HSS Strat with True Grit + Abraxas

[optilude]

Hi,

I’m building an HSS Partscaster.  I’ve got Bootcamp True Grit neck + middle single coils, and an Abraxas bridge humbucker. I’m wiring this with 250k pots (I could swap to 500k) and auto-split of the humbucker in “position 2”.

I did look at Super Switch diagrams with resistors and all the rest of it, but they looked pretty complicated and the point of this build was to not spend a fortune on new components but rather to build something from things I had lying around.

Anyway - I’d be interested in some thoughts on this pickup combination, and especially whether the humbucker is a sensible choice. I still need to do more adjustment and testing, but from a first strum it sounds pretty good, though position 2 (bridge humbucker split + middle pickup in parallel) is very quiet (it measures < 4K resistance).

I also have: in the cupboard: an old Seymour Duncan JB humbucker; a pair of PRS 85/15 “S” humbuckers that came out of an SE Custom 24; and a Radioshop “PAF90” neck pickup, which is a humbucker-sized P90 measuring 7.5K.

Martin

[darkbluemurder]

I am not familiar with the True Grit single coils but the Abraxas is a medium output pickup which is on the darker end of the spectrum for a medium output pickup, even with 500k pots. With 250k pots I expect it to be rather dark.

Many people use a JB with 250k pots with success so I would try that instead. Split it should match well with the single coils, although as humbucker it would be louder and darker - good choice if you use the full humbucker for a lead boost or for a different sound. However, if you are after a volume balance with the humbucker in series mode and the single coils, the JB would be a poor choice.

The PRS 85/15 S bridge could work well with the 250k pots and would balance better with the single coils as humbucker but the split sound is weaker.

P90s tend to need 500k pots but you can give it a try. I am not a big fan of P90s in general.

Cheers Stephan

[optilude]

I emailed Bare Knuckle and they pointed out that the Boot Camps are not wired to HSS in the same way as a true HSS set. The net result was that my middle and split humbucker in position 2 were out of phase.

The answer is to wire as per this diagram (H/S/S - Boot Camp Single Coils):

https://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/upload/support/HSS_1_Vol_1_Tone_5_Way_with_Auto_Coilsplit_BOOT_CAMP_3b5141a.pdf

The key point is you have to swap the neck and middle single coils around (they’re voiced the same, so that doesn’t matter), and also do the humbucker/coil split differently (I believe it ends up using the slug coil instead of the screw coil, and also reverses phase).

Actually, I have two tone controls so I used the “normal HSS diagram (https://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/upload/support/3_11f098a.pdf) for the tone control wiring.

I’ve also ended up with a 500k pot for volume and two 250k pots for tone. Note that the humbucker does not get a tone control.

Anyway, it now sounds great! I’m playing with pickup height a bit to get balance across the pickups, but the overall tone is spot on, and I’m quite impressed with the Boot Camps, especially for the price.

[darrenw5094]

Sooooo, what does the Abraxas sound like?

[optilude]

Need to test more, but so far I think it sounds great. Punchy without being overwhelming.