Humbucker/ Distortion, Help.

[elfdor]

Hi people. Im using a 60th ann Fender, and that's the only guitar i've played so far. After stepping more into guitar i then realise im more into metal playing. So i've a few questions in doubts..

1. I see most of the metal guitarist uses humbucker axes, is there really a need using double coil pickups? I dunno how they sound though.

2. The 60th Anni Fender comes with tex-mex pickups (If im not wrong). Are they good enough? Should i change them?

3. Because i hardly get the tone/distortion i want, dunno is it because of my guitar's pickup not humbucker? (Im using POD X3 Live)

4. As my pickups are single coils, Is it possible to change'em to humbucker/ double coil pickups? Seymour Dunc ect? So i no need to change the whole guitar to get the tone i want.

Im really in stuck now dunno what should i do with my axe. Need ur advice badly.. Thank u.

 

[Excalibur]

Hi, I play metal myself and yes I think humbuckers would be a better choice. There are guitarists who use fenders (single coils) for metal playing though and they sound good. Problem could lie in your sound (amp and pedal) tweaking?

Btw, from experience i used multi-effects myself in the past (ME-50). Never really did get the kind of sound i wanted. Converting to analog pedals now, and they sound great.

Oh yea, I'm selling off a distortion pedal for rock / metal playing. You can give it a try if you want. Link is over here > http://soft.com.sg/forum/guitar-efx-buy-sell/73492-wts-kyser-distortion-%2425-good-starters.html


Hope that helps bro

 

[theunknown]

all 3 iron maiden guitarists use strats. but i think janick uses humbucker. they sound great though. a change to humbucker is a safe route to choose. but if i were u, i'd think if i really want to use that strat for playing metal or get another guitar and use the strat for some rilek rilek playing. what amp are u using anyway? ur mfx is definitely high end.

 

[elfdor]

Hmm...Is there a way to install a humbucker onto my fender? Is there a extra charges for that? Im using a normal ibanez amp btw. Big head now...haiz.

 

[niteblade]

yup can change your routing from single coil to humbucker

go down to a guitar tech to ask for quotes

 

[Excalibur]

Yep, niteblade is right. You can choose to change your routing if you really wanna try out the humbucker. From all the info given by you so far, your gear seems pretty solid. I don't really know the missing component bro. Need a better amp maybe? I hope the humbuckers will help you out. Cheers!

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

theres a humbucker in single coil size from seymour duncan, pop over their sites and check for that if wanna change to humbucker, but dont want to dig out more wood from the geetar

if dont want to change pickups, you can get someone to rewire the guitar to combined either 2 of the sc pickups or all 3 sc pickups in series, activated by push pull pot/5 way superswitch etc. Series wiring will beef up the single coil sound much more than the stock wiring in parallel. And yes, technically, you have a pseudo humbucker with both single coil in series and more humbucker then humbucker if having all 3 single coils in series as well

 

[theunknown]

well not just the routing. u have to cut the body for the -whatsthatword...- hole? to fit the humbucker as humbucker is bigger. the effect of cutting away is irreversible though unless ure a carpenter, i think.

 

[elfdor]

Cut the wood to fit in the Humbucker? But PatheinRaindropMoe mentioned a Single Coil sized Humbucker from symour duncan right? Hmmm...Any idea where can i get the best deal + installation for seymours PU? Thank u guys for the replies and info by the way. Great help.

 

[Hydrofly]

Cascade your gain and use a noisegate. I mean multiple gain pedals on low gain settings, that way you won't sound thin.

 

[seekz]

You can go for the Seymour Duncan Hotrails or Coolrails
Great humbucker sound in a single coil form. No cutting
or drilling involved.

http://www.seekz-stompers.com/store...l&product_id=7&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

with installation its only $105, plus orange drops its $120

 

[Ahjon]

if im nt wrong, there s seymour duncan pups that is a stacked pickups, but is shaped like a single coiled.
Dude ur rig is my ideal rig man.
X3live and a 60th anni.

I like single coiled tones though.
Its clean crisp and clear.

=D

 

[wasp]

So does Dimarzio pickups, or you could try Tesla pickup booster from Standard value. It can make your single sound like a humbucker, or humbucker like an active.

 

[Rhizopus]

Hi people. Im using a 60th ann Fender, and that's the only guitar i've played so far. After stepping more into guitar i then realise im more into metal playing. So i've a few questions in doubts..

