Squier Showmaster HSS--a Fat Strat?

[Fozzy]

I've owned a Squier Showmaster HSS for a year now. Made in Indonesia. It has a reverse headstock. For the price, it seems pretty good. The only problem is a loose output jack.

Can anyone tell me if this guitar is the same thing as a "fat strat" or a "super strat? (I understand that a "super strat" does not mean a high-end strat)? And what is the origin and purpose of this type of guitar? Hard rock and heavy metal I am guessing? There is only one review of this type of guitar at Harmony Central and not a lot of info about it on the web that I can find.

 

[marnold]

Yes, an HSS guitar (assuming it is a Strat body) is also referred to as a fat Strat. The exact definition of super Strat is a bit fuzzy, no pun intended. It is similar in shape to a Strat, but perhaps with a slimmer body, definitely a flatter fretboard radius, with at least one humbucker and most likely a Floyd Rose or similar whammy bar. IMO, your guitar would be fat, but not necessarily super. A fat Strat can be used for just about any musical style there is.

 

[Fozzy]

Thanks

Many thanks for your helpful response.

The Showmaster does have a strat-like overall shape and appearance with some exceptions. The cable socket is at end of the body--not near the bridge as it is on strats. I don't know if the tremolo is Floyd Rose or not. Don't know what to look for, I 've never seen one before and there is no indication or marking. There is no pickguard and the 3 pickups are parallel to each other--the bridge pickup is not slanted as it is on (some?) strats. Access to the internal wiring is via 2 removal panels at the back of the body. There are only two knobs--volume and tone control. The colour scheme is a black body with chrome bridge, knobs and tremolo arm. It looks like a maple neck with rosewood fingerboard.

It has a 5 way p/up switch. I use the bridge humbucker setting most of the time--it has quite a bit of clout. The middle and neck pickup settings sound OK. It is the "in between" pickup settings (positions 2 and 4) that I find quite disappointing. They are both weird sounding and insubstantial--lacking in something, not sure what exactly. I never use those settings.

I see another thread on the subject of out phase problems for these settings stemming from wrong wiring. I am just wondering if I might have the same problem. I have the wiring scheme from the Squier site. I will have to open up the back and have a look sometime.

 

[duhvoodooman]

It has a 5 way p/up switch. I use the bridge humbucker setting most of the time--it has quite a bit of clout. The middle and neck pickup settings sound OK. I use them for clean sounds. It is the "in between" pickup settings (positions 2 and 4) that I find quite disappointing. They are both weird sounding and insubstantial--lacking in something, not sure what exactly. I never use those settings.

I see another thread on the subject of out phase problems for these settings stemming from wrong wiring. I am just wondering if I might have the same problem. I have the wiring scheme from the Squier site. I will have to open up the back and have a look sometime.

The 2 and 4 positions on a 5-way Strat switch are generally a parallel-wired connection of the two pickups from the switch positions on either side, i.e. position 2 is the bridge & middle in parallel, and 4 is the middle & neck. You referenced these positions "lacking in something", and that is exactly correct--being in a parallel orientation, there will be some signal cancellation between the two pickups, which leads to a characteristic slightly hollow/nasal character with somewhat reduced volume that is commonly referred to as the Strat "quack". However, this is considered to be a good tone by many Strat players; indeed, it is the favorite of some! So I suppose that it's just possible that you don't care for the "quack" sound.

However, the other possibility is the one you've mentioned--miswiring, so that the 2 and/or 4 positions have the selected pickups not only in parallel, but also out of phase. In this case, you get a very thin, super-trebly tone of significantly reduced volume. I'm quite familar with this sound, because I ran into exactly this situation when I replaced the stock pickups in my Fullerton ST4 HSS guitar a few days ago. It turned out that the humbucker I used was wired with the opposite polarity of the two single coils (they were from different sources), so in switch position 2, the humucker at the bridge was out of phase with the middle single-coil p'up. Nasty sounding! However, position 4 was fine (i.e. normal position 4 "quack"), because the two single coils were from the same set and were properly phased. So I just ended up reversing the hot and ground lead connections for both single coils, and all sounded well again.

For both position 2 and 4 to be out of phase, then the middle pickup would have to be wired in backwards relative to both the neck and bridge, which would definitely be pretty weird. Not impossible, though, by any means....

 

[Fozzy]

Thanks

Many thanks, duhvoodooman, for the extensive response. I will look into the possibilities that you mention.