Bridge Humbucker in my Cutlass

[blandified]

Hey All,

I bought a used Music Man Cutlass SSS and I love it! Great sound and feel.

The only thing I want to do is to swap the single coil bridge pickup to a humbucker, I emailed Ernie Ball and they said it should be routed for a bridge humbucker. Before you ask, yes I could have bought an HSS but this SSS came up at a killer deal and it was the color I wanted.

Option 1 is find a single coil sized humbucker. My friend uses a Hot Rails in his Silver Sky and I like how that sounds.

Option 2 is buy a HSS pickguard and put in a regular humbucker. In a previous thread here, someone mentioned a Gibson Classic 57 Plus would be a good fit/nice blend. I may need more output, so perhaps a Burstbucker?

Either way I will have to change the 250k pot to a 500k, no big deal. I am awaiting Ernie Ball to send me the wiring diagram/schematic.

What are your thoughts?

 

[beej]

The pots are mounted on the PCB, so it's a little trickier than just wiring in new pots. But hopefully that's not an issue. You can always find a pickup that suits 250k pots if so.

Personally I'd go with option 2. More work, but then you have much more choice for humbucker selection and it looks cooler. Though there are some decent single-coil sized humbuckers out there. (I have a Dimarzio Chopper in an Albert Lee that sounds great.)

I can't comment on the Burstbucker, but there are so many choices these days to suit your preferences. I didn't gel with the stock humbucker so put a MM HB from a LIII in mine and quite like it. Planning on trying a something else in there at some point.

While you decide what to do ... let's see some PICS!

 

[blandified]

Thanks for the input! Here it is