Closest thing to a single coil pickup in a humbucker-sized mount?

[dNA]

After my experiment with a thinline earlier this year, I decided the bright twangy tele sound is not for me. But I did think that the tele neck pickup I got from Ken @ Roadhouse was a beautifully clear sounding pickup that really brought out the voice of the guitar. And I've been loving the lipstick pups in my Dano. I was thinking a similar pickup would probably sound incredible in the neck position of my artcore and now i'm looking at the possibility of buying another artcore dirt cheap on year-end closeout.
I'm wondering what other humbucker sized pups you guys have tried that have a clean, bright sound - specifically for the neck position. I looked at TV Jones but that's much more than I'd like to spend. Having tried both the Humbucker from Hell and EJ Custom from DiMarzio, I found neither to have the open, articulate kind of sound that I was looking for.  I've never really tried out a guitar with P-90's, so I don't know if a hum sized P-90 might be right up my alley.

This is just a general survey of what people have tried and liked. let me know!

 

[The Norwegian Guy]

P90's is very honest sounding pickups. It's full of gradations(?) and the sound of P90's is in my opinion beautiful when used with a slightly overdriven amp

 

[swarfrat]

There's this thread on Humbucker sized P90's. There are also other options more targeted at strat and mini-humbuckers in a HB size route. (Not that mini-hb's are SC's, but they are a lot tighter sounding than your typical humbucker)

 

[drewfx]

There are also adapter rings for putting a strat PU in an HB route:

 

[The Norwegian Guy]

That adapter ring doesn't look very delicate  :tard:

 

[dNA]

There are also adapter rings for putting a strat PU in an HB route:

I don't think that'll fit on an archtop. and even if it did, it'd be fairly hideous. which is unfortunate, because I may go that route (no pun intended)

 

[swarfrat]

Something like this:
Duncan Custom Shop - Sound of Strat

 

[The Norwegian Guy]

Something like this:
Duncan Custom Shop - Sound of Strat

It looks good too! Wonder if it sounds good!

 

[dNA]

Something like this:
Duncan Custom Shop - Sound of Strat

wow. that'd be really cool. anyone tried one?


Just out of curiosity, would it be possible to take your average noise-cancelling "single coil" and just arrange it to look like a humbucker - but essentially you only really use one coil and the other is there to cancel noise? Because it'd be great to have something like the DiMarzio's virtual vintage pickups that just looked just like a humbucker.

 

[tfarny]

at no  cost, you can experiment with coil tapping or parallel wiring for your existing buckers, see if that will do it. I loved Ken's Roadhouse bucker, but it wasn't bright and single coil like, just a very articulate and defined classic-like bucker sound. Would be fantastic on a jazz box but I don't think it's like a single coil at all.

 

[dNA]

at no  cost, you can experiment with coil tapping or parallel wiring for your existing buckers, see if that will do it. I loved Ken's Roadhouse bucker, but it wasn't bright and single coil like, just a very articulate and defined classic-like bucker sound. Would be fantastic on a jazz box but I don't think it's like a single coil at all.

i've been experimenting with split and parallel sounds for a few years already. though i haven't really tried it on this particular guitar in a few years. That's not a bad thought.

To be clear, I'm not going for a jazz guitar sound on the archtop(s). I've been using mine to play anything from sabbathy riffing to experimental noise and more clean indie rock tones forever now. I really developed my creative voice and playing style on that guitar, and I'd love a second one that gets a more almost-acoustic kind of clean for different vibes and more chordal playing. I've considered just ghetto-rigging the tele roadhouse pickup I have to a guitar just to see how it sounds. The tone of the guitar itself is so far removed from the thinline I built, it's not even funny.

 

[TroubledTreble]

Paralleling definitely gives a different flavor. I think that is a good suggestion for a place to start.

I have been working on P90's set up like this. In a Humbucker size I like this form factor better than a Humbucker sized P90. The coil dimension is just off too much to get a good P90 sound in a humbucker size. But having a setup like this is it's own animal and doesn't try to pretend to be something else.

*Thanks for your comments everyone.  :icon_thumright:

 

[Mor Paul]

Ken, would you consider trying to make a tele neck pup sounding "humbucker"? (Probably just humbucker casing)
if you did that, I may consider buying one for the #1 tele, so I can get the traditional sounds from it.

 

[TroubledTreble]

I could make something like the coils above. Put them in a closed humbucker cover and it might be close. Only experimentation would tell for sure. In fact the more I think about it, it would be darn close. A tele neck pickup is about the same length as a humbucker. I guess the simple answer would be that a tele neck pickup would fit in a humbucker cover.

