Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: Twinfan on July 17, 2009, 09:29:26 AM
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Bear with me on this...
I've played and owned a large number of guitars over recent years, and I've mostly focussed on humbucker equipped instruments - LPs, SGs, PRS McCartys, Superstrats etc. I've found it's really difficult to find a guitar and humbucker pickup combo that really works and has some real character. So much so, that of the guitars I've owned there are only a few that stick out as having something a bit different tonally - and that's why I still have them:
* Epiphone SG with Riff Raffs - classic Angus bite and edge to cut through
* PRS McCarty Rosewood with Holydivers - fat lower-mid grind but still tight for chugging
* PRS McCarty with Throbak PAF replicas - warmth and clarity with no mud and a vocal quality
* PRS Modern Eagle - responds to my input like nothing else and the 'feel' is amazing
Unlike nearly all single coils or P90s, 'buckers never really seem to let my playing subtleties shine through. I've had so many humbucker guitars that seemed to mask my playing a lot and just sound like any old humbucking guitar.
Am I just getting old? Or am I all 'buckered out?
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Oh dear .... it's finally happened
Next you'll be craving a Dumble amplifier and discovering jazz (and refusing to play AC/DC as it's all easy-peasy stupid pentatonic stuff)
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Ha ha! It's not that bad!
My music tastes haven't changed, just my tone requirements I think?
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I've never seen AC/DC and "playing subtleties" in the same thread before....
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i agree - single coils DO sound better.. but its hard to find the right single coil. also, the coolest looking guitars usually have humbuckers fitted.
personally i can only use a 36 fret, 7 string sky guitar to express myself these days.
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haha I know what you mean. I much prefer p90s to humbuckers after getting a decent set. Not a huge fan of normal singlecoils yet though. I'm only 20 so I dont think you're getting old!
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haha I know what you mean. I much prefer p90s to humbuckers after getting a decent set. Not a huge fan of normal singlecoils yet though. I'm only 20 so I dont think you're getting old!
did you ever try a vintage hot tele pickup tom?
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Nope I've never owned a tele :P
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Nope I've never owned a tele :P
i think you might enjoy the sound
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So do I. If you like P90s Tom, Tele's have a similar level of 'beef' but some more clarity and twang :)
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I agree :) I've always been a single-coil fan right from the first guitar I bought (cheapo strat copy). Single-coils sounds more 'alive' to me and have a fantastic cutting treble that humbucker just can't do.
I play mostly rhythm and IMO single-coils really stand out for cords. Humbuckers can sound muffled and muddy in comparison. However, I don't play much Rock music. If I did, I think I'd be more of a humbucker fan.
For Reference I have:-
Single Coil
2 Teles, 2 Strats, Rickenbacker 360
Humbucker
Les Paul Std, Mira
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Single coils are very addictive when you find the right combination, I know where Dave is coming from with this.
With the right single coil, you can get them sounding almost as beefy as humbuckers - P90s do this type of thing really well and are (along with the right Tele bridge pickup) a thing of beauty.
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I think getting my Custom Shop Tele was the eye-opener, I'd never played such a superb single coil gutar before. Or since...
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Yes, single-coils are much better for bringing out the subleties of your playing. I've never heard a humbucker guitar that can produce as nice a clean sound as a Strat, Tele or even something with P-90s.
Blues, country, funk, pop, maybe even jazz.... those single-coils knock humbuckers into a c--ked hat.
If you're sitting around at home just quietly noodling, enjoying the sound of a guitar straight into an amp, it's single-coils all the way.
But hold on a moment. Take off your Eric Johnson ears. Just think for a moment what humbuckers can do.
THEY $%&#ING ROCK.
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Oh dear, you've reached that age...
I like all the different kinds of pickups, I wouldn't put one over the other as they give me a whole range of tonal options based on what sound I'm trying to get. I go through cycles of preferring one over the others though depending on what I'm into at the time.
I'll tell you what does annoy me, it's that sound in my head I can never get near no matter what amp/guitar/pickup/strings/bag of tricks I try...
