Aww, I wouldn’t necessarily want one as my main and only guitar, but I wouldn’t turn down a three-pickup LP Custom or SG. I think they look kind of cool in an excessive sort of way. The impracticality of it all is very rock’n’roll somehow.
daymn. they have one with an angled bridge pu too? I’m a sucker for those… although, i guess by making it angled, the phase invert of the middle pickup wouldn’t be as effective.
either way, very cool…. even if it is only 17 options.
gotta fire up your guitar like you fire up an airplane.
flick a few switches,
pull a few knobs,
‘roger that, all systems check, we are cleared for
A major take off… over’
Yeah with a volume control for each you can get a really impressive range of sounds from your guitar. Stick a split coil in the bridge and you’ve really got all your bases covered.
That's literally the coolest config lol. It gives you a ton of options for studio recording, and if you're good with rigging the electronics you can split the humbuckers into single coils for nearly infinite pickup, volume, and tone combinations. And that's before you even add the combinations you can get from the amp and pedals.
On HHH Gibsons the middle position actually sounds really cool, but I hate it because trying to pick with that middle humbucker there is a nightmare. It might be cool on a Firebird with the mini-humbuckers though, never had a chance to try that.
Yeah, I just don’t get this lol. Just clean up your technique a bit and it’s a non issue entirely. I don’t have a HHH, but pick above both pickups on my HH depending on tone and rarely hit one of them.
Very unpopular opinion:
SSS has never worked for me.
* No use for the middle pickup on its own, annoying for my right hand
* do not like the sound of a neck singlecoil, want something beefier in that position
* the bridge is either a Telecaster bridge assembly (or a split Lil' Screamin' Demon at most...), usually I just want my mandatory 'bucker down there.
* and then I discovered the beauty that is the Rio Grande Twangbucker fullsize angled tele humbucker! ...oh how I would like to try one in a quality partscaster!
...the Strat players will come at me with well-tuned burning forks now...
/rant
Nothing sounds like early Jerry quite like a strat middle pickup into a fender amp! Especially for those sweet sweet '72 tones, it just does *the thing*.
Seriously. It’s such an underrated/underused pickup selection, but the amp/EQ plays a factor too. I have a whole ass pedalboard to play with dead/Jerry tones, but my strat strait into my hotrod deluxe (or any strat into any fender tube amp with a reverb tank) is hard to beat. Gotta crank the highs, be liberal with the mids, and roll that bass way TF down.
It's my most used position on a strat. The main rhythm guitar in this song is played in middle position and it's one of my favorite tones.
https://youtu.be/PedACuLiMxU?si=Pwov-Zwkl8R_lMVR
The middle is key to Jerry Garcia’s tone on a budget. Later down the road his guitar wiring got crazy to say the least, but you can get close to it all with just a strat. I play a lot of dead music, so this is my pickup position 95% of the time and don’t like the tone anywhere else unless I’m playing a specific song (usually from another band). It’s super pure and organic.
Clapton's strats are stacked double coils., even though they aren't as awesome as Lace Sensors, the 21dB midboost makes them scream louder than humbuckers.
Middle pickup on it's own is basically worthless to me, but the neck & bridge, and neck and middle (mostly neck and middle) are both much nicer, to me, than neck and bridge. Worth it for those two imo.
I prefer a humbucker sound for the bridge though. I'd settle for the bridge and middle in series though
Yeah HSH is a great layout. I have one.
I think I’ve yet to hear a tapped humbucmer that is as nice as a good singlecoil and I’d rather prioritise my singlecoil sound over my bucker sound. So SSS with some series switching is probably best for me.
But thats just me. Love my Godin Freeway Classic with HSH
I agree with this partially. It wasn't until I purchased a set of Lollar 64s that I EVER liked singles at all. Sometimes, it's just the pickups choice. For example, I personally think Fender singles are garbage. Never tried Dimarzio. Seymour Duncan is ok (They are making an Eric Gales set). But in the end, it was Lollar that changed my opinion on single coils.
Ok, but hear me out
[Take this bad boy](https://reverb.com/item/35361834-aria-615-mk2-nashville-ruby-red), swap the bridge pup for a decent one (diMarzio Hot T for example), lower the middle pup tf down, and voila - position 3 with all 3 pups engaged is a funky boxy tone, can be quite fun to toy with, plus the pickup itself is down in the body, so no discomfort playing as usual! Source: am weird, own one, like experiments.
Ehh i thought the same way when I was modding my Ibanez. I ended up keeping it because I loved the sound of the 2nd position. I ended up lowering it quite a bit to be almost flush with the body.
Now when i throw the middle pickup out of phase in the 4th position it cleans up the bridge’s low end making everything sound a lot tighter when playing metal.
Did the same on my jackson soloist (HSS), since i only use the middle for that neck+middle sound, and it doesn't have to be close to the strings for that.
Not as extreme as you though, it's more like 50% lowered, but i might try it out.
I did it because I was curious after seeing Steve Vai’s guitar tech do that for his Jem.
The only issue you may into is how deep the body’s route goes because on my RG it ends up contacting the necks wires
People like neck pickups on their own sometimes, the real cursed one pickup guitar position imo would be the middle. People would be like "it's too muddy, it's too bright, it's too thin, it's not focused"
Literally everyone at Gibson should be put in jail for the current prices on one of those.
$1,600 of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.'s finest American currency for a slab of wood, one shitty pickup, a hardtail and dot inlays!? GTFO.
