FENDER Noiseless Pickups vs Single Coils! - Can You Hear The Difference?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ม.ค. 2019
- Has Fender Finally created a noiseless pickup that can keep up with a TRUE single coil? Let's Find out!
Today I'll be comparing the Fender N4 vs the Fender V-mod!
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Avoid 60Hz hum by moving to Europe.
Admittedly, you'll have to contend with 50Hz hum instead, but we have castles and stuff.
Hahahahahaha, underrated comment
Lol
Funniest comment I ever read in the given context XD
Ahahahajajajajahahahahahahah! Master!
I love you.
The noiseless ones sound really amazing and for me even better than the originals. They are more "rounded" and softer without beeing dull and like a humbucker. Thanks for the comparision!
I agree 100% with demo tester's assessment. I have a Player Plus Strat in Tequila Sunrise, with the noiseless pickups, and it sounds beautiful.
True single coil definitely sounded better to my ear, but for a live situation, they were close enough that the sacrifice in tone to eliminate the hum without going humbucker would be worth it.
Russell Ives you can always get a noise gate
@@spectre5560 nah it will still be in the background
Learn to ride that volume knob and don’t worry about it ever again.
or just get a noise gate
@@rtxf noise gate eating the sound and just make the sound much more different.
I love blind tests! I liked the noiseless better in all positions except for the Bridge. The noiseless had less single coil "chime", but more body and sounded smoother.
The noiseless still had good chime and I preferred them, too. I've never been very enamored by Strat bridge pickups. I have some Vintage Noiseless in one of my guitars. Shorting out the bottom coil brings out a really aggressive top end, and 60 cycle hum.
Agree
My ears agreed with yours.
Ya, the middle pickup on vmods is much too twangy (pronounced?) for me.
Agree with this. Just ordered a Nashville tele with noisless, was seeing people complain that it doesn't have true true sound, but hearing this can see that that's probably personal bias. The noisless neck and middle were crisper and had more sustain. The bridge was a bit mushy. Could see possibly putting in a true single in the bridge only.
These noiseless pups are really good. The true single coils have the spank but the noiseless pups are close. So close that if you're using OD or Distortion then the noiseless are a really good option.
I love you Darrell. Good bless you. You are so good. 💖
I thought the noiseless with a tablespoon of gain sounded fantastic. That being said... Even with phone speakers you can tell the single coils outshine on clean and slightly dirty settings.
Thanks for the informative video!
I’m actually liking the tone on the noiseless better. ???
For people who don't like the super bright "jangly" Fender tone, but like the Strat, they are an excellent option :)
Mee to, fuller and a bit punchier with gain
Me too! I don't like that super high center frequency on the SCs. The Noisekess habe a bit more mids and don't sound as thin (people call it chimey, I call it thin, lol). I have the N3s and I have Kinman Fat 50s Noiseless. The Kinmann are absolutly fantastic, they really sound a lot more like real Singlecoils.
Opinions and personal tastes are good things.
Darrell Braun Guitar
Hi Darrell. For what it’s worth, you definitely have one of the very best guitar YT channels. Keep it up and thank you.
After scrolling a bunch of videos - where a couple of guys talked endlessly before getting to any substance - this video answered all my questions. Great job! Just what I needed.
For gig situations I see no argument against the new noiseless pickups. The audience certainly won't notice.
Heh... it's a feel thing, but the performance comes first. Ted green playing out of humbuckers will sound better than an amateur playing out of the best single coils, but what about Ted playing through the best single coils? It would be heavenly...
My only argument is in a studio mix..are you really going to notice the difference and by how much are we really talking about yes you can e.q.out 60 cycle hum but then you use 2 eq files to do this..that eats up c.p.usage..so for a budget recorder..with a less than perfect recording p.c. to use maybe n4 makes sense ..I have them on my tele they still bounce and sound wonderful.. but that's an opinion based on studio recording
Good one
hey Jay! fancy finding you here. I agree with you, but having said that all of my pickups are noisy. And I have to say regarding the pickups in this video, I really liked the sound of the noiseless pickups.
Hi mate! It's not always the pickups that cause the hum. Often insufficient screening and/or grounding of electronics is the cause.
Here's a question that I get asked a lot: Do I prefer Noiseless or Traditional single coil pickups? Today I take a look at the pros and cons of each :)
Hopefully the blind test will help you guys decide which is right for you!
