My humbucker quit on me so I decided it is a great time to change the pick ups in my highway one HSS Strat. I am going to upgrade them. Anyone know of a really cool set of pick ups I can throw into it? I play all styles from metal to blues and a little rock a billy. I want to make it sound mean!!!!!!!!

Kimmo

I've read and heard nothing but good things about the Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates. That is the humbucker used on the Road Worn Player Strat HSS. Check out youtube for a review on that Guitar. Damon Chivers from Fender does a demo of the guitar while at Nevada Music and you can hear the pickup....really nice tone. As soon as I saw that demo, I knew that was the new axe for me...so now I'm saving my pennies!

Here's the Damon Chivers video of the Road Worn Player Strat HSS with the Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbucker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPBxjFKX0fU

Here is another one from a German company...more focus on hard rock and metal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kr4h1t_ ... re=related

The pearly gates is a good pickup but it's quit a week humbucker . If you want to be able to play metal I would go for somthink with abit more power like a jb . Also I would keep your highway one single coils cuz ther quite hot and you will need that to keep up with the hotter humbucker. if you want to be able to get a good tone with lower out put fit a treble bleed to your volume pot an just back of the volume . Good luck

Thanks, they sound really good.

Welll....you've come to the right place!
As...more than likely....the craziest/obsessive compulsive member on here....I can officially claim "authority" on this subject!
As proud owner of the highly modified ENTIRE SERIES of Fender Highway One Stratocaster HSS's....I can lend life experience to this answer!

The Highway is essentially a wonderful, toneful, well made guitar.
I...just had major issues with the electronics, tuners and saddles.
So...in went Fender/Schaller locking tuners on ALL of them, as well as Graph Tech String Saver saddles.

Here's the breakdown: Lto R:
1:-DiMarzio Injector (n),DiMarzio Area 67(m), Gibson BurstBucker 3
2:-2 Fender Vintage Noiseless, Gibson 57 Classic plus
3:-2 Fender Vintage Noiseless, Gibson 498T
4:-2 DiMarzio Area 67's, DiMarzio 36th Anniv. P.A.F.
5:-2 Fender Vintage Noiseless, Gibson 490T
6:-2 DiMarzio Area 58's, DiMarzio P.A.F.
7:-2 DiMarzio Area 58's , DiMarzio 36th Anniv. P.A.F.





I would confidently put any one of these up against a Custom Shop instrument!

Oh and I have one more!
The F.S.R. Highway One Strat known as the "None More Black". The pickguard was changed by previous owner.
That has 2 DiMarzio Area 67's and a Gibson 490T.

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

That is an awesome line up. I was thinking of changing my tuners, I put grovers on my Tele and they are great. Now that I see yours I think I will change my saddles. I have number 6, the brown one. So your saying I should get rid of the Grease bucket wiring or what ever they call it. Can I just change out my humbucker? My single coils actually sound really good.

you want it to sound mean huh? well so did i. i wanted a guitar that would pretty much be my main guitar and allow me to play just about any style of music w/o switching guitars.
i wanted a sweet warm bluesy tone that sounded clean when i rolled off the volume just a touch, or could come alive full volume. i wanted a bucker that also could clean by via volume control, but would straight kick some azz when i need it too. so it was pretty much a simple no brainer for me, i put fender CS 69's in the middle and the neck, then i put a seymour duncan jeff beck in the bridge. so as the outcome, i can cover anything from clapton to maiden on this guitar and my requirments have been met 100% by my selections. man this HW1 sings bro. its hard for me to believe i can cover so much ground with this thing now.

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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."

I never said a word about the Greasebucket wiring. It's just the pickups I had issues with. I kept the Greasebucket in ALL of them!
I (putting it mildly) HATED the stock pickups! I am beyond happy that I replace them all!

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

Ok, thanks. Good to know. I will keep the wiring and change the pups.

I love my Highway Strat too, and replaced the pickups. That much we agree on!

That you bought one and changed the pickups, I understand. But that you then went out and bought 6 more identical guitars, over and over again, knowing you would have to change the pickups on all of them? You bought another 6 guitars that you didn't like the sound of? You bought another 6 guitars and 18 new pickups?

This is either a magnificent obsession or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Whatever it is, you must really love those Highways, or really enjoy soldering!!

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

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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."

(This is like trying to explain guitars to my wife!)
OBVIOUSLY...YOU'RE NOT FAMILIAR WITH MOST OF THE MEMBERSHIP OF THIS BOARD...MANY OF WHOM OWN MULTIPLE STRATS!!

Very rarely does an 'off the shelf' guitar meet all of my needs....so...I tailor each one to my specifics.

THEY ALL SOUND DIFFERENT!!

Each has it's own "thing" going on! Several are real rockers, while a couple are real sweet "Lenny" sounding.
I love the FEEL and the look of Highway One's. So....I collect and PLAY them!!
I am NOT lacking in the tone variety dept. that's for sure!

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

i do have to agree here with this. i rarely find a guitar that i cant improve on somehow.
im ok with that, i expect it going in. love those 1's.
so in knowing we agree you must be as disappointed as i am to hear the HW1 series is on very shakey grounds. there are a couple posts on here concerning this and addressing brad about it but he wont answer them. so it doesnt look good at this point.

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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."

Yep...it is a shame that the line MAY be discontinued.
My personal worry is that they put out several NEW colors that I DON'T have before they do!!

The AMERICAN SPECIALs (of which I own 1) are essentially the SAME as a HWY1.....sans the Texas Specials and high gloss finish. The dimensions and the LOOK are all the SAME!!

If it is true....they DID have a very successful run...that much we can say!

And...I've got my own little legacy to remember them by!

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