Does anyone have any experience with stacked coil pickups. ... the ones fit in a single coil slot but sound like humbuckers?

I really like the tone of the neck and middle pickups on my strat, but the bridge is just a little too thin. It sounds like an ice pick. (if icepicks make any noise ).

Anyway, I was thinking about swapping out the bridge pickup so that I can get the best of both worlds... a fat lead sound in the neck positon and a bright thinner sound for rhythm all on the same guitar.

I use the stacked lil59 seymor duncan in the bridge. I must note two things:

1. stacked single will never sound as good as the real sized humbucker
2. lil 59 is to midrange focused and with little harmonics.

If you are getting one, choose the one that has most harmonics. I think JB Jr, and lil screaming demon are good choices, I've seen them on few guitars that were used by pros and they sounded very good.

Hotrail is a good choice for H/B, also Seymour Duncan do quite a few other H/B options:-
There's the Cool Rails, The Duckbuckers, JB Jr, Li'l Screamin' Demon, Little 59 and Vintage Rails!!
All the links take you to the SD site where they describe the Harmonic qualities of each model!!

Thanks guys. I'll read up on those and decide.

SJ, based on the descriptions from the links you've attached, I'm probably going to go for the Hot Rails SD. Thanks for the info.

Yea, Ivan, I'm glad to hear your thoughts and actual experiences. Wouldn't it be nice if you could get both the perfect Les Paul sounds and the perfect Strat sounds from the same guitar. I think that the PRS sort of gets a good middle ground with nice humbucker sounds and decent single coil sounds but my old Les Paul (which weighs a about a ton so I don't play it much any more) has an edge on "fatness" and downright ballsy output while the strat quack and shimmering highs can't be had on the PRS either. It must be other factors like mahogany versus swamp ash (woods) and glued vs. bolt on kneck are significant too.

If anyone's played any other varieties of stacked single coil, let me know your thoughts. I'll probably buy within a week or two.

Ii recently put a SD Hot Rail in neck on my caparison, and it's great Kiko Loureiro use it as well

Anytime mate. Yeah wood and build type is what counts the most actually. Good wood - better sound, richer and with more harmonics and resonance. Everything else is secondary.

I've fitted quite a few Strats with the Hotrails and find that they fatten the sound quite nicely in H/B mode.
The Billy Corgan Signature comes equipped with 3 DiMarzio Rail type H/B's of varying output and is an extremely versatile instrument!

The only drawback with any of these (in a similar vein to that which Ivan mentioned earlier) is that when Coil split they won't be quite as sharp in single mode either. They are just a compromise between a full single coil and a full sized H/B!!!

ALoha,
I have the Dimarzio HS-3 stack in the bridge position and feel it gets great harmonics and a rich tone. It has low output so it distorts really well without breaking up (kinda counter intuitive). You may want to check to see what your current output is with the other pickups, to blend them... I don't think all combinations of pickups will work well? Perhaps define the sound you are chasing (blues, classic rock, jazz, metal) and then... narrow a search with similar output stacks? A High output bridge and low output neck and middle may not sound right...

Can't you put a full size hummie in the bridge of most strats?

Yes most strats have cavities for a humbucker in the bridge!

All you would have to do is get a new pickuard with a humbucker opening and voila: FatStrat

I read in an article that only year 2000 and above Standard Series Strats have the enlarged cavities in bridge/neck for hum upgrades. Before 2000 they made them with single-sized cavities.

Interesting. Maybe they've changed it slightly off and on from model to model? Or was it implied more like *only* after 2000?

I was reading an article about 2000 year Standard models, here it is, might be useful reading:
http://www.legendarytones.com/fendstrat90.html

here's the quote from the article:



This post has been edited by Ivan Milenkovic: Sep 2 2009, 11:14 PM

If you're referring to the part that goes

"In addition, the bodies were now routed so that any number of pickup configurations could be used rather than just the traditional three single-coils. As the years progressed, further changes were incorporated from TBX tone controls and a new hotter Delta tone pickup system for increased output.."

I think they are talking about changes made from the CBS era on the '87 strats, so it would seem that the body routing began accepting humbuckers in 87, I think.

I can say mine is an '09 and it is not routed for a humbucker...It is an Artist Series (MIA). I'm under the impression that some (or all) of the MIM have/ or have had that routing, as a time saving cost cutting option for assembly... This way any guitar rolling of the line can/could be put together with either option. The "tone purest" would argue that if you are using a single coil, you should keep as much wood possible, and not route unless needed.

No universal routing on this guitar. I spec'd it that way while thinking I wanted this guitar to be "pure Strat". But then after putting it together and playing it for awhile, I sort of miss the fat humbucker sound for rock playing. I ordered the Seymour Duncan Hot Rails and it came in this week. I'm waiting for some time to solder it in to check it out. Someday, I'll probably end up with two complete pick guard assemblies one carrying vintage pups and the other some sort of modern hot rodded set. But for now, I'm thinking that the current combination is going to be a good one for this guitar.I'm going to mess with the height adjustment on each pickup to get the output levels balanced ... Hoping to have the best of both worlds with this setup.

Keep rockin' guys!

\m/

Good luck James!!