Can you do a review about Monotone Noiseless single coil?
I like the single coils better, if I wanted noise canceling I'd use humbuckers. The noise canceling pickups loses the nice single coil sound.
*Mojotone
Hiya from Ireland Darrell, love the work sir. Quick question, I wanna do a kit guitar. That one Solo gave you was beautiful, but if you had to recommend a 'do it yourself' gtar... who would you recommend. Fyi, I absolve Darrell of all and ANY legal or moral responsibility.
😂👍 I had a great experience with the Solo Music Gear kit, and I am hoping to do another one this year. They are the only kits I have experience with :)
Amazing progress! Sound-wise I am even tending now to prefer the noiseless pickups over the standard single coils.
Thanks for putting this out there. I was really going back & forth between these 2.
Your playing on these demos is fantastic. I often hum the stuff you play long after the video is done. Keep up the great work Darrell!
Seems to me like you can make these pickups sound just about identical with a little judicious use of treble and presence knobs, or some minor EQ shelving.
This video was exceptionally well done. I used my ears, listened to practical considerations, and was able to make an informed decision. Thank you!
Perfect review, exactly what i was looking for, thank you so much for doing this!
It's close enough. Change the amp settings a little. The crowd will never know.
What Bill said.
And nether will you!
quite right
I was debating the difference a few weeks ago..thanks for chiming in and making it easier for me. I appreciate you playing and videos. I'm going for the N4s. Thanks.
Glad to help!
I love the N4's in my Strat.
Have the S-1 switch too. More tones than I need.
An Elite Strat holder ic
Roadhouse Deluxe. Great guitar.
Best comparison I've seen. Well done, Darrell!
I found myself liking the noiseless pickups more than the single coils. To me the single coils sounded thinner while the noiseless ones seemed to have a fuller sound, although not quite into full humbucker territory. It seems to me that these would be a good upgrade for cheaper strat style guitars. I think the tone was close enough that I would not have picked them out as not having a 'single coil' sound without a direct comparison. They just sounded like a good single coil set of pickups, especially in a mix.
Agree completely.
I love the sound of the noiseless pickups, it's like a mix of single coils and humbuckers
That describes it well.
Hey Darrell I think I might have told you about these before, but in case I haven't, this is the perfect time. Tonerider from the UK makes quite a few different pups in all manner of configurations. From single coil S types and awesome T types, to P90's and HB's with coil splitting and I think they are starting to make Filtertron types now also. They are extremely cost effective and sound great. One of the interesting things about them is that they use extra shielding to keep the noise down when you're using only one single, like say only a neck pup on a S or T type, but they reverse wind and reverse polarity the offhand pup. So on the S you have a N neck S middle and N bridge, Along with the coils being wrapped opposite directions. For folks that just want a really great Strat sound, but not putting up with the buzz, especially on an overdriven setting, the TRS2 set is a really great all around set. They make different models for specific tones, and do a really good job of keeping up with almost anything that Seymour puts out, but at about 1/4 of the price.
As for the T type pups, my favorites are the TRT3 sets, but I think they are phasing those out. Shame too because they have a great tone and note articulation. The 3 means it's packed with Alnico 3 magnets. The TRT2 set is also a great set for classic rock including very overdriven tones, down to mild crunchy blues, and even super clean jazz tones. The TRT1 "Vintage" however, for me personally has a little too much ice pick to the brain in the bridge. While you can tone that down a bit with the tone knob, for my personal use or for a customers guitars, I usually go with the 2 or the 3 if I can find them. All of these pups are also made for lefty guitars. That would be a great blind test to stack them up against SD or standard Fender pups. Anyway, back to work. Great format on the video, Bob in Germany.
p.s. I preferred the V mods ;)
Excellent comparison as usual. Thanks Darrell!
So what you’re saying is I need two strats
9 or 10
Yes.. i have 2 different strats w/..noiseless& traditional pickups.. its worth the investment🙏🏻 blessings bro
@@chrisclassical7 are never enough
Start with 2, end with 1,798
The noisless pickups I have read are meant for stage players and are supposed to eliminate signal disruption from other stage electronics ie. lights, mics and all other wireless electronics devices that transmit. Not sure how this applies but Thanks!!!
