Humbuckers & single coils

[Sunderring]

Hey,

Just wondering the difference between the tone of both of them and what kind of genre each of them is suited for?

 

[dudelove]

nice, warm and fat - humbuckers

twangy - single coils.

thats basically it loh..

 

[ShredCow]

clear, chimey, bell-like - single coils.

muddy, compressed, lifeless, overpowered - humbuckers.

That's also it...

So, what do you want from them?

 

[Whitestrat]

muddy, compressed, lifeless, overpowered - humbuckers.

Dood... You haven't really played with them vintage PAFs have you?:mrgreen:

 

[ShredCow]

Havveeee... I'm just makkinnggg a poiiintttt...

Hehehe.

you're such an ass Whitestrat! Wait I get massively offended and take action on you ah!

 

[Whitestrat]

you're such an ass Whitestrat! Wait I get massively offended and take action on you ah!

You can try... You will NOT succeed, but you can try... Hahahahahaha...:twisted:

Happy CNY man...

 

[THOA]

Single coils are bright, snappy, glassy... basically have a higher end frequency ring to it. However, they also have a tendency to emit a hum.

Humbuckers are actually 2 singlecoils, with one in reverse wound to the other, thus effectively cancelling out the hum. With humbuckers though, the opposite spectrum occurs: fatter, warmer, fuller sound but lacks the brightness of single coils.

Of course, for humbuckers, there's always the split coil mode, but that's worthy of another topic...

In the end, I would say... best try them both and hear for yourself?

There are a lot of guitars with both single coils and humbuckers. You probably need to try only 2.

 

[Fortheus]

You probably need to try only 2.

Gibson LP Standard and Fender telecaster

 

[jeffrey0603]

muddy, compressed, lifeless, overpowered - humbuckers.

Wah... say until Humbuckers like very lousy..

 

[teleplayer]

Humbuckers and single coils are suitable for heavy music.(provided that the pickups are high output). every pickup are suitable for each genre.

 

[Ized]

Here is my attempt at a non-biased opinion of both...

Humbuckers are fat, warm and compressed. more bottom end. dynamics are more linear with less breakup. Quiet. more bass inclined and tighter bottom end with punch.

A single coil (true SCs, not stack) tends to emit a hum with high gain, more trebly, more open sounding and "jangly" and has that breakup as you dig harder into the strings. More to the mids and top end in terms of eq-wise.

Both have their uses, but i frankly prefer a humbucker in the bridge - more output and bass for tight riffing and punch- and a single coil in the neck for that smooth neck breakup twang without getting overly trebly. Great for those feel kind of solos and sweep picking.

 

[Whitestrat]

Gibson LP Standard and Fender telecaster

Not fair. Body woods too different. Better to compare with a HH strat and a SSS strat. More consistency. (The tele bridge pup sometimes due to a thick alder body can sound as fat as a humbucker.)

 

[VidaK]

Single coils are usually champions of country and blues

Humbuckers... ahaha... Whatever featured in Metal Hammer magazines... (lol sweeping statement)

Hey my guitar have dual PAFs ok? They got life! LOW output for the win!

 

[Whitestrat]

Humbuckers... ahaha... Whatever featured in Metal Hammer magazines... (lol sweeping statement)

There's a reason for this...

Humbuckers, because of the higher output in total and slightly more compression tends to saturate the tubes or pedal gain stages better than traditional single coils, which tend to be more airy and spaced out.

So people who play rock and metal, tend to want more saturation and power. Hence humbuckers. It's not because they look cool.

Malmsteen is an anomaly... he WANTS that airy tone.

 

[HeyJoeILoveYourSis]

Haha, low to mid output humbuckers sound best for me. And single coils gives the definitive strat sound. Listen to John Mayer, SRV and Jimi Hendrix.

Joe

 

[dudelove]

PAF ftw

 

[THOA]

Not fair. Body woods too different. Better to compare with a HH strat and a SSS strat. More consistency. (The tele bridge pup sometimes due to a thick alder body can sound as fat as a humbucker.)

Yup. Best to compare mid pickup and bridge pickup of HSS guitar. Same guitar, same wood, same electronics, just different position.