Strats with humbuckers?

[Bro]

Now people, i've heard and seen a lot of stratocasters lately, suprise suprise, but most of them had a humbucker in stead of a single coil brigde pick up. And i am wondering: can you still get the same single coil brigde pickup sound with the humbucker? And does effect the rest of the pick up system?
Looking forward to hear from you guys
Merry christmas!

[Greeny]

Personally, I think that most of the Strats unique, signature sound is because of it's single coil pick-ups. So why anyone would want to put humbuckers on there instead is a complete mystery to me. For me, that kind of humbucker sound takes you straight into Les Paul territory (even though my gold top has P-90 single coils). Or are you talking about a combination of single-coil and humbuckers? I guess that would add some kind of versatility, but to me it's a bit like Frankenstein's monster 

As far as I know, you'll never get a single coil sound from a humbucker. But you also won't get the bloody radio interference I used to pick up on my strat either!

I'm sure others will tell you differently though!

[SteveG]

I have a H/S/S Aria strat copy (With a Jap Strat neck which plays lovely). The 'bucker is tapped, and the single coil setting sounds fine to me. It is not set at a slant like the Strat bridge single, but still gets the "Twang" you would expect, and I can go to a deeper rock tone at the flick of a switch!
I paid £26 for the guitar and £85 for the neck on Ebay. Worth checking the Aria's if you want to try this combination, the original neck was not brilliant, but better than a Affinity Squire!!

[64Guitars]

I've always used humbuckers because I get way too much snap, crackle and pop from single-coil pickups. But I've recently learned that you can get "noiseless" Strat pickups from Fender and several after-market pickup manufacturers. I haven't had the opportunity to try them yet but I'd sure like to. I've always loved the sound of the Strat but never owned one because of the noisy single-coil pickups.

Technically, I guess these noiseless Strat pickups are humbuckers since they use dual coils. However, the coils are stacked rather than side-by-side as in conventional humbuckers. So they look like ordinary single-coil Strat pickups rather than the large rectangular Gibson-style humbuckers. Some Strats are available with those conventional humbuckers as well, but they don't look as good and I think they'd ruin that great Strat sound. But if the noiseless pickups cancel hum as claimed without affecting the tone, I think there might be a Strat in my future.

[Glenn Mitchell]

I happen to use a F- Jazzmaster that has Humbucking, soapbar PAF looking pickups on it. I've never seen one like so I'm assuming it was modified. (One old black musician I met exclaimed "What did you DO to that guitar!!")
I agree with 64 that the sound is disappointing. Thin. Tho others like it.
I've always loved that single coil sound of the Strat myself..

[Kody]

I have a Washburn Idol 65 w/ 2 humbuckers that has what is called VCC(voice contour control) Instead of the tone knobs adjusting tone- they can adjust between full humbucker and single coil sound. For example-It has a SD '59 in the neck-but when I turn the tone knob down- it sounds much like a Strat's(SC)  neck PUP. It's actually pretty cool!

[lemonstar]

The so called "fat strats" have a humbucker and 2 single coils. I played one a friend had 2 years ago through a Roland Cube 30 and it sounded and played great. I'm more of a Gibson fan but I liked it a lot - if felt very nice in my hands - maybe the neck was a little shorted than I expected but it had a meaty sound.

I bought an Aria Pro II 1(615) (10 years ago!?) that I think is a really well made guitar - bottom horizontal half looks and feels and is shaped like a Telecaster but the top half is shaped (rear contour) and feels like a Strat - that has 3 single coils and a 5 position switch which lets you play coil 1 alone, coil 2 alone, coil 3 alone, coils 1+2 and coils 2+3 - I like the wide variety of sounds I can get from it and it feels great - I don't know why Aria don't seem to get much recognition. The Gibson SG I was after didn't feel right in my hands and it was too expensive anyway but I'm happy with the Aria - it has a long thin profile neck. I wanted a guitar with 2 humbuckers but didn't find what I wanted so opted for the Aria - 2 or 3 weeks later I found a beautifully worn/used/loved Hohner with 2 humbuckers that sounded and played brilliantly... ah well, life's like that sometimes. So.. 1 guitar is never enough IMHO and the fat strat switched me on to Strats.

[Greeny]

So.. 1 guitar is never enough IMHO

So true!!!!!! 

[lemonstar]

.. must be fate - that guitar I liked turns out to be a Hohner Rockwood Gibson Les Paul type and there's one up on ebay now for almost nothing (but there are a few hours to go so I'll keep an eye on that)

[steveblues50]

i have a mim ssh strat and it's a great guitar, but if you WANT a CLASSIC strat tone go for the single coils.my ssh has a spot on the pu selector that is supposed to give you a single coil bridge pu sound but its not quite the same.