Vintage Single Coils or Modern Blades?

[MrBukka]

Hi guys, just curious whether players nowadays prefer the vintage single coil PU (pole-pieces) or modern single coil (blades) and why the preference of one over the other.

Any discussions on advantages or disadvantages are welcome too! Cheers! :mrgreen:

 

[THOA]

Never tried a blade before but I guess with single pole pieces, the spacing of the poles to the strings would become an issue depending on bridge type. I was never really bothered about it, though.

 

[MrBukka]

Well i guess blades r not affected much/at all in terms of string spacing since it has a wide range of pickup area on the blades. But tonally i would like to know whether the blades are any good at producing single coils tones at all.

 

[ShredCow]

Not the same.

I've used a couple of blades and... its in the ballpark... but not the same. My opinion is that the blades from say... Dimarzio (Cruiser & Fast Track 1), tend to sound a little "fake". Like you boosted the EQ. Check out some of the Andy Timmons (Cruisers) clips on youtube... get the ones where he plays to a backing track or is demo-ing his rig. You can hear from the clip how the Cruisers have a low end that sounds kinda fake. I don't know how to put it but I'm sure you'll hear it after reading about it here.

Given a choice, I'd take the blades though... hum-free (quieter than a humbucker!), looks cool and gives me extra frets to play on.

 

[MrBukka]

I see, shredcow since u r a ibanez s user, do u think using a blade single coil in the middle of the H-S-H config will be a good idea, and is having a coil tap on the blade single something that is worth trying as well??

 

[ShredCow]

I was an Ibanez S user... and I used a H-H saber.

Sure, go for a blade - it has less magnet pull than a regular single coil and if you're not picky about the authenticity of the tone, why not?

You don't need to coil tap/parallel on the middle pickup... you're using an Air Norton in the bridge and some SD pickup in the neck right? Those are not hot pickups so I don't think you need to choose a hot blade pickup... the lower output blades are plenty bright and probably wouldn't be that fat sounding - imagine coil splitting that. That's pretty thin and weak tones.

Take a listen to players like Paul Gilbert and Steve Vai. They have a HSH setup and well, PG uses the inbetween positions to get a quacky, biting, percussive, bluesy tone. Vai uses its for his cleans. Its a HUGE contrast to the fat, full, compressed humbucker tones they have.

 

[MrBukka]

Haha u still remember shredcow omg! Yeah i am using the SD 59 inthe neck and Air Norton in the bridge for my S, actually i already have a Dimarzio Cruiser which i havent got the time to install.

Went through a lot of clips and some andy timmons ones, i dig his clean and bluesy/high gain tones through his cruisers, thus i wanted to try it myself cause i really find the stock infs to be very lacking in tones. The only thing is i have never tried blade PUs before, so i needed some help.

 

[MrBukka]

Hmmmmm if u say the cruiser sounds "fake", is it a bad thing at all? Cause i know that it can't sound 100% like a true single coil but i was hoping that it can be very close (nice shimmering cleans and crunches well) with all the added advantages the blades have over the vintage single coils.

 

[Whitestrat]

Traditional or not, Blades or not, I think the key defining character here of choices should not be due to the humbucking characteristic. What you do need to look into is more about the magnetic field size of each design. I personally prefer 6 pole magnet single coils, simply because that singular position under a string is the key that provides that chimey focused tone we think of as a single coil tone. Blades, no matter how lowly wound or whatever, will still have a wider field over the strings, and therefore, still pickups up the vibrations from 2 points. This is the characteristic of a generic humbucker. Putting the 2 physical points close to each other as in blades, merely focuses the tone a bit more, but still lacks that pure single coil tone vibe.

If you want noiseless and single, there are many options... You want single coil-ish humbuckers, there are also many options.

Key is, what is more important to you? Tone? or Noiseless?

Personally, I prefer single point. It's fine if it's modern and noiseless (vertically stacked humbuckers or dummy coils). But that single pickup point is crucial.

 

[Whitestrat]

is it a bad thing at all?

Nothing about Andy Timmon's tone is bad.:twisted:

 

[seekz]

.....looks cool and gives me extra frets to play on.

Pardon me asking, but what do you mean by that?

 

[EngelFaeuste]

Pardon me asking, but what do you mean by that?

You can fret on the neck blades, use the bridge pickup.

 

[seekz]

Oh..... I never would have thought!

but wouldnt the intonation be off?

 

[EngelFaeuste]

Well, it's not exactly meant to be a precise note because you're not supposed to! When you play, you're thinking and feeling, you can bend the note you're fretting on the blade to the desired note.

 

[Ized]

I remember dave mustaine from megadeth saying that the blade gave him extra "frets" to play on too in an interview before he switched to a full H-H setup.

 

[jony]

Apparently you can get the 24th fret note on a standard telecaster neck pickup as well.

 

[seekz]

My eyes are opened!

Its always nice to find out new inovative approaches to playing the guitar.

 

[ShredCow]

Hmmmmm if u say the cruiser sounds "fake", is it a bad thing at all?

Depends... I'm sure there will be those who can point out the differences in a heart beat but...

No noise?
No string drop out?

I'll just take the blades.

 

[Whitestrat]

No string drop out?

Actually, I've never really experienced this lei... Not even with my vintage singles... So what's the fuss about the MUST for blades?

But honestly, I think the best solution for your needs and mine combined would be a vertically stacked dummy coil, and a single blade rather than 2 side by side.

Does anyone make this?

 

[ShredCow]

Neither have I.. .but its in the marketing of the blades mah... so...

I'm sure there is though but well... *shrugs* Can I just believe it and feel better?


Bill Lawrence has a single blade pickup that he discontinued and has revived. Its very low output too. Check it out, if you can find it on his horrendously hard to navigate website.