Single pickup strat recommendation.

[Jack Clayton]

I've got a beautiful lake placid blue Japanese Squier strat from the 80s. It has definitively ended my search for a strat, but my addiction to mods and tweaks lives on.

I've gotten very curious about the idea of converting my strat to a single pickup in the middle position. It's a rare mod, but not unheard of. The most notable player I'm aware of who uses one like this is Paul Simon. I figure what's good enough for him is good enough for me.

So the question becomes, what pickup should I use? I'm thinking I should go with either a single coil sized humbucker like the ones Duncan is so well known for, or maybe a noiseless option like a lace sensor. It appears Paul's strat is outfitted with a Duncan single coil sized humbucker. This makes sense since with a single pickup, some amount of humbucking/noise cancelling seems more critical than usual.

i still want it to sound somewhat strat-ish, so at the moment I'm leaning toward a Duncan Duckbucker, but I'd love to hear other suggestions. What would you choose if this were your project?

 

[brookdalebill]

Jimmie Vaughan spends a lot of time on the middle pickup, too.
I know, his guitar has 3 pickups, and the normal control layout.
Personally, I prefer, and really only like the neck pickup on a Strat.
Perhaps you might consider a versatile middle pickup, something tappable, or phase switchable (with itself, like a humbucker)?
Enjoy your project!

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

Lenny Kaye has a Strat so configured, if I'm not mistaken...

 

[Jack Clayton]

Jimmie Vaughan spends a lot of time on the middle pickup, too.
I know, his guitar has 3 pickups, and the normal control layout.
Personally, I prefer, and really only like the neck pickup on a Strat.
Perhaps you might consider a versatile middle pickup, something tappable, or phase switchable (with itself, like a humbucker)?
Enjoy your project!

Neck position is another option I'll likely play with. I know SRV played a single neck pickup strat for a minute there. There's gotta be something to it.

 

[lupowitz]

Maybe Tomo can put you on the right track

 

[schmee]

In the middle position you may want the pickup down a ways to avoid interfering with picking, so something hot-ish is good. Dont know about stacked HB if you really want it to sound like a Strat though. I've tried a few and never found a good sound I liked.

Middle position does get you enough of the bridge sound and the neck sound for leads or rhythm. Like others, I like the neck position on a Strat a lot, but if building a single pickup version, I might be tempted to try one between the neck and mid position....

 

[mexicanyella]

@FortyEight has a long-running single pickup experimental Starcaster (the strat-looking one, not the semi hollow one) and has tried the single pickup in various positions. Maybe he’ll stop by and relate his findings.

 

[Blues Twanger]

In the middle position I find a slightly hotter than vintage pickup sounds good. A Texas Special or a DiMarzio Red Velvet would be my first choice from mainline makers, and Dealing et al all have their versions of slightly hot vintage as well.

 

[Lou Tencodpees]

If Paul Simon factors into the equation then can we assume no rip roarin' leads and something more polite than the often mid heavy single coil sized humbuckers?

The first thing that comes to my mind is a Wilde Noisefree pickup with 500k pots.

 

[Blackmore Fan]

What about a Dimarzio HS-2? Its designed as a single-coil sized pickup, but it has BOTH the humbucker attribute (when both coils are engaged) and the single-coil sized when only one of the coil is engaged. Eric Johnson uses the single-coil only option on his signature "Virginia" model.

 

[Sax-son]

You can wire a normal Strat pickguard to get that same set up without having to get a different pickguard for it. Just don't use the switch because it wont be connected.

 

[hopdybob]

If Paul Simon factors into the equation then can we assume no rip roarin' leads and something more polite than the often mid heavy single coil sized humbuckers?

The first thing that comes to my mind is a Wilde Noisefree pickup with 500k pots.

ore a microcoil with adjustable polepieces.
but on the other hand, why not a tru cavalier firebird pickup

Cavalier Guitar & Bass Pickups

 

[Jack Clayton]

Lenny Kaye has a Strat so configured, if I'm not mistaken...

Oh yeah! So he does. I need to give his stuff another listen. Any favorite tracks I should check out?

ore a microcoil with adjustable polepieces.
but on the other hand, why not a tru cavalier firebird pickup

Cavalier Guitar & Bass Pickups

Would a firebird pickup fit in a standard strat route? Now that you mention it, the idea of a firebird pup in a strat sounds kinda awesome.

 

[FortyEight]

ive had solo single coil in the neck, middle and now bridge position. tge one in there now is a mexican split bar ceramic. ive also had a duncan 1/4 pounder in the neck and middle.

im not sure what i like best. im in a mode where i dont love much bass on my electric guitars. but that being said, a solo single coil in the neck can have w lot of brightness as well as lows.

when i had the mexican split bar in the middle, it had this very uncompressed and dynamic quality to it. almost too much to my ear. but it had a decent sound. my honest assessment of strat sounds is: i think id leave it on pos 2 with a middle and bridge pup. or bridge and neck. out of all the configs ive had, those two felt like the best sounds to me. i gotta try my current solo bridge single coil with round wounds. cuz ive only had it like this with flat wounds.

 

[FortyEight]

i added the tele pics cuz i put the other mexican split bar i had in the neck and that guitar is really sounding good to me. the stock squier affinity level neck pup was no good. i had a mexican tele in the 90s and i like the stock neck quite a bit. mostly play that or both. almost never played the bridge. the bridge in my squier i like and the mexican split bar in the neck and bridge together is quite a good sound. imho.

the middle by itself is decent, but i missed some of that junk yard dog scraping its teeth against a barbed wire fence that the bridge gives ya.

 

[hopdybob]

Oh yeah! So he does. I need to give his stuff another listen. Any favorite tracks I should check out?

Would a firebird pickup fit in a standard strat route? Now that you mention it, the idea of a firebird pup in a strat sounds kinda awesome.

will not fit, but with a good tone stack very versatile

 

[mexicanyella]

If Paul Simon factors into the equation then can we assume no rip roarin' leads and something more polite than the often mid heavy single coil sized humbuckers?

The first thing that comes to my mind is a Wilde Noisefree pickup with 500k pots.

If OP goes through with this, working in his favor is the fact that with just the one pickup, there’s some freedom to tweak the signal path and amp settings—and pickup height—to one optimized sound, and not have to get it to “play nice” with other pickup settings on the same guitar.

So a mids-heavy pickup (dual-rail HB for example) might actually be less limiting, or more of an attribute, than it would be in a multi-pickup guitar. Drop the installed height a little and EQ a little differently and you might find a unique sound you really like.

My one-bridge-HB Squier Bullet Special went from seeming like an aggressive chainsaw of a guitar to having a surprisingly nice, clear clean sound with pickup height adjustments and freedom to set up gain and EQ for just that one pickup configuration. I was surprised how versatile it ended up being.

I heard some of @FortyEight ‘s recordings when he had the single SD 1/4 pound installed in the neck slot and was impressed with how full and present it sounded.

 

[fretknot]

The few times I had or built single pickup Strats/Strat-esque guitars., I went with a humbucker. The most notable, being a vintage Dimarzio Super Distortion. One was a bridge only, with a PAF clone. I wanted the neck tone for another and that employed the Dimarzio SD. It was a hardtail monster with high output, so I set it very low (below the guard)...

 

[hopdybob]

if you like a soft attack, sweet highs look at the dual blade Bill & Becky Lawrence wild L45 s ore T pickups.
their single coil size and no midhump

 

[Beebe]

Revel custom has great prices and does hum canceling with two in-line coils. One around the top three magnets and one around the bottom three.