I'm thinking about putting Dimarzio HS3 pickups in my strats

[Blazer]

Today I had the pleasure of playing a Fender Yngwie Malmsteen signature model, an older early nineties model with the small headstock and I really liked how good those Dimarzio pickups sounded, I never heard a strat that could do high gain tones so well.


A 1991 Fender Malmsteen strat, similar to the one I played today.

I love to take my strats out for gigs but with my battle metal outfit they seem ill suited for the gig and I hate the way Strats look with a Humbucker put in. That Malmsteen I played looked every bit a Strat but it roared like a Gibson, unfortunately i don't have the money to buy it and I don't like the scalloped fingerboard.

So I'm planning to fit all three of my strats with HS3 pickups in the bridge position so I can rock out with the best of them and still maintaining the classic Strat look.


My question is do any of you have experience with this pickup and can you tell me to look out for?

[straycat]

The HS-3 is a very high out put stacked single and will tend to suck the life out of the other pickups in the 2 and 4 position.The HS-3 is a 23.72 k pickup and your others are between 7k and 9k so when you switch to 2 and 4 you will loose some of the shimmer of the stock singles.
You will get a dark dull tone that has been my experience.Now 3 HS-3s sounds pretty good.
When paired with a HS 2 or FS 1 they sound good.
Be sure to use 500k pots if you go this route 250 with an HS-3 sucks.Use a high end audio cap like Hoveland or Jensen or even an orange drop to get the most out of the electronics.Just get an RSguitarworks pot upgrade kit and do it right the first time.

[Bengal65]

The HS-3 is a very high out put stacked single and will tend to suck the life out of the other pickups in the 2 and 4 position.The HS-3 is a 23.72 k pickup and your others are between 7k and 9k so when you switch to 2 and 4 you will loose some of the shimmer of the stock singles.
You will get a dark dull tone that has been my experience.Now 3 HS-3s sounds pretty good.
When paired with a HS 2 or FS 1 they sound good.
Be sure to use 500k pots if you go this route 250 with an HS-3 sucks.Use a high end audio cap like Hoveland or Jensen or even an orange drop to get the most out of the electronics.Just get an RSguitarworks pot upgrade kit and do it right the first time.

+1 Straycat's the man

[straycat]

Thanks man.I just call them like I see them.

[xbolt]

My 85 Squire is loaded with em'
Killer!

[Mr Metal]

While observed more often than not, high DC resistance does not automatically amount to high output. There are other factors involved such as magnet type and strength as well........

Quote from Dimarzio website:

Yngwie Malmsteen adopted it for his standard neck and bridge pickup, and almost overnight the HS-3™ acquired the reputation of being a high-powered metal pickup. This isn’t really the case—the HS-3™ is actually a smooth and relatively quiet pickup that produces a sweet overdrive tone without jagged edges. What Yngwie discovered is that these qualities combine perfectly with a heavily distorted amp, because the sound won’t get muddy or messy. The HS-3™ is also versatile—it’s a noise-free pickup in a live situation or in the studio.

HS-3's output, which is a stacked single coil, is only 93 mV.......In comparison, FS-1 (true single coil) puts out 160 mV, Virtual Vintage Blues (also a stacked single coil like HS-3) puts out 175 mV, Fast Track 2 (mini humbucker) puts out 321 mv, and a Tone Zone (full size humbucker) puts out 375 mV.

[straycat]

I didn't want to get overly technical MrMetal but I do know what you are talking about and I agree but the HS-3 does suck the life out of stock Fender singles and thats a fact.
Any time there is a huge difference in k resistance between the pickups there will be a big drop in vol between the pickups thats why you have a need for balancing or matching pickups that work well with each other.
Look I've made lots of my own pickups and used lots of boutique builers pickups as well as the standard fare from all the others and I have lots of experience with pickups.
Blazer if you want a killer bridge single coil try the SDS-1 DiMarzio it has tons of tone and bite and it blends with the stock Fenders because it is a 9k res.
Case in point I built a 2 hum 1 single strat and used a PAF pro in the neck and a Super D in the bridge and an HS-3 in the middle and when you switched to center and bridge hum the HS -3 dropped over half its out put in this mode.The SDS-1 worked much better in this configuration and sounded killer with the super D.
The pots were 500 k CTS with a Mallory .022 cap and vintage cloth covered multi strand wire.

[Cygnus X1]

A pup's mv rating is only part of the story, as is the internal resistance.
I can only speak from personal experience, and it follows what stray was
referring to. It does seem to be a bit more sensitive, I wouldn't say powerful, so I like it in the neck position. It sniffs out the overtones, and just seems to be more powerful compared to the stock SC pup.

[straycat]

Woof! Woof!

[Mr Metal]

No disagreement to the specific point that Straycat is making here..........I've always used HS-3s in the bridge with another HS-3 in the neck (like Yngwie used to do) or with a YJM in the neck (like Yngwie does), or as a neck pickup with a humbucker in the bridge, so I cannot offer any personal experience on its affecting lower impedance pickups. My point would be that this issue is most possibly related to a factor other than actual output

[straycat]

I like the HS-3 in the neck HS-2 or Fender reverse phase SC in the middle and HS-3 in the bridge and wiring the bridge to have the tone control not the middle.
I think we all make valid points in this thread thanks for intelligent banter.

[jcm800x]

Yes, HS3's are very LOW output pups, I've used them for years. I like them because they have a nice 'voice' to them, similar to a Pafpro IMO but with less output. When I switch from a humbucker guitar to a HS3 guitar I have to adjust my distortion pedal to compensate. Use the MV output to rate the pups overall output, not the resistance.

[j2379]

ummm what about a duncan hot rail or one of the many single sized hums duncan makes?