Bridge pickup for HSS Strat--Balanced but still ROCKS??

[bassface732]

Pick your favorite humbucker, and instead of wiring the coil split to ground directly, pop a 10k trim pot inbetween the coil and ground. Dial this in once to find your perfect partial split sound.
View attachment 64388
I would also add the DiMarzio Fortitude to your list of potential hot PAF candidates. Excellent pickup.

This is super cool!! I will definitely be looking into this, thanks!!

 

[Hodgo]

You know you COULD attenuate any humbucker you like with a resistor in series. Something like a 100k resistor would give the same effect as turning the volume knob down slightly. I wouldn’t though.

The Blondes are not super low output, but they are low-ish. Any HB that truly balances with them is not going to push your Dual Rec patch the same way as the JB and 59 you own, so you’re probably going to end up tweaking the gain on that patch if you go with something like a Thornbucker+.

Having said that I would totally pursue a lower output HB with an A2 or preferably A3 mag. Lower impedance = higher resonant peak, so they cut really well through a lot of gain despite what people in the 80s said when the JB became notorious.

IMHO keep it in the Lollar family and get a Low-Wind Imperial, use a trim pot like I suggested for a partial coil split (or flip it to parallel coils in position 2 for a truly glorious sound)

THEN if you don’t want to tweak your patches, just get a mild EQ or clean boost to push the output to the amp so that your low output guitar can match your hotter rigs.

 

[bassface732]

IMHO keep it in the Lollar family and get a Low-Wind Imperial, use a trim pot like I suggested for a partial coil split (or flip it to parallel coils in position 2 for a truly glorious sound)

THEN if you don’t want to tweak your patches, just get a mild EQ or clean boost to push the output to the amp so that your low output guitar can match your hotter rigs.

So based on what I’ve learned so far, it sounds like the EQ of the Low-Wind Imperial might lend itself to a slightly more aggressive sound than the Thornbucker+ even though it’s lower output, which might be the closest thing to the best of both worlds The parallel wiring mod in position 2 is a great call as well- should be able to get plenty of quack without losing as much volume as a true coil-split Pushing the signal to the amp with an EQ or clean boost would be easy to set up as well- thanks so much for the suggestions!! I think this might be the ticket!

 

[Hodgo]

it sounds like the EQ of the Low-Wind Imperial might lend itself to a slightly more aggressive sound than the Thornbucker+ even though it’s lower output

Indeed. The hotter the pickup, the wider the Q factor and lower overall resonant peak freq. Low output humbuckers carry more high end as a result, which has a distinct effect on the perceived volume because of the way your ears work. You’re going to love a Low Wind Imperial, it’s one of the best. You could even get the neck pickup version which has an A2 mag, 7k DCR and 3.61 henries… that is so low it would probably be near imperceptible in terms of output with a little tweaking of pickup heights. That would be overkill IMHO, unless you’re Steve Morse and you’re flipping from bridge to neck in the middle of a run of notes.

 

[Rick]

Shoot I looked it up and it wasn't a chopper in the middle it was a cruiser