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Author Topic: A change of pickups for an American Strat HSS with S-1 switching  (Read 1496 times)

wotnotz

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I'm looking to get a bit more out of the standard HSS setup.  Whenever the bridge pickup is engaged they're only ever humbucking, they can't be split. I'd like the option of being able to have a single coil at the bridge which isn't an option I currently have with the standard setup. I'd also like a humbucker with a bit more 'go'.

Any suggestions as to what combination or tweaks I could employ to get a blue/rock tone?

Mr. Air

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Re: A change of pickups for an American Strat HSS with S-1 switching
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2012, 01:59:05 PM »
I think you could go for a few HSS combinations. It might depend on what wood the body is made of and wether it's a rosewood or maple board. I will suggest Abraxas bridge with Mothers Milk or Irish Tours in middle and neck. The Abraxas is often described as a PAF on steroids as it is vintage voiced but has some more oomph. It is said to split really well so you'll be able to pull off some nice single coil-like tones when it's split.
Mississippi Queens, Stormy Monday/Apaches, Emeralds, Nailbomb (bridge)

Telerocker

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Re: A change of pickups for an American Strat HSS with S-1 switching
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2012, 07:19:58 PM »
I have in  (swamp)ash HSS-strat:
Crawler + Irish Tours
VHII + Mother's Milk
Both split great, Crawler is a beefy warm allrounder with enough treble and some PAF-pedigree, VHII is balanced, touchsensitive, screaming when you dig in. A real vintagehot rockpickup that cleans up to a near singlecoil vocal quality.
Abraxas would be a good one too!
Mules, VHII, Crawler, MM's, IT's, BG50's.