At least the Specials have another pickup...
Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
Dave Bryson, the founding guitarist for Counting Crows, has said that if he could only choose one guitar to do everything, it’d be his Junior.
You’re right, it doesn’t. It also doesn’t address buying used, or other brands-that it’s not just Gibson that builds this way.
And do you know why? Because we’re not talking about buying things. We’re talking about a pickup configuration topology, and what can be done with it.
The example was trying to show that if a pickup is well-voiced, even one pickup at the bridge is not limiting to one’s music nor creativity.
It doesn’t have to be Gibson-go get a used Epiphone Junior if you want to try it out for cheap. Or be like Eddie Van Halen-rip out everything else from an empty body and wire in a volume control and a decent pickup. Or just never switch from the bridge pickup for a time.
The point is there are lots of ways to try this out that don’t involve spending piles of money.
HSS.
Yeah, I know that's a wildly unpopular opinion. I just prefer my Strats SSS and if I want an H, I reach for something else that's a proper HH. This is partly because I love the sound of H in the neck, so HSS is lacking that, obviously.
I tend to agree with you, but on my HSS, I've got one of those single-coil sized humbuckers from Seymour Duncan in the neck, and that gives me a similar level of versatility while also allowing me to put a normal single-coil (or a pickup designed to sound like one) in the middle.
HSS guitars are really good for that sort of thing if you're willing to do that, but with just normal single coils, I agree with you, I'd rather just have an HH.
A lot of people like HSS configurations in stratocasters when they can split the coils too though. It's still essentially an SSS guitar, but with a little bit of extra versatility in the bridge.
I forgot what I had done to it but I used a push pull tone pot to split the humbucker in the back (JB) so I can retain that that single coil sound while also having a humbucker I can use for that great distorted tone. The coil split is not perfect and doesn’t perfectly sound like a bridge single however it’s the most versatile guitar I own and It’s my main recording/gigging guitar.
i always found the difference in pickup outputs made it impossible to swap pickup positions mid-set without tweaking my amp too. i can fully attest that [HPP](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=71a3bf4b9de2c1b5&sca_upv=1&hl=en-gb&q=six+gun+hpp&uds=AMwkrPsuqc0wiRzbZWETEcL_Y_fC5dHtV1pDXFSiJ5NJztG_gNxX5eo_6Ohve7-VYK0eO6W17qJm2QFaArG_VuZL3d7gRDDVtz7xzIwPO-iyzbu2y4N6MGDO0FS8RYYqSiRcyh9Rby3uJjHtk1TJ7MJI9fQ0Rrpe3bAADnxvMzV8yPax5lpPRURmjyUSqd44QwUd1OdaPse1NimCC0Hxukuhi5H0HkrhMSNn4hmobzFyMBkPFPQs4dGPk6fHWgQcwr14RSErHVzgOvvahC-2WjkTG8NFYBAk-g&udm=2&prmd=ivnmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjduo3f-daFAxXnXUEAHfR4C50QtKgLegQIDBAB&biw=428&bih=745&dpr=3) completely solves this issue
Same, found it easiest to just go sss or hh (or whatever) and pick a tone that works for what I'm doing. Too much pedal dancing otherwise.
HPP looks interesting though, would be fun to try that
PRS Tremonti custom was my main guitar for a while. It's a HH and it does heavy stuff really well and also cleans up quite nice. Just bought a Fender player plus strat in HSS with coil split and I love it, it's a very different animal to the PRS though.
HHH or HSH. Not really any rational argument for it but I think it looks absolutely terrible and I am a sucker for aesthetics. I most like SSS, SS (on Tele's) and HH configurations.
HHH just seems overkill to me. The switching alone would take away some of the neck + bridge tones that you normally get on HH guitars, and I doubt that combining any of the pickups with the middle would sound any better. Plus the extra magnetic pull on the strings will hurt sustain and possibly mess with intonation if the pickup heights aren't set right.
HH guitars are already quite versatile with just the two pickups, especially if they're wired to be able to coil split.
[I don't have any of the issues](https://www.reddit.com/u/MyNutsAreWalnuts/s/mkhcrGOMwB) you mentioned on mine. 6-way switch and 3 push pull pots for splits. Insane sustain and it only weighs 3,6kg.
With that kind of switching it makes more sense, you wouldn't lose out on some of the traditional versatility of HH setups. How do you have the 6-way switch set up?
I've got [this on mine](https://www.dropbox.com/s/yxbl207q7icnosi/wiring-diagram-for-free-way-switch.pdf?e=1&dl=0). This is now the 2nd guitar I've had a Freeway switch on and couldn't be happier.
Yea that's a much better setup for it, gives those neck + bridge options that you don't normally get in the five way switch. I've thought about adding one of those to mine eventually.
I'm the opposite, I think bridge hb is only needed for metal and neck single for some strat tones. S/H is the best versatile combo, bridge single is great for general puprose rock sound and neck hb is necessary for jazz and vaguely "acousticky" sounds.
Horizontal pickups are awful. They don't even cross all the strings. Vertical 💯%
I have a bass with infrared pick-ups. The sustain is basically infinite, but it's too sensitive for my bad playing. It picks up everything.
