What does HSS mean?

 

You often come across the terms HSS in reference to guitar pickups but what does HSS mean? And while we’re at it, What do HSH and SSS mean too?

It’s all about the pickup configuration in a guitar (usually a Strat style guitar).

Put simply it means Humbucker, Single coil, Single coil and refers to the pickup configuration in an electric guitar.

Traditionally Stratocasters had 3 single coil pickups SSS – single, single, single. But there are other options – replacing the bridge pickup for a humbucker – HSS, humbucker, single, single. Or replacing both bridge and neck for humbuckers – HSH, humbucker, single, humbucker.

Table of Contents

Why would you want a bridge humbucker?

What is the difference between humbucker and single coil tone?

What’s the solution?

What is a swimming pool route?

So What does HSS mean?

Why would you want a bridge humbucker?

Surely Fender know what they’re doing so why mess with it?

Well, the Stratocaster first went into production in 1954 and has barely changed since. Although the guitar is the same, music certainly isn’t. Changing the bridge pickup for a humbucker can give you way more options.

HSS Strat

What is the difference between humbucker and single coil tone?

Humbuckers are generally more powerful and have a fuller tone. They will push an amplifier into overdrive more easily. The humbucker sound is fatter and less percussion.

If you’re interested here is how humbuckers work.

This is a great configuration but for rock players the bridge pickup can be a bit thin and weedy sounding.

There is a place for every tone but a lot of players do prefer having a bit more power in the bridge position.

SSS Strat

What’s the solution?

With the advent of replacement pickups players started fitting humbuckers in the bridge position. It can involve some routing (not always) but it really fattens up that bridge position sound. The HSS (humbucker, single, single) Strat was born.

HSS guitars are hugely versatile. You get the best of both worlds – all the lovely clean single coil tones but with a fat lead tone when you need it. It’s like combining a Strat with a Les Paul and can really open up possibilities.

By now you’ve guessed HSH – humbucker, single, humbucker . This is another hugely versatile set up but we’re getting further away from the original Strat tones here. This is really popular with rock players from the. 1980’s on. The neck position humbucker gives those lush thick fat lead tones associated with Gibsons – think ‘Still Got The Blues’.

HSH

With all these extra tonal options come more wiring possibilities. Humbuckers have 2 coils so that gives the option to have those coils wired in series (conventional humbucker) or in parallel- similar to a single coil tone.

There’s also the option of coil tap where one of the 2 coils is turned off.

How those wiring options sounds is going to be the subject of another blog/video.

What is a swimming pool route?

If you have a conventional Strat type guitar it does require a bit of woodworking to fit a humbucker at the bride position.

Here is what a Strat looks like under the pickguard. As you can see a humbucker won’t fit in that small cavity.

SSS Strat Body

But some Strats have what is known as a swimming pool route. With this type of body any pickup configuration will fit – SSS, HSS, HSH You just need to change the pickguard. It looks like this:

Swimming Pool Route

There is a school of thought though that this ruins the sound of a Stratocaster. I’m not getting into that discussion here.

So What does HSS mean?

Well, it’s simply an option for pickups on (usually) a Stratocaster type guitar.

There are so many tonal options with a Strat, so many changes you can make. if you are getting into modifying (modding) guitars then a Strat is a perfect platform for experimenting.

Here are the options for my Strat pickups. And here are my humbuckers. There are too many variables to discuss here but if you have any questions about which combination will work best for you just get in touch.

I hope this has been helpful and answered What does HSS mean?

Understanding the ’72 Fender Mustang Bass Pickup Design

 

The ’72 Fender Mustang Bass Pickup may appear to be a budget model but Leo Fender cared about his products and everything was thoroughly thought out.

Table of Contents

A bit of history

What makes the Mustang Bass Pickup great

So back to the Mustang Bass Pickup repair

A bit of history

I get to repair old pickups as well as make new ones so when I was sent this old Mustang Bass Pickup I thought it was worth taking a few pics and writing about it.

This was the last bass designed by Leo Fender before he sold Fender to CBS in ’65. This pickup shows all the thought and consideration you would expect from the great man. It’s easy to dismiss pickups on ‘budget’ guitars but there’s a lot more to this one than meets the eye.

The later version of this instrument, the Musicmaster Bass had a single coil pickup straight out of a Stratocaster – yes really. Here is more on the Musicmaster bass pickup. I make my own version of the Musicmaster bass pickup in two flavours.

The original Mustang bass pickup that I have here is a split pair, like a precision bass pickup but with a few essential design differences.

What makes the Mustang Bass Pickup great

The obvious thing is that it’s smaller, but there’s a good reason for that.

The Mustang is a short scale bass, 30″. With a shorter scale comes less string tension and a much boomier sound with less percussive highs and a fatter bottom end.

So why didn’t he just use P Bass pickup?

It’s obvious from the design of the Mustang Bass Pickup that the intention was not to just knock out a cheap student model but to make a great instrument only with a shorter scale.

You can see that the magnets are protruding out of the bottom of the base plate – they’re 24mm long alnico 5 magnets. P Bass magnets are around half that length. Bigger magnets means more pull on the string and more punch to the attack of the note.

The distance between top and bottom plates is greater on the Mustang than the P Bass. This gives a much taller pickup. With a taller pickup more of the windings are closer to the magnet. A P Bass’ windings can get a lot further away from that magnetic field by the time you get to the outside turns.

Windings closer to the magnet gives a sharper, more percussive mote than the mellower P Bass.

With roughly the same turn count between P Bass and mustang this means the Mustang’s footprint is smaller.

Both those factors – coil geometry and magnetic pull are specifically designed to offset the lack of definition you can hear in a short scale bass.

This was not the easiest path to take. The magnets would have to have been specially made and the flatwork (top and bottom plates) would have been made specifically for this model. Not least there would have been molds made to injection mold the covers.

It was all about getting the best possible sound from a short scale bass while make the price accessible to more musicians.

It’s a clever design.

Five years later when CBS were running Fender they introduced the same bass but with a Stratocaster (yes, 6 pole) pickup. Now that was taking the easy route. Leo Fender always did things the best way he could, working up to a standard rather than down to a price.

If you’re interested in Leo Fender read Forrest White’s book, he was there.

So back to the Mustang Bass Pickup repair

As you can see from the colour of the windings the wire has plain enamel insulation. The insulation does make a difference. Not all insulation is the same thickness. Thicker insulation means windings are further away from each other. This changes the pickups capacitance and to an extent inductance and dc resistance. Remember, we’re multiplying small differences by how many turns there are, in this case over 10,000.

It appears this coil failed due to corrosion of the magnetic pole

You can see the corrosion in this pic.

In the 70’s Fender pickups were potted in lacquer rather than wax in both earlier and later periods. The lacquer didn’t penetrate all the way to the core of the pickup and this is the result.

Before I re-wound this coil it was rust proofed and insulated – I want this repair to outlive me.