Which Pickup is for me?

[PhilKing]

I have a couple of the HSS sets you are looking at, VHII with Irish Tours in a Alder/Rosewood strat, which is a great combination for classic rock tones and can get into the metal territory with the VHII (and some pedals!).  I also have a Holy Diver with Trilogies, which is my heavy rock sound.  I have this in a swamp ash/flame maple & ebony neck, with a half scalloped fingerboard, which will definitely get you the HammerFall tones.

[littleredguitars2]

funny enough i just decided on the holy diver/trilogy suite HSS and i really think it will get me what i want. so thats great timing on your response.

i do have a question though. whats the main difference between the 50mm and 53mm spacing? i assumed that since i was putting it in a hardtail guitar, id want a 50 but i saw that the HSS sets come default at 53mm.

thats pretty much the only question i have at this point.

[PhilKing]

The wider spacing is for the US made Strat bridge and the narrower spacing is for the Japanese bridge.  Gibson had the narrower spacing, so all old HSS mods had that on Fender bridges.  It was only when F-Spacing came in that we got the wider spread.  As far as I'm concerned it doesn't make a difference, I used a Strat with a Gibson HB in the bridge position for many years and it never bothered me (look at EVH's guitar too, it has an old Gibson hb).  I think it is more an aesthetic thing, if you want to center the strings on the pole pieces.

[littleredguitars2]

Thanks. That definitely helps.

[Telerocker]

funny enough i just decided on the holy diver/trilogy suite HSS and i really think it will get me what i want. so thats great timing on your response.

That's a good, beefy, modern sounding set for a strat. Let us know if you like them.

[Slartibartfarst42]

The Holydiver is a great choice. My favourite BKP for some very good reasons and Trilogy Suites will go well with it. Congratulations and remember to post us a detailed review.

[littleredguitars2]

thanks for all your help guys! i'll definitely follow up with a review. probably with a video on my youtube channel. i just need some help with a few last things. i've never really done much with strats with more than one humbucker so i'm not sure what i will need for pots and stuff. i assume i'll need a 500k volume pot but do i need the same ones for the tone ?

[Slartibartfarst42]

I strongly recommend you getting some BKP 550k pots. You can use the same ones for volume and tone. You should also look into the Jensen/BKP 0.022 capacitor to go with them. These accessories will help to really bring the pickups to life. Here's a quick review I wrote when I got mine:

https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=28422.0

[littleredguitars2]

okay cool. i'll definitely look into those. and this probably sounds stupid but i havent had a "normal" strat in so long. theres 1 volume and 2 tone knobs right? what pickup does each tone knob effect if there are 3 pickups? and to be honest, i never even liked having tone knobs. i always just have the tone knob cranked on all of my guitars. if i chose not to have a tone knob at all, would they always be at that "maxed out" tone?

and would i even be able to have an HSS design with just a 5way switch and say, 1 volume knob? or am i just better have having the typical hss pickguard design?

[fhn_lopes]

I don't like tone pots either... they suck tone and I can't find any use for them... I don't like how the guitar sounds with the tone pot taking treble away.... even if it's a spanky trebly guitar, it's going to sound muffled (well, at least it did for me) so it's better to change the pups other than use tone pots... At least in strats, I can't find an use for them so I usully bypass'em in my axes... Now with my Les Paul, I have to upgrade the pups first to tell, but I can't see why I'd use tone pots to tame treble in a thick mahog body...

[Telerocker]

I don't like tone pots either... they suck tone and I can't find any use for them... I don't like how the guitar sounds with the tone pot taking treble away.... even if it's a spanky trebly guitar, it's going to sound muffled (well, at least it did for me) so it's better to change the pups other than use tone pots... At least in strats, I can't find an use for them so I usully bypass'em in my axes... Now with my Les Paul, I have to upgrade the pups first to tell, but I can't see why I'd use tone pots to tame treble in a thick mahog body...

I a telecaster you need one, it's the secret to get the edge or make it darker, thicker sounding.
I use the tonepot in an all mahogany Saint Blues quite often too. Neither of those guitar sounds muffled.

[Slartibartfarst42]

99% of the time I just have the tone pots maxed out all the time too but now and again I like to roll the tone down a bit when soloing on the neck pickup. I tried it after reading that Slash did this quite a lot and it can be quite effective, though of course it's easier for him as he has a tone pot for each pickup and I don't.

[littleredguitars2]

i guess i'm just curious if i NEED tone pots. i feel like the pickguard is so cluttered with 2 extra knobs when i always have them in the same spot

[Kiichi]

99% of the time I just have the tone pots maxed out all the time too but now and again I like to roll the tone down a bit when soloing on the neck pickup. I tried it after reading that Slash did this quite a lot and it can be quite effective, though of course it's easier for him as he has a tone pot for each pickup and I don't.

Pretty much this.
I am however using my tone pots more and more. Part of this is upgrading pots and caps (I now use orange drops), but the main part for me was switching to 50s wiring.
After that I really started to discover the tone pot as it worked in way I seem to enjoy more (same with the volume pot, it is not just a on off switch anymore).

Granted I so far only use it for melody work and not for chord riffing (this may follow sometime though) and I find it very cool on the neck to get that extra smoothness which can be awesome for shredding and slow work alike, for the bridge to tame it a bit when soloing if I want that flavour without going too far off from the neck in terms of thickness and brighness. For the middle in a HSH it is a lifesaver sometimes to get it a bit back and when you go to a crunchsound and roll the tone on the middle off a tad you can get the most singing melody tone I have yet gotten from a PU I must say. Incredible really when you hit it (and you can learn how to).

Plus for clean tones it can do so much too, not just if you wanne add that tad of a jazz flavour in there.

Now of course it does not have to work for everyone, but I can recommend to at least try different caps (values and types, experimentation here can be very inexpensive for starters and if you like the results you can always try more expensive PIO caps and such) and 50s wiring.
If you explored it and tried it in an honest way, sure bypass it and all, but maybe give it a proper chance first, you might discover a whole new layer of tone.

[littleredguitars2]

i have a question for one of my other strats. it doesnt use a cap at all. its a humbucker only strat. if i were to replace the pickup down the line with just a BK humbucker, would it be a good idea to add a capacitor to the mix? it does have a 500k pot but it was probably just a cheap assembly line fender part. would it make much difference to add a BK pot like the 550?