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Post subject: Martian, Seymour Duncan Pickup Question
Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 8:36 am
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Aspiring Musician
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Okay, I'm ready to buy the SSL-2, SSL-6, SSL-3 "Fratocaster" set but I have a question about the SSL-6. What's your opinion in regard to getting a RW/RP SSL-6 for hum cancelling? I'm not sure its that important to me since I only play here at home at relatively low volume. Also, isn't Fender's 57/62 pickup set not hum-cancelling? If I remember correctly, you don't worry too much about hum-cancelling....


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Post subject: Re: Martian, Seymour Duncan Pickup Question
Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 10:02 am
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oldguy101 wrote:
Okay, I'm ready to buy the SSL-2, SSL-6, SSL-3 "Fratocaster" set but I have a question about the SSL-6. What's your opinion in regard to getting a RW/RP SSL-6 for hum cancelling? I'm not sure its that important to me since I only play here at home at relatively low volume. Also, isn't Fender's 57/62 pickup set not hum-cancelling? If I remember correctly, you don't worry too much about hum-cancelling....


Greetings!

I do not like mixing HB and SC pickups in the same guitar. The chief reason being, it impacts on how one is forced to set the amp where the tonality of the HBs nor the SCs are optimized. See, with outright single coils (and non-technically speaking), the treble is naturally up there and the degree required for natural overdrive and enhanced sustain is quite different than that of a HB. Consider too, the "balls" of any overdrive and enhanced sustain is directly traceable to midrange. Now with humbuckers vs. SCs, the treble has to be dialed up more as HBs are bassier and the midrange must be decreased vice that of SCs in order to get the HBs out of the mud, both frequency and sustain wise. Consequently, tailoring the amp for this required higher edge, thins out the SCs both sonically and sustain wise. Further, the amp will hiss more on a dedicated HB setting with SCs which in turn, exaggerates the perception of SC hum. Thus, a compromise has to be found where either the SCs or the HBs capabilities are attenuated. To me, this is a, "hybrid" circuit where just like most, in the final analysis aren't usually a good thing.

I prefer single coil pickups as their frequency response is always wider than that of humbuckers and single coils' tonality is surely more transparent. Do I dislike HBs? No, as a matter of fact, I love their sound in many applications. I'm merely speaking for myself here.

Would any of the aforementioned significantly affect you since you only play at home at relatively low volume? Maybe not initially but given time, you will begin to discover the aforementioned and most likely it will become an annoyance to you.

Lastly, Fender's 57/62 pickup sets do not have a RW/RP middle pickup. Yet, this could be a good thing for you if you are in the camp which prefers HBs, believe it or not. I say this because if you installed a dummy coil properly and appropriately in your Strat with a set of 57/62s or even my combination, it would make the entire circuit humbucking regardless of pickup position.

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Post subject: Re: Martian, Seymour Duncan Pickup Question
Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 9:45 am
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Okay, now that I've got the "Fratocaster" SD pickup set to install, I'm looking at options for the wiring. One option I'm considering is to wire it per the Deluxe Player Strat wiring diagram (but using 250K pots) so that I can have the Neck-Bridge and Neck-Middle-Bridge combinations available. (Obviously, I'd need to drill the pickguard to accept the additional switch.) Martian, is there any drawback to using this wiring configuration with this pickup set?

With this wiring configuration, can I also wire it so that the second tone pot also controls the tone of the bridge pickup? I'm not sure its a good idea, though, since I couldn't adjust the tone for the middle and bridge pickups independently when both pickups are active (i.e., middle-bridge and neck-middle-bridge combinations).. I guess every choice has it's tradeoffs...


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Post subject: Re: Martian, Seymour Duncan Pickup Question
Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 11:24 am
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oldguy101 wrote:
Okay, now that I've got the "Fratocaster" SD pickup set to install, I'm looking at options for the wiring. One option I'm considering is to wire it per the Deluxe Player Strat wiring diagram (but using 250K pots) so that I can have the Neck-Bridge and Neck-Middle-Bridge combinations available. (Obviously, I'd need to drill the pickguard to accept the additional switch.) Martian, is there any drawback to using this wiring configuration with this pickup set?

With this wiring configuration, can I also wire it so that the second tone pot also controls the tone of the bridge pickup? I'm not sure its a good idea, though, since I couldn't adjust the tone for the middle and bridge pickups independently when both pickups are active (i.e., middle-bridge and neck-middle-bridge combinations).. I guess every choice has it's tradeoffs...


I've tried the extra switch and the blend pot modifications on Strats and pretty much immediately abandoned them both. Here's my reasoning:

Obviously, the pros of either the additional switch or a blend pot mods are to access pickup combinations not typically found on a Strat. However, with typical Strat wirings with the pickup selector switch in position #2 (middle/bridge pickups) or #4 (neck/middle pickups), these are tonally redundant with the exception of a bit more (usually unwanted) bass in position #4. Further, activating all three pickups at one time yields yet another redundant tonality to positions #2 and #4 with even more (unwanted) bass than in position #4. So, it all came down to me finding the only real 'plus' to atypical Strat wirings was the neck and bridge position together for those Tele and many a two-pickup guitar tonalities. In the final analysis, I had no use for all three pickups at once nor the neck/middle combo but definitely wanted the neck/bridge combo option. As you can see, all I still needed/required was just a 5 position pickup selector switch. This is where the idea of using a Super Switch came in. I could easily replace the unwanted/unnecessary neck/middle pickup combo with a middle/bridge combo. I also dabbled in the idea of wiring the switch so that I could get all my required combinations in an 'out of order' sequence, based on my personal stylings but then I figured, why complicate things? So, I use a Super Switch where it works exactly the same as a 'normal' one with the only difference being, position #4 is the neck/bridge combo.

In my personal playing style, I noticed that at all times, I wanted a tone pot as well as a volume pot for any pickup I select. Maybe it's habit or conformity but I always had to have two separate tone pots, one for the bridge pickup and one for the neck pickup on any guitar I play. As to the middle pickup (Strat wise), yes, I wanted a tone pot for that too. Truth be told, I was unsure which would work better for me in regard to it being teamed with the neck or bridge pickup. In time, I found I was better off having it teamed with the neck pickup and having the bridge pickup on it's own pot.

With the tone pots, because the SSL-3 is in the bridge position, I chose to go with the .047uf cap, utilizing a .022uf for the neck/middle combo for as we know, the closer to the neck a pickup is, the more bass even identical pickups will resonate. So yes, you can isolate the bridge pickup to have it's own, exclusive tone pot.

Everything which is activated obviously goes through the output jack at the same time. Naturally, if you have two different pickups on that are controlled by two different tone pots, the overall tonality of the circuit will be affected from both pots.

Now I'm not trying to tell you what to do or not to do here. Rather, I'm speaking from my experience. If you think the possibilities of combinations I have no need for may be of value to you, by all means, give it a shot. Hey, it's only a handful of wires. :)

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