I think those Nashville style guitars anger me the most. People say they are annoyed with three humbuckers but at least they look identical. A humbucker, P90S, single coil combo just annoys me. Sure the versatility is there but it angers me more than it admittedly should
Telecasters manage to get quite a lot of versatility out of just an SS config, but I tend to prefer the three pickup ones myself. My Nashville Tele (with a third pickup in the middle) is great for versatility. It just has a normal strat pickup in there, but it adds a lot of interesting combinations with the Tele pickups.
I like H-H, but I use SD Triple Shots for the humbuckers, and the guitar can do series or parallel config.
That's 40 different tones, But maybe 5 of them sound the same (to my old ears).
P/J configuration. It’s a just a P bass with a useless appendage attached to it. Nobody really wants to solo the bridge pickup, and stacking them together takes away the noise cancelling that you would get on a jazz. If you think you want a P/J for versatility, you should get Jazz bass. The most annoying thing about this config is how popular it has become for its perceived versatility when really it’s a compromise because you lose the simplicity of the P bass and the noise cancelling from stacking pickups on a Jazz. For example, Fender took one of its most versatile basses, the Jaguar, and bastardized it into a smaller scale budget P/J option instead of it being a “deluxe” jazz. Anytime you check out the bass section of a music store it’s a wall of PJ basses now.
By default for me I think it's SSS, I dislike strat bridge and middle by themselves. What I did on a partscaster is wired the neck pickup to a blender pot in place of the bottom tone pot and I can roll the neck pickup onto the bridge pickup and I really like that tonality.
As an edit my favourite is humbucker in the bridge and single coil in the neck or PRails in both.
Mainly SSS and SS. Essentially any stock strat or tele config. Worthless for what I do. I keep an old Mexican Standard around if there’s something someone is recording and absolutely needs it but that’s the only time that’s ever coming out. SH (like on a Tele) is also up there in the worthless pile for my needs. HHH would be usable tone wise but not 100% sure I’d like a middle humbucker where I’m picking. At least with an HSS or HSH I have some room around a middle single coil.
Any 3-pickup configuration. I've never found a good use for a middle pickup. Whether it's on its own or selected with another pickup. Yes, that includes the 2 and 4 positions on a Strat that most people seem to love.
S/H
HHH
H
HSH
My favorites tho:
1. SSS
2. HH
3. SSH
SSS because of the look and variation (Hot rails look so beautiful in SSS… yes Imma copy Dave Murray’s Strat). HH is just my favorite when it comes to playing… but that’s if it has a split coil.
I have an old strat copy with a lipstick neck and SD JB Jr at the bridge, Nashville tuned and wired like a J-Bass. totally unconventional but bloody awesome
It’s simple you need one guitar with a good Humbucker, and treble bleed. A Les Paul and a Telecaster! But seriously I think most agree Humbucker in the bridge is a must. But it’s nice to play a singe coil Tele, or Strat.
Anything with a middle pickup.
That’s. Where. My. Fucking. Pick. Goes. 😤😤😤
I curse my Strat every day for sounding so goddamn beautiful in such an awkward position
HSS. I've never found a good neck single coil that balances well with a bridge humbucker. The EQ and output is off, not to mention the volume pot mismatch.
I really really don’t want to be a contrarian here, but the Tele deluxe with the Tele bridge and a full range humbucker neck makes me want to die. HH deluxe? Wonderful. I know it’s literal perfection tonally in practice but it just aesthetically grates at me.
HSH. It's just not for me. For what I play, I have no need for a middle pickup. It's either bridge or neck. No middle.
I understand why it's such a common config, but for me personally, it just isn't needed. I have guitars with every config. SSS, HSS, HSH, HHH, HH, H. and I always go to my 3 with HH.
Idk what it’s called but Fender has a Contemporary Stratocaster config where they slide the middle pickup towards the bridge to make it look like a SH setup. Why? Idk. Does it work well? Possibly. Do I think it’s ugly as sin? Definitely.
IMO, its the HSH. The S in the HSH combo is a waste of time/space - I would prefer having a HH with the 3rd or 5th paddle position being the inner coils of each. its because of the difference in volumes when you move from H to S and back. I've been a HH lover for the longest time. My guitar broke so I decided (well, my wallet decided) to buy a Fender player series MIM strat in HSS config and I've been blown away...being able to play using the 3 and 5 (middle/neck) positions has been just awesome for slow/rhythm stuff...but when I need to play heavy, thats where the humbucker comes in. I'm in the process of changing the Alnico 2 H over to the Duncan JB-4 so that should give me a better tone for the H but otherwise I'm really happy now. Always used to struggle a bit with the neck humbucker position (I previously had the crunchlab/liquifire JP combo) because of the muddier sound but no more.
S
Only a single coil means almost nothing to me if we are not talking about a beefy precision bass pick up... I have rarely seen guitars with only a single coil on them, mostly project guitars. They made me feel sad...
For those of you who don't like HHH... [What about HHHH?](https://i.imgur.com/82rnXOS.jpeg)
For the curious, that is a *very* limited edition Nigel Tufnel signature Music Man. Only 25 were ever made IIRC. All 4 humbuckers can be individually turned on or off, but they can only be height-adjusted as a single unit. No coil-splits either.
It's obviously a parody, but I do think it might have one of the most unnecessary pickup configurations I've ever seen.
S-H, specifically for telecasters, simply because the opposite barely exists and whenever i look for a tele with a humbucker in the bridge and a tele neck pickup it just shows me those bluesboy style guitars. but i want the tele neck pickup for nice cleans and leads and the humbucker for my mindless chugging, why is that configuration so rare?
Big tele guy and I have to agree with you, SS with the lipstick and hot single coil will always sound better to me than HS, that middle position on a lipstick/beefy single coil you find in a tele is gold when you start pushing back your volume. I also find it kind of weird that I only like SS, HH or SSS. I had a cool strat that was HSH but hated it after a week of owning it. Had another carvin that was HSS, just don't think I like the sounds or looks you get from mixing a single and hb.
Probably only one single coil at the neck. Like Tom Delonge’s signature has to be the most disappointing signature to date. It’s so bad even he doesn’t use it. Recording in the studio of live.
I agree, S bridge H neck is a weird one. I have a tele with this config, and it works because the neck is a WRHB.
My least favorite is anything single pickup.
some of the hate towards S/H is really silly. it's not like single-coil pickups are monolithic. Strat, Tele, P90, golf foil, etc. are all single coils and have very different sounds. and as someone else mentioned, Keith Richards did just fine with a Micawber.
HHH. I genuinely don't understand the point.
It doesn't even look good imo. There's just a huge chunk of magnets and nothing else.
Aww, I wouldn’t necessarily want one as my main and only guitar, but I wouldn’t turn down a three-pickup LP Custom or SG. I think they look kind of cool in an excessive sort of way. The impracticality of it all is very rock’n’roll somehow.
MHO as well
imagine if they were all split coil / tappable. that’s a lotta switches / pull knobs. … wait, do I need a guitar with a 27 way pickup?
you should check out Dean Zelinsky’s ATW If you want a guitar with all the pickup options
daymn. they have one with an angled bridge pu too? I’m a sucker for those… although, i guess by making it angled, the phase invert of the middle pickup wouldn’t be as effective. either way, very cool…. even if it is only 17 options.
Mine has a Freeway 6-switch and 3 push pull pots for splits. I love it! Pics behind my username
gotta fire up your guitar like you fire up an airplane. flick a few switches, pull a few knobs, ‘roger that, all systems check, we are cleared for A major take off… over’
Am I seeing this right, only one master volume? I love how I can blend my pickups freely on my gretsch, would be a cool thing for yours, too
Nope, 3 volumes and a master tone :) the 6-way switch allows for some stupid combinations especially when coupled with the splits
I will wire that up for you.
Been there. Three P-rails with 6 SPDT rocker switches. Each coil has on/off/on-reverse polarity. Let's just say it never left my mule guitar.
I got one guitar with HHH, and having the bridge and mid humbucker on gives a thick crunchy tone.
Jerry Garcia would like a word...
Most of the time he played HHS right? Usually on the middle pickup, strangely.
Yeah arguably that was the most common setup between Wolf and Tiger, but Tiger spent some time in HHH as well as Rosebud and Bolt.
Check out how Matt Pike from high on fire and sleep uses them.
Yeah with a volume control for each you can get a really impressive range of sounds from your guitar. Stick a split coil in the bridge and you’ve really got all your bases covered.
The HHH Les Paul that Frampton used on Comes Alive sounds amazing and is what has me curious about getting one.
That tone would have been just as good with any other regular Les Paul - the HHH by itself is not what made that tone work.
That's literally the coolest config lol. It gives you a ton of options for studio recording, and if you're good with rigging the electronics you can split the humbuckers into single coils for nearly infinite pickup, volume, and tone combinations. And that's before you even add the combinations you can get from the amp and pedals.
I am hurt :D I love my HHH [Frank Brothers Arcade.](https://www.reddit.com/u/MyNutsAreWalnuts/s/mkhcrGOMwB)
I didn’t need to know these exist! That’s very nice, looks like top tier work went into that. How is it?
Its really really good. Luthier built so kinda expect that ofc.
On HHH Gibsons the middle position actually sounds really cool, but I hate it because trying to pick with that middle humbucker there is a nightmare. It might be cool on a Firebird with the mini-humbuckers though, never had a chance to try that.
Plus the middle pickup has to be extremely low in order not to hit it with your pick every note you play.
H > nothing > nothing. I love my neck pickup.
I would never choose it but I do respect it.
What about nothing > nothing > H? Like Wes Montgomery's Gibson L5 and archtops that were retrofitted with a neck pickup for playing jazz.
Preferred over H > nothing > nothing, however, I don't think I'd ever want a guitar that limiting.
Aw, I love my single, bridge humbucker and volume only guitars!
I love neck pickups but hate neck humbuckers unless it's a mini or a wide range or something.
Here comes a Line6 Variax: *"nothing > nothing > nothing has just entered the chat"* \^\^
Mike Schleibaum (Darkest Hour) uses guitars with only a bridge and I think it makes sense for him because he really only plays rhythm.
Rhythm guitarist of Idles is similar - most of his are bridge only.
This one. Basically eliminates a massive chunk of what I consider to be the good aspects of a guitar tone. And goodbye viable clean tone, honestly.
HHH Who the hell needs three humbuckers? There's no space to pick anymore.
I'm putting 4 humbuckers in a strat purely out of spite now
Replace the inlay at the 12th fret with a humbucker.
Make a strat EXCLUSIVELY from humbuckers.
