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

[Lew]

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.

[dave_mc]

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 :)

[TheIronBeast]

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:

[badgermark]

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.

[fbloke]

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.

[_tom_]

Jimmy Page used a tele on at least the first album. I think Townsends and Iommis SGs were mostly p90 werent they?

[Elliot]

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

 

[Philly Q]

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?  :?

[gwEm]

i honestly think iommi sounded better when he was using p90s

[Lew]

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)

[Elliot]

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.

[Plexi Ken]

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.

[Philly Q]

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!  :)

[jibidy]

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.

[PhilKing]

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.