New Bridge Humbucker For My Strat

Finally, I'm going to change all my pickups. So my question stay the same but for each of my pickups. Just tell me which pickups I should put on my Strat HSS If I want a great tone like Joe Satriani but keeping the posibility to switch to a vintage Blues sound

HELP ME PLEASE !!!!

I''m pretty sure from having several Strats, and a handful of Ibanez's that you would get Satriani tone right out of the box with one of my Texas Lonestars earlier than yr. 2000, not the same as the re-make Lonestars, but easy to duplicate, and we could make it harder and dial it in some more by going to DiMarzio, when there are already numerous possibilities with Seymour Duncan - they make it easy with so many pickups and excellent descriptions, as well as sound bytes. So, the Lonestars of long ago, benefitted from the Pearly Gates, which is a Billy Gibbon's 1959 Les Paul PAF style, crunchy as well as sweet and bristling-with-harmonics pup, while it screams as well, maybe just a bit in moderation, not to be confused with George Lynch Screamin' Demon. Neither is a dirty or muddy pickup, they reproduce sounds cleanly and with real zing! The rest of the axe has Texas Specials, I'm not totally fond of them, but I think they make the right sound, are overwound and very midrangey, like having a midrange blues boost at the expense of crystal clean high and glassy notes.

A quick review, to get this, change your pickguard if you have a Fender Diamondback Humbucker, as in the American Standard HSS or the Atomic Humbucker as in the American Special or the Highway One because they have 2 adjustment screws above the pickup, and one below. Maybe you have the older HSS Strat, or even a New American from 2001 up, which have a very generic, lifeless sort of humbucker, so forgettable, that I forgot the name. I think if you had the Atomic, you'd know it and like it. So, you're looking for an HSS pickguard with one screw per side of the Humbucker.

So I think you could build your dream guard most easily with Texas Special (not Tex mex) American power and a Pearly Gates, or a Screamin' Demon, or JB fullsize, but that's too easy and isn't going to get Ibanez's equipment from DiMarzio.

You could also put the sound together with Rio Grande Tallboys and one of their beefy and mean Barbecue-style buckers.

I'd rather go for the challenge of doing it the hard way with DiMarzio and try to get close to Satriani's Staten Island roots.

I'm not sure what exactly Satriani uses besides two humbuckers at least, but an Evolution off of Vai's Jem would just rip!

But for Joe, here we go, I think you're going to want the "Fred" or a new Mo Joe DP 216. This is the ticket, w/harmonics.

http://www.dimarzio.com/site/#/pickups/

It follows here, that Joe used the PAF "Joe" as his neck pickup - I wonder if you can make your Strat an HH, if not, just read past this and we'll find you your single coil size pickups, as I put on many if not most of my Stats which are either not stock or don't have my own made-to-order pickups installed and tied together with http://www.deaf-eddie.net mods.

"The PAF Joe™ is the latest neck pickup we developed for Joe Satriani. Joe wanted a neck position humbucker that combined the best qualities of the PAF Pro® with those of a late 50s Gibson® humbucker. Joe describes this tone as being tubular. Through the use of Virtual Vintage® technology, clear-sounding low frequencies are blended with warm-sounding mids and high frequencies, which makes the PAF Joe™ equally good for chords and single notes. Joe first used it throughout the 2003 G3 tour. Recommended For: All positions, solid, semi-solid and hollow-body electric guitars.
Tech Talk: What does "tubular" mean? In this case, it means making low notes "speak" more clearly while giving high notes a rounder voicing. This accomplishes two goals: chords have better definition, and single notes at higher fret positions remain warm-sounding rather than getting thinner. The PAF Joe™ has slightly less power than the PAF Pro®. It balances well with bridge pickups like the PAF Pro®, Fred®, Breed™ neck model, Air Norton™ and Norton®."

If you're staying with a HSS configuration, you can accomplish what it says above with Strat-style HS2 neck and HS3 mid.

http://www.dimarzio.com/site/#/pickups/ I use those throughout these Strats, also discontinued Blue Velvet, Red Velvet in the one with a mini toggle which has an SSL-1 bridge (discontinued) like a Virtual Solo with adjust-a-poles.

