Thinking about single coils for the first time

[BoogieDown]

I LOVE distortion. In fact, I learned to play the guitar so I could hear that sound whenever I wanted (I'm not really all that interested in styles of music that don't regularly use distortion, unless of course I can play that material with distortion.) It doesn't matter if it's light overdrive or paint peeling metal fury, I can't get enough of that funky stuff (lol). that said, I've always shied away from single coils for their feedback and hum issues despite my favorite guitars being strats and teles. My MIA strat has scn pickups which are noiseless but also toneless. Whenever I go to guitar center, I'm always impressed by the tone of cheap MIM squires and for the longest time, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get those sweet distorted strat sounds out of my axe. I thought maybe it has to do with pickup height, resistors, pot values, action, etc. Having scrutinized and tweaked all of those things to the nth degree, I think it might actually be the pickups, which beings me to my actual question

how do you high gain single coil players do it? And are there ANY noiseless single sized pickups that actually sound like single coils? I especially love the quack in positions 2 and 4 so I'd be very interested in finding some pickups that do that nicely. My only constraint is that I have a sustainiac system occupying the neck position on my strat (and it's not a bad pickup either). I just need a good middle and bridge pickup. Any ideas?

 

[Friedmett]

I can highly recomend Fender '69 pickups in either position.

They can nail all those classic rock tones and work great on a higain Mesa/Boogie Quad on lead 2 with master and preamp on 7.

Any Hendrix lick will sound right on too. Noise level is low.

Even though I mostly use position 1 3 and 5 the 2 and 4 is cool for certain sounds like Little wing for instance.

I have had '69 in my homebuild strat since 2000 or so. Its got an Schecter ash body and Fender Clapton maple neck. Whatever kind of tones I have tried it always comes out sounding its own somehow.

It could be full on fuzz face and boost too with a turned up to ten Marshall Major or low on a 50 watt combo. When using the Mesa setup it still works greatly together.

The '69 pickups are the main reason. I had Duncans in it before and that sounded like a '50s strat. Again I never had noise on a strat bothering me at all.

 

[gonzo]

Look at the Bill Lawrence L-280's, L-298's, L-200's

you can order them with different henrie values, i use them for higher gain single coil sounds, they're brilliant, and way cheaper than most of the other offerings that are just plain overpriced.

http://wildepickups.com/

http://guitarsbyfender.yuku.com/forums/11

 

[ryjan]

Seymore Duncan makes hot single coils also.

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Them Dimarzio Area single coils and even their double rail single coils are great...

 

[Ibanez666]

Have you also considered P90's?

 

[lreese]

I haven't had success with any of the stacked pickups - The OP said the #2 and #4 positions are important, but this is what the Stacks lack that I've tried. Duncan advocated putting a RWRP middle stacked PU and splitting the coils for those positions at one time. I can hear the difference between RWRP and all the same polarity - I kind of like an in-between the 2 (same polarity with tones disabled).

Bardens might be OK - I've combined a Suhr V54/SSC combo with a Anderson HF1- in the bridge with good results, so a side by side single sized humbucker might be good to try. Lace's sound good to me (the Hot Golds). Also the Suhr BPSSC will let you use your favorite single coils (all same polarity) with minimal (I can't tell) change in tone.

 

[mefgames]

Check out http://www.kinman.com These are hum cancelling, but tone forever, especially if you go with the HX85 and K9 switching upgrade.

Mike

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

I haven't had success with any of the stacked pickups - The OP said the #2 and #4 positions are important, but this is what the Stacks lack that I've tried. Duncan advocated putting a RWRP middle stacked PU and splitting the coils for those positions at one time. I can hear the difference between RWRP and all the same polarity - I kind of like an in-between the 2 (same polarity with tones disabled).

Bardens might be OK - I've combined a Suhr V54/SSC combo with a Anderson HF1- in the bridge with good results, so a side by side single sized humbucker might be good to try. Lace's sound good to me (the Hot Golds). Also the Suhr BPSSC will let you use your favorite single coils (all same polarity) with minimal (I can't tell) change in tone.

Stacked wise, them HS2s and HS3s are good. The Area pickups are nice as well...

 

[Heritage Softail]

Bareknuckle pups, in the UK, they have a great forum with lots of traffic and tone clips from every imaginable guitar. Remember the time delay form US to UK, so some lag in post replies if it is done in the evening EST. A little more $$$. There are a few fans on this forum.

 

[lreese]

Just trying to impart my experiences with trying to killing noise on Strats. I've got a 25 year old HS3 sitting in my closet (Bought it new) - Not to my taste. Kinmans were kind of lacking to my ears - I got a bit of a bad taste in my mouth regarding DiMarzio, so they're not really on my go to list for pickups. The one thing I do like about Stacks - they do the best job in killing the noise.

So far, the ultimate solution if you have the $$ is the Suhr SSC (Meaning Suhr guitar or permanently mod yours) or the compromise of the BPSSC (slightly less effective) and your choice of single coil pickups. If your a bridge, middle or neck only type of player, then stacks can work. There's also Lace, which are true singles but reduce noise through the altering the magnetic field. Bill Lawrence was bringing out the Micro-coils, which sound interesting.

BTW - someone posted a vid on Hugeracks.com of an older Tyler with the Split-Duncan switching scheme I mentioned - the guitar sounded good.

 

[lyman]

Whenever I go to guitar center, I'm always impressed by the tone of cheap MIM squires and for the longest time, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get those sweet distorted strat sounds out of my axe. I thought maybe it has to do with pickup height, resistors, pot values, action, etc. Having scrutinized and tweaked all of those things to the nth degree, I think it might actually be the pickups, which beings me to my actual question

how do you high gain single coil players do it? And are there ANY noiseless single sized pickups that actually sound like single coils?

hey BoogieDown. I recently shielded my strat style guitar using copper tape. It makes a BIG difference and I recommend this if like the single coil tone but find them too noisy. Here's a thread about it in another forum: http://vintageamps.com/plexiboard/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=91043. I played my strat all weekend.

The shielding job was easy if you're comfortable soldering a couple wires and doing a basic set-up once you put it all back together.

 

[lreese]

I'm taste testing Duncan Vintage Rails right now - could not resist a new set of PU's. Its' only been a couple of days since the install - The quack is there. Non-combo positions sound pretty good, a little more even than a regular single. Output is slightly lower than a single seems to be the only downside I can tell - Its really not an issue for me as I'm tending to play clean right now. You do have the option of wiring the coils in series which will boost signal level and add mids. They just look weird on a 50s style Strat, but so far I like them in terms of sound.

 

[Guitar GeeK]

Singles make your guitar sound out of tune. Also, Is it normal for my turds to be bright orange? I got done swimming about an hour ago, and when I got done going No.2, there was nothing but a massive bright orange blotch in my toilet.