Universal Pickup Route?

[Nephilim]

Just wondered whether this causes any tonal loss, or at least any that is noticeable?

[Twinfan]

I'd be very, very surprised.  The difference in two guitars with the same route would be as noticeable.  Or not.

I'm assuming you're talking about the "swimming pool" route on a Strat?

[Nephilim]

I'd be very, very surprised.  The difference in two guitars with the same route would be as noticeable.  Or not.

I'm assuming you're talking about the "swimming pool" route on a Strat?

Yh I do,  it's for a mate of mine who's getting a Warmoth. He's now decided on a Mahogany body, so he said he's just going to have the HSH route since he doubts he'll ever be putting Single Coils in a Mahogany guitar lol. But he still wants to know about the routing for any future purchases. He's just not sure whether not having wood surrounding the pickups that closely would end up with tonal loss, or whether it wouldn't make much audible difference?

[Philly Q]

I've heard stories that it may make the body itself less rigid, so it's at risk of warping.  And therefore some would say it's desirable to keep as much of the wood as possible.

I suspect that's a load of hogwash, to be honest.  And even if it's not, I doubt it has any significant effect on tone - it may affect the acoustic tone a little, but I can't believe wood surrounding, or not surrounding, the pickups makes any difference.

But to hedge my bets, I'd personally go for the HSH route, rather than the full "swimming pool".

[FELINEGUITARS]

If you have a H S H rout it wont make much difference - certainly no more than a slightly different bit of timber would give you .

I prefer to have a proper HSH rout rather than the complete swimming pool rout as i think that the dividing walls give a bit of extra rigidity  which I feel may help

EDIT - We posted the same thing at the same time Philly - great minds think alike

[Nephilim]

I was also curious about this as I see guitarists such as Petrucci uses Toneblocks on his guitars. Ah well, life goes on to cry about a little wood lol

[Philly Q]

I prefer to have a proper HSH rout rather than the complete swimming pool rout as i think that the dividing walls give a bit of extra rigidity  which I feel may help

EDIT - We posted the same thing at the same time Philly - great minds think alike

Yeah, but you explained it better than I did!  :lol:

Years ago I had a Strat on which I changed the pickups loads of times.  I got a few scratchplates from different manufacturers and the pickups were all in different places (things were less standardised then than they are now, I think).  In the end I turned it into a "swimming pool", never noticed any difference.

But I'd still go for HSH now.

[Afghan Dave]

I say.. If you've got wood, keep it.

[Mr. Air]

I got a Warmoth strat with H-S-H layout, but it has an universal rout so it's possible to put in 3 single coils without being a swimming pool.

[Eyes Wide Shut]

Sorry may be an old thread, but thought it may be better to add to a thread rather than make a new one, which I've learnt it's frowned upon and annoys some members :/

Anyways i was wondering about this with Warmoth too. I was curious as to whether a universal (smimming pool) route would be the way to go. Since it would be a scratch plate on top, it would be curious to experiment with different pickup configs, well 2 configs - HSS & HH. I just wondered with an HSH Warmoth Route, can you put a single coil in the Humbucker Neck Spacing? Would just prefer to keep more wood than to lose it. If not then Universal may be the way forward.

Also can you fit them diagonal strat-style single-coils in Humbucker Spacing guitars?

[Philly Q]

I just wondered with an HSH Warmoth Route, can you put a single coil in the Humbucker Neck Spacing?

Yes you can.

Also can you fit them diagonal strat-style single-coils in Humbucker Spacing guitars?

In the bridge position, yes.

So in effect the HSH route is "universal" unless you want something really unusual like P-90s or an HHH configuration.

[Eyes Wide Shut]

Thanks for that. Prob get that then.

[Roobubba]

For the record, this sort of threadnomancy is absolutely fine (in my view) - it's directly relevant to the original topic of discussion.
I think people mainly get annoyed when you have two or more different topics being discussed, especially when a thread is dragged up from several years ago with new posts that are barely related. :)