Humbucker Installation Questions

luckythedonkey · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 4:09 pm Post subject: Humbucker Installation Questions

Hi All,

I'm a new member - Hi Smile

I have an '06 MIA strat in olympic white, white pickguard and maple neck with single coils all around.

I play loads of punk rock (like Ramones 3 chord stuff) so I was looking at putting a humbucker in the bridge position to help it sound a bit fatter and reduce some of the noise (I'm in a 3-piece band).

I am considering the Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Model because I heard this in one of my favourite bands guitars and it sounded spectacular when cranked on their Marshall JCM800.

Just a few questions....

1. Can the above mentioned pickup be fitted to my guitar? I have taken the pickguard off and there is enough space for a humbucker. Will the fat strat pickguard that I'll have to order fit around this humbucker ok?

2. Do the pots or capacitor need to be changed because of the higher output humbucker? My pots say 250K on them.

3. Any opinions on the above mentioned pickup?

Thanks a lot!!
Justin

oldtele;newstrat · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 6:07 am Post subject:

Have you considered putting in a Seymore Duncan Hotrails? They sound great and are a direct replacement for standard pickups.

CustomWes · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject:

Duncan also makes the JB Jr. which is a single coil sized humbucker that is a good replacement. It has a lot of output like the Hot Rails product. The SH4 is a JB model, of course.

luckythedonkey · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 5:45 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the replies!

I'm not really familiar with the hot rails pickups. I might look into them. What I am after is a bit more of a beefier sound but plenty of bite. I don't want the sound to go muddy at all. I like the stock single coils cuz of how much high end they have but they don't pack much of a punch when on distortion.

SAguitar · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:12 pm Post subject:

Go to www.seymourduncan.com and do some readin'!

The JB model was originally wound many moons ago for a guy named Jeff Beck. it comes in a single coil size as well as a full humbucker size. You will get a bit more beef using the full size buckers, IMHO. At least that's what I've found.

You will need a H/S/S pickguard for your Strat which are available all over the place. Cool

luckythedonkey · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:40 pm Post subject:

Sweet, thanks for the advice!!

So would the pots or capacitors need to be upgraded from 250K, or would the existing hardware suffice?

Thanks again.

CustomWes · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:37 am Post subject:

Ditto on Stan's comment. The full sized JB is beefier, no doubt about it. I've got a hum JB in a strat and a JB Jr. single sized in a strat. They still sound different from each other but they share some of the same sonic characteristics.....I guess that's the best way to put it. The SD site should tell you the output specs on each to give you an idea of the additional humbucker output juice. This becomes such a personal thing. Typically when you add the beef to pickups it is inversely related to the top end shine. Dimarzio gives good numbers on their pickup specs to show you how the output equalization changes from the pickups going after the vintage sound vs. the pickups going for more modern gain. Time to start reading web pages. Again, no charge for worthless rambling. Very Happy