Superstrat w/ Coil Tap idea

[Volitions Advocate]

Hey y'all, If anybody remembers back in the day, my Warmoth LP was stolen, and while I still plan on beating the guy to death that did it (with the guitar, if I ever find him/it) luckily my insurance paid for a new one. (this was about 7 years ago) The insurance company paid for the cost of getting it assembled as well, which was great because I just did that myself and used the extra to buy a 2nd warmoth off the showcase.  But at the time I only had money for the body and neck, so it was essentially a partsocaster that I pilfered my old Indonesian Squire to complete.

It is time that I rectify this awful situation.

This is a pretty old picture.    Anyway.  Rght now it has those terrible squire single coils in the neck and mid position, and a duncan designed humbucker (from one of those "obey propaganda" squire tele's that were out a few years back) in the Bridge.

The jack sucks. the blade switch sucks...  it still has the squire neck plate, squire string retainers and tuners..  The bridge is nice though, the Indonesian bridges are too narrow to fit an American spec Strat, so I bought a Grover drop-in bridge which I quite like.
Anyway... I'm doing a warmoth order for all the new hardware.  neck plate, jack. some new neck screws for a contoured heel, new 5 way, new string retainers, push/push pot for a coil tap (let me know if the ones warmoth sells will fit inside a strat body, the pics look a bit tall) etc.  I'll be going local for a set of 6 in-line chrome Grover 18:1 Rotomatics, since Grover is my go-to.

But.. pickups..    This is what I'm thinking.  I'm going for a relatively high gain setup that will compliment my Warmoth LP/BFG which has a JB Bridge and a Phat Cat neck.

My thoughts:

All Seymour Duncan

Pegasus Bridge
Quarter pounder Middle
JB Jr Neck

Coil tap will tap both the Pegasus and the JB when engaged.

Should I get the quarter pounder with the staggered poles? or flat?  What is the difference honestly?  And if I'm getting it in the middle, should I spring the extra for a RW/RP? Or can I just install a regular one backwards?

This is the video that made me go with the Pegasus:
[youtube]KbRlcdNHYDM[/youtube]

Thanks in advance!

 

[Kublai]

Was that the green LP? You played TOOL in a demo? If so, that was a fantastic guitar.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

That's a good looking Strat! I look forward to some pics of it properly re-fitted and strung!

Should I get the quarter pounder with the staggered poles? or flat?  What is the difference honestly?  And if I'm getting it in the middle, should I spring the extra for a RW/RP? Or can I just install a regular one backwards?

I for one have never been keen on staggered pole piece configurations, I like 'em flat. Jason Lollar does a good rundown on that that topic here:
http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=flat-vs-staggered-pole-pickups

His observations are a bit more nuanced than mine, but the over-emphasized "G" string has been the turn-off for me. (We're still talking about guitars, right?)

As far as RW/RP or not, that will depend on which coil of the humbuckers you'll be pairing it with. RW/RP is a relative characteristic, and hum-cancelling will require that the middle pickup is RW/RP relative to that specific coil. Previous experience tells me that, with Dimarzio pickups, their "middle" strat pickups are RW/RP relative to the inner coils of their humbuckers and their "neck" strat pickups are RW/RP relative to the outer coils. Excercising my Google muscles tells me that this holds true for Duncan as well, but I can't speak from experience there.

When you say "installing a regular one backwards", I'm not sure if you mean swapping the hot/ground leads or rotating the pickup and installing it 180 degrees off. Swapping the hot and ground leads is often done to compensate for mixing out-of-phase pickups from different makers to put them in phase, but since you're looking at all SD pickups that would probably put you out-of-phase. Unless you also re-polarize the magnets. Rotating the coil and installing it backwards will not have any impact on it's phase.

Hope some of that helps!

 

[Volitions Advocate]

When you say "installing a regular one backwards", I'm not sure if you mean swapping the hot/ground leads or rotating the pickup and installing it 180 degrees off. Swapping the hot and ground leads is often done to compensate for mixing out-of-phase pickups from different makers to put them in phase, but since you're looking at all SD pickups that would probably put you out-of-phase. Unless you also re-polarize the magnets. Rotating the coil and installing it backwards will not have any impact on it's phase.

I thought about this a bit after I posted.  Of course it wouldn't really work.  I'd have to install it 180 backwards AND upside down for my theoretical idea to work... theoretically.

