SH-16 for Strat?

[Pierre]

I've watched a few of the side-by-side demos and is it me or it just sounds great?

I think I had a '59 at one point in the bridge of my Strat (picture a loud, ballsy, bassy Strat tone) but it was too low output. Sounded very good though.
I have two SSL-1s in the other positions and it seems the SH-16 would be perfect there: use the higher output Custom coil for splits, and have a medium output bridge pickup that won't overpower the single coils as the Custom would.

This Strat has eaten the following pickups:
Brobucker
PATB-3
'59
Jazz (b)
Alnico II Pro
Bareknuckle Crawler
DiMarzio AT-1

And I still have a C5 I've not yet put in...
The AII was probably the better sounding, followed by the AT-1 which has a richer sound. Brobucker, PATB were too middy, Crawler was too high output, Jazz and '59 were too low output.

[Mr. B]

I think the Strat bridge is one of the most difficult places to find the perfect humbucker for because of the single coils's output, and the 250k tone pots. If you try the C5, I would go ahead and put an UOA5 magnet in it first. I will never use the stock C5 again after hearing it with an UOA5 magnet in it.

I just got my 59/Custom hybrid, and I'm still on the fence about it. It does have some of the regular 59's character, and also some of the punchiness of the Custom's mids. I may move it to a warmer PRS guitar to see how it sounds there. I may try the UOA5 magnet in it as well. It feels a little too hot/fizzy compared to the C5 with the UOA5 magnet. I may just need to tweak it a bit and give it some more time.

[Mr. B]

Maybe a PAF Pro ??

To me, most of the Custom family pickups overpower vintage single coils. The 59 and AII/Seth balance well, but don't work perfectly with 250K pots. I ended up with the (now discontinued) Virtual Hot Paf. It works well with 250k pots and is great for leads.

[Pierre]

Ah I actually couldn't tell you what pots I have in this; they're not stock though, and I'm thinking they're 500k. I never had issues with my pickups being too bright/warm, same with the single coils. I wired her up for versatility:

Bridge volume + neck + middle volume + master tone

Positions:
1) Neck
2) Neck + Middle
3) Bridge split + Neck
4) Bridge split + Middle
5) Bridge

[Ashurbanipal]

59/C should work just fine with SSLs - check out my thread with my new setup.

[Mr. B]

I'd be surprised if you were running SSL-1's with 500k pots and did not find them bright. I'll bet you at least have a 250k volume.

I'm not sure about the 59/custom hybrid though. It is a hot sounding, powerful pickup, and I can't see it balancing very well with the single coils. If you don't care about a big jump in output when you switch to the humbucker, it might be great. If I were going for something that hot, though, I would go for the Custom-5 with an UOA5 magnet. I think it's personality matches the single coils better.