what I realized doing builds this year

[Thewintersoldier]

I've built quite a few pedals the past 8 months, a lot of them delay and modulation. In the process I have come to realize that I am not a humbucker person. I started on strats and teles when I started playing 20 something years ago. in my lat teens I went thru a metal phase and started a 15 year love affair with gibsons and other humbucker guitars. around ten years ago I got a strat again and its only now after building pedals did I realize I prefer single coils, and more importantly 25.5 " scale length single coils guitars. I own 4 gibsons and three fenders and building pedals, testing them and playing them I realize now that that is my sound, and what works for me and the pedals/amps I play. I have struggled for years with humbuckers being dark or muddy, and coupled with the shorter scale length and mahogany bodies, and making mods and changes to make them sound more like my strats and teles. when In reality those are what I always grabbed first to play, especially when trying out a new build. I feel like I get the most expression out of my playing and whatever effects and amp I'm playing. With humbuckers so many pedals sound muddy and overly compressed and distorted.  It took pedal building to come full circle with my gear. Thanks for helping me figure that out guys!

[skyled]

How do you feel about P90s?

[Scruffie]

How do you feel about P90s?

Exactly what I was going to ask.

[alanp]

Filtertrons?

[Thewintersoldier]

I have a les Paul with P90s. I love the high end. I love the clean up, they are thick and lovely. But I also find they overdrive my Amps to quickly, so I prefer them for heavier things.  Filtertrons are great but I have only owned one guitar with them, a hollowbody gretsch I never bonded with, it had more to do with the guitar and less the sound of the pickups.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[dan.schumaker]

I have a les Paul with P90s. I love the high end. I love the clean up, they are thick and lovely. But I also find they overdrive my Amps to quickly, so I prefer them for heavier things.  Filtertrons are great but I have only owned one guitar with them, a hollowbody gretsch I never bonded with, it had more to do with the guitar and less the sound of the pickups.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

Sounds like a Cabronita in your future 

[skyled]

Have you tried Jazzmasters?

[matmosphere]

I have never bonded with hum buckers at all. Any guitar I have ever had with humbuckers ended up being sold off within a year or two. I like a lot of artist who use them, but it's never been a sound I wanted that much.

Have you tried Jazzmasters?

Definitely one to try out. A lot of folks think jazzmasters just have P90's but they are something completely different, and closer to a regular single coil. Definitely have their own vibe though.

The other thing to consider is those wide range Fender hum buckers. More authentic ones sound very different from PAFs and other Gibson hum buckers. The story is that Leo went to Seth Lover, the guy who invented the PAF, and ask him to make a hum cancelling pickup that would sound more like a Fender single coil. I have a set of Curtis Novak wide range pickups in a guitar and they are a very different sound, very much their own thing. Not for everyone, but I really like them.

That said the guitars I always go back to are the telecaster and Danelectro. Both are deceivingly simple.

With a decent set of tele pickups you can cover a ton of tonal ground, more than any other guitar I can think of. If I could only have one guitar it would be a tele all the way. Apparently Fender thought that every subsequent guitar he made was a big improvement on the one before, but I think he really nailed it with the tele.

Danelectros really have their own thing going on, but if you ever really sit down with one and start tweaking knobs you'll be surprised at what they can do. Between wiring the PUPs in series instead of parallel, the aluminum nut, and the rosewood bridge they have this really unique sound that is very nice.


All of this is really to say that there are a ton of other things out their than Les Pauls and Strats, both of those guitars sound cool, but so do a lot of other things. I mean Bob Ross didn't only use Green and Orange paint, right?

[Thewintersoldier]

Have you tried Jazzmasters?

My jazzmaster is my third fender I own right now. That vibrato is the bees knees!

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[jimilee]

I don't care for most stock Gibson pickups, they do sound muddy. Timbo, another forum member, has wound buckers for me that sound waaaay better. That being said, I have too many of each to count, I have been gravitating towards a tele that I built, with a set of pearly gates. It can be twangy or gritty.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Aentons]

Just curious what amp you play thru and what types of music you tend to play? Is the expectation of sound that everything should be as bright and twangy as possible?

BTW, from what I understand, a portion of the sound difference between single coils and humbuckers is said to come from the different construction methods the two companies chose to use. Fender uses individual magnets as pole pieces and Gibson uses a single bar magnet under/between the poles. It's part of the reason you can't get a split humbucker to sound like a "real" (fender constructed) single coil.

[Thewintersoldier]

Just curious what amp you play thru and what types of music you tend to play? Is the expectation of sound that everything should be as bright and twangy as possible?

BTW, from what I understand, a portion of the sound difference between single coils and humbuckers is said to come from the different construction methods the two companies chose to use. Fender uses individual magnets as pole pieces and Gibson uses a single bar magnet under/between the poles. It's part of the reason you can't get a split humbucker to sound like a "real" (fender constructed) single coil.

I play a little bit of everything, mostly alt rock (I was a teen in the 90s). I have 2 amps a vintage sound 35 (blackface 6l6) and a tungsten buckwheat (6l6 tweed with better bass control) and I use whatever amp I choose based on music style and desired tone/feel. If I want more push I use a boost or overdrive. Cleanup is always better on the strat and tele. The jazzmaster  has a great neutral tone. More articulation and dynamics on my single coils. The tele is my do it all for real. I could use it for everything except metal. Even then I could probably tweak amps/pedals and get a passable tone lol

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[Thewintersoldier]

I don't care for most stock Gibson pickups, they do sound muddy. Timbo, another forum member, has wound buckers for me that sound waaaay better. That being said, I have too many of each to count, I have been gravitating towards a tele that I built, with a set of pearly gates. It can be twangy or gritty.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree that stock Gibson buckers are muddy and overly compressed. I have used Seymour Duncan's and various small builders over the years. All different wire, magnets, outputs. Got closer to what I wanted with some but never got all the way there. I can add an overdrive to my tele and get a super convincing humbucker  tone but I never can do that with a humbucker.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[jimilee]

I don't care for most stock Gibson pickups, they do sound muddy. Timbo, another forum member, has wound buckers for me that sound waaaay better. That being said, I have too many of each to count, I have been gravitating towards a tele that I built, with a set of pearly gates. It can be twangy or gritty.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree that stock Gibson buckers are muddy and overly compressed. I have used Seymour Duncan's and various small builders over the years. All different wire, magnets, outputs. Got closer to what I wanted with some but never got all the way there. I can add an overdrive to my tele and get a super convincing humbucker  tone but I never can do that with a humbucker.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

I will agree with you there. I did that with my Humbucker one. Uber buckers! I do that will all my teles as a  matter of fact. The out of phase setting is useful with humbuckers in series oddly enough.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jjjimi84]

Chris I feel your pain, I am primarily a single coil guy, with strats and a tele or guitars with p90s. That was the case except for a 335 style guitar and a dual humbucker guitar meant for heavy rock and slide. Those two have custom pickups with lower output that clean up well but dont do what the strat does.

The only humbucker I have really fallen off the rails for is the PRS 57/08s. I played a friends PRS studio and offered him cash on the spot to buy it, he wouldnt sell and I ended up getting a PRS SC58 with the same pickups. It just sounds like a beefed up tele but not in the gibson mud and low end way.

There is something that single coils and great humbuckers do that keeps everything separate and clean even when being overdriven.

Have you tried a strat with a HSS set up? My main strat just got that set up along with a refret and hasnt left my hands in two weeks.