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Hatsubai « Great vintage sounding single »
Published on 04/17/11 at 18:22The Seymour Duncan SSL-1 single coils are one of the most well known single coils that Seymour Duncan has to offer. The SSL-1 is a low output single coil that features staggered Alnico 5 magnets and two conductor wiring. It also comes in reverse wound, reverse polarity to work nicely in the middle.
The SSL-1s are very vintage sounding pickups that go great with Stratocasters. These pickups are fairly bright and clean sounding, but they also have a fairly nice bottom end. The highs are crisp, just like you’d expect from a single coil. The midrange is pushed back a bit to help give it some clarity, and the low end is very even sounding to complement the overall tone. Clean tones totally sing and can get an awesome Eric Johnson style tone. Chords are also very clear and precise sounding. Under medium gain, these things really have some nice attitude and can give sound great vintage style gain tones. High gain tones, however, are a bit lacking given how low output they are.
I’m a big fan of these in the middle position. Given that I tend to like hotter single coils, I prefer something a bit hotter in the neck. When they’re in the neck, they give a great clean and midgain tone, but for higher gain playing, they fight me too much in strats. Obviously, they’re a bit too underpowered for me in the bridge position, but they might work if you’re into more vintage style tones. In the middle position, it gives a great clean tone and leads to an awesome “quack” when combined with a neck single or split coil humbucker.
If you’re looking for a more vintage style single coil in the Seymour Duncan lineup, these are probably your best bet for the money. They’re great sounding pickups that should work in most situations.
The SSL-1s are very vintage sounding pickups that go great with Stratocasters. These pickups are fairly bright and clean sounding, but they also have a fairly nice bottom end. The highs are crisp, just like you’d expect from a single coil. The midrange is pushed back a bit to help give it some clarity, and the low end is very even sounding to complement the overall tone. Clean tones totally sing and can get an awesome Eric Johnson style tone. Chords are also very clear and precise sounding. Under medium gain, these things really have some nice attitude and can give sound great vintage style gain tones. High gain tones, however, are a bit lacking given how low output they are.
I’m a big fan of these in the middle position. Given that I tend to like hotter single coils, I prefer something a bit hotter in the neck. When they’re in the neck, they give a great clean and midgain tone, but for higher gain playing, they fight me too much in strats. Obviously, they’re a bit too underpowered for me in the bridge position, but they might work if you’re into more vintage style tones. In the middle position, it gives a great clean tone and leads to an awesome “quack” when combined with a neck single or split coil humbucker.
If you’re looking for a more vintage style single coil in the Seymour Duncan lineup, these are probably your best bet for the money. They’re great sounding pickups that should work in most situations.