This all demonstrates why I adore our craft so much. We all do it so differently, sculpt our own lines. I respect most, a rig set-up that the player can explain his choices. Many would find my stage guitar set-up utterly horrendous. Bucker bridge and coil neck, with a fair bit of volume disparity. But, see, I specced that disparity (Dave Walsh-Eternal Guitars -HotRod Custom Pickups, West Sussex UK) in my own set. It drives an amp at full tilt filth, and flick of a switch I'm all cleaned up and chiming. I loved getting a pickup set made, am looking forward to visiting that small company again. I loved what this channel had to say. Made his case with staunch vigour. For a studio Tele, I agree with him. Purity of voice, and all that. But for a persons stage guitar, I don't agree with him. Getting your own tone to work live is a unique and personal thing, you have to make good calls that stick, a results orientated situation, and a man chooses his tools with care. Finding out the best Strat sound I ever heard, had EMG in, well... ...that turned me upside down, and I've kept an open mind ever since. I liked classic wide open tones... HATED active coils, despised the modern look with no pole pieces visable... But, I had to shut up. I had to shut up, and listen, and learn. I still don't use EMG, nor an active set, on my stage axes. But I do have a Tele and a Strat so equipped for recording, and noodling about. Sounds amazing. You got anything of you playing that set-up here on TH-cam? Be cool to see🍀stay healthy out there man
@@blacktoothfox677, I put Kirk Hammett's loaded pickguard/ scratchplate on my Strat, and it sounds absolutely fabulous and wonderfully beautiful! I hope the batteries don`t die, lol!
I love the single sized humbuckers. I even put them on guitars originally fitted with full size humbuckers. But i hate the hum, to me the compromise would be to record in weird positions to have a single coil chime with the less hum i can manage, and ignoring the remaining hum.
@@blacktoothfox677 My favourite "Texas blues" neck pickup tone so far comes from a Duncan Detonator swapped with alnico 5 magnets, they were supposed to be mounted on cheap metal guitars. Though i didn't try EMGs on a proper setup yet, only in crappy rental service amps, i might need to try some actives on my own gear.
"I don't believe in compromises..." Well actually, tolerating 60 cycle hum IS a compromise. It would be more accurate to say you prefer one compromise over another, which is completely valid. But it is equally valid to prefer the cleaner albeit slightly darker sound of single-space humbucker (keeping in mind that not all single-spaced humbuckers are stacked). I actually like both, and since I have quite a few different guitars I can choose what works given the application and the environment. Everything in your signal path involves some kind of compromise.
It bears mentioning that the entire guitar is a design of compromise, from its scale, to its fret placement and pickups. The guy in the video has no clue what he's talking about.
I think what he's saying is that there are better compromises to be made that removes hum. You can noise gate your hum out which kills the hum when you aren't playing. Ideally with a noise gate, the notes you play will be much louder than the 60hz noise so your amp will amplify your signal more than the noise. You can also eq the 60hz away. There are many pedals as well that will do either solution or a combination of both for your signal. With pedals or studio solutions, you still get what you like about your single coils, but can change or tweak your hum cancelling solution. With a humbucking pickup you are locking yourself into a different sound, and different dynamics with no real way to add it back. Same goes for active vs passive pickups for feel where you can always increase the output or add eq or add compression to your signal with a passive pickup to make it feel more like an active, but it's pretty hard to take an active pickup and give it more dynamic range. That being said if you like the sound of any solution that further limits options like a humbucking pickup or active pickups, or a guitar with only one pickup, or a single channel amp, than you should absolutely use it and keep your setup simple. Humbuckers and active pickups have both grown from solutions to a problem to their own sound which is also pretty cool. I think the difference is that flexibility and versatility are important compromises that don't fit every situation. If a friend if mine was worried about hum from their telecaster, I wouldn't recommend Humbuckers or active pickups as a solution because both would fundamentally change the sound and feel of their guitar.
While 60Hz (or 50Hz) is certainly radiated from transformers, those aren't the only frequencies you hear in pickup hum. You can test this right now- grab your Strat and crank up you amp, and you'll likely hear many higher-pitched components in the hum. That's because the transformers and other electromagnetic components are not just radiating sine waves. Due to rectification and non-linear currents in power supplies, there are complex harmonics in the radiated energy. In fact, 60Hz is usually not even be the the loudest part of the hum we hear, since our ears are more sensitive to higher frequencies. Also, many power supplies these days are high-frequency switching type which can radiate EMI at frequencies not even related to 60Hz. This is why notch-filtering only 60Hz won't really eliminate pickup hum.
Are we still talking about noise from the pickups specifically? Or is it something introduced inherently by the amp? I'm not clear on it from your explanation. Like, I know that if you sent a 60 hz sine to an amp and it gets distorted there are going to be upper harmonics when the waveform gets clipped. Is that what we're talking about? Or some other noise related to the pickups?
