I have a fat strat and love it. Bought it that way. Humbucker in the bridge position for fat, gibsonesque lead tones.
I am just wondering how many Fretters have fat Strats? I installed a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder in my Jay Turser Strat a few years ago to obtain a warmer tone. I place the new pick up in the neck position. Has any other Fretters added a humbucker to their Strats? If so what position did you place it, neck or bridge position?
Guitars:
Electric: Washburn HB-30, Squier Tele Custom Deluxe, Jay Turser Strat.
Acoustic: Seagull S6.
AMPs: VOX AD30VT, Peavey Envoy 110.
Modelers: V-AMP 2, Digitech RP-100A.
Pedals: Boss RC-2 Loop Station, Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble, Digitech Bad Monkey, Ibanez DE7 Delay/Echo, DOD VFX40B 7-Band Graphic EQ, Ibanez CS-5 Super Chorus.
I have a fat strat and love it. Bought it that way. Humbucker in the bridge position for fat, gibsonesque lead tones.
helliott in Hamilton
Guitars -- 2 PRS CE 24s 85/15 pups, PRS semi-hollow CE 22, Fender Baja Telecaster; Gibson Les Paul Standard; 80s Strat updated with custom 69 pups, Anniversary Strat with Fat 50s, Epiphone Sheraton re-issue; Yamaha 5-string bass; Yamaha TBS 6 and 12 string acoustics,Takamine acoustic, Fender nylon string acoustic
Amps -- Mesa Boogie Lone Star; Boss Katana 100, Peavey Blueamaster 2x10, Line 6 Helix
Pedals etc: Mosfet Full Drive 2; Ibanez Tube Screamer; Fairfield Barbershop OD, Diamond Compressor; Voodo Sparkledrive, Boss Digital Delay DD7; Boss TU2 Chromatic Tuner; Cry Baby wah
Tim
I have a couple of guitars that are like that (ssh) Strats included. My take on it is that the bridge humbucker overshadows the sound of the single coils so much that I don't really like it. What I have done to help this situation is to lower the bridge humbucker significantly so that the perceived output is more in line with the single coils.
I have also tried hot rails type Strat replacement pickups in other positions and haven't been thrilled. I would just prefer a hotter quacky Strat sound because I'm playing the Strat for that particular sound, but instead get a too smooth humbucker sound when using the rail pups.
My solution for Strat bridge single coil replacement has been a Dimarzio FS1 Fat Strat pickup and the Lace Red. I'm sure there are plenty of others that also work well in the bridge but I haven't tried them.
For neck and middle I still want that clear Strat sound so I'll always look for a pickup that will have that with sometimes a little more output or a noise cancelling version.
I have heard good things about the Air Norton and 59 in neck slots from other players. You just need to figure out what sound you want because these wont sound like conventional Stat pickups.
"No Tele For you." - The Tele Nazi
Ha! Tele-ish now inbound.
My Floyd is HSS and my Fender is a bridge humbucker only. Hard to get fatter than that.
The humbucker on my Floyd is very significantly louder than the single coils. For my purposes, though, that's great. I wanted this to be a jack-of-all-trades guitar. I use the humbucker for rock/metal and the single coils for blues. Someday I'll see if I can tap the humbucker for a truer 2nd-position strat-type quack sound. As it is, the humbucker and middle pup together sound like a fat bridge single coil.Originally Posted by Spudman
That said, if I switch from the fourth position (which is about 3.5K impedance with the two pickups in parallel) to the bridge humbucker (at 17.75K), I almost get knocked into next Tuesday . . . but in a good way
Axen: Jackson DK2M, Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster, Reverend Warhawk 390, Taylor 914ce, ESP LTD Surveyor-414
Amphen: Jet City JCA22H and JCA12S cab, Carvin X-60 combo, Acoustic B20
Effecten: "Thesis 96" Overdrive/Boost (aka DVM OD2), Hardwire DL-8 Digital Delay/Looper, DigiTech Polara Reverb, DigiTech EX-7 Expression Factory and CF-7 Chorus Factory, Danelectro CF-1 Cool Cat Fuzz
"I wish Imagine Dragons would be stuck in an Arcade Fire for an entire Vampire Weekend."--Brian Posehn
My Fully ST-4 is a fat strat. As compared to my 60th strat, I like to play it on the bridge more, and don't like its neck PUP sound as well. I have a new bridge PUP from Tone to install and plan to add a Hot rail in the neck. I am tending toward the middle of the road GFS Lil' Killer. (See clips here: http://www.guitarbootcamp.com/pickups/) I am not really looking for it to sound really like a strat, but more a classic garage rocker/old school punker kind of thing so I am not looking for quite the same thing as Spud in a fat strat. I am coming up on some birthday money in a month or so, so hope to be able to get back into the project, along with add a good recording interface like a Toneport, this year.
