Best Duncan HSS Strat Humbucker?

[ModestCargo]

I heard one with a Custom Custom and it kicked some ass.

[Dr.Mavashi]

Invader.

[tc]

^

We need Kac to give us another vote

[jimijames]

Duncan? I've tried a hot rails (old style) and a custom custom. Both are great. If you don't mind looking outside the duncan line, I had a dimarzio VHPAF w/ A2 in the bridge of my strat, and I liked it more than I like the custom custom in there now, but it wasn't f-spaced, so it didn't look right (also, double cream in a white pickguard is pretty ass-ugly). The custom custom is fantastic, but the VHPAF just has more 'character' imo. It matched up really well with the surfers in the neck and middle positions, and actually, my strat was more versatile with a plain 5-way than it is now with the custom custom and the 5-way super switch. But as far as duncan goes, the custom custom has definitely been the best so far, and works much better for higher gain applications than the VHPAF. Actually, I have a custom wound tremspaced version of the VHPAF on the way, and I just may make a hybrid with the custom custom. I was thinking I could put an A5 in the hybrid and deguass it using zhang's neo magnet trick. But hey, that's in the future, I'll let you know what I find out when it happens (don't expect anything until about winter this year, it's crunch time right now for me in school)

[barbarianbrute]

na, i almost went paf pro, but decided to make it just like my other strat - custom custom + virtual vintage solo pro. alnico 2 all the way with 500k pots.

[alex1fly]

I'm surprised no one has said anything about the PATB line - I thought we had some pretty big fans of them in Strats. I'm about to try a PATB-1 in my strat, replacing the Demon and previous singles, but if that doesn't work out for me I'll be looking at the Custom Custom.

[barbarianbrute]

i used to have a patb-1 and am very fond of it, but it's just not my sound right now. i try everything and keep coming back to the custom custom and dimarzio norton. i need to buy another strat so i can have another pickup combination

[KeeperOS]

I'm surprised no one has said anything about the PATB line - I thought we had some pretty big fans of them in Strats. I'm about to try a PATB-1 in my strat, replacing the Demon and previous singles, but if that doesn't work out for me I'll be looking at the Custom Custom.

The Crazy 8 is a PATB pickup

[Eric Dahlberg]

The very best H-S-S combination I've used has an Air Classic in the bridge. It balances beautifully with the single coils and doesn't sound like you've switched to a completely different guitar like the Air Zone or Invader do. From the pickups I've used, the Custom 5 seems like the closest Duncan equivalent.

[DracoAran]

Duncan is not usually my go-to for H-S-S strats...

But if it absolutely has to be a Duncan and not Anderson or Dimarzio (hint), I would pick a PATB-3 or 1, and maybe a Custom Custom.

[YEM]

JB I'd say.... works with 250k or 500k, can rip or reel back to fit most any middle/neck pickup.

[Richard]

JB I'd say.... works with 250k or 500k, can rip or reel back to fit most any middle/neck pickup.

+1 on the JB but.... i have a JB and 2 surfers in my strat and the difference between the pups is like 2 guitars. metal and hard rock in the bridge and clasic rock bluse in the mid and neck. Thats not for alot of people but for me it covers alot of ground.

[Eric Dahlberg]

How do you deal with your pot values when mixing single coils with humbuckers in a strat? Is the lack of a tone control on the bridge pickup enough to balance out a 250K volume pot? Alternately, could you use a 500K volume pot and 100K tone pots on the single coils?

[barbarianbrute]

How do you deal with your pot values when mixing single coils with humbuckers in a strat? Is the lack of a tone control on the bridge pickup enough to balance out a 250K volume pot? Alternately, could you use a 500K volume pot and 100K tone pots on the single coils?

i'm not sure how common 100k pots are as i've never heard of them. all my pickups are wired to a 5-way switch and to the tone controls, and i don't do it any other way. i play only strats and use standard strat wiring. in fact, i could probably do without any tone controls because i rarely ever use them. yngwie malmsteen said that he just disconnects the wires and only uses the volume control. hell, i could live with that too i guess.

[bungalowbill]

i'm not sure how common 100k pots are as i've never heard of them. all my pickups are wired to a 5-way switch and to the tone controls, and i don't do it any other way. i play only strats and use standard strat wiring. in fact, i could probably do without any tone controls because i rarely ever use them. yngwie malmsteen said that he just disconnects the wires and only uses the volume control. hell, i could live with that too i guess.

Don't believe everything you read about your favorite players gear......sometimes they try to blow smoke up your backside.

[Eric Dahlberg]

i'm not sure how common 100k pots are as i've never heard of them.

Resistors could be put across a standard pot to change its value. 100K was just a thrown-out number, though, I have no idea what the correct value would be. Has anyone experimented with this? Has anyone ever tried switching in resistors when splitting to bring pot values down to what single coils prefer to see?

Sorry if I'm hijacking the thread now but these really do seem like important issues to address when mixing humbuckers with single coils, yet I've never seen anyone address them.

[Kamanda~SD]

I have both JB and custom in my strats and I think they both work super well. I like the custom a bit more though.

[KeeperOS]

Sorry if I'm hijacking the thread now but these really do seem like important issues to address when mixing humbuckers with single coils, yet I've never seen anyone address them.

On the contrary, almost everyone that uses HSS (myself included) has asked that at one time. Everyone always answers, try out all the combinations (they're not THAT many) and decide which you like best.

Me, I like mixing a 500 with a 250, right now I have the 500 for volume and the 250 for tone (BTW, for me HSS Strat = 1 master volume, 1 master tone, one switch for split/B+N).

Two 500K also work fine (I just roll back the pots and I'm set)

[tc]

about the pot thing, it also depends a lot on how the pickups sound (JB with singles actually sounds nicer with 250k). I know 500k's are supposed to be for humbuckers, but some actually could use warming up and their high end tamed. Same goes the other way.