What is your perfect pickup combination?

[Surfreak]

I don't mean brand or model, simply what pickup combo works best for you.

For years I *wanted* to like best a few "tone snobiety"-approved combos, such as 2 P90s, and wanted to believe that they are like a Tele on steroids (whatever that means), then I switched to a traditional Tele combo (sans steroids) as the ultimate pickup tonal bliss...
Well, in the end, I just let me ears do the judging and apply real world criteria in my selection, as in:

- tone personality
- versatility
- gig friendly
- good balance clean/dirty

And decided that for me, hands down, the best pickup combination is SSH, with the bridge humbucker splitted to single coil in position 4 (bridge+middle pickup).

Yes, it might reek of 80s super Strat, it is not "vintage approved" or as manly as, say, a Tele combo, but for my music this is what works best.

I can get 4 (I don't particularly care for the standalone middle pickup tone) very distinct and very usable tones, 3 of which (neck pickup, neck+middle, bridge HB) I can associate to 90% of the music I make, and the fourth, i.e. the middle+splitted bridge position, is actually my favorite, as it gives a different and more usable kind of "quack", deeper, May-esque vs Knopfler, compared to the traditional Strat quack.

So, barring the argument that each pickup combo works for different situations, what is your No. 1?

 

[JJ321]

My number one is H-S-S. I love it in my Strat and in my Les Paul, I usually have the neck pickup split.

 

[nmiller]

I'd go with a Dynasonic in the neck position and a Guild HB-1 in the bridge. Clarity where it counts without any shrill highs.

 

[chase]

I can get 4 (I don't particularly care for the standalone middle pickup tone) very distinct and very usable tones

If you use a superswitch, you can replace the middle (3) position with the neck+bridge combination, which will get you a bit closer to a Tele and perhaps give you *5* very distinct and very usable tones, depending on your preferences.

 

[SPROING!]

P90 bridge and a vintage style firebird pickup at the neck.

 

[cratz2]

If you use a superswitch, you can replace the middle (3) position with the neck+bridge combination, which will get you a bit closer to a Tele and perhaps give you *5* very distinct and very usable tones, depending on your preferences.

If I had to slim down to two guitars, I'd do one something like this on an S/S/S Strat and I'd have one Big Apple-wired Strat.

I've had a couple Strats with Super Switches, but I've generally used a blender pot or a mini toggle to bring in the neck pickup. I like to have a bit more bridge picked than neck pickup in that position so, depending on the exact pickups, I like the blender the best and I almost never use the bridge Strat pickup by itself these days.

 

[Tweedledee]

If I had to narrow it down to just one combo that I've actually had and thought was perfect, it would be a Tele with a Fender Nocaster bridge pickup and a Seymour Duncan SM-1N Firebird neck pickup.

 

[narwhale]

My choice would be something like a Jazzmaster neck and PAF bridge or a Filtertron neck and Tele bridge. Or some other permutation of those.

 

[jpervin]

Traditional Tele combo (with 3-way switch) has always been my favorite. A new favorite of mine is the traditional Tele combo with a 4-way switch, for a pseudo-humbuckerish tone in the 4th position.

 

[pbmw]

It totally depends on what I need to do.
Different things for different things

 

[Tone_Terrific]

I should play a bright p90 neck and a full range hb (non honky) in the bridge with a 3way switch, 1 vol 1 tone and just be done with it.
But I only have 1 guitar like that and the others are all over the place.

 

[Promit]

If I had to pick one I would say HSS but I like HH a lot too. Might prefer HSH to HH if I found a non-RG in that layout.

 

[ScottOlson]

H-H but with coil-splitting and perhaps parallel/series switching.

 

[c_mac]

Tele for the bridge, Strat for the middle and neck.

 

[ianb]

I love my SSS Strats, but for maximum versatility, I have an HSS setup on a Tele, hooked up to a five-way super switch, with a variable coilsplit via an internal trimpot on the low-wind PAF-type neck humbucker. I have the following pickup combinations:

#1= Tele bridge pickup
#2= Tele bridge + Strat middle
#3= Tele bridge + neck PAF
#4= Strat middle + split neck PAF
#5= neck PAF, in either full or split via minitoggle

Right now, I'm working on an HSH Strat with a similar setup, but only because I sometimes miss the vibrato bridge on my Tele.

 

[chrisrocksusa]

I get derek from derek and the dominos to handwind all my pickups

 

[speyfly]

Here's my favorite...

 

[Tonaholic]

It looks like the fishman fluence versatility is out to steal my heart with an HH combo.

 

[KWthinline]

I have three…

1.) Standard three-way Tele with Q Filter and no neck pickups cover.
2.) The above with a four-way switch.
3.) SSS Strat with a blender pot AND a Q Filter

But if I had to narrow it down to one I would take the second choice