What are the middle and neck pickups in the Soloist SL1?

[nitrous12]

The website doesn't list what is in those positions. Are they stacked single coils? If so is the guitar wired to split those for true single coil sounds?
I am considering an SL1 or SL2 at this point.

[wilkinsi]

They are single coils. STK-1's I believe - the same as you will also find in the DK2. If you want more options, go for the SL2H and replace the two pots with push/pull type pots so you can coil-split both the bridge and neck pickups.

[Ward]

I thought SL1s had classic stack humbuckers, not singles.

Maybe they have changed, but the SL1 I have has a Seymour Duncan classic stack in the middle and neck positions.

[Newc]

They're CLassic Stacks I believe.

According to Duncan, the stacks only offer humbucking properties, but the bottom coil is too far away from the strings to affect the tone other than hum-cancellation i.e. you can't wire them in parallel and get the same sound as you would out of say a regular side-by-side humbucker.

Therefore, splitting them would only give you 60 Hz hum.

[tonemonster]

I am not a big fan of the duncan stacked singles the STK-1. As newc said, they do offer humbucking properties, but they dont sound like a humbucker. so dont be mislead. I replaced the neck in my SL1 with a duncan cool rails, and in my DK1 I put a duncan lil' 59 (single coil sized version of the 59).

[Ward]

I am not a big fan of the duncan stacked singles the STK-1. As newc said, they do offer humbucking properties, but they dont sound like a humbucker.

Agreed. I only have them in that one guitar, and never use them.

[HOTRIFF]

I replaced the neck in my SL1 with a duncan cool rails, and in my DK1 I put a duncan lil' 59 (single coil sized version of the 59).

How sound these compared to the STK-1 ?

[vanhendrix]

I'm actually a huge fan of these pickups. They really do just what this thread has been saying: they cancel the hum but still sound like a single coil. Really, really good for clean sounds and espectially that 4th position - for Stevie ray or mark knopfler tones.

Remember, this guitar evolved from a strat. This one of the few throwbacks that still exist in it.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

IMO the Cool Rails sounds much better than the STK-1 or the Hot Stack.

[Cuthbert]

The scope of the STK-1 and all the stacked humbuckers in general is not to sound like an humbucker but to sound as a single coil without hum, that's the point!

The SL1 was meant to have SC and HB sounds, therefore the choice of the STK-1 is obvious, but in that class of pickups I prefer the Dimarzio VV Solo or Blues 2, that have much more output than the Duncans.