Single coil vs humbucker for rock
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Single Coil vs Humbucker Metal Shootout! (Watch Below)ĮMG or’ active pickups’ are popular with metal players as they have an internal preamp that provides additional gain providing a ‘hotter’ signal to the amp. This tone allows players to achieve that wide bottom-end sound ideal for chugging and playing down-tuned notes favorable with modern metal genres. Humbuckers sound naturally thick, beefy, and dark compared to single-coils having twice as many pickups. Humbuckers have been the staple and traditional option for metal players over the decades for a good reason. The main function was to offer players a guitar that did not produce as much noise and interferance as single coils. The humbucker was invented by Seth Lover back in the 1950s. Why Humbuckers are The Staple Metal Pickup There are methods to tame noise by ensuring your pickups are shielded and using quality cables.Īnd when it comes to feedback, adopt a noise gate pedal within your live rig to help stomp out pesky feedback or stand further away from your guitar.Ī pickup unable to cancel its own noise and interference is not the ideal fit for a guitar that is being prominently used for heavy and saturated tones drenched in gain.
#SINGLE COIL VS HUMBUCKER FOR ROCK PROFESSIONAL#
However, playing through a loud tube amp for gigging volumes, then a single-coil guitar is more likely to feedback, which will not sound professional and annoy your audience in the process. This is not so much a problem for bedroom level playing. When you add a ton of distortion to a single-coil pickup, which is naturally noisy, your guitar is more likely to feedback and generate unwanted noise in the form of buzz and feedback. The second problem with this pickup choice for playing metal is noise, hum, and feedback problems.Īs mentioned, the single-coil pickup is as the name suggests, is a single-coil design as opposed to the humbucker pickup being a double coil design.Ī humbuckers double coil design effectively cancels ’60-cycle hum’ being noise, buzz, and feedback more effectively than single coils.
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Hum and Feedback Issues with Single Coils They do not offer enough low frequencies and over pronounce the treble. These pickups cannot achieve fat and chunky bottom-end tones that metal players love. However, chunky power chords or open chords with drop tunings are where the problem lies. When it comes to lead playing, riffs and single-note solos, single-coils with distortion are generally ok and doable. The reason is these pickups enhance the high frequencies and does not carry much bass as they are as the name suggests, they are a single-coil pickup compared to a humbucker (double coil design.) Overloading a guitar with single coils with gain and distortion, the tone is notably ‘thin,’ ‘brittle’ and very ‘harsh’ on the ears. However, when you overload single-coils with a heap of distortion, the naturally bright and thin tone goes against them when parked in the metal player territory. The Single Coil Tone for MetalĪs mentioned, single-coils are notably thin and bright, excellent for shimmering cleans, mild crunch, and warm overdrive with a definition. This is where single-coil pickups are not within their usual territory and somewhat a fish out of water.
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However, metal is notably famed for sounding heavy and aggressive, with guitar tones familiarly loaded with a ton of distortion and saturation. Hence why single coils are popular with players familiar with lighter sounding genres such as blues, rock, country, jazz, pop, and many more. This tone is what gives iconic guitars such as the Fender Stratocaster and Fender Telecaster their thin and twangy tone. When it comes to tone, single-coil pickups are recognized for sounding “ bright“, “ piercing“, and “ spanky“. Why Single Coils are Traditionally Not Metal Pickups