Pickup advice- humbucker in a single coil slot

Synchrony Pedalworks

Synchrony Pedalworks

Well-known member
I've got a 1995 Strat that I really like, when playing with the neck or middle pickups. However, the bridge pickup is quite anemic. I am debating about changing the bridge pickup. On other guitars, I haven't found a single coil pickup that I like in that position. Ideally, I'd like the tones of a humbucker, similar to Jimmy Page, etc. With that in mind, I could use some advice with these questions:

1. Am I crazy to want to modify a '95 Strat that is in great condition?
2. Are there any great sounding humbuckers in a single coil size? I have seen that Seymour Duncan has a few options. I do not want to use any pickup that would necessitate physically altering the guitar.
3. Any suggestions for pickups to try and any other thoughts?

Thanks again!
 
Synchrony Pedalworks said:
I've got a 1995 Strat that I really like, when playing with the neck or middle pickups. However, the bridge pickup is quite anemic. I am debating about changing the bridge pickup. On other guitars, I haven't found a single coil pickup that I like in that position. Ideally, I'd like the tones of a humbucker, similar to Jimmy Page, etc. With that in mind, I could use some advice with these questions:

1. Am I crazy to want to modify a '95 Strat that is in great condition?
2. Are there any great sounding humbuckers in a single coil size? I have seen that Seymour Duncan has a few options. I do not want to use any pickup that would necessitate physically altering the guitar.
3. Any suggestions for pickups to try and any other thoughts?

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
1. Nah, it's your guitar. Make it work for you.

2. There's lot of options. But depending on how hot you want the pickup to be, the Seymour Duncan JB Mini is a dual coil humbucking pickup that fits into a single coil slot. You could also try a hotter single coil pickup that will give you more output and midrange but still retain its single coil-ness. The Duncan SSL5 comes to mind. It's not very expensive and its a great pickup.

3. Have you ever taken the pickguard off and see what kind of pickup route is in the bridge position? Most modern Fenders have a humbucking pickup route for the bridge position. In which case you have a lot more options. All you would need is a new pick guard.

Also, a single coil sized hum bucker is never going to quite sound like a full size HB because the length of string it's measuring is not the same.

But before doing anything to the guitar, I'm going to suggest building a pedal........ :p.......specifically the Demeter Fat Boost. It's voiced specifically to beef up single coils. It won't make your single coil quite as powerful as hum bucker but gets you into P90 territory.

Annnnnndddd......I just happen to have a PCB for it from SheepyLove. (The Fat Sheep). DM me and I'd be happy to pop one in the mail to you.
 
Have you tried a baseplate on the bridge pickup?

That and having the bridge pickup on a tone control might be all you need.

I have one on my Fender CS69 bridge pickup. Output usually isn’t the issue. It’s typically perceived loudness (or lack of) that makes the bridge wimpy sounding.

The baseplate doesn’t make it any louder but helps it balance better with the other pickups.
 
Your guitar is probably routed like an HSH, so I'd take off the pickguard and confirm that. If it is, then purchase an HSS pickguard and install a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates into the bridge position. Don't worry about getting the trembucker version, the standard is just fine.

If your guitar is routed for SSS, then you can purchase a Seymour Duncan lil 59 which will drop right in.

Other things you can explore is installing a telecaster bridge pickup, and having a pickguard made for a TV Jones Classic Plus. But I would go for a PAF style humbucker as it will be easy to source a pickguard and it will play nice with your single coils. If you get a 4 wire version you can wire it to be hum can cancelling in position 2 with the middle pickup.
 
1. A single coil sized number.
2. You do you. I have with a humbucker in the bridge. Sounds fat.

I wouldn’t modify it myself and risk hacking it up if it’s not spaced for it, unless you have the right tools.
 
A long time ago (my first guitar) I put a Seymour Duncan JB Jr. in my bridge. I don't recall what it sounded like, but I had no complaints about it.
 
The baseplate is a great idea. They sound really good.

Back in the day SD Hotrails were a thing. Yuck. Just don't. But I have heard good things about the Lil 59.

I ended up with Kinman Woodstocks in my guitar. The bridge pickup still sounds like a Strat but has a great sound - supposedly P90-like but it's not so powerful that it doesn't sound like a Strat any more. With a good OD it's nice and chunky. There are two downsides though - (1) it's not exactly cheap, and (2) you have to deal with Chris Kinman unless you find some at a dealer. I bought direct because I didn't want the logo on them.
 
There are a few more suppliers:
www.tone-kraft.com

Bridge Base Plate for Stratocaster® Style Pickup

This Bridge Base Plate will boost your low frequencies (by increasing the inductance of the pickup) giving you a much fatter more rounder sound.
www.tone-kraft.com www.tone-kraft.com

www.montysguitars.com

Monty's Stratocaster Baseplate – Monty's Guitars

Monty’s Stratocaster baseplates are the perfect way to beef up a Stratocaster pickup, bringing out all those glorious low mid frequencies without rolling off any top end. These are particularly for a strat bridge pickup, which can get a bit thin at times. Believe it or not, these baseplates were...
www.montysguitars.com
 
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Wow! You all gave me some great info. Despite diving into the pedal building, like @jimilee, I am hesitant to do too much modification. I did that once to another 1990's, Mexican strat that I have, and I felt like I disturbed it's soul. :) All that being said, I think you all gave me a great game plan. Since this is a pedal forum, it does seem better to try a pedal to beef up the tone, so @MichaelW, I may take you up on your offer. If that doesn't satisfy my toan, the baseplate seems second in line. That option takes minimal modification and maintains the original pickup balance. The last step would be to change the pickup. There were some great suggestions. I don't have a P90 guitar, so those options intrigue me. I'll have to listen to them, but the lil 59 also sounds like a crowd favorite.

