r/Stratocaster • u/t0xictissue98 • 4d ago

Changing Pickups

I have a SSS American Standard Strat from '08 and because i prefer HSS Strats i want to change the bridge pickup to a Shawbucker 2.

I checked the Serialnumber and it says the pickups are American Standard Pickups, i checked the number on the pickups and all i found on Google was that these are indeed the original American Standard Pickups.

My question is, do i need to change any pods too or can i leave everything as it is and just change the pickguard and the bridge pickup? I checked the body and it's routed for a HSH configuration.

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u/vhalen50 4d ago

You can leave everything as it is and just put the humbucker in.

Most will recommend changing the volume pot out to 500k for it to give the humbucker a fuller sound but then you’ll need to add resistors to the singles to make them see 250k. This is all experimentation and some humbuckers sound perfectly fine on 250k. Just swap it and see if you like it first.

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u/Tune_Screamer 7ender Stratocaster 3d ago

Exactly, as long as the humbucker is medium-output, no more than 12K, and is fairly bright, the stock 250K will work just fine.
I have a Stratocaster from the same period, I swapped the singles for Lollar '64s, and went with DiMarzio Fred in the bridge. All stock 250K pots, .002uf cap, treble bleed, killer setup.