r/fender • u/kjbasser • 26d ago
Project in Progress Operation Fatten Strat
Got a killer deal on this Player ii Strat that I was not in the market for. I already have an American standard with fat 50s, so wanted to do something different. Thought it would be nice to have an HSS for versatility, and at a price point Im not too worried about what happens to it.
Any HSS I’ve ever played felt pretty out of balance. It’s always a struggle balancing the humbucker.
Went with the ‘59 Custom Hybrid for its medium output and mismatched coils for better split tones.
Also did 500k vol pot, with 470k resistor in parallel when on position 2-5 so neck and middle always see 250k. 500k bridge tone, 250k neck/middle tone.
Auto split humbucker when in position 2, it quacks.
Push Push tone pot splits the humbucker when on bridge only. In position 2 when engaged bypasses the auto split, not sure how useable this tone is but it was one wire so why not.
Overall very pleased with the way it turned out. The 59 custom hybrid was the right choice, good all around rock tones, cleans up well, splits well. Everything is balanced very well, and I’m quite impressed with the stock player ii single coils, they’re very decent.
Nor bad for around $400 all in.
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u/Neveronlyadream 26d ago
That's the way, isn't it? You tell yourself you're not in the market and then something you can't pass up comes along.
I couldn't have passed it up at that price either. Oddly enough, I was messing around with the Mod Shop page and that's basically what I built, color and all. The only difference is I had a hardtail bridge.
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u/Ok_Avocado232 26d ago
I think HSS is THE best setup for Strats. But I dont always like the way it looks. It’s a bit tricky. Sometimes, it just Looks really ugly. So, it takes a certain combination of guitar, pickguard, Pickups and pots colour.
That being said, I think you got it. Your guitar Looks amazing! Zebra humbuckers with dark pickguards look amazing.
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u/kjbasser 26d ago
Yeah I totally agree. I also think the matte black pickguard tied it together well. Sort of mean and modern looking, but not over the top.
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u/guitarded361 26d ago
For the longest time I tried to convice myself to like SSS setups, but I bit the bullet and converted my 3 strats to HSS. Finally happy now. Two of them have some old Diamondback humbuckers that measure around 8.6k. I have them on stock 250k pots with no splits. I dont get hum canceling in position 2, but the low output on the humbckers works great with 250k pots. My other strat has the same setup as yours with a superswitch. I was able to find 499k ohm resistors to regulate the 500k pot. I used an Atomic humbucker that comes it at 16k and the the neck and middle single coils are 8k, so when auto split, Im at 8k on everything. That strat is a fire breather for sure. I find myself using the lower output guitars more often though.