@@Schwa_Iska I'm talking about electromagnetic radiation that is produced by any powered-up electrical device near the guitar. Your amp, a fluorescent light, microwave, air conditioner, etc. Any of these will radiate electrical noise that can be "heard" by guitar pickups.
@@roryadamthat's the worst noise I get from any of my single coils, that ticking. Drives me crazy😄 I usually set my tone control so far down the ticking disappears along with all the high end clarity of the sound just to be rid of the ticking😂
@@zaphod888 I've seen them. Only problem is fitting them in a conventional Strat housing. Most like might have to route etc. If you haven't heard or seen this demo your missing out. These Zexcoils are amazing. th-cam.com/video/dNJV6r2en5w/w-d-xo.html
In an ideal world, I can use my unpotted singlecoils on all my gigs. In the real world, I can use them on about 20% of my gigs. That flashing Bud Light sign doesn’t care about great tone my unpotted single coils potentially get. Indeed, when you use a “noise free” or “stacked” pickup, there is a compromise. But then again, life is full of compromises. When I put Wilde noise free pickups in my Tele, I was freed from the inconvenience of unwanted noise. Nobody noticed any change in tone. They did notice that my sound was much cleaner. In fact when the other guitar player on one of my gigs guitar jack went out. He borrowed my Tele for the rest of the set. He was impressed on how good they sounded. He has some on order now. The majority of the Brent Mason greatness you hear is done on a Duncan stacked pickup.
I loved that Stratty sound from the custom shop 69s but couldn’t handle the buzzing so I went with the Wilde Noise Free pickups. Now the Strat is quiet as a mouse and very chimey but doesn’t sound like the cs 69s. My rationale is that I’m not Hendrix and will never achieve his tonal abilities but I’m me and the Wilde pu work for my tone. Tone is personal like religion
I would love for you to dissect a Lace Sensor pickup and discuss the different types. I have a mid 90s Strat Plus and it’s really a great sound. Thanks for all your work!
Hopefully this will make the whole pickups&noise issue clear and accessible: any magnetic (not piezo) pickup is two things at the same time - a dynamo (an electric generator) and a radio antenna (it's also an inductor and a load, but it's totally irrelevant to this conversation). As a dynamo (generator) it relies on a piece of magnetic metal (i.e. strings) moving through the magnetic field to create alternating current in the coil and consequently in the guitar+amp circuit (just like a hydroelectric dam, only weaker). Coil direction + magnetic polarity define the phase of the electric current (I think it's called "the right hand rule" but I don't remember anymore). Take two coils, flip one, they are now out of phase and cancel each other. Flip one of the bar magnets (or a group of individual magnet rods), and now you've flipped the phase again, so both are now in phase and the vibration of the strings is captured by both coils nearly identically ('nearly' because they 'see' two different parts of the string). This is what RWRP means - reverse wound, reverse polarity (two 180˚ reverses put you back where you started), in phase electrodynamically. As a radio antenna, the coil does not rely on the magnets, it simply picks up whatever is within it's frequency sensitivity range. But the coil direction still matters, so the two coils pick up the same exact RF interference over the air (or vacuum for that matter, works in outer space the same way), but it travels down the circuit out of phase, cancelling itself out. This works in the same exact way for coils in parallel ('between' positions on Strat, Tele, split singles on P-Bass, any two-coil-in-parallel set-up) and series (humbucker) arrangement. It works similarly (though not as efficiently) in Valco/Supro lap steel pickups, some split singles with same magnetic polarity, dummy coils and yes, stacked noiseless. Hope it helps.
@@DylanTalksTone totally, but I thought the "electromagnetic generator" part could've been more systematically explicated, which is what I tried to do. Just here to help, nothing more.
I put stacked humbuckers in my Strat and i swapped out a 250K volume pot for a 1-Meg and i was amazed how it opens up! My Carvin X-60 has a push-pull bright volume pot and the single coil sound jumps out like an actual Strat and the factory 12-lnch Celestion speaker delivers whatever tone the amp's pushing out and i love it!
My favorite neck pickup is a single-cool-size two blade stacked humbucker wired in parallel. Pickup height has to be very high, barely below the strings when fretted. Because the neck pickup is in parallel I tried and loved the same neck pickup in the bridge wired in series. Volume wise they balance well. I get bounce and clarity in the neck and the midrange grit n’ grind in the bridge.