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I'll tell you what does annoy me, it's that sound in my head I can never get near no matter what amp/guitar/pickup/strings/bag of tricks I try...
You need to try different amps ;)
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Park your single coils next to your zimmer for a moment :)
If you want aggressive lead tones they are a must.
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The only things I think humbuckers do better are metal rhythm tones (although my pig 90 does a pretty good job of that :)) and smooth neck humbucker tones (Slash).
I really want to try a good tele through my amp. The teles I have played I liked the feel of more than strats (they're a bit more LP-ish I think) but I only played em through a Fender GDEC :lol:
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The only things I think humbuckers do better are metal rhythm tones (although my pig 90 does a pretty good job of that :)) and smooth neck humbucker solo tones (Slash).
Agreed. But those are pretty worthwhile tones to get. :D
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I agree with you 100% - singles win for me all the time. I like buckers, but they just don't have the va va voom I like in my sound.
Just been learning the PBBB version of Born in Chicago - tried it at first with my Mule'd Esprit but just couldn't get it to sound like Bloomfield. Then I tried the Tele with Flat 50s - oh yes, Bloomfield in spades (and today I learned that the reedy sound of early Bloomfield was not his famous LP but a telecaster, so hours of trying to get near his tone with mules was wasted).
It could be an age thing though - apparently Peter Green doesn't own and refuses to own a Les Paul!
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I don't think age comes into it - after all, the likes of Larry Carlton and BB King (just a couple of non-rock names straight off the top of my head) still use humbuckers. And they're even older than I am.
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Wow! THAT old????!!!
:lol:
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Actually I'm not 100% sure about Larry. But I think BB was in the Upper 6th when I was doing my O Levels.
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I like to listen to a good single coil tone, but I dearly enjoy playing buckers. On singles I always check if the volume on the guitar is all up.
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there are some great heavy single coil tones out there - the who, led zep, sabbath
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there are some great heavy single coil tones out there - the who, led zep, sabbath
Brain May anyone ??? - Sheer Heart Attack has some jaw-dropping tones on it, all from a guitar built from a fire-place, some Burns single coils, an AC30 and a treble booster. Oh, and a ton of natural talent.
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there are some great heavy single coil tones out there - the who, led zep, sabbath
Brain May anyone ??? - Sheer Heart Attack has some jaw-dropping tones on it, all from a guitar built from a fire-place, some Burns single coils, an AC30 and a treble booster. Oh, and a ton of natural talent.
i was just thinking of single coils + treble boosters HTH! add Blackmore to the list then too I guess.
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i like everything. :lol:
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there are some great heavy single coil tones out there - the who, led zep, sabbath
Brain May anyone ??? - Sheer Heart Attack has some jaw-dropping tones on it, all from a guitar built from a fire-place, some Burns single coils, an AC30 and a treble booster. Oh, and a ton of natural talent.
But doesn't May's guitar have switching which lets him combine the coils for big humbucker-like tones? (I'm not suggesting for a moment that's what setting he used on any particular track, I have no idea!)
I agree that there are some great heavy single coil tones on record, but (IMO) mostly for lead tones. I don't think a heavily distorted single-coil matches the tight crunch of a humbucker for chords and riffs. P-90s can give a great powerchord tone, but more for that slightly woolly Doom sound.
When you think about it, a lot of single-coil-using hard rock players (Blackmore, Uli Roth, Yngwie etc) don't really use big crunchy powerchords much. It's a lot of single-note riffing.
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P-90s can give a great powerchord tone, but more for that slightly woolly Doom sound.
I thought that was going to be the case with mine, but the Pig 90 does awesome powerchords. To me it sounds/feels like a slightly looser humbucker -
http://www.mp3lizard.com/download.cfm?id=26424
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I agree that there are some great heavy single coil tones on record, but (IMO) mostly for lead tones. I don't think a heavily distorted single-coil matches the tight crunch of a humbucker for chords and riffs. P-90s can give a great powerchord tone, but more for that slightly woolly Doom sound.
