[nynemusic]

Time to make my purchase:
Have decided on Injector neck for clean Gilmour type tone and shred.
Need a Middle quacked -- torn between Area '67 and VV '54 Pro. This is mostly for Neck n Middle Quack, read that the '67 can be a bit thin.
Bridge options: Norton, Air Zone and Steve's Special. Need humbucker for hi gain and position 2 clean quack.
Would like the bridge and neck to balance in volume. Harmonics and feedback is a requirement as well.
Please advice!
Thanks

[nynemusic]

By position 2 i meant neck and middle, some people call it position 4!

I also thought about D-Sonic/Cruiser Bridge/Fast Track 1 , for a more gainy beefy tone. From demos i read, the FT1 still sounds single coilish on clean and takes hi gain wel, and may balance with the higher gain D-Sonic. The Cruiser seems bright enough to get some quack happening.

Thoughts guys ?
Cheers
Faisal

[darkbluemurder]

Since you have a HSS set up you will likely use 500k pots since they will work well with the Injector neck and a medium to high output bridge humbucker. Another Injector neck will work well for the middle position.

As to your bridge pickup shortlist - never played any of those so I cannot comment.

My HSS strat is set up with a Heavy Blues 2 in the neck, an Injector neck in the middle and a humbucker from a different manufacturer that should be fairly close to the AT-1.

Cheers Stephan

[jazzfromhell]

I had the Injector neck and AT-1 in one of my main guitars until recently.
While I really like the Injector I could never get it to balance well, tone wise and volume wise, with the AT-1. I know other people have other experiences but for me it simply didnt work for what I wanted. The AT-1 is very middy (which I usually like but I ended up not liking the AT-1 very much at all; pretty flat and uninteresting tone to me) so pulling back a bit on the mids on the amp made the Injector almost disappear in the mix. When I go with the Injector again in another guitar I'll put something like a PAF Master or 36th Anniversary in the bridge; something more balanced and not as pronounced in the mids. I think that will be a much better fit.
YMMV of course.

[nynemusic]

Dimarzio tech support has suggested that if output balance cant be sacrificed then only their Vintage Output humbuckers will match well.
They have suggested PAF 36An Bridge/'67/Injector Neck.
I think i'll go with that.
Never really had a vintage output humbucker in the bridge.
Wondering how it'll take hi gain.
But i hear fantastic stuff about these pickups!

[LPBII]

The 36th handles gain well. It is articulate under high gain in a strat.

I have used various HSS guitars for years, and Dimarzio tech support is right about PAF types working best with singles or single voiced pickups in the neck and middle.  The original Fender Lone Star strat used a Pearly Gates Plus (a PAF clone).

There is a school of thought of using a high output humbucker with a stronger output while split with the middle pickup, and then having a much louder output when the humbucker is in-series.

But the 36th splits well and has pretty good output anyway. It's a good recommendation in my opinion.

When I tried the 36th in a strat it was a little too bright for me with 500k pots.  If the Injector requires 500k pots, I would probably use a 500k master volume and a 500k tone on the injector, with a 250k tone on the bridge humbucker.

[DarthPhineas]

I'm checking out a 36th in a guitar right now. I play a lot of high gain 80s style and I think it will be fine for such an application as yours.

[nynemusic]

Darth! Thats awesome to know

[tonejam]

..."There is a school of thought of using a high output humbucker with a stronger output while split with the middle pickup, and then having a much louder output when the humbucker is in-series....."
I follow this school of thought, and use an Air Zone for bridge. It splits better than any humbucker, and works superbly with the middle PUP for quack.
It's basically a very big, very fat PAF sound in series.

[darkbluemurder]

Don't know about the 36th Anniversary bridge but I have a Virtual Hot PAF in the bridge position of a strat, and it handles gain very well. It's not so much a matter of raw pickup output but one of the right frequency balance.

Cheers Stephan

[nynemusic]

I'm sold on the PAF 36 Anni!
Not a bad review anywhere!

[DarthPhineas]

Also have the VHPaf. It's a little bit hotter and a little sharper/brighter sounding then the 36th. Can probably tell more difference if your into jazzy type playing, but the difference are a little more subtle under high gain.