Scott Henderson Discussion

[fenderfanatic]

Hi Scott. I’m thinking about using a Duncan 59 (single screw) in the bridge of a Strat I’m putting together. I’d like to leave it uncovered for the look but I’m concerned it will be too bright. Should that pickup have a cover on it? Thanks.

[Scott Henderson]

That's the pickup I had in my guitar with Tribal Tech - I never thought it was too bright and it wasn't covered. That being said, don't expect your guitar to sound vintage anymore - in my opinion it sounds like a Fender/ Gibson hybrid.

Mike Landau is using the Loller Imperial (normal gain). It's humbucking, but one coil is louder than the other so it sounds more like a single coil, and the bridge pickup is Fender spaced. Suhr makes the Thornbucker - same principle but it has an alnico 4 magnet which I don't like, so I asked them to make me one with the normal alnico 5 magnet, which is what the '59 and Loller have.

So, if you wanna keep your strat more vintage sounding, I'd go with an Imperial or a custom order Thornbucker, but if you want that really fat high-mid sound, the '59 is a great pickup.

[fenderfanatic]

Thanks for the info. Somewhere online I read Landau was using a 59 bridge in one of his Strats on his Tales From The Bulge record, and I really dig his playing on that. Of course in those days angling your bridge humbucker was more common. Any thoughts on how that might affect tone? Or is that considered a thing of the past since now everybody makes F-spaced buckers.

[Scott Henderson]

I've only heard of people doing the slant thing - I'm sure it affects the tone in some way. Apparently having the pole pieces on the bridge pickup line up with the strings is a good thing, which makes sense to me. However there were many players who used a Gibson spaced humbucker for their bridge pickup on a strat - the Fender spacing is relatively new. I didn't notice any weirdness when the pole pieces didn't line up exactly with the strings.

[ItAllanLover]

Having the pole pieces not lined up with the strings may cause less pull from the pickup, so that could be a good thing.....having a powerful pickup without the bad, heavy pull that inhibits the string to vibrate freely...

[dizzy]

I’m putting together a HH strat. I bought 2 59s w/covers. Haven’t installed them yet. I’m pretty excited about it—I notice that Landau’s sound like a fat single coil like Scott said. I’m going for a more mid focused sound so I’m hoping these work out.

[dizzy]

So I did my project: HH strat with 59s. I didn’t like it. Maybe if I played with a keyboard player it would have been better. It sounded really mid focused—
I got some Lollar imperials and I like it much more—the unmatched coil thing is not subtle—makes it way more strat like.
The only problem is that I still like my single coil guitar better.
For me, if I was going to use humbuckers I’d get a gibson style guitar.
But that’s just me—
Oh—listening to old van halen I can hear that he used an unmatched coil. Probably by accident but it sounds “singlecoily”. I think one of his coils was broken when they looked at his pickup but that could just be legend.

[Scott Henderson]

I hear you dizzy, humbuckings aren't for me either. I use my humbucking guitar in the studio for an occasional solo, but it's useless to me in a trio live situation - too much midrange. My pickups are Suhr Thornbuckers - same concept as the Imperials with the unmatched coils.

[fusion58]

[dizzy]

That’s a nice strat. The pearly gates I think is an unmatched coil?
That’s my favorite 5 way setting on mine too(I have 5 way too).
That’s the “stratyest” sound to me.

[fusion58]