Thinking about doing a project Fender build with humbucker in the bridge. I have a Seymour Duncan JB and an old Dimarzio Super Distortion laying around. Anyone have opinions on which would be best suited??

My neck pickup will be a a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder, and I will wire em up to CTS pots.

My random thoughts:

Both the Quarter Pounder (QP) and the JB have Alnico V magnets whereas the Super Distortion (SD) has a ceramic magnet.

For best results, keep in mind that the SD was designed around 500K pots whereas both the JB and the QP were designed around 250K pots.

If the JB isn't a Trembucker, its polepieces won't line up with the strings. The same holds true with the Super Distortion if it is not F spaced. Both will be too narrow, especially the SD.

The SD through a tube amp responds infinitely better. In a solid state, it tends to be a bit fizzy and flat. With 250K pots, the lower midrange really swells up to the point of where even if you used a tube amp, it will just puke out lower midrange and nothing else.

With 500K pots, the JB will have negligible bass, and an upper midrange spike with somewhat irritating highs. The QP will have a boomy bass, no mids and thinning although loud highs.

So, bringing it full circle, the QP is obviously the constant. With the proper loads, either full sized HB will be complimentary to the QP. The biggest difference would be the SD giving you a more ballsy, gritty, ripping kind of tonality whereas the JB would be more of a raspy (in a good way), singing screamer. Output wise, either will easily compete with the QP.

As always, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

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Interesting point about the JB being geared towards 250k. I see now it even mentions this on the Semour Duncan website "JB has a stronger treble detail. Some players use it with 250K pots to smooth out the highs"

Hmmmm well I like the thought of a SD in there, but if the 250k pots work best with the QP, then it looks like the JB would seem the better compliment.

As always you give some great advice! Thanks!


lol dare I even ask what would be a good compliment in the middle position (single coil) to go along with the mix?

Glad to help and I thank you!

Not to confuse the issue but you can have the QP and the SD compatible, pot wise. First, the tone pot doesn't make that much of a dramatic difference so you could get away with either. In your particular situation though, due to the fact that ALL the pickups we are discussing here are high output, I'd go with a 500K tone pot. The sweep will not be as dramatic as if you used a 250K but this is your best bet. Notwithstanding, it is the volume pot which is the most critical and makes the most difference. Here's a little trick I use to solve the problem:

Use a 500K pot for the volume and at the terminal of the selector switch where you solder the hot lead of the QP, solder a 470K resistor along with it. The other lead of the resistor gets soldered to ground. What this does is it makes the QP "see" a 250K pot. (Literally, a 242.5K pot but this minor difference is insignificant.) Problem solved!

FYI: A 470K, 1/2 Watt resistor (which is perfect for this application) can be had in a package of two for 99 cents at Radio Shack.

As you are using two "beasts" for neck and bridge pickups, the closest single coil with that kind of balls would be a Duncan SSL-3. It is a bit weaker than the other two but still in the ballpark. This is a good thing chiefly because when teamed with either of the outer pickups, you will still get the Strat "quack".

Keep in mind that full sized DiMarzio HBs and Duncan single coils are deliberately out of phase with each other. So with the DiMarzio, wire the green lead to hot and the red to ground.

FWIW, I would have chosen the QP/SD combo too.

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I likes to hear my JB/SH4 squeal like a pig with pinch harmonics.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Would this setup be the same if I wanted to use just 1 tone knob and 1 volume?

Definitely.

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Ok I've so far obtained: 500k Volume pot, 500k push/pull tone (my Super Distortion turned out to be the tappable Dual Sound version), .022 uf capacitor......still need to get the 470K resistor.

Now only thing I need to obtain is the SSL-3 pickup. There is two versions available. The normal wound one AND a "Reverse-Wound, Reverse-Polarity (RWRP) for hum cancelling in the middle position"

Which of the two SSl-3 pickups fits the advice you gave...

I don't want to mess up and buy the wrong one, or wire incorrectly. Thanks for any help!

Get the 'normal' one.

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amen to that.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Hey Martian

Well looks like my project is finally about to get started! took long enough. Grabbed the ssl3 recently and just bought the 5 way switch.

I drafted a schematic and hope you could proof it for me. You've been a great help! Looking forward to tearing into this rebuild.

Glad to be of assistance.

There are a few things:

Due to the higher output of the single coil Duncans and the positions you've chosen for them in your guitar, you may not want that 470K resistor.

The selector switch and the push/pull switch have issues. Please tell me exactly what you want the DiMarzio to be able to do coil wise and in what positions.

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Thanks. Well setup would be: Both pots 500k. Figure a .022 cap would suit this setup.
quarter pound in neck, ssl3 in middle, Dimarzio dual sound connected to push pull which would give a coil split. I assume the coil split would be active in all positions, but not sure since Im not too savy with these 5 way switches.

I had examined two other schematics for reference, but they both differed in some connection locations. Thanks for any clarification

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=1h_2s_1v_1t_5w_pp

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:9JtqThDpspMJ:www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/files/diagrams/hss5w_1v1t_splitB_DPDTdualsndB.pdf+hss5w_1v1t_splitB_DPDTdualsndB&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjZtgEk4ATeIgWeNXkWsovFB6u_TEAmu4F-5j8UIf9TD56v-vhIadRK01_FuKdnebnrb51-ENv7CTf81jp1LCcQxonjOpep9U9XFgWKtyyGOfMkixZ9X0nDGW51HQU2KpLiZMv0&sig=AHIEtbR3lBDoZSry_DzGprKvgXRVMOF6Rw

Got it. We'll use only the above Duncan schematic with a few changes due to the color coding of the DiMarzio leads. One question: Do you want the coil cut with the push/pull switch up or with it down?

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http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=1h_2s_1v_1t_5w_pp

Coil cut with the knob pulled up.

So looking at the Seymour Duncan schematic, I'd want the Dimarzio wired up as follows :

Dimarzio
Green = hot 5way
White + Black wires = soldered to that small terminal on the push/pull
Red + Bare wire - Ground to pot

Normally you said Red would be the hot and Green would go to ground, but to swap them since my single coils are out of phase with the dimarzio.

Hopefully I got this right? Thanks for taking the time out of your holidays to help!