13. Combinations

For awhile one there was a relatively clear separation of the two pickup concepts. This is why Les Pauls and their close as well distant relatives are known for their fat humbucker sounds. While the Strat, on the other hand, is known for more open, bluesy single-coil distortion sounds and the typical, hollow-clean sound.

But since each of the two types offered specific advantages and since many guitarists would have preferred to use both types in one instrument, the industry took notice and in the 70's started to make different combinations available. A popular example of this are the Strats of guitar legend Eddie Van Halen in which, whch in addition to the standard single coil pickups, always had powerful humbuckers installed.

The fact that this set-up satisfies the sound needs of most guitarists has made it a true standard which is still popular today.

Normally, the "hybrid guitars" described above are based on the S-S-H pickup combination, each featuring a single coil pickup in the neck and middle position and a humbucker in the bridge position. Many "stratstyle" guitars come equipped this way as standard and are known called a ''Rock-Strat". A second variant, even more versatile in terms of its sound spectrum, is the combination H-S-H, with one humbucker in bridge and neck position and the obligatory single coil in the middle. With this setup and with various circuit variants, it is possible to produce all the classic sounds of rock, pop, jazz, and blues on the same guitar.

Diagrams

A lot of the most popular sounds in today's industry as well as some very interesting alternative one can be created through the use of additional functions such as out-of-phase, coil splitting or dual sound, in combination with the different pickups. This makes it impossible for us to show every combination in this guid but we have provided diagrams of the most important and common circuit set-ups below. We have also provided links to some of the best websites in terms of pickups and wiring for your convenience.

Les Paul/Gibson Style Guitars

Fat Strat Style Guitars

2x Humbucker, 1x Single Coil Circuit

Websites

DiMarzio (www.dimarzio.com) Seymour Duncan (www.seymourduncan.com) and Fender all have a huge selection of circuit diagrams on their websites.

On the DiMarzio website you can find PDFs about pickup installation for each of the pickups under "Installation" in the menu.

Seymour Duncan and Fender have all of their diagrams available for download in the support area: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/ and http://www.fender.com/en-US/support/articles/stratocaster-service-diagrams