1. I see most of the metal guitarist uses humbucker axes, is there really a need using double coil pickups? I dunno how they sound though.

2. The 60th Anni Fender comes with tex-mex pickups (If im not wrong). Are they good enough? Should i change them?

3. Because i hardly get the tone/distortion i want, dunno is it because of my guitar's pickup not humbucker? (Im using POD X3 Live)

4. As my pickups are single coils, Is it possible to change'em to humbucker/ double coil pickups? Seymour Dunc ect? So i no need to change the whole guitar to get the tone i want.

Im really in stuck now dunno what should i do with my axe. Need ur advice badly.. Thank u.

Don't bother with the pup change first.

Get a better distortion pedal first (try righteous fang if you are on budget and just want to get quick pleasure But then, quick pleasure, quickly get bored too, yeah? ) and then good amp.

Or amp first if you play only at home.

 

[silverhand]

Hi buddy ! for my own experience (of course not much), during using a fender telecaster, it is originally used single coil pups, which often for tide, dry and light in using stormbox, such as: distortion or fuzz. It is not like when we use humbucker, it can use to have heavy and dark sound much more than single coil. So let' say if you want to play metal like Limp, Linkin Park, it is quite hard to mod the sound like them, because Wes and Brad are usually using PRS with dark mahogany body with humbucker pups. My idea was tried before, you may try to turn up the gain in amp and use a gain boost from another distortion pedal (if possible, I used Zver box of rock); so when your output sound will be up gain into x2 times. it is what I have done only, some pros here put softhand on me; hoping it is not too nub . Hoping it is help. Enjoy !!

 

[elfdor]

Yup, I've decided to get myself a single coil sized humbucker, as cancelling those hum able to let me squeeze in more gain I guess. Actually for my default pickups I already have humcancelling mode at channal 2 & 4. But I still feel something is not right somewhere... haha.

Anyway I already have a metal master from Digitech. Wanna dig into effects and stuff so got myself a X3 Live and try it out.

Thank you guys for your great advise. Great help to me man. ^^

 

[EugeneSmasher]

I'd definitely recommend humbuckers. Singlecoils do sound great with distortion, but there's always the hum, and if you want chugging metal tone, singlecoils cannot do it in my opinion. I always found Iron Maiden's guitar tone way too thin for my liking, very watered down tone in my opinion.

So yeah humbuckers get my vote because they are much quieter and are certainly much more powerful. I swear by humbuckers now, though singlecoils do come in handy now and then. So to save cost, I'd agree with the others about installing a singlecoil-sized humbucker into the bridge position of your guitar.

And if you can afford it, power it up with a power-packed distortion pedal. :mrgreen: I find that most practise amps have great clean tones but mediocre distortion tones.

 

[Hydrofly]

Stick with the single coils man, check out yngwie malmsteen, if strats looked somewhat pointier, I'd have grabbed one long long long ago, I love the way single coils in an alder body sound when you pile a ton of gain into them. Notes in chords are very well articulated.

 

[obzervr]

Hi Bro,
Have you tried bypassing the preamp on your amplifier and just tweak the sound on your X3? That way you reduce the variables. I'm not sure if your amp allows for that though. A not so accurate way to get around this is to tap the headphone output source into the CD input of the amp. I think the X3 is a powerful enough preamp. With your gear, you may want to try out a power amp and good speaker cabinet instead of combos.

Rails and stack humbuckers in Single coil housing is the least damaging way to mod your guitar. Anyway, if you're handy with tools, you may want to take a look at the body routing of your strat. It might be a HSS which will make it easier to change the bridge pup to humbucker by getting a HSS pickguard and humbucker pup. To avoid puncturing the body with new screw holes, make sure that you get pickguards that have holes that align exactly as your original, this is the tricky part.

 

[elfdor]

Hi Bro,
Have you tried bypassing the preamp on your amplifier and just tweak the sound on your X3? That way you reduce the variables. I'm not sure if your amp allows for that though. A not so accurate way to get around this is to tap the headphone output source into the CD input of the amp. I think the X3 is a powerful enough preamp. With your gear, you may want to try out a power amp and good speaker cabinet instead of combos.

Lol, tricky. Not very understand to this. My current setting's guitar -> X3 -> Amp. Yup. Is there's a better way round? Meaning headphone output from my X3, to CD input of my amp? Will try it, by the way how u define a combo, power amp and speaker cabinet? They all looks the same to me..lol.