American professional strat; hss or sss?

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American professional strat; hss or sss?

Postby negninegaw » Thu Feb 01, 2018 12:20 am

I am trying to find out if I should buy an American professional stratocaster with humbucker or single coil in the bridge position. Of course I should try them both in a store. I already viewed some YT clips.
But maybe someone here has already made a comparison, and can provide me with his opinion.
(I play all kinds of 60's music; not only Shadows stuff)
In the HSS, is the humbucker very different in sound compared to the 2 single coils?
Also, would it be possible to split the humbucker so that it will sound like the single coil of a SSS?
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Re: American professional strat; hss or sss?

Postby tony parnham » Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:12 am

Hi,
The Humbucker is quite different to a single coil. The single coils will be bright and sparkly compared with the humbucker which has a duller thicker sound and is hum-cancelling. Although you can play Shadows music of course using the bridge Humbucker you won't get the pure sound of the single coil, having said that an ordinary pub audience probably won't notice anyway.
Yes you can split the humbucker but I've found it makes the sound thin and bright.

If you are playing all genre's of music having a humbucker in the bridge position is quite useful because it lends itself to a very nice smooth distortion so it's no problem getting a sound say for example Gary Moore in 'Still Got the Blues'.....'The Loner' and lot's of other similar stuff, where as the single coil struggles in comparison.

Tony
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Re: American professional strat; hss or sss?

Postby negninegaw » Fri Feb 02, 2018 2:12 pm

Thanks Tony, very useful information.
You mention the difference in sound between a humbucker and a single coil in general, i suppose;
I get the impression that the humbucker in those relatively new professional series ('Shawbucker') might be more adapted to both single coils than generally in the HSS configuration.
But probably not many people own a 'Professional' strat in this forum.
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Re: American professional strat; hss or sss?

Postby negninegaw » Mon Feb 26, 2018 12:44 pm

I tried both in a shop; I liked SSS better than HSS.
I also noticed that, from a batch, only a few Fender strats sound good. Never buy a guitar without trying it first.
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