Steve Thompson
Sun Valley, Idaho
Guitars: Fender 60th Anniversary Std. Strat, Squier CVC Tele Hagstrom Viking Semi-hollow, Joshua beach guitar, Martin SPD-16TR Dreadnought
Amphs: Peavey Classic 30, '61 Fender Concert
Effects and such: Boss: DS-1, CE-5, NS-2 and RC20XL looper, Digitech Bad Monkey, Korg AX1G Multi-effects, Berhinger: TU100 tuner, PB100 Clean Boost, Line 6 Toneport UX2, Electro Harmonix Little Big Muff Pi, DuhVoodooMan's Rabid Rodent Rat Clone, Zonkin Yellow Screamer Mk. II, MXR Carbon Copy Delay
love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart. . .
- j. johnson
Fat Strat I modded from SSS. Duncan Custom Custom in the bridge, and two Duncan SSL3's. It has a fairly balanced tone and the bridge pup screams when you need it:
Just for grins a giggles, my Double Fat. This is one of my favorite guitars. It plays great and sounds killer:
Guitars: 2008 Gibson SG Classic, 2006 Gibson Les Paul Standard LE, 2002 Gibson SG Supreme, 2001 Gibson Les Paul Studio Plus, 1996 Les Paul Studio Gem, American Deluxe Double Fat Strat, Bluesville "Super" Strat Copy, MIK Fender "Limited Edition" Tele, JD Bluesville "Night Pilot", Yamaha AES 820, Steinberger Spirit GT Pro, Taylor 355CE, Ovation 1897 Adamas, Ovation CC057 Celebrity
Amps: Axe FX centered rack rig, Mesa 4x12 cab. Germino Club 40, Johnson JM150 Millennium, Johnson JM250 Millennium, Gibson Titan Medalist Frankenstein.
Effects: Tonebone Trimode, EH Holy Grail, Boss CH-1, Dunlop Crybaby Classic, Framptone Amp Switcher, THD Hot Plate, Yamaha AG Stomp Acoustic Processor, Boss BCB-60 Pedal Board.
I have 2 pickguards wired up for mine. I've been using the SSS lately but the HSS is a great way to get different sounds.
"You don't have to act your age to feel it."
DaveO
i have a squire affinity fat strat that works really well for me cuz i play a little heavier music but yeah its a dimarzio something
My Strat is HSS (humbucker in the bridge). It came that way from the factory. The humbucker is very low output, and is balanced well with the other pickups. For ceramic pickups, on a clean setting, the sound is quite warm. When I switch to a overdriven crunchy sound, the HB has a midrangey tone. It does not do ultra high gain sounds well.
I like it, though. Fender did some sort of wiring voodoo to it that position 2 still has that stratty "quack," which is my favorite sound from this guitar.
Guitars:
Fender 2006 MIM Fender Stratocaster HSS in 3TS
Ibanez RG 570 with a bridge Invader
ESP M II Deluxe with a Tune-o-Matic bridge
Eleanor, the magical, mystical Road Worn wonder Tele
Blackstar HT Club 40
My guess is that they probably cut a coil on the humbucker in the second position. In that respect, I like Ibanez's typical wiring on their HSH guitars:Originally Posted by Katastrophe
1) Bridge humbucker
2) Bridge w/coil cut and middle
3) Middle
4) Neck w/coil cut and middle
5) Neck humbucker
Having said that, if I ever had an HSH guitar that I wired myself, I'd put in a standard five-way switch with a push-pull pot to cut the coils on the humbuckers. You'd get a couple more options that way.
Axen: Jackson DK2M, Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster, Reverend Warhawk 390, Taylor 914ce, ESP LTD Surveyor-414
Amphen: Jet City JCA22H and JCA12S cab, Carvin X-60 combo, Acoustic B20
Effecten: "Thesis 96" Overdrive/Boost (aka DVM OD2), Hardwire DL-8 Digital Delay/Looper, DigiTech Polara Reverb, DigiTech EX-7 Expression Factory and CF-7 Chorus Factory, Danelectro CF-1 Cool Cat Fuzz
"I wish Imagine Dragons would be stuck in an Arcade Fire for an entire Vampire Weekend."--Brian Posehn