pots?

[phantomman]

Are you going to change the pots?

+1

You'll need to swap yours for 500K's all around.

[ch willie]

The tech is going to use 250s instead of 500s. He told me why, but being a technical nightmare, I have no idea. If he's wrong, I'll replace the pots.

[DanD]

I built a two hum Strat and want all that impressed.

[ch willie]

Why not, DanD? What pups did you use?

[ampdan]

Back in the day, I took a Strat and put Seymour Duncan single coil sized humbuckers in the neck & bridge. I put 500k for the volume,
and 250k for the tones. I played everything from the Stones to
Trower to Judas Priest. I kinda miss that guitar......

[Cogs]

Why not, DanD? What pups did you use?

Really, I'd like to know as well. Save me some money (& time).

[ch willie]

Back in the day, I took a Strat and put Seymour Duncan single coil sized humbuckers in the neck & bridge. I put 500k for the volume,
and 250k for the tones. I played everything from the Stones to
Trower to Judas Priest. I kinda miss that guitar......

Our other guitarist has a Seymour Duncan sc sized hb, and his sound is incredibly good.

I got the idea of HBs from seeing The Eagles' hired guitarist on the recent tours. He plays a Strat with a HB, and his sound is really good.

[DanD]

I tried the 'buckers in a nice sounding late 80s US swimming pool route Fender body I've used for years. Saw some Steely Dan clips with a guy who had a neck 'bucker in his Strat and thought I'd give it a go.

I tried SD '59s, Gibson '57s, and 490s. My personal fave were the '57s but those same pups sound better in a LP style guitar. I don't know if it's the scale difference or my own predisposition to certain tones.

I never felt that guitar or the pups lived up to their potential with 'buckers in the Strat body. That same body has had a few necks over the years and has sounded brilliant with Fat 50s, Crays, Black Labels and Bardens.

Now my 25.5" scale Hamer Newport Pro sounds unreal with some very hot Duncans installed from the factory...

[ch willie]

Well, the tech is going ahead with the job, but if it doesn't sound great, I'll probably put in some single coil buckers. Our other has an SD sc hb of some sort, and he gets a wonderful, creamy tone--one of the best sounding MIMs or any Fender I've ever heard.

[DanD]

I like my Bardens SC HBs and had a G&L Legacy Special with with SC HBs that was awesome. I think back on the Legacy as one of those "what was I thinking" sales.

I hope it works out for you. Let us know what you think. Strats are cool as they make it a simple output jack soldering to drop in ready made pick guards.

[ch willie]

Those Burstbuckers sound really good, a lot fuller and thicker in all HB positions--middle pu is an Am Std sc. As I knew would be the case, it doesn't sound anything like a mahogany, set neck guitar. But it retains a Stratty sound, and that's okay by me. Eventually, I want to get another set neck guitar but will probably not go with a Gibson.

[ch willie]

Update on Vonnegut's Bung (aka Thin Blizzie): She sounds great through my DRRI but sings through the Marshall. I took her to band practice and what a guitar!

The neck pup is creamy and full and bassy with absolutely no muddiness. I had to turn the treble up on the amp to get it right, but I have plenty of room to add more, no problem. I used the bridge pup the most last night. It's got that crinkly treble sound that I could not get with these pickups when they were in my departed Les Paul.

I really didn't expect Bung to turn out so well with HBs. I reckon one day I'll get an SG or even a double cutaway, set-neck, HB geet from a lesser known maker. But for now, Bung's doing it for me.

[DanD]

That's awesome! Glad to hear you're diggin' on the 'buckers.

[ch willie]

Thanks. I am seriously happy with what I've got.

[DanD]

I think my expectations were too high when I swapped the single coil guard for a 'buckered guard on my Strat. I was thinking I could get LP tone in a way more comfortable Strat body. What I ended up with was really neither LP or Strat.

Glad yours is doing it for you! I like happy endings.

[tugboat]

I like happy endings.

[immaturity] chuckles [\immaturity]

[Wilko]

I have 1976 T-Tops in my Pepto Strat. 500k pots.

Vol Tone Tone with three-position switch.