Great comparison, Darrell. The recording quality was perfect. Just what I was looking for. It made a huge difference in the comparison. I think Fender has come a long way with noiseless pickups. But you can still hear more detail in the single coils. The noiseless don't have as much high end, and maybe some of that missing information is provided by harmonic overtones that the noiseless pickups aren't capable of producing. The hi end detail of the single coils is the easiest giveaway in the blind testing. But the noiseless do sound good. This is the best they have sounded on TH-cam, in my opinion. And the V-Mod - really nice of Fender to start experimenting with different Alnico for different strings. I know that Seymour Duncan and Lindy Fralin have been doing this for a while, but it's great to see Fender use this in stock guitars. That's a pretty customized set of pickups. I was very impressed with the V-mods in this video.
I dig the new v-mods. I had no idea they sounded that good. As for the n4 I really really dig these. Darrel Your assessment was spot on. I’m ordering a new fender and am going thru the mod shop... after seeing this I’m going with the hss noiseless. Thanks for helping me decide!!
I have to go with the single coils for this one. Still a classic and pleasing choice for a strat with the noiseless, but different enough for me to favor the true single coil chime.
I’ve played Texas special pickups in live situations, risky yes, but those things can sing!
Thanks for this review. Your video quality is fantastic!
Great video once again Darrell , thank you! I too tried a few noiseless and a bunch of different single coils. My conclusion was the same as yours. The noiseless sounds pretty damn good, but they don't have the "airy", or "woody" sound, nor quite as much chime as the true singles.
For anyone dealing with this - if you want to just go humbucker you might try Fralin Sunbuckers - they are made to sound more like single coils - while they are in the ballpark, they're still not exactly like the real thing, but they do sound good, and then if you use coil taps on them, they sound even closer, although you will get the hum/buzz when you split them.
If you do a lot of high gain, or distortion then just use humbuckers...
I installed N4 on my Strat and I am very happy with them. I couldn't stand that 60 cycle hum. I don't play with a lot of gain, actually not much at all. I play mostly jazz/soul/alt mix and a lot of atmospheric, always on clean, with flatwound 10s and often in open tuning, so the elimination of the hum was a huge improvement for my style. I also have an Ibanez AS153 semi-hollow with the Tri-switch at the neck pickup giving me a single coil or out of phase sound, again, great for my style. Additionally, though I love the old rockers and their traditional Strats, I'm not trying to emulate them at all, so I've little interest in following tradition. Thanks for the vid.
For a while now I've been looking into the Fender Noiseless pickups. For years I've tried many different single coil pickups and still don't like them. The 60 cycle hum was enough to yank them out and put in Seymour Duncan single space humbuckers. However, now my Stratocaster sounds like a Les Paul. I recently tried a reissued Stratocaster with the Classic Fender Noiseless pickups and was convinced that Fender Noiseless was the way to go.
As for this video, I loved it. I found the Noiseless to be the sound of a Stratocaster I was looking for. If I want to get that Les Paul sound I play my Les Paul. However, what I would like to hear is a comparison of the three Fender Noiseless pickups. Great video and very helpful.
Although you buy a Strat for the sparkly, spank not everyone likes that exact sound. The noiseless cuts some of the spank out and it still retains the Strat sound without being overly bright.
@@terrydactylspontaneous2596 I tried a Stratocaster with the Noiseless through my amp and was amazed how well it sounded. The loss of spank was minimal. Having a Stratocaster and a Les Paul allows me to get the sound I'm trying to cover.
This was excellent. Love your video, well done, funny, very educational without being snotty. Thank you Sir.
Hey Darrel
I’ve seen nearly all your videos, I must say I’m impressed, one I’d love to see you do is a Gibson or fender kit guitar but really go all out on it, completely turn the baby into a Frankenstein’s monster, phasers, cuts, 3 pick ups with similar characteristics to the Brian May red special & more
Good on ya McGee, Australia
The single coils are noticeably more bright. This is not always an advantage, but it's easier to cut existing frequencies than to add non-existing ones.
I have n4s in my MIM strat. I don't miss my original pickups. I actually never liked the sound of the originals until I added the obsidian wiring mod, that you reviewed on this channel. For some reason they became alive with that mod. All that being said, I choose the sound of the true single coils in this video.
