threshhold2
New member
can rich distortion be produced with a single coil pick-up (strat like guitar), or does it take a guitar with humbuckers to get that sound?
a true single-coil (like on a stock strat) will never sound as fat and rich as a humbucker. theyll always sound 'twangy' no matter how much overdrive you slap on the amp. reason: the pickup takes its signal from a narrower range of the vibrating string. the bridge pickup is particularly bright as its near the bridge and picking up a high harmonic. humbuckers are basically just 2 singles stacked next to eachother and slightly out of phase so they dont hum. the two poles of a humbucker take its signal from a fatter area of the string, so they create a fatter sound. you can switch a strat to use 2 pickups at once, but theyre so far apart from eachother that you just get the sound of 2 singles operating at once instead of a fat humbucker sound. bottom line: if you want a humbucker sound, get a humbucker. those hotrails mentioned previously sound pretty nice in a strat.threshhold2 said:can rich distortion be produced with a single coil pick-up (strat like guitar), or does it take a guitar with humbuckers to get that sound?
Greg_L said:... humbuckers are basically just 2 singles stacked next to eachother and slightly out of phase so they dont hum. ..
thats what i meant. 'polarity' not 'phase'. i worded it incorrectly. sorry.ggunn said:Um, no. Humbuckers are indeed a pair of single coil pups, but the hum cancelling is accomplished by winding one of the pickups in the opposite direction and reversing the polarity of its magnet(s). That makes them pick up a signal from the string in the same polarity with each other, but any ambient hum is picked up in reverse polarity by the second coil, hence the cancellation or "bucking" effect.
Greg_L said:thats what i meant. 'polarity' not 'phase'. i worded it incorrectly. sorry.
pikingrin said:All I gotta say here is that if Jimi could do it, so can you...
That's what I run on my Strat. Made a huge difference for the better. Awesome mod for what it costs.tarnationsauce2 said:You can get humbuckers that fit in a single spot.
Such as Seymour Duncan Hot Rails.