Single Coils & Player Age

[gwEm]

Also sounded quite thin.

You didn't try a good one yet then :)

I reckon I'm just too used to a thicker humbucker or p90 sound.. They all just sounded really "clacky" and twangy, for lack of a better description.

fair dos bruv

[Afghan Dave]

I get my "mystery" ebay Telecaster copy tomorrow!!!

I really hope it's good  :?

[Ian Price]

Also sounded quite thin.

You didn't try a good one yet then :)

I reckon I'm just too used to a thicker humbucker or p90 sound.. They all just sounded really "clacky" and twangy, for lack of a better description.

Try Dave's CS Esquire. I'm pretty sure that will change your mind. It is a stacked HB though!

[Matt77]

Hitting 30 and being able to afford better amps did it for me.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Also sounded quite thin.

You didn't try a good one yet then :)

I reckon I'm just too used to a thicker humbucker or p90 sound.. They all just sounded really "clacky" and twangy, for lack of a better description.

Try Dave's CS Esquire. I'm pretty sure that will change your mind. It is a stacked HB though!

Yep - I tried it and it was a fine sound
So much so that I have two of the Billy Gibbons stacked  custom shop pickups on order to try out

For my own tastes I love the Boss bridge pickup in an alder tele

[Ian Price]

I have two of the Billy Gibbons stacked  custom shop pickups on order to try out

I didn't think you could buy those as a retro fit. Guess I am wrong!

[Afghan Dave]

After playing yours I looked and they are availiable from the custom shop (or Feline Guitars apparently)  :D

[Twinfan]

You can Ian - they're Custom Shop though, and not cheap.

As PhillyQ, I like all types of pickups.  I go through phases of loving some more than others, then the wind changes and my taste differs again.  Most of my electric guitars have hum-cancelling dual coils in them though (8 out of 11).

The BG-1400 stack is something of an oddity though, as it sounds like a single coil when played clean and then sounds like a humbucker when it's played dirty.  Perfect for live use!

[Philly Q]

The BG-1400 stack is something of an oddity though, as it sounds like a single coil when played clean and then sounds like a humbucker when it's played dirty.  Perfect for live use!

I think that's true, to some extent, with most stacks I've tried - DiMarzio HS and VV series, Duncan Hot Stack, Fender/Lawrence SCNs, even Kinmans.  They get a bit more humbuckerish with distortion.

[MDV]

I like them both, but use my singles less and less with time.

Used to be I swore by HSS and would be on the neck maybe a third of the time for cleans and leads.

Now I play HH more and on the bridge 90%. I do still use and very much enjoy them as much as ever, but not nearly as often.

Probably the same way I was a tollerable fingerstyle (not good by ANY stretch) player 2 to 3 years in. Now, after 11 years...well, lets just say I resurrected a little fingerstyle passage I wrote after about 3 years the other month and couldnt play it for shite :lol: (But me now would bury me then on metal rhythm and general shreddy technique).

[blue]

in my earlier years it was all humbuckers, the only use i could see for single coils was a nice clean sound.  over the last few years it's completely changed!  i actually find a good single coil is better for aggressive playing, with medium gain.  recently i have gone back to mostly using humbuckers again, but that's because i got my 1970 Les Paul Custom, and i'm still on honeymoon with it! :)

[Frank]

I've always been a strat/tele player, got a couple of humbucker guitars but they're rarely used, I'll always grab a single coil guitar first. I quite like the brighter sounding Diamondback pickup in my HSS strat, the double humbucking one with Seymour Duncans really just sleeps in the guitar case most of the time. Maybe it's time I ripped that one open and put Apaches in it.

[Elliot]

I always wanted a guitar with Super Distortions when I was a teen, but had Fenders - now that I have the wonga to buy a guitar and stick what ever pickups I want in it (by that I mean a relatively cheap guitar btw) I find I stick to Fenders.  I like the Mules in my Esprit, but I find them less versatile than a single.  I guess I like the thin, wirey tone that people criticise Strats for.  As to rock, I find my Tele covers those bases pretty well. 

Still I got some cheapo GFS Lil Killers sitting in their box that I might put in my Squier - I dont like the idea of single coil size buckers but now I have the surf green 'strat of my dreams', I might install the GFS for a change.

[bucketshred]

I love the sound of a really good single coil (generally a Strat into a boosted Fender amp, they sing like nothing else) but I don't own a guitar with any installed. I don't need it and I can't afford it.

If money were no option then I'd definately go for a nice Strat, Tele and p90'd SG.

Paddy

[Simon D]

Like Antag, I've always liked neck single coils. My first guitar was an HSS Pacifica 112, which I replaced with an 812W (same configuration), so my first 5 years as a player were with a coil in the neck, unitl I bought an Epi LP when I was 19.

However, I could never stand bridge single coils, and never liked standard Strats or Teles for that reason. Now, nearly 10 years later, I've grown to really like a nice single coil bridge sound, and own a US standard Strat and Tele.

I don't know whether it's down to my musical tastes broadening, or becoming a more versatile player (for which read mediocre at many styles, rather than really good at one or two!), but I've definitely grown into single coils.

Still love humbuckers mind, and the majority of my guitars are twin humbucker, but there are times when only coils will do!