These single coils here are different than the mim originals
You have today answered my questions! Thanks for this video. 😎🎸
Great job on the comparison, Darrell. I totally agree with your assessment on SC vs Noiseless. Personally, I had become *SO* annoyed with the SC hum, I had completely given up on Fender guitars until they brought out the noiseless pickups. Now I own two Strats, a Noiseless three pickup configuration, and a Fender Shawbucker two pickup configuration, and love playing them both.
The noiseless have more body and mids.. I first thought those are the true single coils!
same
Wft
They shouldn't label these as single coils. They are humbuckers. They can be coil tapped.
Same
I got 4 out of 5. I prefer the single-coils over the noiseless but the noiseless did sound better than I expected.
Great comparison, Darrell! I don't hear much difference between the N3s and the N4s. They don't sound bad, just a bit flat and lifeless compared to the regular pickups. I find that especially evident on the bridge of a Tele.
Nicely done. Thanks for helping me figure out why I am not getting along with elite stratocaster. V4 noiseless are coming out tonight!
It’s only my impression but the noiseless sounds warmer? Cheers from Milan💙
I think they definitely do sound warmer. It’s especially audible on the higher pitched strings.
They ARE warmer, like humbuckers are warmer than single coils. Buona sera!
Great test and video. Thank you for that!
The same test with Teles would be even better!!! Please! ;-)
Cheers man, you always find ways to make my gear choices easier.
Excellent Comparison! Easily discernible in a side-by-side listening. Well done!
What I don't get about comments talking about "it's good enough for live," when in reality, listeners can't even tell if George Harrison played a Strat or a Les Paul on a recording. Basically, if it's good enough for live, it's definitely good enough for studio. Mics, consoles, and the mixing process will pretty much remove any extra sparkle you might think that a true single coil has. Anybody who rehearses and performs regularly knows that you can only discern tiny tonal nuances when you're by yourself listening to yourself play, which is fine if that's how you come up with the tones you want to hear, but don't be surprised if your bedroom tone doesn't come through in a recording or in a live performance. I'm not even a pro, I'm a dedicated amateur who is lucky enough to gig very regularly, and even someone like me can't be bothered with what my tone sounds like in a room by myself. All I know is that I've gone on tour with someone who uses true single coil pickups, and by the end of the tour, he was using my backup guitar which features DiMarzio Area noiseless pickups. Why? Because hum is terrible and a single coil purist might not think anyone else can hear, but yeah, everyone can hear it.
i would argue true single coils can be manipulated more, you can twist and morph a single coil sound but if you have a dark high output humbucker youre pretty stuck with that sound. but its mostly personal preference, you can use what you like in the studio but live you are forced to use noiseless or humbucker
@@likeanuuk6612 no, no one is forced to use anything. People still play standard singles on live gigs 🤷♂️ and you can play them whenever and wherever you want. Live. In the studio. Recording in your bedroom. It doesn't matter. No one is forced to use hb's or noiseless just because they're playing live.
Jimi Hendrix didn't and his guitars sounded just fine. So did/do thosands upon thousands of other guitar players.
Regardless of what I may have learned about these pickups, I thoroughly enjoyed the very tasteful chops you used to demonstrate. I envy your diverse catalog of styles and subtle techniques.
Thanks for the kind words :)
Thanks for another great video! I agree with you totally. I prefer the clarity of the true single coil vs the N4.
They both sound really good! Obviously back to back you hear the differences but if I heard them at a show, I would have loved the tone of both!
I think the Gen4 will benefit with 500k pots, they sound good but not as much chime as a regular single coil for clean and distorted. Maybe changing the cap on the Gen4's to a .01 would allow more highs thru. I assume the amp settings remained the same for both guitars.
Nope! I'm not choosing, Love them both of course! Thanks D!
Be Well Brother!
Thanks Steven!
I love Darrell’s commentary! He gets right to the point! I BELIEVE HIM!
Solid video Darrell! Warmer, richer sounding noiseless neck pickup, otherwise quite pleasant. I'd love to hear your impression of Mojotone Quiet Coils. They sound the closest I've ever heard to true single coils - even though they are actually dual rail pickups under the plastic facade.
They definitely sound different. I hear a faster attack and more of a metallic sound with the noiseless pickups. Not in a bad way. Just different. I use both kinds of pickups in different guitars. Noiseless clean tones are very distinctive and can lend themselves to a unique vibe. Having said that, the difference is adjustable enough that you can get a closer match just by switching IRs and adjusting gain and eq.
