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Tele Single Coil VS Humbucker for Sustain?

Heft

Junior Member
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I'm building a guitar and trying to decide between a single coil telecaster style bridge pickup and a humbucker. I know I'm splitting hairs but its really important to me that the magents pull as little as possible on the strings.
My research shows that humbuckers have larger magnetic fields. However, I read somewhere that humbucker bar magnets were placed on the bottom of the pickup, far from the string, and that the magnetized slugs of single coils were closer to the strings and had a bigger impact.
I know the humbucker will sustain longer due to higher output. Thats not going to help me when I'm on the neck pickup.
Before I start looking for a pickup with a specific alnico value any idea if I should be looking at Telecaster or Humbucker pickups?
 
The Telecaster pickup will have a stronger magnetic field because the pole pieces are magnetically charged alnico rods. The iron slugs and screws of a humbucker should have weaker magnetic field. Typically less than half of the Telecaster poles when measured with a gauss meter for the same type of magnet ( A2 vs A2 etc). However there are twice as many magnetic pole pieces in a humbucker. The shape of the magnetic field is different between humbuckers and single coils, and I think the humbucker has a narrower field.

Personally I do NOT worry about the magnetic pull due to the bridge pickup. I give more consideration to the neck and middle pickups, as the string displacement is larger for the positions further from the bridge. Especially when the neck pickup is close to the strings, there is more potential to lose sustain and create unwanted distortion.
 
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The Telecaster pickup will have a stronger magnetic field because the pole pieces are magnetically charged alnico rods. The iron slugs and screws of a humbucker should have weaker magnetic field. Typically less than half of the Telecaster poles when measured with a gauss meter for the same type of magnet ( A2 vs A2 etc). However there are twice as many magnetic pole pieces in a humbucker. The shape of the magnetic field is different between humbuckers and single coils, and I think the humbucker has a narrower field.

Personally I do worry about the magnetic pull due to the bridge pickup. I give more consideration to the neck and middle pickups, as the string displacement is larger for the positions further from the bridge. Especially when the neck pickup is close to the strings, there is more potential to lose sustain and create unwanted distortion.
Thanks
Thats what I had thought and hoped!
 
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