Three Humbucker Guitar Questions

ninjaking67

ninjaking67

Ambassador of Good Will
Country flag
Hey there TTR members! Long time, no talk!

It has been a hot minute, for sure, and I must apologize as I really don’t have a good excuse as to why. Never the less, here I am and I have a question or two for the brain trust here on TTR.

I recently picked up a Godin Session Hardtail in bourbon burst (yes, pics to come). I am a lover of hardtail strats and this certainly scratches that itch for me. It is an HSS guitar but I really want an HHH. As a result, I have installed a JB for the bridge position and have recently picked up a Lil 59 for Strat and a Seymour Duncan Red Devil. And now the $50,000 question:

The Lil 59 is around 9k DCR. The Red Devil is about 11K. Which one should go in the neck position and which one in the middle? Traditionally, what would normally be done?

I can’t seem to find any relevant advice on the Interwebs, but I know some of you experienced folks will have the answer.

What say you?
 
I don't know if this helps My 2010 PRS Custom 24 was stock 15.36K bridge pickup HFS Hot Fat and Screams 8K in the neck
The bridge sounded bad to my ears changed it to a neck pickup 8K fixed sounds amazing now and balanced
 
ninjaking67 said:
The Lil 59 is around 9k DCR. The Red Devil is about 11K. Which one should go in the neck position and which one in the middle? Traditionally, what would normally be done?
Click to expand...
Well….
DirtySteve said:
I think 11k is pretty hot for either one of those positions. 11k is considered hot for a bridge pickup. Definitely the lowest in the neck position. 11k might work ok in the middle and you could probably lower it enough to not get in the way.
Click to expand...
This^^^^^^would be very similar to the answer I would have given, if he hadn’t.
 
The Red Devil is designed for neck or middle position and is a collaborative effort between Seymour Duncan and Billy Gibbons. I agree that it is a bit hotter than I would normally go, but if I lower it down I can probably tame it a bit.
 
Thing is, the resistance doesn't tell you much (anything) about how it will sound or what the perceived output will be. Its a useless number that some marketing fool decided to publish and everyone has now gone along with for some reason. Guitar pickups are inductors, and the inductance figure is more important but rarely stated. One of the most aggressive-sounding set of pickups I have are 7.5k T-Tops that are 46 years old.

Anyway, you will need to use your ears to answer the question. Ignore the numbers and try them in both locations, then trust what you hear.
 
Typically it would be hottest to coldest from bridge to neck, so;
JB- 16.4-16.6k in the Bridge
Red Devil -11.3k in the Middle
Lil' 59- 9.8k Neck

But I mean you can experiment with the last two as you see fit. If you were to swap them? What you would get is a brighter Neck pickup and a smoother middle. Depending on your preference, this could be interesting too if you're using a 5 way selector, specifically in positions 2 and 4 where it goes Bridge/Mid, then Mid/Neck. You'd have two blended tones like a 3-way Gibson design, but with two different levels of output plus a brighter Neck tone
 
Clockworkmike said:
Typically it would be hottest to coldest from bridge to neck, so;
JB- 16.4-16.6k in the Bridge
Red Devil -11.3k in the Middle
Lil' 59- 9.8k Neck

But I mean you can experiment with the last two as you see fit. If you were to swap them? What you would get is a brighter Neck pickup and a smoother middle. Depending on your preference, this could be interesting too if you're using a 5 way selector, specifically in positions 2 and 4 where it goes Bridge/Mid, then Mid/Neck. You'd have two blended tones like a 3-way Gibson design, but with two different levels of output plus a brighter Neck tone
Click to expand...

+1
 
ninjaking67 said:
Hey there TTR members! Long time, no talk!

It has been a hot minute, for sure, and I must apologize as I really don’t have a good excuse as to why. Never the less, here I am and I have a question or two for the brain trust here on TTR.

I recently picked up a Godin Session Hardtail in bourbon burst (yes, pics to come). I am a lover of hardtail strats and this certainly scratches that itch for me. It is an HSS guitar but I really want an HHH. As a result, I have installed a JB for the bridge position and have recently picked up a Lil 59 for Strat and a Seymour Duncan Red Devil. And now the $50,000 question:

The Lil 59 is around 9k DCR. The Red Devil is about 11K. Which one should go in the neck position and which one in the middle? Traditionally, what would normally be done?

I can’t seem to find any relevant advice on the Interwebs, but I know some of you experienced folks will have the answer.

What say you?
Click to expand...
The 11K goes in the bridge position.
The neck position always has quite a lot more output because strings vibrate more in the middle than at the end.
Therefore lower output pickup at the neck position.

And,,,a pickup will never change the sound of the guitar.

It will increase the output level...
it will have lower microphonics / ringing / feedback...
It might have better frequency response...
It might cancel hum and noise...
but the sound of the guitar is the wood, which cannot be changed.
 
gball said:
Thing is, the resistance doesn't tell you much (anything) about how it will sound or what the perceived output will be. Its a useless number that some marketing fool decided to publish and everyone has now gone along with for some reason. Guitar pickups are inductors, and the inductance figure is more important but rarely stated. One of the most aggressive-sounding set of pickups I have are 7.5k T-Tops that are 46 years old.

Anyway, you will need to use your ears to answer the question. Ignore the numbers and try them in both locations, then trust what you hear.
Click to expand...
Agreed gball. Even the inductance value doesn’t always tell the full story either. I was just hoping that someone else here would have tried this out before and may have some operational experience to share.

Also @Clockworkmike, I will be using a 5-way switch to get the 2 and 4 positions.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
The 11K goes in the bridge position.
The neck position always has quite a lot more output because strings vibrate more in the middle than at the end.
Therefore lower output pickup at the neck position.

And,,,a pickup will never change the sound of the guitar.

It will increase the output level...
it will have lower microphonics / ringing / feedback...
It might have better frequency response...
It might cancel hum and noise...
but the sound of the guitar is the wood, which cannot be changed.
Click to expand...
AMS,

There is a full sized JB in the bridge, so, no the 11k can’t go in the bridge position.

With all due respect, I don’t buy the “tone is the wood” argument for a solid body guitar. An acoustic, sure, but not a solid body. I’m sure you’ve seen the concrete guitar or the cardboard strat. Both sounded pretty good and no “tonewood” in sight.
 
Last edited:
One thing that I didn’t mention before and that is maybe clouding the issue a bit is that the Lil 59 and Red Devil are both single coil sized humbuckers. I haven’t measured the inductance of either, but i suspect they are likely lower than that of full sized humbuckers.

I’m willing to bet that neither have crazy hot outputs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top