A fine job of pointing out the benefits there
I work in IT so you'd think I'd have a reasoned logical response - but I still don't. If someone gave me one to play with I wouldn't turn it down, but I just don't have it on the list of stuff I'm waiting to buy.

It's pretty cool that there are so many ways to shape the music we love though.

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Steve

I guess I'm the odd man out. I like a humbucker in the neck with a coil tap. But then I put a Tele p/u in the bridge. Call me nut's but it's a killer guitar

I TOTALLY agree. That bridge single coil is an aweful sound to my ears. If Hendrix or anyone else plays it I don't know how they made it sound good. I stopped playing strats for about 12 years cuz I didn't like it, yet I needed some crunch for Zep and classic rock and that single coil sounded like crap. Just recently I tried an HSS and now I use it for everything.

I like a real humbucker in the neck, but chose to use a Lace Dually in the bridge and middle so I can keep all those nice Strat quacks and honks....I know many of you have seen this guitar on the Forum...but for those of you that haven't, here it is again....love this look too...

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

I have both SSS and HSS Strats. HSS provides a useful palette of sounds and IMO should be represented in every collection. There are sounds you just can't get any other way.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

HSS...the best config for a strat. I will add a S-1 Switch so I can use the neck and middle in parallel mode for thicker neck solos

I tried this on the deluxe models and loved it!!!

One of my Strats is S-S-S
The other is H-H-H (3 may be a bit "overkill" but I dig it)


You gotta have both if you can afford it because then you have all the bases covered. Whatever style of music you want to play, you can pull it off if you have the chops.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

To me, the HSS is the best of both worlds rather than a compromise. I love strats for the same reason so many here do; the sound! While I rarely use a bridge single coil pickup, it's nice to know I can if i find it fits a particular passage. While I normally get my kicks from the middle and neck position pups, I like being able to rock hard with a bridge humbucker. Ideally, everybody would want to own both layouts because if it's music, it can't be wrong!

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60th Anniversary AD Strat, Deluxe Nashville Tele, Player's P Bass. Mesa/Boogie Mk IV combo, Marshall JCM800, 1960A cab, Genz Benz El Diablo 60, Genz 2x12" cab, too many neat little practice amps and kit projects!

HSS is indeed the best pickup configuration for a Strat, but HSH and HHH are the ultimate in terms of versatility and flexibility!

oh I thought about that a LOT!! but I still want that SRV tone in the neck and I can't achieve this with the humbucker splitted
or is it possible??? that's why I want to drive neck and middle in parallel so I have more thickness in the neck for soloing metal stuff

With a full neck humbucker and a 25dB mid-boost circuit, you can play your favorite metal solos without problem.

Using an S-1 switch with a super 5-way 4 mega pole pickup selector will enable all the three humbuckers together or cut their outer and inner coils. This combination produces everything from nice, warm single-coil sounds to screaming fat lead tones.

hmm...but neck humbucker splitted...you won't be able to sound like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg7KRR9FBlc

THAT SRV tone I only heard with real single coils...
I would appreciate if you can prove me wrong!!!

That's WAAAYY too much happening there! Very fancy wiring!! You WILL lose some 'Stratty-ness' when there's that much going on.
With a regular, non fancy wiring, HSS formatted Strat, one CAN without a doubt, acieve the very 'Stevie' like tones in the above YouTube link.
Anthony (in the video) is NOT using the bridge pup...he's using all the 'other' positions which are most associated with Stevie and Texas blues in general.
My HSS's do not disappoint in the Texas blues/Stevie area; in spite of the humbucker.

Especially the one below...with Fender Vintage Noiseless (They're GREAT!!) and an aged chrome covered DiMarzio 36th Anniv. P.A.F.

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I refuse to have a battle of the wits with an unarmed man!

wow your strat looks awesome!!!

The two VNs in the neck/middle are not the regular AlNicO V. These babies are the dual-coil ceramic types, which had a hotter output for a proper balance with the 36th Anniversary PAF Pro.

If you don't want to lose the "Strattiness" you're craving for, just leave the S-1 switch turned off.