STATE YOUR CASE!! What makes your choice of P.U. [hum or sc] better sounding to you?

[michael.e]

Hey!

So I play both quite a bit. I have to say that I cannot put my finger on why I tend to prefer single coils [Strat&P-90] better. HB's do sound great, but there tends to be this thin quality at the top end that I do not care for. Maybe I just need better pickups for my guitar. I have a handbuilt Zemaitis copy that I love when I hear the acoustic tone. When plugged in, there seems to be this strident high end that simply seems to not allow much of the body and depth to come through.

So:
Which do you find to be best for you and why?

For a resonant and chimey mahogany guitar that is 25.5 scale and 24 frets what kind of HB would you recommend?

Thanks! M.E.

 

[Roe]

filtertrons/tvtrons: ballsy, jangly, vintage sound

 

[trisonic]

Going back to the headline question I must say that I'm not wedded to either. Whatever works best for what one is doing - a Strat (a Chapin) and a Lester are always out in my guitar stands. Do you know I'm not sure I've ever played a 25.5 inch scale guitar with a humbucker - but that's just me.

Best, Pete.

 

[big mike]

I like medium gain humbuckers. Somewhere around 12K bridge or so. I use non master volume amps, and prefer to get the OD out of pushing the amp, and maybe using some boost, instead of strict "od" pedals, or circuit of an amp. If I want crystal clean, out comes the tele.

Can't tell you on the pup. Too many variables left out. Woods, Rig, picking style, etc.

 

[royd]

I prefer single coils.... humbuckers always sound to me as if someone has put a blanket over my amplifier. SC's have a sparkle to them that just isn't there in hb's no matter how bright they are. The attack is different and the decay is different as well. In reality I think sc's sound bigger than hb's because the tone is more complex to my ears. All that said, there is something to be said for an hb with lots of distortion. They can sound huge where sometimes dirty sc's sound fizzy or buzzy.

 

[matte]

Both/and. Depends entirely on the app.

 

[mbratch]

Neither the HB nor SC sound better to me relative to one another. To me they're just different and it depends upon the music which one I like to use the most.

There are so many flavors of HB and SC today that it's hard to put them at opposite ends of the tone or twang spectrums. It's almost a continuum of choices.

 

[KoaFreak]

Like comparing a Ferrari to a Porsche, or apples to oranges. Nothing wrong with either, so I like both.

I will say that single coils are the way hands down for chords and cleans though, and nothing beats the tone of a nice HB for neck position OD leads.

 

[michael patrick]

Variety is the spice of life. So I use humbuckers, mini-hums, P-90s, and Strat- and Tele-style single coils...

 

[pbradt]

I'm a single coil guy. I agree with the poster who said HBs sound like you threw a blanket over the amp.

I'm a Hamel pickup guy through and through,

 

[GAT]

Michael,

I'm definately a Strat guy. I can make a Strat sound great through almost every amp. Humbuckers are very difficult to me, muddy when clean and shrill in the highend when cranked through an amp. The neck pus are muddy and when you adjust the amp to take out the mud, the bridge pu is too bright. I could have saved a lot of money if I would learn to not play humbucker guitars! I have a Baker, a Johnny A. a '72 SG, a LP, and the fattest is the Grosh Setneck.

I think Strats get more fat, in a good way, when cranked through a good amp than humbuckers, IMO. I'm just not that into the '80s shred HB tone or the "woman" tone. I do like the tone Joe Bonamassa gets out of his humbuckers. He turns the treble almost completely off on his amps.

 

[tennisplayer]

To me, my strats take more tweaking to get a good sound out of them. It seems as if I can plug my LP direct into anything and it sounds great. I also have a Schecter with split coils and it sounds fantastic. Seems as if certain amps work best with my strats. Of course, I'm never satisfied.

 

[atquinn]

P90's. The "stringiness" or single coils with the fatness of humbuckers. Too bad they hum or they'd be the perfect pickup for me.

-Austin

 

[Motorhed]

my case

 

[tonedaddy]

Neither the HB nor SC sound better to me relative to one another. To me they're just different and it depends upon the music which one I like to use the most.

+1

But the music I like to play the most sounds better to me with single coils.