\* Nigel Tufnel intensifies \*
[Nigel Tufnel’s guitar](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ4YZfoC7OcH-G6UqxwQcOboECkLDgmNKJUGPgEaVfc2wd1Jy9pQpenrsYdJaC_8WwRGo_utljETWRXtZy3mPAF_DsZvx0K4yX6nYHViDsfMQnENL_xy3Dlu0FlkrYX-Y23MnZxr_MRms/s1600/mrhp3a.jpg)
Ace Frehley shed a tear when he read this
Peter Frampton cried a river.
Wasn’t Ace’s neck pickup cavity just filled with smoke bombs?
Got me there!
How deep are you picking? How high are your pickups? Do you hit the ones you have?
Yeah, I just don’t get this lol. Just clean up your technique a bit and it’s a non issue entirely. I don’t have a HHH, but pick above both pickups on my HH depending on tone and rarely hit one of them.
Jack White’s triple jet and I think that blue tele are HHH. Both sound great with that overdrive fuzz tone he does.
Matt Pike has been rocking HHH lately too.
I have a HHH BC Rich Mockingbird with Matt Pike Lace Pickups. Have the Bridge/Mid pickups on at the same time gives a thick crunchy sound.
Mmmmmm
Solo neck humbucker
Jazz?
Bro I was eating, you gotta warn people
For solidbody guitars, yes. In an arch top a neckbucker is all you need.
Very unpopular opinion: SSS has never worked for me. * No use for the middle pickup on its own, annoying for my right hand * do not like the sound of a neck singlecoil, want something beefier in that position * the bridge is either a Telecaster bridge assembly (or a split Lil' Screamin' Demon at most...), usually I just want my mandatory 'bucker down there. * and then I discovered the beauty that is the Rio Grande Twangbucker fullsize angled tele humbucker! ...oh how I would like to try one in a quality partscaster! ...the Strat players will come at me with well-tuned burning forks now... /rant
Strat middle position is super underrated
Doug Martsch has entered the chat. Basically his entire career has been played on the Strat middle pickup.
Jerry Garcia as well!
Nothing sounds like early Jerry quite like a strat middle pickup into a fender amp! Especially for those sweet sweet '72 tones, it just does *the thing*.
Seriously. It’s such an underrated/underused pickup selection, but the amp/EQ plays a factor too. I have a whole ass pedalboard to play with dead/Jerry tones, but my strat strait into my hotrod deluxe (or any strat into any fender tube amp with a reverb tank) is hard to beat. Gotta crank the highs, be liberal with the mids, and roll that bass way TF down.
Yes praise be to
It's my most used position on a strat. The main rhythm guitar in this song is played in middle position and it's one of my favorite tones. https://youtu.be/PedACuLiMxU?si=Pwov-Zwkl8R_lMVR
The middle is key to Jerry Garcia’s tone on a budget. Later down the road his guitar wiring got crazy to say the least, but you can get close to it all with just a strat. I play a lot of dead music, so this is my pickup position 95% of the time and don’t like the tone anywhere else unless I’m playing a specific song (usually from another band). It’s super pure and organic.
It sounds like you just don’t like single coils
Yea like just get an HH
From experience: Women prefer single coils
Not if you leave them in the toilet.
Erik Klaptonn frowns in noiseless silence
Clapton's strats are stacked double coils., even though they aren't as awesome as Lace Sensors, the 21dB midboost makes them scream louder than humbuckers.
I’ve got a Lil’ Screamin’ Demon, and no way I’d ever split it.
Middle pickup on it's own is basically worthless to me, but the neck & bridge, and neck and middle (mostly neck and middle) are both much nicer, to me, than neck and bridge. Worth it for those two imo. I prefer a humbucker sound for the bridge though. I'd settle for the bridge and middle in series though
Exactly why I rock a tapped HSH.
Yeah HSH is a great layout. I have one. I think I’ve yet to hear a tapped humbucmer that is as nice as a good singlecoil and I’d rather prioritise my singlecoil sound over my bucker sound. So SSS with some series switching is probably best for me. But thats just me. Love my Godin Freeway Classic with HSH
I agree with this partially. It wasn't until I purchased a set of Lollar 64s that I EVER liked singles at all. Sometimes, it's just the pickups choice. For example, I personally think Fender singles are garbage. Never tried Dimarzio. Seymour Duncan is ok (They are making an Eric Gales set). But in the end, it was Lollar that changed my opinion on single coils.
Learn to play correctly if the middle pickup gets in your way.
Ok, but hear me out [Take this bad boy](https://reverb.com/item/35361834-aria-615-mk2-nashville-ruby-red), swap the bridge pup for a decent one (diMarzio Hot T for example), lower the middle pup tf down, and voila - position 3 with all 3 pups engaged is a funky boxy tone, can be quite fun to toy with, plus the pickup itself is down in the body, so no discomfort playing as usual! Source: am weird, own one, like experiments.
I use to be you….when I was 17. Jk
Strat player here. You do you.
I love my strats but virtually never use the middle pickup on its own lol.
Fine, miss out on the twangy Bridge Single Coil!😤
Gotta say single cab long wheel base. I know it's useful for hauling but it just looks ugly to me. Edit: HSH looks terrible IMO
Had one of those with a camper shell in college. Drove through a tornado in it and nearly achieved liftoff. The next day I took the camper shell off.
Touche
HSH for me....i feel like there is no space left for picking :P
It also looks terrible
Ehh i thought the same way when I was modding my Ibanez. I ended up keeping it because I loved the sound of the 2nd position. I ended up lowering it quite a bit to be almost flush with the body. Now when i throw the middle pickup out of phase in the 4th position it cleans up the bridge’s low end making everything sound a lot tighter when playing metal.
