Hi Everybody! Im new here and happy to be part of the community! Im new to fender guitars(purchased my first strat last weekend) and wanted some insight from the guys that have been there and done that.

Just this past weekend I picked up a new fender american select HSS. Its an all mahogany body with a rosewood fingerboard, two tex mex single coils, and a diamondback humbucker in the bridge.

In any band that I play with, I play harder rock and usually gravitate towards solid mahogany guitars with a fixed bridge, two buckers, and ebony or rosewood fingerboards. Ive always loved the strat tone, look, and feel, but gear isnt cheap and my budget never really allowed me to be spending money on things that arent quite as practical for my live show. When I played this guitar though....just had to have it. My only question is, what do you guys like for a humbucker in the strat style guitars?

I usually play a duncan custom custom or a duncan JB in my guitars, but not really sure how that will work out without the typical fixed bridge and being mounted in a pick guard. What do you guys like for a meaty pickup that has fairly tight lows and not too much spike up top?

Thanks a lot, I appreciate and look forward to your responses!

If you're familiar with Duncan pups then you prolly already know what the sonic differences are between the models. The JB and the Pearly both come in trembucker spacings and are fairly common in Strats. Also the Dimarzio Super Disortion S (single coil sized) is pretty meaty and EQ'd fairly bassy. I don't think the regular double screw comes in a trem spacing but you might still be able to make one work if you don't have a regular (SSS) pickguard handy.

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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.

Thanks for the reply. Just so were on the same page....Im keeping the tex mex single coils. I like them a lot and they are doing just fine for everything I expected to use them for.

As for the humbucker.....this particular fender has an actual size bucker in the bridge. I just found it to be a little un-defined and thin sounding. I dont like the bass heavy sound, but I do want something a little bassier by comparison, and also with better definition and output but not spikey.

So for the bridge.....this should be a regular sized humbucker correct? Or am I missing something there?

Im not used to mounting in a pick guard, so this is new to me! I know I like the duncans that I mentioned for sure but just wasnt sure how they react in this particular guitar. So...figured Id ask before I jump the gun on a pickup.

Thanks again!

Hi Mate,

You need F spaced humbbuckers to replace the american "special" guitar that you just bought (you mentioned "select" in your OP, but I think you meant special). It is true that you lose some of that connection when the pickup isn't mounted directly to the body, but it's negligible. You'll get as true a representation of the pickup as your would in any guitar, go with what you know and what you're comfortable with.

But get F-spaced sized pickups

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My Rig: Guitar into Pedals then into Amps and out into Speakers.

Hi there and thanks for the reply. Nope, its not the special, it is indeed the select. Its a GC exclusive model.

This one:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Fender-Amer ... 1168160.gc

And thanks for the "F-spaced" reference. I had to google it to be sure of what you were talking about, but now I understand what this means and why it matters. Thursday I'll be in the studio with the guys, so hopefully......I'll find that the stock humbucker works better than expected. But if not, now I know I need to be looking for the right spacing! Thanks again.

lol lol lol lol that lil guitar dude is to cute ill call he lil rocker

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Wow.

Hi pinkrockergirl: I think you might have missed these ones

Just trying to be thorough.

Cheers - C

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