New Strat build Pickup question-hum single hum

[George555]

I’ve started planning building a guitar that will hopefully become my main guitar.  I played a Les Paul for years, but I love my Strat….so….I’ve decided to make a Strat.  I want to go with a humbucker-single-humbucker set up so I can get my favorite Les Paul sounds(all 3 positions) and my favorite Strat sounds(2 and 4 positions).  I’ve downloaded some schematics for the JEMs because they seem to have this set up.  That will give me one tone knob as well which will set up my desire for a piezo system in the bridge.  From what I’ve read, the Graphtech system sounds good. 

Now for my question…I need pickups that will sound good as humbuckers but also sound good single coil for my 2 and 4 sounds.  I’ve been leaning towards DiMarzio from what I’ve researched so far.  I tend to play pretty clean a lot of the time but of course use some drive and distortion.  I play funk, blues, old R&B, and some darker stuff as well.

So far on woods, I’m leaning towards swamp ash body, maple neck, Pau Ferro fretboard.  I’m thinking about using a Wilkinson tremolo with the graphtech saddles and a graphtech nut and string trees. 

I’ve been researching a lot..but there are so many combinations…it’s overwhelming.

Thanks for any assistance

 

[cobra2411]

The Yngwie's (YJM) sound pretty nice...

I've got sound clips on my site.

http://www.middletoninv.com/middletoninv/rg/

The Air Norton and Evo 2 are a little hot, but they sound good now that I've lowered them. The YJM with some PAF types I'm sure would balance out nicely...

David

 

[George555]

Thanks for the feed back.  I have been looking more into DiMarzio pickups lately.  The Breeds sound like they would work.  I noticed though that the JEM that comes with Breeds has a Breed single coil but I haven't seen it for sale anywhere...but I'll keep looking.  I've been going back and listening for what sounds I want.  I like Vai's clean strat like sounds on Passion and Warfare, some of the funky Prince sounds, old Chili Peppers from the Uplift Mofo Party Plan era, etc...

Pickups are tricky...so many combos.

 

[GoDrex]

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/progressive/sh3_stag_mag/ - - you might consider one of these...

 

[George555]

Thanks!  I listened to and read about a lot of the Seymour Duncans...but I missed that one some how.  The Jazz sounded good for the neck.  That my be a good combo...  The fact that they mention Strat sounds though...that sounds good.

 

[nathan a]

Jazz for the neck.... yes!

My hum-single-hum guitar is set up with a pretty low output single in the middle. It doesnt match the humbuckers at all, and I like it. It adds a ton of clarity to the humbucker positions, and makes the split buckers sound more single-coily. But by itself, way quiet. It's a weird setup that I don't think most would want, but I love it.

 

[George555]

That's one thing I've been worrying about.  I've read a lot recently about splitting humbuckers and how the output is lower that a lot of single coils and the strat sound may not be there.  The stag mags sound like they would work but then I wonder what they sound like for humbuckers.  I'm wondering if I should just go with single coils.  This part has been so much more complicated than picking woods.

Thanks for the input!

 

[George555]

Yeah....the more I read....I'm going to go with 3 singles.  The Kinmans sound good.  I'm leaning towards those. 

 

[tfarny]

Several makers do an uneven wind HB - the coil that you use for the tap is strong enough to be a decent single coil sound, so it doesn't sound thin. They are designed specifically for what you're looking for.

http://www.fralinpickups.com/humbuckers.asp#un
Check out the "tallboy" here: http://www.riograndepickups.com/scart/SubCategories.asp?ProductName=For+Humbuckings&SubCatName=SINGLES