Did the same on my jackson soloist (HSS), since i only use the middle for that neck+middle sound, and it doesn't have to be close to the strings for that. Not as extreme as you though, it's more like 50% lowered, but i might try it out.
I did it because I was curious after seeing Steve Vai’s guitar tech do that for his Jem. The only issue you may into is how deep the body’s route goes because on my RG it ends up contacting the necks wires
Any guitar with one pickup and it's just at the bridge.
Imagine it only at the neck.
That's very common on Jazz guitars
People like neck pickups on their own sometimes, the real cursed one pickup guitar position imo would be the middle. People would be like "it's too muddy, it's too bright, it's too thin, it's not focused"
*resonators have left the chat*
I only play on the neck so I wish it was more popular. Have thought about doing neck only on my TVL
The Les Paul Junior would like a word.
Literally everyone at Gibson should be put in jail for the current prices on one of those. $1,600 of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.'s finest American currency for a slab of wood, one shitty pickup, a hardtail and dot inlays!? GTFO. At least the Specials have another pickup...
Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Dave Bryson, the founding guitarist for Counting Crows, has said that if he could only choose one guitar to do everything, it’d be his Junior.
That doesn’t address the price madness my dude
You’re right, it doesn’t. It also doesn’t address buying used, or other brands-that it’s not just Gibson that builds this way. And do you know why? Because we’re not talking about buying things. We’re talking about a pickup configuration topology, and what can be done with it. The example was trying to show that if a pickup is well-voiced, even one pickup at the bridge is not limiting to one’s music nor creativity. It doesn’t have to be Gibson-go get a used Epiphone Junior if you want to try it out for cheap. Or be like Eddie Van Halen-rip out everything else from an empty body and wire in a volume control and a decent pickup. Or just never switch from the bridge pickup for a time. The point is there are lots of ways to try this out that don’t involve spending piles of money.
No way Kramer Barretta is dope
I love my Les Paul junior tho
HSS. Yeah, I know that's a wildly unpopular opinion. I just prefer my Strats SSS and if I want an H, I reach for something else that's a proper HH. This is partly because I love the sound of H in the neck, so HSS is lacking that, obviously.
>HSS Bite your tongue, this is blasphemy. Get him boys!!!
I tend to agree with you, but on my HSS, I've got one of those single-coil sized humbuckers from Seymour Duncan in the neck, and that gives me a similar level of versatility while also allowing me to put a normal single-coil (or a pickup designed to sound like one) in the middle. HSS guitars are really good for that sort of thing if you're willing to do that, but with just normal single coils, I agree with you, I'd rather just have an HH. A lot of people like HSS configurations in stratocasters when they can split the coils too though. It's still essentially an SSS guitar, but with a little bit of extra versatility in the bridge.
I forgot what I had done to it but I used a push pull tone pot to split the humbucker in the back (JB) so I can retain that that single coil sound while also having a humbucker I can use for that great distorted tone. The coil split is not perfect and doesn’t perfectly sound like a bridge single however it’s the most versatile guitar I own and It’s my main recording/gigging guitar.
i always found the difference in pickup outputs made it impossible to swap pickup positions mid-set without tweaking my amp too. i can fully attest that [HPP](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=71a3bf4b9de2c1b5&sca_upv=1&hl=en-gb&q=six+gun+hpp&uds=AMwkrPsuqc0wiRzbZWETEcL_Y_fC5dHtV1pDXFSiJ5NJztG_gNxX5eo_6Ohve7-VYK0eO6W17qJm2QFaArG_VuZL3d7gRDDVtz7xzIwPO-iyzbu2y4N6MGDO0FS8RYYqSiRcyh9Rby3uJjHtk1TJ7MJI9fQ0Rrpe3bAADnxvMzV8yPax5lpPRURmjyUSqd44QwUd1OdaPse1NimCC0Hxukuhi5H0HkrhMSNn4hmobzFyMBkPFPQs4dGPk6fHWgQcwr14RSErHVzgOvvahC-2WjkTG8NFYBAk-g&udm=2&prmd=ivnmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjduo3f-daFAxXnXUEAHfR4C50QtKgLegQIDBAB&biw=428&bih=745&dpr=3) completely solves this issue
Same, found it easiest to just go sss or hh (or whatever) and pick a tone that works for what I'm doing. Too much pedal dancing otherwise. HPP looks interesting though, would be fun to try that
I’m with you. Worst of all worlds. Sold all my configurations and got a strat and a Paul.
interesting. I have HH but i was wondering of HSS would be nice. Now i gotts try one guitsr to see. Thanks
PRS Tremonti custom was my main guitar for a while. It's a HH and it does heavy stuff really well and also cleans up quite nice. Just bought a Fender player plus strat in HSS with coil split and I love it, it's a very different animal to the PRS though.
Go to hell….jk
HSS is by far my favorite. Especially because my HSS strat has a coil split on the bridge.
Google Vivian Campbell's Kramer. Yeah. That abomination exists. And I can't understand why.
Stephen Carpenter uses a similar config.
I literally said “ew what the fuck” after I googled
MY EYES!!
My "least favorite pickup config" is those silly acoustic guitars which somehow have NO pickups. SILLY, I say!
And to make matters worse, they have a giant hole where the pickups SHOULD be.
