Are single coils less responsive to picking dynamics?

Three-ColourSunburst

I don't know if I just need to adapt my technique, or take more time fiddling with my settings, but I get the impression that the Seymour Duncan Alnico II pickups in my Talman are less 'dynamic' in their response than the Fullshred humbucker fitted to my RG.

I don't mean in terms of output - there is obviously a huge difference there - but rather in the way the amp / sound responds to variations in playing dynamics.

Using my Blues Cube Hot both can be set up to give a clean or an overdriven sound but, when playing just on the edge of breakup, with the Fullshred it is easy to get the sound breaking up by digging in harder with the pick whilst keeping things smooth and clean with lighter picking. The single coils will do this, but a lot more effort seems to be needed to drive the sound into breakup. I.e. It seems that I need to be much more dynamic in my playing to get the same effect and variation in sound.

I had thought that if an amp was 'on the edge', exactly where that edge was didn't really matter, as digging in harder would push it over the edge, as it were, but is seems that other factors are also important, such as just how much output the pickup has.

Is this just me or do single coils really respond differently? If so, how do people adapt their playing or set-up to account for this? If there is a difference, is this an advantage or disadvantage of using single coils?

Also, how pickup dependent is this? For example, do you also have to be more dynamic and 'forceful' when playing a lower output vintage humbucker than a 'hotter' one in order to get the same variation in sound?

Thanks!

octatonic

No.

Gassage

Totally the opposite, in my experience.

stratman3142

Gassage said:

Totally the opposite, in my experience.

Yes I'd agree with that comment.

rpr

Singles are more responsive than humbuckers IMO -  However the lower output will need more pre amp/gain to breakup than HBs,  

richardhomer

stratman3142 said:

Gassage said:

Totally the opposite, in my experience.

Yes I'd agree with that comment.

Same here - single coil guitars are 'always' more dynamic/expressive in my experience.

Schnozz

^ This - More responsive, but require more volume in turn.

GoldenEraGuitars

I've always found single coils react more to my pick attack, dynamic and expressive style rather than humbuckers. 

Three-ColourSunburst

Amazing, we seem to have a consensus!

Clearly, I need to have a fiddle with my knobs. Ooh er misues, etc.

Three-ColourSunburst

Just to clarify, I am not talking about variations in volume with a variation in pick attack - I can see that a single coil with its lower output can be at an advantage here - but rather how easy it is to go from clean to distorted. That said. I guess both are a function of output so are likely to be closely related.

If single coils give more dynamics, how do they do this, given that with both single coils and humbuckers one might think there is a similar relationship between how hard you pick and how the output changes?

It's all a bit of a mystery to me!

LooseMoose

If in doubt, raise the action a little - you wouldn't believe the difference this makes to dynamics when playing at volume.

Three-ColourSunburst

LooseMoose said:

If in doubt, raise the action a little - you wouldn't believe the difference this makes to dynamics when playing at volume.

Presumably because you can dig in harder without the extra energy just been dissipated in fret buzz?

However, wouldn't the same be true whatever pickups were fitted?

Sassafras

Better dynamics is one of the reasons why I prefer single coils by a very wide margin.

Gassage

The reason why singles offer more dynamics is less magnetic pull.

richardhomer

Gassage said:

The reason why singles offer more dynamics is less magnetic pull.

I doubt that - Strat pole pieces exert considerable pull compared to a PAF style humbucker with the magnet underneath the coils.

ICBM

No.

It's both/either/neither. The construction of the pickup is far more important than whether it's a single coil or a humbucker.

A low-wound humbucker with an alnico magnet will have more dynamics than a high-wound single coil with a ceramic, for example. 

The amp is much more important anyway. Pickups don't really 'compress', so to a degree they all have similar dynamics in terms of outright signal strength relative to picking force. What matters is how the frequency response of the pickup changes  as you play harder and how that interacts with the sensitivity of the amp to those frequencies.

Gassage

richardhomer said:

Gassage said:

The reason why singles offer more dynamics is less magnetic pull.

I doubt that - Strat pole pieces exert considerable pull compared to a PAF style humbucker with the magnet underneath the coils.

Yes, but I'm assuming there's also a neck SC or HB in each instance, not in use.

uncledick

From my, albeit limited, experience I've always found that the better quality humbuckers are more dynamic than their cheaper cousins but still don't get to the level of, say, my P90s or Tele pickups.  I think people also under-estimate the variations caused by amp front-ends and that's before you start talking about pedal boards, true bypass, and cables.  

Moltisanti

if you are using the same amp setting i understand what you are experiencing - the full shred is way higher output so is capable of pushing the amp into break up easily, whereas the single coil would need more gain in the amp to start with to achieve the same grit. I don't think it's the HB being more dynamic, if you raise the gain on the amp to accomodate for the lower output of the single coil then see if you can clean it up by picking lighter i'm sure you will be able to

Sassafras

ICBM said:

No.

It's both/either/neither. The construction of the pickup is far more important than whether it's a single coil or a humbucker.

A low-wound humbucker with an alnico magnet will have more dynamics than a high-wound single coil with a ceramic, for example. 

The amp is much more important anyway. Pickups don't really 'compress', so to a degree they all have similar dynamics in terms of outright signal strength relative to picking force. What matters is how the frequency response of the pickup changes  as you play harder and how that interacts with the sensitivity of the amp to those frequencies.

Must you always spoil our misconceptions with your reasoned arguments?

impmann

Nope.

if you've gain matched your pickups to the front end of the amp it doesn't matter if they are humbucking or not.

Personally speaking, I find I sound more like 'me' with single coils - the sound in my head. And to be honest, it usually either Tele pickups or P90s that work best for my playing.