does anyone else have a love hate relationship with single coils?

TTBZ

usedtobe said:

I always think it doesn't sound right, doesn't sound like me, somehow..

That's my problem I think. I seem to like a very middy fairly gainy rock sound from my bridge pickup so singlecoils always end up sounding a bit limp for that no matter what I do with the amp eq. The extra mids and power of a p90 or humbucker seems to help. I know if I get a tele I'll just end up with something like a dimarzio chopper in the bridge! 

Schnozz

I have a love/hate relationship with them - Less so when I have other guitars.

There's been a couple of times when I've only had a strat and I think I would have opted for a JB Jr.

I don't like the look of HSS...Petty I know, but a single coil humbucker looks fine to me.

Alegree

Given how popular my P90 toned Strat pickups have been, I'd say a lot of people would like something different from their Strats.

Legionreturns

I keep thinking I need something "Fendery" in my life. Then I go to the shop and try a few, and I change my mind. Yes, they're nice to play, but I just can't get them to sound good. That's almost certainly a limitation of mine and not theirs. Maybe in a few years.

Alnico

I didn't not like the pickups that came in my American Pro Strat, they're good but I didn't like the 60 cycle noise so I bought a set of Seymour Duncan Classic Stack Humbuckers (STK4).

I've noticed the bridge position become even better than it was, more full and certainly not weedy. I have got a tone control on it and that works very well as it should but even on 10 it's not shrill.

What I *Have* found is that it sounds fuller and better-er at high volume than at low, home volumes so maybe there's some merit in that,.....well there is with mine. Turn the amp up and it makes more sense, roll some tone off and it sounds darker but still making sense.

I don't know enough to say whether it's this brand and model of pickup, although I do know that the 'Humbucker' bit is only hum cancelling and not a humbucker like a twin-side-by-side coil pickup would be.
The pots are CTS 250k and whatever cap the tech fitted is the 'Normal' value for a Strat (That's what he told me when I asked).
All I can tell you is that it sounds better the louder you play and it doesn't sound bad at home volume either.
Overdrive in pedal format tends to worse to mid scoop and better to mid boost but other than that they're silent when you're not playing and sing when you are, I've never been so happy with a Strat sound.
They definitely don't lose anything for being hum cancelling but here's something interesting.......

When I went with @Bridgehouse to @guitars4you to get his CS last month, I played at least 6 different CS Strats and EVERY one of them had a very different sound, partly due to the pickups. Based on that, my Hum Cancelling Single coils aren't worse or losing something, they just have their own voice and if I didn't tell you they were Hum Cancelling, you would hear it and think........"That's a Strat".
I say that only because everyone who's heard it so far has commented on how "Stratty" it sounds and that's before and after they find out they're Hum Cancelling.

If you're going to the Jam Session in September, it'll be there and you're more than welcome to try it for yourself.
I'd be very interested in what other players think of it as a guitar and it's sound...

dindude

No, single coils rule.

I've always (well certainly in the last 10 years or so) had a harder relationship with humbuckers. Rarely had a guitar I loved with HB's - my current Schecter PT is the longest I've own a HB guitar, and that's because it has cut and spank to go with it. However, even that is falling out of favour at the moment, I'm actually sick of the sound of HB's - every guitar sounds the bleeding same, it's become such an uninteresting generic sound, certainly in solid body guitars with anything with medium gain or above.

Also don't understand the Strat shrillness thing - I think PAF's can be very shrill pickups, my PT has more treble than my Strat bridge pickup and every bridge pickup I put in my old PRS McCarty had a shrill high end to it.

Honestly, I was playing a HB guitar the other day and couldn't get anything out of it (apart from that compressed easy-to-play-too-many-notes non-tone that they do so well). Then plugged in my Jaguar with it's "shrill" single coils and 1 meg pots and bingo, warm, interesting, yet cutting tone for days.

Right now I could happily live without HB's - well PAF derived ones - I think I need to try some Widerange jobbies next.

Downer over.

dindude

As a footnote to the above I think it is what you are aligned to and how you've built your set up.

Warm, thick, Les Paul type tones sound horrid and muddy through my set up as it's dialled in for Strat / Jag / PT - even with a few tone control changes all the choices I've made in amp and pedals has been made with these types of guitars in mind.

I'm certain that if I put my guitars through someones rig that was tuned with a Les Paul it wouldn't sound good.

Trude

Home base for me is the Gibson control setup of 2 vol, 2 tone knobs.  I've found the Guild M75 to be the perfect single-coil option for me.  The pickups are very hot, nice and bright, but also very controllable when rolling back volume/tone.  If I could just improve the tuning stability a smidge (floating bridge, harp tailpiece) then it would be close to perfection.

RocknRollDave

richardhomer said:

 No - I love single coils. A 'good' Strat can sound surprisingly fat - even on the bridge pick-up.

I struggle more with humbuckers actually....

Me too

noisepolluter

With strat single coils particularly,  I find I have to tweak the amp and OD pedal settings if I've just been playing one of my other guitars, and some days I just can't be arsed so the strat goes back in the case and I go back to the tele or 335. 

I think it's something to do with where the mids are focused on a strat, especially with the bridge pickup.

Occasionally though, the strat seems to drop in just fine, so I suppose there's a physiological/emotional factor too. I guess I'm either in a 'strat mood' or an 'everything else mood'.

Danielsguitars

Split coil paf 2 singles if it's a strat style
2 vol 1 master tone does it for me and set neck too

The only single coil for me is the neck pickup apart from stuff like gold foils etc

mike_l

RocknRollDave said:

richardhomer said:

 No - I love single coils. A 'good' Strat can sound surprisingly fat - even on the bridge pick-up.

I struggle more with humbuckers actually....

Me too

Proof of so much wrongness.................... ;-)

Kebabkid

I prefer to have both single coils and a humbucker in a guitar but generally, I find single coils more characterful, or at least they allow me to play in a more expressive way.

I think my Seymour Duncan Little '59 bridge pickup is a good compromise. I'm getting the girth and sustain of the humbucker but I don't know if it's because of its physicality, but there's some single coil character in there as well.

I also have a Robert Cray Strat which has a wonderful set of pickups. However, I'd like a little more oomph and fullness from the bridge pickup and so I've invested in a base plate from Ash at Oil City as a few folks here recommended them and I have them on my other guitar (my Fralin Blues came with them). I hope that gives me what I want.

I also leave on an EP Booster with the RC Strat and that works well and makes it sound fuller without altering it's character, but as I said, a HSS set for me is where I'm happiest.

I recently heard a Gretsch that @McToot purchased and the Filtron-types in those were superb. Good and chimey on cleans and full on overdrive.