When you think about it, a lot of single-coil-using hard rock players (Blackmore, Uli Roth, Yngwie etc) don't really use big crunchy powerchords much. It's a lot of single-note riffing.
those guys do use strats though obviously, which i agree often sound better with single notes.. though even strat single coils can bust out power chords with the best of them.
edit:
bridge baseplate, treble booster, curly lead, marshall :twisted:
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Blimey I got to thinking that we single coil jockeys were the poor relations.
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We are - the humbucker boyz haven't waded in yet :)
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I loves me a single coil clean all the time and lead some of the time.
All my guitars bar one have either singles or split switching option. The one that doesnt just has a C-Pig and a volume.
That said all but one (3sc) have a bridge humbucker
But I mostly play metal rhythm.
That said, a zinc-steel baseplate uber sinner can do that too. Do it VERY well, I might add.
But I still like buckers better.
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That said, a zinc-steel baseplate uber sinner can do that too. Do it VERY well, I might add.
i'd love to put a uber sinner through its paces one day
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I like thick tones. I like humbuckers.
The only single coil sounds I enjoy are either strat through a thick sauce of chorus. I never get tired of a good neck humbucker through a clean amp with reverb. That to me is the best clean tone, but single coils do have their place. It's a "for effect" thing for me. For leads I can only enjoy single coils if they are in a guitar played by Yngwie, because I couldn't imagine him sounding any other way. And even then it's only about half of his recordings that had good tone IMO. Distorted single coils just tend to sound too thin and screechy to my ears.
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I find I love the Boss tele bridge pickup almost as much as any humbucker
If I could only have one guitar to play a covers gig I would chose a tele hybrid with a Boss bridge and two mothers milk strat pickups
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I find I love the Boss tele bridge pickup almost as much as any humbucker
If I could only have one guitar to play a covers gig I would chose a tele hybrid with a Boss bridge and two mothers milk strat pickups
I don't think you've mentioned that before! So what is it about the Boss vs. any of the other Tele models?
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Its muscular and avoids being too twangy
It goes from a good strong country blues to 80s heavy metal
Seriously sounds great for playing Dokken and suchlike with a good amp
I have one in my Sapele fronted Tabby and it's kick ass - I love it
(http://www.felineguitars.com/guitar_images/tabby%20-%20sapele%20/sapele-tabby-horiz-500.jpg)
I'm just making a repeat of the Tabby Hybrid that I had at the LGS a few years ago (and got reviewed by Guitar Buyer) but intend to put a Boss in the bridge position - angled like a tele pickup- which is a bit more sloped than the strat bridge pickup
I had to get Tim to have it wound in the opposite direction so it would work with two strat pickups just fine
This will be a great all round guitar
(http://www.felineguitars.com/guitar_images/tabby%20-%20hybrid/Tabby%20Hybrid.jpg)
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I'm just making a repeat of the Tabby Hybrid that I had at the LGS a few years ago (and got reviewed by Guitar Buyer) but intend to put a Boss in the bridge position - angled like a tele pickup- which is a bit more sloped than the strat bridge pickup
I had to get Tim to have it wound in the opposite direction so it would work with two strat pickups just fine
This will be a great all round guitar
Sounds good! I've been thinking of doing some kind of Strat/Tele hybrid too.
Why the opposite wind, is it because it would be out of phase? Would a stock Tele bridge work with RW/RP Strat pickups, or is the "RP" going to mess it up?
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Oooh, I like that TeleStrat, Jonathan... Don't think that I've seen that before...
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Oooh, I like that TeleStrat, Jonathan... Don't think that I've seen that before...
Here is a link to download the magazine review (pdf format)
http://www.felineguitars.com/pdfs/nice_kitties.pdf (http://www.felineguitars.com/pdfs/nice_kitties.pdf)
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Humbuckers are great for a heavy sound with minimal effort, or for sweet thick leads and I think they are great
But.....
single coils all the way for me, I find more personality shines through and that there's more dynamic range, you have to really attack a good tele bridge to make it sing; humbuckers, particularily high powered ones seem to do all the work for you, they can break up too easy and encourage you to play too generic. That depends on ther player though, in the right hands (Peter Green, BB king, Jimmy Page etc) there's no deniying how good they can sound.
