For the HSH tinkerers - Need pickup recommendations.

[liko]

I'm setting up a project Strat; it's gonna have the basic look and feel of a Fat Strat, but it'll have some tricks under the hood like coil taps and neck-on that will make it a jack-of-all-tones, from a Strat's quack to a Tele's twang to an LP's raw gain. I know I won't exactly match any of those tones, but I can come close, and it'll be fun to try.

For this axe, I'm gonna need an HSH pickup set with the following features:

* HBs are coil tappable (4 conductor)

* When tapped, the main coil of each HB should be similar in output to a vintage Strat PU (about 5-6KOhms). That means the full humbucker will be a bit hotter then a vintage PAF, enough to have some fun, but not completely off the deep end.

* The Strat mid pickup needs to be compatible with the tapped HB's main coil, ideally RW/RP. This is kind of a big deal for the design; if I can't get a noiseless 2 and 4 then those positions are going to be very limited in their usefulness.

* Aesthetically, it would be ideal for the neck pickup to be zebra, with the slug coil black but the screw coil white instead of the traditional cream. From a distance, it should look like a relatively stock HSS. This is the least of my worries; if it comes down to it I can buy another pearl pickguard and cut out a cover for the top of the coil.

So, the question to the tinkerers out there is, what pickups can you recommend, that you know will meet all the above criteria? I've been looking at GFS for a set that won't totally break the bank, and they have some HBs that fit the bill pretty well (the Fat Pats), but nobody can tell me how theyre wound and therefore whether they'll be compatible with any of the SC pickups.

 

[d_dave_c]

SD P-rails?

I don't know abou the output on the GFS Retrotrons, but those might be a good option - maybe the Memphis or Liverpool.

 

[ugameus]

I have a Duncan Jazz neck and Duncan Alternative 8 bridge (f-spaced) I would sell you.  They both have all black coils.

[liko]

 

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d_dave_c wrote:

 

 

SD P-rails?

 

I don't know abou the output on the GFS Retrotrons, but those might be a good option - maybe the Memphis or Liverpool.

 

 

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Good suggestion on the P-rails; having P-90s available, on top of SC and HB-ish sounds, is something I didn't even know existed. Couple problems, though; they expect you to put these in an HH axe, and designed em so you could use either the rails or the 90s together and they'd be hum-cancelling. Add a third pickup and it starts getting really messy.

When I looked these up though, I got a helpful tidbit; on a traditional HB, any "screw coil" always cancels any "slug coil" (the P-rails work differently, which is why they point it out). I didn't know that that was the case, and was worried that on top of everything else, the slug coils of a matched set would be RW/RP to each other. Assuming that, for a given manufacturer, a "normal" pickup is wired like a slug coil and a RWRP is wired like a screw coil, this is much ado about nothing; I just buy the middle

There's a new possibility that this brings up as well. I could buy three humbuckers, and set up a coil tap on the middle pickup to select the screw coil. Then I would know, given that I bought three of the same pickup, which combinations of single coils are hum-cancelling. But, I was planning on using push-push pots for the neck on and two coil taps, and doing it this way means I'd have to find room on a crowded pickguard for a toggle switch for the neck-on feature, when I was already planning on needing a switch to select the bridge 'bucker coil I'd use (allowing a hum-cancelling Tele-ish tone)

[PurpleTrails]

Dimarzio SuperDistortion 2 for the buckers.  They have a credible strat tone when coil split, and sound good in a strat either split or run full on.  Not sure on the middle, maybe get a dimarzio FS-1, but I don't know if the windings on it match your requirements.

[kolapsar]

put a low output lipstick tube  in the middle for playing chords

[liko]

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

I heard back from GFS; they only wire "normal" and RW/RP pickups one way each, so Tele neck, Strat neck/bridge, and "slug coils" from HBs are all wound the same way, and the Tele bridge, Strat middle and all HB "screw coils" are RW/RP to any of the above "normal" coils. So, I can choose any of their RW/RP middle pickups that are available as a single pickup (there aren't many unfortunately) and pair it with a couple of HBs for the configuration I want.

Ugameus, I will check out BG Pups. His V60 Hot Rod looks like exactly what I want the Fat Pats to be, a Strat when I want it, a HB when I need it, and he can set em up with the exact DC resistance, relative polarities, and even the cover colors I want. The question is whether I want to spend as much on one pickup as I normally would on the whole set .

[ugameus]

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liko wrote:

t.

Ugameus, I will check out BG Pups. His V60 Hot Rod looks like exactly what I want the Fat Pats to be, a Strat when I want it, a HB when I need it, and he can set em up with the exact DC resistance, relative polarities, and even the cover colors I want. The question is whether I want to spend as much on one pickup as I normally would on the whole set

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You should see the prices other "boutique" winders charge.  BG is a bargain.  I have used a number of his pickups and they are up there with the big boys in terms of quality and tone. 

[dr. barlo]

I dunno whether or not the looks would fit your situation... But still, Duncan PATB-3 in the bridge and 59N in the neck (or Jazz neck) with a ~6.00K regular strat pickup would do what you'd want... That's what I have in my guitar, a Warmoth hardtail strat with them pickups. Here is how it sounds like:

http://soundcloud.com/dr-barlo/sets/barlo-the-jammer/

B