I really liked the Noiseless sound, I don't know why, I guess it just sounded a little warmer? I guess it's also the fact that I hated the single coil sound on my first ever guitar, which is obviously sad, because it wasn't anything like a Fender. But still, love the noiseless sound though if I would go for a clean tone only in the music I play, I would probably pick the true single coils :P
I'm with you. If you like a HB sound, the noiselsss ones get slightly closer to that sound (often because they ARE humbuckers and thus are doing the same thing that traditional HBs do).
I play HB guitars. I like a bit of girth and warmth. I'll grab a SC axe to do special studio work though. I may be prone to my tastes because I grew up on BB King. I admit I gig with Fiter tron pups though which have a lot of sparkle and snap in them - kind of the best of both worlds IMO.
1st of all, Darrell, a mind-blowing video as usual, bro! Wish I could become a bigger Patreon. You deserve it...Nothing like a true ring of those single coils, especially if you don't mind the hum. A good thing is that when you're playing, you don't notice the hum. I definitely can hear the difference during the Clean test. I got tests 1, 2 & 3 correct. With the clean test using the Bridge/Mid-Bridge tests, the SC sounded warmer than the Noiseless. However, during the Neck/Neck-Mid & Middle test, the Noiseless seemed warmer which I like, too. Seemed to be a slight difference with the 'dirt' added, too...Bottom Line: I'd go Noiseless in a stage setting & SC during lessons, practice, etc. Bottom line: There's not a big enough difference in tone to create a huge loss if you really want to lose the hum. I have a Noiseless bridge pup in my Fender PJ bass & love it...Thx, Darrell!!
Thanks for the kind words!
I really appreciate the support 👍
Excellent video! Cleared all my doubts!
Well somebody may prefer n4 pickups, for me true single coil pickups were more bright and spanky. Some might say it's because we're used to the sould of the single coil which makes us prefer the sound of it. But I do like the true single coil way more :D
As a recordİng session guitarist, N4 noiseless for me. You’ll never know how well the electric system in a studio is built.
Great review. At some point i would love to see a comparison between the Fender noiseless and Fralin Split Blade pickups. I hate the hum and in studio situations strats can become unusable sometimes so I got the split blades.another solution is a adding dummy coil to quiet single coils down.
Great video Darell! Blind test are good! Can you comapre some more pick ups like fishman fluence for strat ?!
Oh, wow! An actual video in the middle of the NAMM barrage.
I hate the endless trade show videos. It's cool to see new stuff but I'd rather have actual content.
True single coils for me. I have Texas Specials in my strat and wouldn't have it any other way.
I have Texas specials as well but I hate 60 cycle hum... it just drives me nuts.
Copper shielding your cavities, and back of the scratchplate helps a lot.
Two words: volume knob
Yosemite Sam get a noise gate pedal.
@@wildersparks9161 I'm surprised how many people don't know how to use their volume knob
I think some musicians go for buzz, and for really saged reasons. Guitars as sensitive machines. Even the best crafted electric or acoustic, or classical guitar talks back. I am a classical guy, who plays electric for fun. I respect you for calling guitars out for what they are. Just the other day I was practicing a piece and started getting annoyed by the string noise, and every little creaking sound my guitar made. I digress... The point being that the wise man is the one who makes peace with the nature of the beast. Darrell, I have total respect for you, brother. I have learned so much from you about guitar construction. I am very grateful. cheers, buddy!
Another great video, thanks. I'm one of those guys that like that sound that only comes from single coils and to be honest I like the "messy" sound that happens when a lot of distortion is used with them. Noise seems to be more of an issue now than it used to be with players from 3 or 4 decades back. I would have liked to have heard the differences with heavy Fuzz. But as usual I'd probably stick with the single coils.
I’m losing my damned mind. This is the third DBG video that I would have bet my last dollar Darrell had already done. Hey Darrell, how about including winning Powerball numbers in your videos?
Honestly I cannot reliably differentiate between the two. I’d do just as well to flip a coin. Stupid old ringing ears!
The single coils sounded more hot and trebbly. The noiseless was like turning a dial on a low pass filter a bit more to the left.
