Are 'buckers a bit bland? Or am I just getting old?

[gwEm]

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:

[38thBeatle]

Blimey I got to thinking that we single coil jockeys were the poor relations.

[Elliot]

We are - the humbucker boyz haven't waded in yet :)

[MDV]

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.

[gwEm]

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

[il˙ti]

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.

[FELINEGUITARS]

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

[Philly Q]

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?

[FELINEGUITARS]

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


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

[Philly Q]

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?

[MrBump]

Oooh, I like that TeleStrat, Jonathan... Don't think that I've seen that before...

[FELINEGUITARS]

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

[tomjackson]

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

[martinw]

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.

[_tom_]

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: