Single pickup build

[Brown Buddha Brown]

Getting ready to build a Velocity body with but a single PUP.
Blues mainly.  Any thoughts on the most versatile HB to plant in the bridge?
Thanks!

 

[Cagey]

Welcome to the forum!

For a lotta versatility in one package, you might want to consider Seymour Duncan's "P-Rails" pickup...

Properly wired, you get either a single coil that sounds like half a "Hot Rails", a single coil that sounds like a "P-90", or a humbucker. Physically, it fits in the place of a standard PAF-style humbucker without modification to the guitar or existing mounting scheme. Tonally, it's a pretty versatile pickup, although in the two single coil modes it's not noiseless. But, noise gates exist, and they work better than ever.

 

[rgand]

I'll second Kevin's suggestion on the P-Rails. If I build a single pickup guitar, that's what I'll use. I have a pair in my JM and they're outstanding. Just be sure to wire it so you can split it to get all the options.

 

[musicispeace]

I like Kevin's idea as well. I don't keep up that well with pickups so this is the first I have seen that one. I have one single pickup guitar (I'm a blues player as well) and I wanted to experiment with a EVH Frankenstein pickup I had for awhile as I thought it had potential for things other than "the brown sound." Its a nice sounding pickup on cleaner or blues crunchy tube amp levels I think but definitely is hotter than the vintage output pickups I have otherwise. I would be totally open to trying the one Kevin is recommending you check out.

 

[Cagey]

A friend of mine put one of those in a Melody Maker, as that was a one-pickup guitar, and I was surprised at how many different sounds he could get out of it. While the P90 is a single coil, it's not like any other single coil you might be familiar with, including the one in the same package, so you basically get two substantially different single coils in that package. Then, of course there's the humbucking mode, which is substantially different again. Then, for each of the basic modes, you have the full-tilt boogie sound, then the slightly backed off sound where it cleans up. If you have a tone control wired in, there's another filter for you. All in all, a lotta different sounds out of a simple hardtail guitar with a single pickup and very simple controls.

 

[fdesalvo]

Don't end your research on the humbucker itself - also consider your switching schema.  Find a good 4 conductor, asymmetrically wound humbucker and go to town.  You could configure parallel, series, split, and out-of-phase tones from a single pickup.

 

[Archie Macfarlane]

The good thing about asymetrical humbuckers is they tend to have the sc attack followed by the hb compression and as you turn up the gain you sort of 'squash' the sc bit and as a result they kind of self eq/comp to different scenarios, though this is somewhat subjective and how i ~think~ i interpret it....

It's possible eddie chased this sound through the first few vh albums as he once said he wanted to cross polinate a fender with a gibson regarding the frankenstrat

 

[Brown Buddha Brown]

Thanks to all.  Actually went with a single Pearly Gates.  It just seemed correct to be as simple as possible and still maximize output.  Could not be happier. The PG seems to "adjust" itself well to playing dynamics and responds nicely to the tone knob alone.  I call it a little chopper because she ain't big enough to be an ax.
Hehehehe!

 

[fdesalvo]

Thanks to all.  Actually went with a single Pearly Gates.  It just seemed correct to be as simple as possible and still maximize output.  Could not be happier. The PG seems to "adjust" itself well to playing dynamics and responds nicely to the tone knob alone.  I call it a little chopper because she ain't big enough to be an ax.
Hehehehe!

Noice!

The good thing about asymetrical humbuckers is they tend to have the sc attack followed by the hb compression and as you turn up the gain you sort of 'squash' the sc bit and as a result they kind of self eq/comp to different scenarios, though this is somewhat subjective and how i ~think~ i interpret it....

It's possible eddie chased this sound through the first few vh albums as he once said he wanted to cross polinate a fender with a gibson regarding the frankenstrat

Plus, they tend to split really well into convincing SC tones.  Interesting theory on the VH end!