Cool comparison. I use DiMarzio HS2 in the neck and middle and HS3 in the bridge for my strat. They are hum canceling and still retain a great single coil sound/feel for me. The one thing I want to do though is coil tap them into true single coil mode. Eric Johnson did this on these pickups before he designed his own pickups and said it was one of the truest vintage single coil sounds he had ever heard. Now I just need the time.
Nice job, as usual, Darrell. For what it's worth from an amateur, the differences seemed pretty slight to me. On a couple riffs, the single coils were just a little punchier or cleaner, but overall, differences were mostly subtle - which probably speaks well for Fender's attempt at noiseless. Since I've never played onstage, or used any sort of professional sound system, I can't think of a good reason to spend the money necessary to swap pickups on my guitar(s).
All my STRATS have EC-BOOSTER-Kid: no hum! I have an orignal EC-Blackie (2010) with NOISELESS PU, a 1989 Standard (WITH LACE SENSOR GOLD) and a cheap BROWNIE Replica WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING WHAT PICUPS. All without any hum. More important to me is the SLIM EC-NECK. Its awesome. Want to have it on all.
I like the HUMMMMM - I want as much hummm as I can get. It's something the voices in my head can sing along to.
HUMMMMMMMM
06/27/2020: I have watched many tests for Fender Noiseless pickups. Yes, they have very little noticeable 60-cycle hum, and they are warmer sounding, and a big loss of Tele Twang too. However, keep in mind they are "not" single-coil pickups. They are actually very similar to a hum-bucker. Humbuckers are two coils side-by-side. One has the wire-wound clockwise and the other has it's wire-wound counterclockwise. The electric field from a single coil makes the hum, but when you have two coils with their electrical fields going opposite directions, then the electrical fields from both pickups cancel out the hum. Thus the name - Humbucker. Well, Fender stacked two single-coils and did the same opposite wiring to cancel out the hum. However, you now have two single-coils that are similar to a humbucker, which is warm sounding pickups compared to a true single-coil pickup. Yes, the secret to Fender noiseless single-coil pickups is that they are actually humbuckers. And, that is totally OK. The noiseless pickups with two single-coils give the warmer sound (Yes, same as the side-by-side wide humbucker). But, there is still enough Tele Twang and punchiness to make most Tele people happy. To get the best Twang simply use the center selection on your 3-way switch, and pluck near the bridge. Plucking or Snapping the string (like snapping a rubber band) gives you a lot of that snappy Twang too. I have a Fender 2018 Players Series Telecaster and I put in the Feder Generation-4 noiseless pickups. They sound great, but yes - warmer with a little less Trang. I had seen many videos that teach to get great Twang, you need a slap-back Delay pedal (which is so fast you hardly can hear the repeat), a little Reverb, and a Compression pedal (optional). Check out videos for getting Twang, and have fun!
I have Gen4's in my Elite, and that's more than twangy enough... but without melting my face off with piercing highs.
Hey there ! Nice testing and very instructive ! Cheers ! I am definitely a player, about 4 to 8 gigs every month, and I play absolutely every style for bebop to hardrock, funk disco etc. Had quite a few issues with the single coils, love the sound of the neck pic, so good on clean channels, but got to say far to much noise even on realy good , modern, big stages... just played a 15000 stadium in Paris and the overdrive sounds we're like pretty f..d up.... so I decided to buy the noiseless gen 4 ! Haven't received them yet, but your vdo comforts me in my decision ! Cool nice vid, keep on rocking, Ryan, from France
I would say the noiseless in the bridge and the true singles in the middle and neck
That's what I have! Except that my noiseless is a Duncan Custom Custom (Alnico 2) full-size humbucker. ;)
Id say the exact opposite!
@@HonorThyTarkus why?
@@Mr.Goldbar because it is what I like
The noiseless neck pickup seems so much warmer than its single coil counterpart. The mid is less so and the bridge I struggled to tell apart. I'm guessing that was your impression too Bar Goldstein?
A lot of people using single coils will use higher capacitance cables to bring the resonant peak down anyway, which is what seems to happen with the noiseless pickups. Maybe using noiseless pickups with a lower capacitance cable would close the gap even more.
Yes, or just put a small preamp in the guitar to decouple the cable capacitance completely (and a fixed cap to emulate the optimum capacitance for the desired sound). This way you also get rid of most of the remaining hum, which in a live setting tends to be electrostatic coupled into the high-impedance cable connection.
