Scott Henderson Discussion

[Skela74]

Hi Scott.

The guitar has a quartersawn maple neck, medium jumbo frets (regular, not SS), lightweight swamp ash chambered body, locking tuners and a Gotoh 510 tremolo with bent steel saddles. Pickups are now Duncan JB in bridge and a Five-Two strat neck. The guitar sounds quite good as it is but the bridge pickup needs to be changed to a Trembucker (wider) size to fit the string width.

Pickups I have lying around at the moment (spares) include a 59' Trembucker and some SSLs (a 2 and a 5). I play a variety of styles and also has plenty of other guitars available such as a Suhr strat with SSV and ML HSS setup.

Any suggestions? The JB sounds ok but I mainly use it in split mode. Also it is a bit overkill in some situations, especially as the neck pickup has a low output.

There are plenty of options here (including getting a JB trembucker and a bit hotter neck pickup) but there may be an easier solution to just leave the Five-Two, install the 59' TB and skip the bridge splitting (just use regular HB output). This was my original plan, I then hesitated a little as it is sometimes ok to have a bit more output (when switching form jazz/pop/fusion etc to playing rock.. as it sometimes happens.. .. but of course, there are boosters (and I have plenty).

Scott, can you put on your "guru hat" (if such at thing exists) and give me a clear advice here?

Like:

1. Install 59' TB, drop the treble bleed, leave a regular strat pu in neck.. and skip the split option

or

2. Put in JB TB and admit that the fun of screaming harmonics sometimes outweigh decent tone (high output humbuckers rarely sound good.. they just "scream".. that suits some styles but not all)

3. Look for the rare goldilocks options (that rarely works as the split coil still is too weak and the pu balance still is uneven) and get a Perpetual Burn or similiar medium output pu.

4. Look for alternatives to the 59' TB (other low output PAFs..). If so, what type?

5. See a guitar shrink (qualified technician)

Thank you.

[Scott Henderson]

Well, you're clearly a guitar nerd of the highest order (like me) so my first advice is to see a shrink.

I'm not a fan of the JB pickup, or any high output pickup. They overdrive the input of pedals and amp preamps too much and in my experience produce fizziness which is too high for the treble or presence knob to dial out.

My favorite humbucker is the Suhr Thornbucker. It sounds exactly like the old Gibson PAF and its low output is a match to normal single coil pickups, so there's no need to split it. It comes covered, and it needs the cover because low output pickups have more treble by nature. I think this pickup sounds amazing.

I absolutely hate treble bleeds and think they make guitars sound cheap and weird. Try to make your cable shorter and you won't need it.

[Skela74]

Thanks

Yes, completely agree. The JB came with the guitar (that was bought for the good neck, the chambered body and the pleasant paint job.. not for the pickups . It does not sound right (although the high output pickups have one advantage- for laziness.. as in "built-in-boost"..) so a change will take place...

Yes, have tried (and regularly use) short cables (George L and Mogami).

In another "superstrat" (HSS) I have I mounted a Harmonic Design PAF (Vintage Plus) that sounds absolutely amazing with single coils (unsplit). I also like the SSV/ML combination in my Suhr Classic Antique.

Ok the plan will then be:

1. Mount the 59' Tb (as first planned) and leave the Five-Two in there for now.
2. Switch volume pot (with no-treble-bleed) and skip the split options.


Next stage for that guitar will be finding a decent wide spaced PAF-style covered p.u (like Thornbucker 53mm or similiar.. perhaps the Xotix Raw Vintage (Rv Classic PAF Space).