Thak you really much !

but you said : If you're staying with a HSS configuration, you can accomplish what it says above with Strat-style HS2 neck and HS3 mid.

Can I put the HS3 to the neck and the HS2 to the mid for more gain and power in the neck position?

[Oh and I forgot to tell, my Strat is equipted by a S1 switching system. I don't know if you heard about it, but I was thinking if I can keep it on my Strat with those knew pickups (HS3 neck, HS2 Middle, FRED bridge), or if it's just a bad idea? Or if the S1 system simply doesn't match with the pickups?

Thak you really much !

but you said : If you're staying with a HSS configuration, you can accomplish what it says above with Strat-style HS2 neck and HS3 mid.

Can I put the HS3 to the neck and the HS2 to the mid for more gain and power in the neck position?

[Oh and I forgot to tell, my Strat is equipted by a S1 switching system. I don't know if you heard about it, but I was thinking if I can keep it on my Strat with those knew pickups (HS3 neck, HS2 Middle, FRED bridge), or if it's just a bad idea? Or if the S1 system simply doesn't match with the pickups?

The S1 will not match up with the pickups; it is usually used with Deluxe/Samarium Cobalt/Noiseless and they are internally and externally wired differently. I have tried using it on a Stat with Robert Cray pickups at a friend's request, and it was a nightmare. To get rid of the S1 you need to replace one pot at least, and wire like a regular guitar almost - kind of a hybrid between Fender's wiring diagrams and the instructions that DiMarzio supplies, which are very clear and cover a variety of situations. It's easy to follow DiMarzio's directions for different options.

Maybe you could use a couple or push/pull pots, or all 3, also from Dimarzio, to split the coils in the HS2 and HS3 stacks but you don't have to - they sound really good as a stacked humbucker; and you might want to split the full-size Humbucking "Fred", but again, there's probably no need to split it, if you want that kind of power and sound, emphasis and tonal qualities at the bridge.

BTW if players think that a push/pull is awkward on a Strat with its stock hat knobs, they haven't tried raising the whole shaft/mounting position. Others just turn to push-on Tele-type knobs (chrome domes), not the knobs with side-set screws.

Read whatever Dimarzio says about the HS3 which is Yngwie Malmsteen's favored pickup. I suppose you can use it in the neck position, but I wouldn't. It won't be muddy, it would be like having an HSH, so it's doable, but is just gonna be some kind of loud! It will change the tone there to humbuckerish, and take away whatever remains of the single coil Strat vibe, where a slightly weaker HS2 just might preserve a little.

The suspense was killing me, I knew that DiMarzio would say "all positions" for their HS3 so have at it - you can reverse the 3 and the 2 later if you want... or it actually sounds as if you might like it that way. The key with DiMarzio's engineering and technology is that the pickup is not muddy, it is articulate, and you get your different sounds which you wanted from your pedal anyway. They totally agree and make it possible:

"The HS-3™ has been the weapon of choice for Strat®-powered classical metal since the early 1980s. Far from being a high-output monster, the HS-3™ is actually a smooth and relatively quiet pickup that produces a sweet overdrive tone without jagged edges. These qualities combine perfectly with a heavily distorted amp, because the sound won't get muddy or messy. The HS-3™ is also versatile - it's a noise-free pickup in a live situation or in the studio. Recommended For: All positions. More text available..." http://www.dimarzio.com/site/#/pickups/

The single coil sound is probably not what you want anyway, per se, since you want to do heavy blues, very overdriven and up with some distinctive boost and gain like Eric Clapton, and there's no reason why you can't do Eric Johnson - I guess some people play his work on a Les Paul sometimes? Anyhow, your Strat would be a beast, but I'm many years into building Beasts - so I know you can do it and it will be remarkable! But I've been at it for so long, that I got used to it. :D

Woaw thank you! You really know what you're talking about !

And for my S-1, I think I'm gonna replace de pot by a normal Strat pot. I never liked it anyway !