Single coil sound out of a HB

[iamspartacus]

Hey guys, I was wondering if you guys have found any ways to get single coil sounds out of a humbucking guitar sans coil splitting.

Specifically, are there any pedals that you use? EQ pedal (if so, how do you set it?)?

I'd love to get SC sounds, but splitting my 335 HB is out of the question (too expensive to do, push/pull pots won't fit, and I'm not big on drilling more holes for DPDT switches).

[SR-OZ]

to me the coil split still sounds as the most realistic option.

otherwise, I managed to have some single coil twaingish realistic tone with HB guitar by using a Boss parametric equalizer, cutting lowend and boosting treble

or you may try EHX knockout, which is supposed to do this job...
http://www.ehx.com/products/knockout

[Tiglath]

Coil tapping.

Much better results than coil splitting.

Joe Barden rails tapped produce very realistic single coil sound. The best I've heard.

[hangten]

this topic corresponds with my interests

have not tried it yet, but am thinking about buying one of these
Want the single-coil sound with the output and quiet operation of a standard humbucker. The Humbucker From Hell® goes where no humbucker has gone before. It has the glassy, open sound of a great single-coil, with bright pick attack and warm depth of tone.

[aarondavis]

Huh? Why won't push/pull pots fit?

Man, I think you really need to think about a rewire... EQ'ing might help, maybe boosting highs a bit dumping the lows and some mids.

But I really think you'd be surprised how amazing you can get thinner/brighter sounds having the possibility of parallel humbucker wiring. If I were you, I'd put a couple of push pull pots in. My suggestions may sound drastic, but IMO you'd be going into TONE HEAVEN.

1. Either take the covers off your humbuckers or put pickups in without covers. No matter how good the covers and pickups are , covers *kill* tonal possibilities in humbuckers.

2. Wire your pickups for the three possibilities (so you'll need 4 conductor wiring). Full humbucker, parallel humbucking, and coil tapping.

A 335 with these possibilities could be one of the most versatile guitars anyone could have. BTW, you’ve got me thinking about changing one of my push pull pots in my Koll semi-hollow to parallel wiring.

Pickups suggestions if you’re interested. Again leave the covers off!!!
- Dimarzio Bluesbucker (I have one wired for parallel in the neck of my McCarty, sounds sick!)
- Lollar Imperials
- Dimarzio PAF 36th Anniversary

[Leonc]

Tom Anderson's coil splitter humbuckers sound very much like regular single coils to my ears. Another interesting option is running the two coils in parallel rather than series (like a normal humbucker); it's not identical to the single coil sound, but it's a really good sound, IMO, very musical and useful. Personally, I've not been that impressed with coil-tap sounds...but I haven't heard the Bardens either.

[pete692]

You can do a treble bleed mod on the neck pup in particular and use a treble booster to punch your signal a little and it will give you a nice warm but stringy sound when you back off the volume.

[In Tune]

Welcome to the world. Buy a strat.

[nnick]

Check out the Catalinbread Varioboost.

[PLAYLOUD]

my understanding is if you have a four conductor humbucker, only connect two of those and now you have a single coil.

You can also try, not certain if it works, but unscrew the screws out from the humbucker. Cut off aobut 5 threads from the screw. This will keep it from contacting the bottom plate, therefore disabling one side. I've never done this, but heard of someone doing it.

[Gary Ladd]

Rio Grande Tallboys or Muey Grande humbuckers will get you there...

;)

[Lt_Core]

Check out the Catalinbread Varioboost.

+1...check this demo out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZJtR2EhcXc

[iamspartacus]

Thanks guys. I want to be able to KEEP my humbucking capabilities and be able to have a SC sound available when needed. I love the PAF tones I get from my antiquities in my LP, and am strongly considering putting a pair in my 335, however, they are 2 conductor pups. I've heard good things about duncan '59s and getting four conductor 59's are cheap and easy. I'm just not sure about how different the alnico 5's are compared to the antiquity alnico 2. I vaguely remember putting a neck '59 in my LP and not liking it at all.

The varioboost looks like something I'm willing to try out. Does anyone know of a push/pull pot that will fit in a 335 f-hole?

[Zelja]

Another interesting option is running the two coils in parallel rather than series (like a normal humbucker); it's not identical to the single coil sound, but it's a really good sound, IMO, very musical and useful.

+1 - you can try the parallel coils - I have that on a couple of guitars. Sounds a little different to a coil split - the top strings sound very similiar but the bottom strings don't have the spank that the coil tap or true singles do, IME. The big advantage is that the pickup remains fully humbucking.

Another option is a partial coil tap - instead of shorting out a coil you switch in a resistor (or even a pot for a variable tap) or capacitor (or a combo of both) across the coil. This will generally give you a fatter sound than the standard coil tap & retain some humbucking capability.

Another thing to think about is using a HB with unbalanced coils e.g. one coil with 4K winding, the other with a 6k. That way if you coil tap the PU such that the 6k coil is active it's a lot stronger than one with 2 symmetrical 4k taps. This of course can be utilised with the partial coil tap mentioned above. Disadvantages may be that the HB is slightly less humbucking than a symmetrical one (I haven't really noticed this with the ones I have) but I tend to prefer the sound of assymetrical coils anyway - clearer, more top end, not as creamy. YMMV.

Note that all of the above are approximations & that a big ingredient of what we know as single coil tone, especially from the Fender school, can also be attributed to the fact that the pickup poles are the magnets - unlike the HBs which mostly have the bar magnet underneath steel poles. A lot of the attack of single coils is apparently atrributed to the magenetic pole pieces.(Which is another reason, besides winding specs, that a single coil P90 (with the bar magnet underneath the steel poles) sounds quite different to other singles coils.)

[phazersonstun]

In my LP, I have a pearly gates in the bridge & a full shred in the neck.

I installed coil tap switches for each pickup, but I still find the best stratish tone I get is simply both pick ups on together in full humbucker mode.
I get the quack, bite, & clarity you would expect from singles but a little more beef. I honed my chops on a strat so those tones are still dear to me though I prefer buckers for most live work these days.

[Lucidology]

Forget pedals ... Two different brands drop in pickups have done this most excellent-ly for me...

1. Twangmasters from Fralin
2. Hemi's from Lace (cheaper then the Fralin's but maybe even just slightly better believe it or not)

Both are bascially just single coil pickups in humbucker housings (that still buck hum ...)

[73171]

What I really want is a Stevie Ray Vaughannabe pedal...

http://www.angelfire.com/yt3/redtele/redtelectronix.html



....but if the EHX Knockout can get my Les Paul close to the neck pickup sound of a strat..I'll buy it.

[iamspartacus]

http://www.ehx.com/products/knockout

the demo vid is impressive. im def going to check this thing out