I was about to buy a Strat. but I'm not sure about choosing the SSS, or the HSS model, let me explain a little bit more the situation.
I had 2 Strats., both of them SSS, one was a Squier Bullet, the other a Fender Standard Mexico, I really liked both of them but they just got stolen a few months ago, so the idea is to buy again the exact same model Fender Mexico Strat., or at least something really similar, and probably replace the Squier Strat. with a Tele. but that's a story for another day.
On the Squier which I used mostly as a beginner, I really liked the "clean piano-like" tone from the 4th position (middle + bridge), and also the hum-cancelling property from using 2 pickups at the same time allowing me to play dirty with a nice tone and without getting a headache due to the hum on that cheap guitar. In conclusion, the 4th position was my favourite one, which I used most of the time for both clean and dirty sounds while I only had the Squier. Then, once I got the Mexico one I started using the neck pickup a lot more, but I still have some love for the middle + bridge combination making it pretty important for me.
The bad thing for me about these 2 guitars was the sound from using only the bridge pickup, I never liked it, it sounded too nasally for me (don't know if you get me for cultural reasons, I just mean it sounded kinda when you hear someone talking with a stuffy nose but imagine that kind of sound on a guitar). Can't tell for sure if the reason was because of the cheap guitar and gear (though even on the Fender I didn't like it either) or if it was because it was a single coil and not a humbucker. The point is, I never used that position at all.
Soooo as I didn't like the position 5 sound, I was thinking instead of buying a Fender Mex SSS, to buy an HSS one, which will probably give me some reason to use the 5th position (I am definitively not a metal fan, but I like some aggressive rock sounds). The thing is as I said before, I really liked the 4th position sound, and I don't want to change it, so if choosing an HSS model affects it, maybe I'll just have to pick an SSS model again with a position I won't be using at all, so this brings me to 3 questions:
In the case of choosing a position (2nd or the 4th) which uses 2 pickups on a Fender 5-way switch in which one of the pickups involved is a humbucker instead of single coil, do both coils of the humbucker pickup get activated, making it 3 coils activated at the same time, or is just one of the humbucker coils activated in addition to the other pickup (in standard Fender and Squier models)?
Even if I buy an HSS, assuming that in the recently explained scenario (a humbucker + another pickup selected) the 3 coils get activated, can I rewire the guitar to make only one of the humbucker coils activated, and at least in theory have the same sound of an SSS strat on a 4th position?
Does an SSS Strat on the 4th position sound like an HSS on the same position? (Maybe is not that complicated and after all both setups sound almost the same.)