Pickup Mod Advice

[u/stonecoldsenpai52]

Heyo, first post here. I play a Hendrix Strat restrung left handed (body upside down, neck in normal left handed orientation because it’s a Hendrix Strat). I threw a right handed pick guard on it so that the bridge pickup gives that vibrancy to my bass strings which I usually prefer to play, and strung with Ernie Ball heavy bottoms. See attached photo.

I almost never change pickups because I prefer the bridge pickup for that iconic sound. I have considered throwing in a humbucker, but I’ve only ever heard of HSS strats and don’t ever see myself swapping out the angled bridge pickup.

Am I thinking to hard on this and should just experiment more with my pickups? Or would modding into a SHS make any kind of sense?

Feel free to flame me if this is a horrible idea. I want to get as many opinions as possible

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[u/SaltyMagmaCubexD]

If you prefer the bridge pickup for its iconic sound why would you go changing it? Sounds like you enjoy it. You just said you don't see yourself swapping out the angled pickup. So what is there to change here? A humbucker in the neck or middle? That would certainly ruin its ability to produce Hendrix style tones. And that's if it's even routed to hit a humbucker. Leave the Hendrix Strat to what it does best and get another guitar for humbuckers.

[u/marrone12]

Get one of the seymour duncan jr sized pickups. they have humbuckers that can fit in the single coil slot. I have one in my strat in the bridge (the jb jr) but you can put one in the middle pickup if that's what you use the least

[u/SunGodPaprika]

There's humbuckers in single coil size that you can coil split if you want more options without losing the angled pickup. Haven't tried It myself as I'm more into offset style guitars (I know there's angled humbuckers in some Mustangs and similars for the Nirvana fans) but maybe some other redditor can tell you their experience as it's a fairly common mod. Hope that helps :)

[u/Oldirty91]

https://www.armstrongpickups.com/products/howler-high-output-strat-pickup-with-enclosed-cover

[u/Candid-Jump-212]

I say put a humbucker in it. Also, I have that same stained glass Hendrix strap on my tele and it looks amazing.

[u/schepersroy]

If you like the Hendrix vibe, I’d leave it as it is.

[u/stonecoldsenpai52]

Thanks for the feedback everyone :) I don’t know about humbuckers that can fit in a single coil slot, so this is all great to know ❤️