Will an HS3 and PAF Pro jive?

[Matt300ZXT]

Since I'm shopping around for pickups to replace the EMG actives in this Chubtone, I have been looking at DiMarzios. I'm kinda leaning towards a PAF Pro in the bridge (maybe a Norton) and am looking at the HS3 in the neck and middle. I know this was the pickup Yngwie used to use, but it has a super low output apparently and curious how it will jive with the PAF Pro. Is it going to play nice output level wise or is there going to be a big difference?

I don't really need the glassy single coil sound on this guitar as it's not a Strat so it's not going to sound like a Strat. It's just an HSS rock and solo machine with a 5 way switch and a single volume. It'll be getting played through primarily my Boss Katana practice amp with a hot rodded Marshall patch. When it goes through real amps, they'll all be either hot Plexi or hot 800 style amps, so no old Fenders or anything like that.

 

[JohnnyGtar]

That should work fine since you're going to be playing with a good amount of gain.

Here's a good video demo of the HS-2 (slightly brighter) and the FRED. (Better harmonics than the PAF Pro.) The kid can play.

Output levels are damn near identical:
Neck - HS-3 (93) HS-2 (90)
Bridge - PAF Pro (300) FRED (305)



I recently bought a Yamaha RGX Standard. It's a superstrat. I'm putting HS-2's in the neck and middle and keeping the stock Yamaha humbucker (it's 9.1K) in the bridge slot for now. Yamaha calls that humbucker the "Live GH-1" and it's a damn good sounding pickup.

I used to run a Norton (hooked up to a switch for series/parallel) in the bridge and Virtual Vintage Blues in the neck and middle positions on a Kramer.
Killer combination! With the series/parallel for the Norton & 2 VV Blues you can do just about anything with that HSS setup and it'll sound really good.

DiMarzio's email is tech@dimarzio.com They respond pretty quickly and they know tone!