Great info Darrell. I really enjoyed the in depth review. TO me they sound very close thru cheap speakers. I can imagine they feel different to get the same sound or close to it. I agree 60 htz hum is a PIA.
I actually like the roll off of the highs that noiseless offer. I basically roll with HS-2s, and Bill Lawrence L200s (for the slicker sounds). The glassy sounds that many like kinda hurts my ears ;-) In a live setting hum is a no-go! Great quality comparison Darrell!
The noiseless pups take away from the infamous Fender jangle. They smooth the edge, which I don’t really desire. It’s the “jangle” of the single-coils that make a Fender a “Fender”. I’ll stick with my old Alnico III’s on my Squier Classic Vibe ‘50’s Telecaster. Love that thing.
Those are great guitars 👍
Agree with the A3 pups.
Noiseless.
Tus vídeos están bien vergas bro, una vez más justo la comparación que estaba buscando, Parabienes!
Excellent demonstration!
When you did the Distortion Bridge SC, I think you let in a second or two before any note when I thought I heard the 60 Hz noise more prominently? I wonder if it would be fair to add to the test, Something like standing silent between songs without muffling the strings with your hand or volume knob, to try to hear the 60 Hz noise amount while still at playing volume?
I have a 1987 American Fender Strat Plus with Lace Sensor pick ups, which I always loved back in the 90s. I think that might've been the first generation of the noiseless? I know I preferred that back then over my 1989 Gibson 335 Dot semi-hollow body, which I ALWAYS had to silence between songs due to unwanted excessive feedback. I recently saw a Joe Bonamassa rig video where he said the 335 Dot is notorious for that. Now I don't feel so bad.
I'm getting back into playing guitar again now, decades later, I think I'll use that old 335 dot for feedback on purpose during rowdy songs. It used to always embarrass me, I thought I had accidentally broken my pick ups by raising the screws on those big silver rectangles, trying to make them scream more while playing, (not intended between songs).
I used to raise the pick-ups height to get them closer to the strings without touching during string vibration of playing, I thought that made them louder, now I think I know that was a rookie mistake, better perhaps to leave them at factory height and try not to beat the system in my ignorance!
I really appreciate this video, I think I will try to get the fourth generation noiseless, after seeing your demo and remembering my 1987 Lace Sensors as being my most reliable, 25 years ago.
The clean wooden strat sound that I look for now is like the gulp and slap sound, like Stevie Ray Vaughan pulling the string away from the neck and letting it slap back, and you kind of hear that wooden gulp, I think you know what I mean. I feel like I appreciate that as part of the signature Strat sound now, more than I realized in the past. It sure helps a lot these days to have videos like yours available on TH-cam, we live in a wonderful time now for guitar players to share ideas!
Thanks for making this video available, I understand the situation better now!
I go Mojotone Quiet Coils in my Strat, never looked back. IMHO, they sound much better than the Fenders and they gig very well.
Most of those saying "single coils all the way for me", or similar are just kidding themselves. The difference is so small you could never tell in any band situation. All by itself, yes I suppose you can tell the difference but there will be so many other factors that affect your tone so much more in any real-world situation. That said, this is the first time I've thought I could replace my usual single coil middle pickups with noiseless. And for my guitars with a sc neck pickup I wouldn't even think twice. Had I the budget, I would change them all out in a heartbeat. That didn't used to be the case, so well done Fender.
Marc Cote - I think if you were in The Cowboy Junkies the 'band situation' would differ.
Intimate settings favor dynamics, and those dynamics get crushed by the noiseless pickups. Otherwise I largely agree.
@@j_freed - Maybe. I don't know anything about The Cowboy Junkies' music. Still, I'd have a hard time imagining any band situation... that is, one in which other loud or amplified instruments are playing simultaneously... where I could hear that difference. But perhaps you are correct.
Dynamics don't get crushed by noiseless pickups. I have noiseless pickups on all of my guitars that have single coils, and I play slap guitar for fun, and if I have a high headroom amp set clean, there is enough oomph to take anybody's head clean off. I've played variety show type gigs that had lots of talking in between bits of music and it is always pretty easy to go from whisper quiet to driven leads just by going from soft finger plucking to hard picking with a pick. Bad noiseless pickups are bad, but bad single coils are bad, too. Imagine if I said that all single coils are bad because a Squier Affinity with single coils sounded lifeless, because that's basically what people say about noiseless, that they tried a set in the 90s and noiseless is bad. Even a set of DiMarzio Area 58/61/67, which have been around a while, would convince most people.