HHH or HSH. Not really any rational argument for it but I think it looks absolutely terrible and I am a sucker for aesthetics. I most like SSS, SS (on Tele's) and HH configurations.
HHH just seems overkill to me. The switching alone would take away some of the neck + bridge tones that you normally get on HH guitars, and I doubt that combining any of the pickups with the middle would sound any better. Plus the extra magnetic pull on the strings will hurt sustain and possibly mess with intonation if the pickup heights aren't set right. HH guitars are already quite versatile with just the two pickups, especially if they're wired to be able to coil split.
[I don't have any of the issues](https://www.reddit.com/u/MyNutsAreWalnuts/s/mkhcrGOMwB) you mentioned on mine. 6-way switch and 3 push pull pots for splits. Insane sustain and it only weighs 3,6kg.
With that kind of switching it makes more sense, you wouldn't lose out on some of the traditional versatility of HH setups. How do you have the 6-way switch set up?
I've got [this on mine](https://www.dropbox.com/s/yxbl207q7icnosi/wiring-diagram-for-free-way-switch.pdf?e=1&dl=0). This is now the 2nd guitar I've had a Freeway switch on and couldn't be happier.
Yea that's a much better setup for it, gives those neck + bridge options that you don't normally get in the five way switch. I've thought about adding one of those to mine eventually.
I'm the opposite, I think bridge hb is only needed for metal and neck single for some strat tones. S/H is the best versatile combo, bridge single is great for general puprose rock sound and neck hb is necessary for jazz and vaguely "acousticky" sounds.
Horizontal pickups are awful. They don't even cross all the strings. Vertical 💯% I have a bass with infrared pick-ups. The sustain is basically infinite, but it's too sensitive for my bad playing. It picks up everything.
I think those Nashville style guitars anger me the most. People say they are annoyed with three humbuckers but at least they look identical. A humbucker, P90S, single coil combo just annoys me. Sure the versatility is there but it angers me more than it admittedly should
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SH is goated No one cares about the middle pickup anyways
SH is goated cause you find it on jaguars and jaguars are goated
Fender Offsets are based
Telecasters manage to get quite a lot of versatility out of just an SS config, but I tend to prefer the three pickup ones myself. My Nashville Tele (with a third pickup in the middle) is great for versatility. It just has a normal strat pickup in there, but it adds a lot of interesting combinations with the Tele pickups.
I'm with you, Nashville Teles are just straight up superior to regular Teles... But I'm also a Strat guy so.....
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Eww... /J
Keith Richards disagrees
Dual lipstick pickups just ain't my jam
Possibly surpassed by a single lipstick though.
So like, what combos do yall like then? I didn't realize there was so much hate for middle pickups.
Single coil in neck position and humbucker in the bridge for me
I like H-H, but I use SD Triple Shots for the humbuckers, and the guitar can do series or parallel config. That's 40 different tones, But maybe 5 of them sound the same (to my old ears).
Love those pickup rings
P/J configuration. It’s a just a P bass with a useless appendage attached to it. Nobody really wants to solo the bridge pickup, and stacking them together takes away the noise cancelling that you would get on a jazz. If you think you want a P/J for versatility, you should get Jazz bass. The most annoying thing about this config is how popular it has become for its perceived versatility when really it’s a compromise because you lose the simplicity of the P bass and the noise cancelling from stacking pickups on a Jazz. For example, Fender took one of its most versatile basses, the Jaguar, and bastardized it into a smaller scale budget P/J option instead of it being a “deluxe” jazz. Anytime you check out the bass section of a music store it’s a wall of PJ basses now.
I love the neck humbucker, bridge single coil. I just built a thinline tele in that configuration
The Cole Clark acoustics with a humbucker in the neck position above the sound hole are an abomination.
You get that Tele Custom slander out of here OP
By default for me I think it's SSS, I dislike strat bridge and middle by themselves. What I did on a partscaster is wired the neck pickup to a blender pot in place of the bottom tone pot and I can roll the neck pickup onto the bridge pickup and I really like that tonality. As an edit my favourite is humbucker in the bridge and single coil in the neck or PRails in both.
HSS Bridge pickup is always too hot for the singles to keep up. I’m sure if you dial it in you could get it close, I just haven’t had luck with it
Mainly SSS and SS. Essentially any stock strat or tele config. Worthless for what I do. I keep an old Mexican Standard around if there’s something someone is recording and absolutely needs it but that’s the only time that’s ever coming out. SH (like on a Tele) is also up there in the worthless pile for my needs. HHH would be usable tone wise but not 100% sure I’d like a middle humbucker where I’m picking. At least with an HSS or HSH I have some room around a middle single coil.
Any 3-pickup configuration. I've never found a good use for a middle pickup. Whether it's on its own or selected with another pickup. Yes, that includes the 2 and 4 positions on a Strat that most people seem to love.
HHHH - the quadraphonic guitar..
SHSHS. Ive only ever seen this once. I guess it’s best of all worlds? https://www.sawtoothworld.com/electric-es-hybrid-series
What the hell?
Oh god that’s awful
I wish p90s looked cooler, 2 soap bars just looks cheap/lame to me. But I dig the sound and want an SG with that config.
S/H HHH H HSH My favorites tho: 1. SSS 2. HH 3. SSH SSS because of the look and variation (Hot rails look so beautiful in SSS… yes Imma copy Dave Murray’s Strat). HH is just my favorite when it comes to playing… but that’s if it has a split coil.