You know I love to experiment!

I just confirmed here that a tele neck pickup does fit....

 

[swarfrat]

In the well duh, category, since I've been looking at gfs mean 90's 30 times a day for the past week:

GuitarFetish Dream90 might be something up your alley. Mean90 is supposed to be soapbarish, the dream90 more stratish.
DiMarzio also makes the EJ pickups which are supposed to be rather strat like.

Did not realize TroubledTreble did pickups, and quite reasonably priced (screaming deal priced when you consider the 'hand wound'/small shop aspect.) I might have to PM you on this.

 

[dNA]

ok, total reassessment of priorities. I thought I'd prepare some food-for-thought by recording a bunch of original material played on my artcore with the neck pickup. the results were interesitng

When I had the electronics replaced a few years ago, my luthier/tech at the time put in treble filter caps on the volume knobs. It lets a lot of treble bleed through, so the volume knob sounds more like an EQ as it rolls off a hell of a lot more bass as the volume is decreasing. I find that while I can get great super clean sounds out of it, the volume drop is usually too extreme to really make use of. But it does help that if i roll of the volume just a little bit, it cleans up the bass.

So I roll the volume on the neck pup to between 8 and 9 and turn my amp's master to about 1 o'clock. Past this point it doesn't usually get much louder, just more crunchy and saturated. I've got an e609 hanging over the front of the amp just slightly off center from the left speaker cone. I hit record on my DAW and just play a few riffs of mine.

The recordings came out pristine. Far cleaner and clearer sounding than what the amp sounded like in the room. Knowing my recording gear pretty well, I don't think it had to do with mic placement or the signal chain simply thinning out the sound. I'm pretty sure it's because the mic is right up against the speaker and so it's only getting what's coming right out of the amp and no room sound. Apparently the small room size is really causing a lot more low-end buildup than I ever gave it credit for. To test this out, I rolled my amp into the living room/kitchen/hallway which are all one big connected space and started jamming out on some of the same material. The sound was definitely less bassy.

While I've had my concerns about small room dimensions (i.e. bedroom playing) impacting tone for a long time, I never really stopped to think that chronic complaints about sound (like always feeling the lows are muddy on my electric guitars) might be largely the product of the rooms I'm playing in and not the gear itself. And looking back, I've often taken my archtop to practice studios or other people's places and been surprised by how bright and clear it sounds. I just never put two and two together.


this kinda has me convinced that a lot of the issues I've had with bass response in various guitars have been largely mislead - especially since I tried various brighter pickups from Dimarzio: Bluesbuckers, Humbucker from Hell, and EJ Custom. With each of these pickups i found that there was a significant change in midrange and high end response from the typical PAFs, but I still felt that the lows (essentially the lowest wound strings) were boomy, not tight or articulate.



this was kind of just a cool revelation for me.  clips attached.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

http://www.eastwoodguitars.com/Accessories/images/big/pickup.jpg

"AIRLINE® Vintage Voiced Single Coil Pickup
Have you ever wondered what makes those old AIRLINE guitars sound so wicked? How can a Humbucker sound like that? Well, it can't. The original VALCO pickups were SINGLE COIL, not Humbuckers. They looked like a Humbucker, but that is where the similarity ends. The VALCO pickups were found in all AIRLINE®, SUPRO and National Guitars in the late fifties and early sixties. We dissected the originals and have now re-created that famous tone in a new SINGLE COIL design that is housed in a Humbucker format. These are made specifically to replace your Humbuckers and give you that oh-so-nasty growl that is familiar from the likes of Jack White, Hound Dog Taylor, J.B. Hutto and Jimmy Reed.
At only $79 each, how can you go wrong?"

Chinese I'm guessing.

 

[dNA]

I missed a good bit of conversation while I was off jamming and recording.

Did not realize TroubledTreble did pickups, and quite reasonably priced (screaming deal priced when you consider the 'hand wound'/small shop aspect.) I might have to PM you on this.

Ken's a great guy. I have to say that his dedication to customer satisfaction is unsurpassed.

Ken, if you do come up with a hum-sized single coil I'd be happy to demo a prototype for you.  :icon_biggrin: I feel pretty guilty that I'm not putting your custom-wound tele pickup to any use now.

 

[drewfx]

I just remembered, SD makes an HB PU made from 2 "true" strat style single coils - the Stag Mag:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/progressive/sh3_stag_mag/

 

[Strat Avenger]

There are also adapter rings for putting a strat PU in an HB route:

Hey, I didn't know about those. That's pretty cool.