@@MarcCoteMusic small differences do make a difference to the overall sound of the band, even if you cant pick out the differences. we cant just ignore it. the hum just naturally takes thickness out of the guitar tone. since true single coils are not viable live, players who are passionate about that sound appreciate not being forced into using a regular humbucker, but we can still hear the small differences and have to adjust our settings to compensate for them.
@@likeanuuk6612 - Hey, you might be right... But I'd love to see a true double-blind test where even the guitarist doesn't know which is the regular single coil and which is the noiseless. I'm talking about a live gig situation, of course... full band.
That said, my usual setups are either humbucker, single, humbucker "|| | ||" or humbucker, single, noiseless single "|| | |". So far, I get the best of all worlds because most of the time I'm using clean or slightly broken up sounds I'm on the true single coil in the middle position. When I go to a dirtier sound I'm usually on the bridge humbucker. When I solo I'm either on the bridge humbucker or the neck position, so it's nice to have a no-noise setup for that.
Thanks for great comparison 👏🏼 The N4’s sounds over the edge treble... Single Coils sounded beautiful to my ears👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Best show on youtube....I love this type of material. Please test noiseless vs humbucker. And on another note, can you try a guitar body from warmoth without paint then have it painted, would love to see if tones change.
The true single coils sound way better to me
same
Facts
@John clinton those v mod pickups sound really good!
Even a donkey ear like me could hear that difference almost everytime.
I have no preference.
Both sounded reasonably like a strat to me.
I got myself 3 stacked Humbuckers in single coil shape from Ultrasound similar to Bill Lawrence for that reason (beeing hum-free). They are quiet but sound a bit more jazzy they have also less output. BTW thats why one needs at least two strats.
Excellent video,as always.Thank you.Have you considered a Lace Sensor low noise set of pickups compared to a Fender single coil set?
Going to GC to pick up a Strat today... Still debating between regular SC and Noiseless. Prolly going noiseless... thanks for your input on the subject! Great video.
I liked true single coils better. I guessed right every time! Noiseless sound kinda dry.
The SC has more vibe and tradition. The Noiseless sound slightly more boring lol
Just me or did the noiseless just seem to be a more modern sounding single?
I could tell the noiseless pickups for most of the tests, and I have to say that they lose a lot of color especially in the clean sense. could still hear it with the gain, but I can imagine that you are correct saying that the ability to tell the difference is much more different if you did lets say twice the gain than you did in this video.
great video by the way!
Interesting comparison Darrell. To my ears and after listening with a nice pair of headphones, the difference is very noticeable. The chime, spark and clarity on SC against the mudiness and slight darnkess on the noiseless. They both sound good, and I'm surprised on how well the SC keeps it against N4 on higher gain. I think noiseless could have more application on a studio because with smart EQ you can approach nicely but still not the real deal. Actually I kept a set of SCN (same range as N4..etc) on one on my strats because after all it's a nice strat sound on its own.
the noiseless DONT sound good enough yet
And they will never. Humbucking will always sound unnatural and lose harmonics
True. N1-3 not good enough so they made N4 and N5 will be right around the corner. I doubt it is possible to have a noiseless pickup that doesn't lose a little top end.
I also agree it's good enough in a live band situation and people may prefer it for the sound they require.
I won't be investing any time soon.
Hey Darrell! Great vid, but I'm left feeling curious about how the Noiseless would sound if paired with higher value potentiometers. It seems that the primary difference is the lack of brightness as you mentioned, so I'm curious if 500k or even 1M pots would make a difference.
It's very interesting to hear you demonstrate these. They sound great, but they do sound different. I feel like the brightness on the single coil pickups is just much more apparent. I don't necessarily prefer that aspect of single-coil pickups. I feel that it can be very well suited to a particular sound depending upon the gear that one uses and their playing style. But personally, I feel that the noiseless pickups come close enough to a traditional single coil sound, without the added hum, so I'd probably choose them over the single coils.
It's not so much what gear you use but how you use it. Anyone can make both sound like garbage. A good player can make both sound great. I think you made both sound great. Thanks for the video!
Have you already reviewed the new Fishman pickups? If not, when is that video coming? Great video!