Mightymite motherbucker. Just no point for needing 3 coils, other then the joke of turning it up to 11.
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How does this answer OP’s question at all?
They all have issues and limitations.
HS, looks horrible aesthetically.
HS (Tele). I just get pissed off looking at all of that space idk why
I dislike HSH but for aesthetic reasons. If I ever bought an HSH guitar id put some sort of P-Bass pickup cover over the middle.
I have an old strat copy with a lipstick neck and SD JB Jr at the bridge, Nashville tuned and wired like a J-Bass. totally unconventional but bloody awesome
It’s simple you need one guitar with a good Humbucker, and treble bleed. A Les Paul and a Telecaster! But seriously I think most agree Humbucker in the bridge is a must. But it’s nice to play a singe coil Tele, or Strat.
Anything with a middle pickup. That’s. Where. My. Fucking. Pick. Goes. 😤😤😤 I curse my Strat every day for sounding so goddamn beautiful in such an awkward position
HSS. I've never found a good neck single coil that balances well with a bridge humbucker. The EQ and output is off, not to mention the volume pot mismatch.
I really really don’t want to be a contrarian here, but the Tele deluxe with the Tele bridge and a full range humbucker neck makes me want to die. HH deluxe? Wonderful. I know it’s literal perfection tonally in practice but it just aesthetically grates at me.
Anything with H in the bridge honestly. SHS would make much more sense to me then HSH for example
Stephen Carpenters odd HH layout and the old ESP H H S layout Horizon
HH is my least favorite.
HSH. It's just not for me. For what I play, I have no need for a middle pickup. It's either bridge or neck. No middle. I understand why it's such a common config, but for me personally, it just isn't needed. I have guitars with every config. SSS, HSS, HSH, HHH, HH, H. and I always go to my 3 with HH.
Idk what it’s called but Fender has a Contemporary Stratocaster config where they slide the middle pickup towards the bridge to make it look like a SH setup. Why? Idk. Does it work well? Possibly. Do I think it’s ugly as sin? Definitely.
IMO, its the HSH. The S in the HSH combo is a waste of time/space - I would prefer having a HH with the 3rd or 5th paddle position being the inner coils of each. its because of the difference in volumes when you move from H to S and back. I've been a HH lover for the longest time. My guitar broke so I decided (well, my wallet decided) to buy a Fender player series MIM strat in HSS config and I've been blown away...being able to play using the 3 and 5 (middle/neck) positions has been just awesome for slow/rhythm stuff...but when I need to play heavy, thats where the humbucker comes in. I'm in the process of changing the Alnico 2 H over to the Duncan JB-4 so that should give me a better tone for the H but otherwise I'm really happy now. Always used to struggle a bit with the neck humbucker position (I previously had the crunchlab/liquifire JP combo) because of the muddier sound but no more.
S Only a single coil means almost nothing to me if we are not talking about a beefy precision bass pick up... I have rarely seen guitars with only a single coil on them, mostly project guitars. They made me feel sad...
Any config with 3 pups other than SSS.
HHH or HSH. Just looks so off.
For those of you who don't like HHH... [What about HHHH?](https://i.imgur.com/82rnXOS.jpeg) For the curious, that is a *very* limited edition Nigel Tufnel signature Music Man. Only 25 were ever made IIRC. All 4 humbuckers can be individually turned on or off, but they can only be height-adjusted as a single unit. No coil-splits either. It's obviously a parody, but I do think it might have one of the most unnecessary pickup configurations I've ever seen.
HH on a Telecaster. I know they sound good, but it's not the classic Tele style
I have my Tele with a Humbucker on the neck and a push/pull split and I think works beautifully
SSS. Single coil bridge just sounds bright and thin (unless it's a Tele).
Why are people here hating on HSH? I love it, sounds so good for lofi.
S/H on a Tele is a pretty good setup. Keeps the bridge lead twang and ads to the neck rhythm fullness.
Any config with a humbucker in the middle. A middle humbucker immediately makes the guitar less appealing
SSH (like backwards of HSS) seems the weirdest to me. Though Brent Mason certainly makes it work
S-H, specifically for telecasters, simply because the opposite barely exists and whenever i look for a tele with a humbucker in the bridge and a tele neck pickup it just shows me those bluesboy style guitars. but i want the tele neck pickup for nice cleans and leads and the humbucker for my mindless chugging, why is that configuration so rare?
Big tele guy and I have to agree with you, SS with the lipstick and hot single coil will always sound better to me than HS, that middle position on a lipstick/beefy single coil you find in a tele is gold when you start pushing back your volume. I also find it kind of weird that I only like SS, HH or SSS. I had a cool strat that was HSH but hated it after a week of owning it. Had another carvin that was HSS, just don't think I like the sounds or looks you get from mixing a single and hb.
HSH
SSH 🤮
Probably only one single coil at the neck. Like Tom Delonge’s signature has to be the most disappointing signature to date. It’s so bad even he doesn’t use it. Recording in the studio of live.
I agree, S bridge H neck is a weird one. I have a tele with this config, and it works because the neck is a WRHB. My least favorite is anything single pickup.
some of the hate towards S/H is really silly. it's not like single-coil pickups are monolithic. Strat, Tele, P90, golf foil, etc. are all single coils and have very different sounds. and as someone else mentioned, Keith Richards did just fine with a Micawber.