I'll check with Duncan, but I'm betting the outside coil on the Pegasus will be the one to tap, closest to the bridge, and the mid pickup would be RWRP to that.  It would just essentially be moving the 2nd coil of the HB to the middle of the body right?  I'll check though.  And I've never used a mini humbucker before, I'd assume if it were a neck pup it would be wound opposite from a bridge pup.  Again.. I'll check with SD.

My squire had the staggered poles on all the pups, and I thought it was just shoddy workmanship.  I do like the look and feel of the flat pickup,  I don't think I have the staggered option for RWRP anyway.

 

[Volitions Advocate]

Was that the green LP? You played TOOL in a demo? If so, that was a fantastic guitar.

You mean this video
[youtube]gv3Uaw0x47E[/youtube]

that was forever ago.  Yeah, it's the guitar in this video that was stolen.
Replaced with this one:

 

[stratamania]

The push pot you mentioned I used in a Tele so should fit in a Strat. But to be strictly correct the humbuckers you have you can split them. But they aren't tappable.

Flat poles are better with Warmoth compound and flatter radius necks. The staggered were more for the vintage 7.5 " type radius originally.

I've got some quarter pounders in one guitar, it's ok in controlled environments but susceptible to noise. If I was you I would go for one of Seymour Duncan noiseless pickups with a similar output to the quarter pounder. Then you don't need to worry about RWRP or noise.

 

[Volitions Advocate]

I am apparently part of the ignorant majority that didn't know coil splitting and coil tapping were 2 different things.  I guess you really don't stop learning... 

I know that the quarter pounder on its own will be alright, maybe a little noisey but it should be managable.  I'm thinking more along the lines of the 2nd position switch paired with the single coil bridge pickup.  I really liked that sound on my old Strat (which didn't have a humbucker).  I'd like to use that sound without the phase and polarity issues.  Even if the middle pick up is noiseless, those would still be problems to overcome wouldn't they?

 

[stratamania]

If you are going to use a Quarter pounder or other single coil, the RWRP is an option that many go for when doing HSH.

Not all middle pickups in Strat types are RWRP. Some prefer them not to be for tonal preferences.

As with most of these things there is more than one way to go and in the end it's down to personal choice.

I'm assuming your humbuckers also are the 4 wire variant, which you will need to split them.

 

[JD0x0]

Get the 'tapped' version of the QP. Then you could tap* all 3 pickups if you wanted to.


*The humbuckers are actually 'split' while the QP would have an actual 'coil tap' in the truer sense of the word. You dont need a humbucker to tap, just a single coil manufactured with a tap in it. The QP has that option from SD*

 

[Volitions Advocate]

I guess we'll see how it looks when it gets here in the mail.  I ordered from an ebay store that came highly recommended.  He has Tons of SD and DiMarzio stuff in stock, but not everything.  I got the RWRP QP, didn't say anything about a coil tap option, I'll report when it all comes in the mail.  Maybe I'll do a video.

The store is banjomikez, in case anybody is interested in browsing.  He had them shipped about 2 hours after I paid.

 

[Strat Avenger]

That's a great-looking guitar.
Obviously, you gotta do what makes you happy, but I don't get the whole "coil-tapping" thing.  The ultimate pickup configuration for a Strat is a humbucker at the bridge, and single-coils that do not hum in the middle and neck positions. For the latter, Dimarzio makes the best. Several of my guitars have a Duncan humbucker at the bridge and Dimarzios neck & middle.

Tapping a humbucker creates not only hum, but a volume drop, and still never sounds like a true single-coil. And most guys who like the sound of a humbucker at the neck position don't care for single-coil tone anyway.

I've come to this conclusion after decades of experimenting with different pickups and wiring/switching configurations. I now get the best of all worlds with standard 5-way Strat switching.

 

[Volitions Advocate]

I REALLY like the 2nd position sound on a standard strat.  I also love the sound of a humbucker and I think this pup will be killer.  So This is my way of having it both ways I guess.  I figure if the JB can split the coil, Might as well wire it up that way too to have the option if I want.  I just wanted the JB because I love that pup.  I don't know if it will sound like the bridge, full sized humbucker version or not.

DiMarzio was the next direction I thought of going, but I dont' know anything about them.  I found myself a bit lost trying to figure out what to look at.  So SD was a good direction for me to go because I had a frame of reference.

In the end.  It's a guitar, it's a Warmoth.  It will be amazing.  And about time !!  6 years of this guitar sitting with sub-par hardware, most of that time with me not even playing it.  Time to give it the treat it deserves (and me mine).

I really can't wait to hear the Pegasus through my Rivera.  That's what I'm most excited about.