But it's the other way round Dave, single coils for when you are young and agressive and the buckers for when your older AND MELLOWER and your fingers need 15K output of assistance :D
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Anyone see Sight and Sound last night with Gary Moore? An old 80's gig and he played a Les Paul Junior with a P90. Sounded great! :D
I'm becoming a totally single coil man. A good well set-up Strat can play anything that I want to play or listen to.
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Listen to Six Guns on this bands player, the tone is a strat into a superbass and its awesome :)
http://www.myspace.com/sonoffireband
I can never get strats to sound that good though. I guess I need a superbass :lol:
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I'm really really happy with H-S-S at the mo wired up as pos 5) neck sc 4) neck sc and middle sc 3) neck sc and one coil of the bridge 4) middle sc and bridge full bucker 5) full bridge bucker 6) tapped bucker and middle 7) tapped bucker all positions have no hum thanks to the VV's
It gets fun because instead of having a normal coiltap switch that just goes between full and tapped bucker it's got a blender knowb, so, as well as being able to get sounds 6 and 7 it's superb for rounding off bucker tones that are too heavy in the mix and fattening up tapped single coil bridge - and means as well as getting the usual throaty strat tones it can do EVH superstrat tones as well as Scott Henderson/Jeff beck style fat sc tones(the bridge bucker is nearly 18k and taps really well).
I've always thought buckers in the neck are too muddy and thick - especially on a Gibbo scale, you can set it up amp end so it sounds good but unless it's amazingly matched with the bridge then the bridge pos is gonna sound cack... I don't like dark/woofy/wetblanket tones.
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Anyone see Sight and Sound last night with Gary Moore? An old 80's gig and he played a Les Paul Junior with a P90. Sounded great! :D
yep :)
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I much prefer single coils over humbuckers.
I'm surprised by the amount of people here who prefer single coils, I always thought that those of us who prefer single coils were a minority :lol:
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I think i like single coils. I really like tele pickups, but not so keen on strats though. Funny looking at my collection now, only one single coil, a tele pickup in my neck.
Humbuckers are awesome though, nothing better than a big fat bridge humbucker.
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there are some great heavy single coil tones out there - the who, led zep, sabbath
Erm.... Townsend - Gibson Les Pauls, SG's - humbuckers
Jimmy Page - Gibson Les Paul 1958 - humbuckers
Tony Iommi - SG's - humbuckers
May I add:
Clapton - Bluesbreakers, Cream - Les Paul's, 335's - humbuckers. He used strats post-burn out, watered down his sound
Jeff Beck early days - Oxblood Les Paul - humbuckers
O.K., you may play the Jimi Hendrix card - Marshall stacks flat out, Roger Mayer effects to fatten the tone
Stevie Ray Vaughan - really high action, 13's to fatten the tone
(Don't you dare play the Rory Gallagher card - I have no explanation. Huge tone, masses of balls with a simple strat through AC30 set up. Just a huge spirit and serious Irish manliness to fatten the tone. Genius.)
Single coils do great tones, but when you want beef you either use humbuckers or use modifications to your single-coil set up. For the best representations of what single coils do we turn respectfully to Nile Rogers and Hank Marvin. Both fabulous players, thin sparkly tones that work very well for them.
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Jimmy Page used a tele on at least the first album. I think Townsends and Iommis SGs were mostly p90 werent they?