Thanks again! This conversation was really helpful.
 
MichaelW said:
1. Nah, it's your guitar. Make it work for you.

2. There's lot of options. But depending on how hot you want the pickup to be, the Seymour Duncan JB Mini is a dual coil humbucking pickup that fits into a single coil slot. You could also try a hotter single coil pickup that will give you more output and midrange but still retain its single coil-ness. The Duncan SSL5 comes to mind. It's not very expensive and its a great pickup.

3. Have you ever taken the pickguard off and see what kind of pickup route is in the bridge position? Most modern Fenders have a humbucking pickup route for the bridge position. In which case you have a lot more options. All you would need is a new pick guard.

Also, a single coil sized hum bucker is never going to quite sound like a full size HB because the length of string it's measuring is not the same.

But before doing anything to the guitar, I'm going to suggest building a pedal........ :p.......specifically the Demeter Fat Boost. It's voiced specifically to beef up single coils. It won't make your single coil quite as powerful as hum bucker but gets you into P90 territory.

Annnnnndddd......I just happen to have a PCB for it from SheepyLove. (The Fat Sheep). DM me and I'd be happy to pop one in the mail to you.
Click to expand...
Michael you’re a trove of information! Very good to know all that for my modding ambitions. :)

Another pedal I would recommend to increase the midrange in a strat is the Maleficent Mids. I use it all the time with my strats and it changes the tone substantially in the humbucker direction.
 
I've modded my guitars for a long time. I really only started doing pedals because of the soldering iron experience I had changing out guitar pickups.

I know what you mean about feeling wary of disturbing the guitar's soul. I number of years ago I had a '16 American Strat I bought brand new that was the nicest guitar I'd ever had at that point, and I never wanted to open it up. It was perfect as is. Same with my Gibson SG Standard, which took me 4 years to replace a bad pot because I just wanted to leave it as it left the factory. Once I got over that I was able to seriously upgrade the electronics and move toward making the guitar what I really want it to be. I've removed the stock 57 Classics, which always sounded stale to me, due to their matched coils and non scatterwound windings, and tried some others. I've had 4 or 5 other sets of pickups in there by now.

On my board I have to run a tube screamer for when I bring out the Strat so it can cut thru the mix. Humbuckers do a better job of that if your band is louder, plus they are hum cancelling! The only reason I felt it necessary to put humbuckers in my second Strat is to sit better in a band. And now it's an HSH and sounds great, with tones I never would have known about if I hadn't tried.
 
If this is a 90s American Standard I suspect it currently has the standard blue and white lead or 2 blue and one red and white lead vintage voiced Alnico V in the 5.8 range. You can put a hotter single coil in there but my guess is if you don’t like the bridge now, while they’re all balanced, then you’re not gonna just a hotter single coil bridge. You can try baseplates and all that but I’d just get a JB jr. or a full sized humbucker and go ssh. I know American standards had swimming pool routes up to the mid 90s atleast. Maybe throughout the entirety of the 90s I can’t remember. I’d go SSH. Just keep whatever parts you take out and keep them together in case you ever wanna sell it. Strats were meant to be taken apart. With that being said I have ALOT of Strats but I’ve learned to get along with the bridge. Non of my single coils guitars have vastly different outputs either. For example 6k neck and middle with a 13k bridge. You can’t balance that. All of mine are balanced output within atleast a 2k range.

Another option you could try along with the pedal is a blender in your second tone pot. It will allow you to blend in your bridge pup with the other 2 pups depending on position. Or you could try the Gilmour mod and use a switch to engage the bridge pup in parallel with whatever pickup your own. It’ll give you 7 tonal options. You can get a faux Tele tone this way. Both are cool mods. I use both of these mods on separate guitars.
 
First off ‘95 ain’t old damn it🤣. Second, like Bluedmc777 said Strats were made for modding. So long as you have the rout to do so leave the current pickguard intact and populate a new one. I have done this several times but I typically get lower cost mexi strats to do my experiments on. One thing I don’t think I saw mentioned is a firebird mini humbucker. Gets you beefy single coil sounds that aren’t P90 or straight full sized humbucker. I did one with a Mojotone Johnny Winter set and it’s great.
 
@Diynot and @bluedmc777 - You have some good thoughts. It is probably worthwhile to take the pick guard off and see the routing. Maybe, I get lucky and there is room for a humbucker. Replacing the whole pick guard/ pickup set up, would ensure pickup matching/ balance.

After playing with a few pedals options, I may give that a go.

IMG_4690.jpeg


For reference, this is the beauty that has inspired this conversation. She is a great playing guitar.
 
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