Love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrUA4FYBKPk

[eclecticsynergy]

+1 on the T-top. I have a Guitarman floydcaster, made for me at Stuyvesant Music on 48th St back in '78 or '79. It has a T-top in the bridge position, one of the early Duncan '59s at the neck, and a QuarterPound Strat in the middle. The T-top (with 500K pots) has enough raw treble to sound great with the 25½" scale, not LesPaul-ish at all in this axe. The '59 sounds woodier and sweet but well-defined; I think the long scale helps this one too, 'cause in a Gibson they can sometimes feel a bit blurry at the neck (not necessarily in a bad way, but that wasn't what I wanted from this one). The QuarterPounder is an oddly unStrat-like compromise, wound so hot it's a bit dark, but it cleans up well when rolled back and still has that distinctive singlecoil bite when you dig in & pick hard.

I love this axe. The wood is very resonant; neck and body are very early ESP parts, I think before they had a US distributor they were sending them over individually on special order. The guitar is lightweight and exceptionally vibrant for a bolt-on, partly due to all the hours it spent singing in front of a loud stack. It was my #1 for well over a thousand gigs through the first half of the 80s, until I got my first PRS. The only change I remember making was to swap the original lock-block Floyd Rose for one with fine tuners when they came out a year or two after. It really was a pain to tune those things before the fine tuners...

[ch willie]

eclecticsynergy, Sounds like a great geetar. The thought of a Quarter Pound in the middle pup position intrigues me. I foresee one in my guitar's future.

I've had the BBs in the Strat long enough now to make some observations.

1) My Strat still sounds Stratty, even with balls out HB action going on.
2) The BB in the neck is vurrry dark and doesn't do much for my band's kind of music. However, it has a lovely tone for jazz.
3) The bridge BB is Stratttttty but powerful too.
4) I certainly need a good mahogany, set neck axe, but this Strat will do me just fine.
5) I guess I've been playing this guitar so much lately that it's become my number one. Or at least it shares the crown with my Tele.

[TremoloKing]

I have three Strats with full size humbuckers for bridge position pickups.

All are Seymour Duncan. The one that is my avatar, is a Trembucker TB-4 (Jeff Beck). I don't like the sound of split coils to instead I use a series/parallel switch which I think is great - especially with this pickup. In series it's a hot and mid-rangy, but in parallel it sounds like a fantastic Telecaster bridge pickup only noiseless.

That's because it uses Alnico V magnets and the parallel impedance (resistance really) is a bit over 8K. Nice bite, but doesn't sound metallic.

The other two are both '59s. (SH-1 and TB59)

All use 250K volume controls. Didn't like the sound of the 500K loading at all.

[ch willie]

Sounds like a reasonable Strat collection to me. I had thought an HB would change the character of the Strat. The big surprise for me was how the guit has the power of an HB but still sounds Stratty.

[lure555]

The oldest guitar I own is a Japanese 62 RI with a Li'l 59 in the bridge. A studio guy who I respect immensely told me it's the best sounding guitar I own... much to my chagrin, since I had just dropped some major coin on a Les Paul. LOL! In my younger years that guitar had Hot Rails in the neck and the bridge... talk about total destruction mode.
I love the versatility of this setup. I can split the 59 for a nice-sounding single-coil sound. The volume pot is going bad and I'm going to replace it with a 500K, though I might be tempted to put in a 1meg, which I put in my Tele.

[ch willie]

I've forgotten which pots the dude put in the HB Strat. Whatever he used was supposed to minimize it going too trebly. Whatever it was works just fine. I guess I need to pay more attention to such details.

[TremoloKing]

250K is less bright than 500K. Gibson has always used 300K which is a lot closer to 250 than 500.

With higher values the overall output is greater, but not the same at all frequencies. In other words, it changes the frequency response, colors the tone differently. It's a matter of taste.

The choice can become more complicated when you have a common volume pot for a humbucker and single coils - a 500K pot might get you the sound you want from the HB but the single coils might then be too bright.

If that's a problem you can use one tone control for the single coils and the other for the humbucker.

So many variables...