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Sorry FBloke, not entirely accurate:
Townsend - Was using teles and strats early on - interchangeably with SGs with P90s
Jimmy Page - Telecaster on LZ1, parts of 2 and Stairway to Heaven
Iommi - P90s in the early Sabbs
Clapton - OK a les paul on the bloos breakers but started with a tele in the Yardbirds - sounded fat then
Beck - early days also telecaster
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Erm.... Townsend - Gibson Les Pauls, SG's - humbuckers
Jimmy Page - Gibson Les Paul 1958 - humbuckers
Tony Iommi - SG's - humbuckers
May I add:
Clapton - Bluesbreakers, Cream - Les Paul's, 335's - humbuckers. He used strats post-burn out, watered down his sound
Jeff Beck early days - Oxblood Les Paul - humbuckers
Sorry FBloke, not entirely accurate:
Townsend - Was using teles and strats early on - interchangeably with SGs with P90s
Jimmy Page - Telecaster on LZ1, parts of 2 and Stairway to Heaven
Iommi - P90s in the early Sabbs
Clapton - OK a les paul on the bloos breakers but started with a tele in the Yardbirds - sounded fat then
Beck - early days also telecaster
OK, it's not the first time I've said this, but....
Aren't we coming back to the old "it's the player, not the equipment" argument again? :?
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i honestly think iommi sounded better when he was using p90s
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Erm.... Townsend - Gibson Les Pauls, SG's - humbuckers
Jimmy Page - Gibson Les Paul 1958 - humbuckers
Tony Iommi - SG's - humbuckers
Townsend - Was using teles and strats early on - interchangeably with SGs with P90s
Jimmy Page - Telecaster on LZ1, parts of 2 and Stairway to Heaven
Iommi - P90s in the early Sabbs
Clapton - OK a les paul on the bloos breakers but started with a tele in the Yardbirds - sounded fat then
Beck - early days also telecaster
:lol:
I can't remember who it was from here, I think it was the older bloke who knows (and owns) loads of vintage gear (you know who you are hehe) who said Presence was Page on a Strat, I dusted it off and gave it a listen and yep you can hear it all over it. Townshend has been using a Clapton Strat for ages now too.
OK, it's not the first time I've said this, but....
Aren't we coming back to the old "it's the player, not the equipment" argument again? :?
It's not practical but I reckon we'd get some fun out of a what amp was used on x y z album/song - thread 8)
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PQ - I couldn't agree more - this shouldn't be a I hate humbuckers thread coz I don't think that anyone does.
Although there are obvious records that jump out as bucker or single- Clapton on the Bloos Breakers is an unmistakenly Les Paul tone + Marshall - great as it is, I think after the 888th listen it is perhaps too thick and not 3D enough - Also (as I said before) Mike Bloomfield: a famous LP man, I could get near his tone for the life of me from my Mules and I said to various chums 'sounds like a classic Fender guitar and Fender amp tone' - Later I found out he was playing a Tele through a Twin on the first album.
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Clapton used lots of guitars before settling on a Strat (Blackie then his sig model), a Firebird I, Telecaster Custom with a Strat neck, all kinds of stuff.
There's hardly any kind of guitar I haven't seen Townsend playing from a Rickenbacker with very low output 'toaster' pickups to an 80's superstrat with floyd rose to a Gretsch 6120DC.
I suspect guitarists from the 60's & 70's varied their guitar use more than people give them credit for.
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There's hardly any kind of guitar I haven't seen Townsend playing from a Rickenbacker with very low output 'toaster' pickups to an 80's superstrat with floyd rose to a Gretsch 6120DC.
And, uniquely, those LP Deluxes he used in the '70s, with a DiMarzio humbucker in the middle position. I read somewhere he hardly ever used the humbucker, so I guess we can add mini-buckers to the list! :)
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Haha I'v owned one guitar with single coils and that was a fat strat H-S-S configuration.
whenever I try them in the shops they just don't feel as hardcore. But I do like twang and that i love the stuff jack white does and i really like the p90 sound.
I think ide like to nail the bucker sound first.
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I have lots of HB, P-90 and single coil guitars, but I always think that a Strat is the most versatile guitar around. For sheer raunch, a P-90 junior is hard to beat though.
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Like HB, singles and p90's....is this another phase of the the Dave sound..if so what you selling
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Not selling anything mate! Other than the original 1987 RG550 I have left...
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thought was a change of sound and guitars.....*L*