Lets talk about strat pickups

[BillyBoy]

I have no affiliation with them other than being a happy customer for several years, but Kinman pickups out of Australia are really good.  They started with a variety of noiseless strat and tele pickups years ago when I first started buying them.  Now they have humbuckers, bass, P-90s, etc.  They also provide a variety of no-soldering wiring harnesses with the correct pots, switches, caps, pickup covers, pickguards, etc.  They are really helpful with pickup/harness selection, as well as all facets of installation and adjustment.  Their website can come across a bit "hype-y", but the products really are that great.  I've tried several of their strat and tele pickups and have been extremely happy with all of them.  I initially found them because I like single coil sound but had a serious noise problem.  They took care of my noise problem, but also sound great.  I haven't tried their humbuckers yet - can't get past the single coils.  Would love to try their P-90s.  I'm thinking of buying another guitar just to put some of their P-90s in it.  That's how happy I've been with their tele and strat pickups.  Even if you don't purchase from them, their website has loads of great information to check out.

[jjjimi84]

Here is where I have landed so far. I am hesitant to invest a bunch of money in pickups and all the bullshit for this experiment but in the spirit of covid and my wife's spring cleaning fever I have found almost everything I need in old parts containers. I kept my old single coils from this strat, I can swap around pickups from two other guitars to get me a couple humbuckers to try out and can get those guitars into the playing shape I would prefer. A win win for me but I have one small hiccup, I have a sss pickguard and need to cut it into hss.

Anyone have any templates and tips to do this?

Thanks in advance.

[Willybomb]

What about a single coil sized humbucker?

[Muadzin]

When splitting humbuckers you should keep in mind the 250k/500k pot thing and how it effects pickup loading and max tone pot treble. Split humbuckers typically tend to sound thin and trebly. This is usually because HBs are designed to be used with 500k pots. So when you split them, you are effectively running a single coil thru a 500k pot.

I remember reading somewhere that some humbuckers, like the Duncan JB, were more or less designed to be used in a Strat and therefore tended to work well with the 250k pots that were already in them. I am mainly looking at it from the perspective of splitting HBs in a Gibson so when I think that, when they factory load 300k pots, that it's specific whatever pickups come in it, which can vary from year to year and even in very similar models. I think most of the nuance gets lost in the 300k vs 500k factory pot debate.

I know that the physical design (slugs vs bar) accounts for some of the difference between SC and HB, but I think you could prob get a little closer to an acceptable single coil sound from a split HB if you design in some resistance switching as well. For instance use a 500k pot, and switch in an additional parallel 500k OR 1M resistor when you pull the pot to split.

BTW, I have a 2005 SG Standard that came with all 300k pots and pickups are:
490R (Alnico2) 7.8k
498T (Alnico5) 14.2k

With all the pedal tap dancing I have to deal with while playing I don't want to burden myself with additional guitar switch finger dancing as well. This is why I don't bother with all of this coil splitting parallel serial out of phase nonsense. Just pure humbucking tone. Just the way our Lord and Master Seth Lover intended it.

What about a single coil sized humbucker?

Full humbucker and single coil sized humbucker do not always deliver the same sound.

I've done that with for a neck pickup. I had no template but I used a jigsaw and some files, until I finally managed to fit that humbucker in. Funny thing is that a luthier had modified that same pickguard to fit a bridge humbucker. Don't know how he did it though, but the new hole he drilled for the humbucker's top screw sets about 1.5mm next to the old single coil screw hole.

[Marshall Arts]

I have modified Pickguards, and while it's doable with a lot of patience and swearing, I cannot recommend it (unless you have to do it for a customized pickguard). To get it right, you need a template and a router. I use a 3d printer for templates of pickups and you have to go very slowly, if you dont want the material to chip.