"Other ways to male your guitar quiet then compromising on the pickup". Please direct me to video on the other ways to make the guitar quiet. I plan to look at 5/2 neck tele. Just came across your videos, and appreciate your easy, short, clear cut approach to education with proof, No fluff or big personalities - just good honest information that can be trusted. "Thank you Dylan"
Solutions in the order of effectiveness: Solution 1:Get a hum debugger pedal and use your regular single coils with it.....very little to zero noise and hardly anyone ll notice a change in tone..... Solution 2:Get a set of dimarzio areas and experience absolutely no noise(even better than regular humbuckers) and get a workhorse of a guitar going, achieving almost all the tone without the annoying part... Solution 3 Get ANY set of kinman pickups that are also completely noiseless but added the fact that are 100 percent indistinguishable from true single coils... If you find yourself not liking any of the solutions above and still think you hear differences..congrats..you are now part of the elite team of...avengers of tone...of course you still cant tell a dom chord from a major 7th chord but lets not talk about that now.....
Ok, i'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but i would really appreciate an answer. so... if i take a stacked single coil with 4 leads and i wire it to a switch where in one position, it's noise cancelling (normal), and then in the other position, it feeds "coil 1 finish" into "coil 2 start" (or whatever you would have to do to make a "continuous" coil). would that position then sound like a normal single coil? i mean wouldn't it effectively be just a single coil with a gap in the wiring from where they're stacked together? i get that that would change the sound but would it at least be closer? i know you'd then get "hum" but this type of switch, if it worked, would give people the option of sounding like a true single with hum vs sounding like a noiseless pickup without the hum.
This is an interesting question, I would like to hear the answer too. I am not pro in electronic, but I think it is not the same when you have one continuous wire and have that same wire split in two then solder back into one, I think impedance is changed and that is affecting wire to not act like one continuous coil. Like I said this is just basic logic, I would like to hear from Dylan on this idea.
The Bottom coil is on the other side of the magnet so gets a reversed signal. Connecting end of top coil to start of bottom coil would cancel out the signal. You might get a super out of phase tone because the bottom coil won't get exactly the same signal as the top but it would be very low signal with all the noise.
@@CommandLineCowboy ahhhh damn. ok... well i guess there's a reason i (with almost no knowledge on the subject) didn't just revolutionize guitar technology haha!
"I don't believe in compromises" Fair enough but sometimes people want a stacked humbucker simply because they have a single coil guitar that they want to make a humbucker guitar, or they want a 3 humbucker guitar but maybe don't like the look of 3 humbuckers but are ok with 3 single coil sized pickups. They don't really sound like normal humbuckers either, and that's another reason why some people want them. I'd say that's at least a good portion of the single coil sized humbucker market, so I still think you could make them. Just make sure it's clear to people that it's not going to sound like a single coil and you're not going to market them like that.
@@DylanTalksTone Who are you responding to? Because I was just pointing out another side of why someone might want a single coil sized humbucker. No nerves were struck
I’ve got a set of Fender noiseless pickups. A few quirks to them: 1) In order to get a good sound, you absolutely need higher-ohm volume and tone pots. This can actually carry a nice benefit, in that they’ll match up well with standard humbuckers for any kind of HSS or HSH setup. (The big no-no is mixing them in a set with any standard Fender-style single-coil.) 2) You also REALLY need a treble-bleed circuit, or else rolling down the volume will just sap all useful tones out. You follow these guidelines, and you’ll have a decent enough time with them.
So my ears did not lie to me all this time? I used to feel like an idiot, thinking that those noiseless "singles" lacked "character", but still not being able to put my finger on where exactly. Thanks for clearing it all up. Your message is very "single coil" in style. Nuanced, yet direct. Clear without being shrill. It cuts through effortlessly, without the need for brute force. ;-)
Thanks for another awesome dissection of tone, Dylan. I'm wondering if you've ever checked out the pickups from a PRS Vela. I played on one and I thought it was really great sounding. I'm thinking there's some marketing gimmick going on though. The bridge pickup they are saying is a "wide range" from the Starla, and a "Type D singlecoil" in the neck. Both sounded really good in my opinion but I'm just curious what the guys from those two actually tell us about them.
I've tried many stacked Strat pickups. Currently using DiMarzio Area 61 & 58. They sound good, but lack a little on the treble. They have an almost compressed top end. Your explanation is right on.
That’s how my telecaster is wired, with the hum bucker in the neck, it sounds like a single coil without hum, it sounds like a strat on my telecaster,it was on accident, because I got the ground and hot mixed up but yeah.
Great explanation, thank you! I recently bought a like new, used Squire Contemporary and was fighting the single coil humm. Long story short I opened it up and found the tone pot lead never soldiered from the Chinese factory and the Hum-bucker lead soldiered but literally hanging by 3 of the copper strands. So I repaired those two things and it sounded better but still hummed badly. Turns out the 5 bulb chandelier on a reostat in my kitchen was the cause of the terrible buzz. Turning the light off stopped all but a very tiny humm from the single coils and silenced the hummbucker that was humming too. As you said they ARE Definitely picking up noise through the air. Find the source and stop the buzz and open up the guitar and check every solder joint.
Dylan thank you so much. I am so glad that someone here in the "guitar community" understands the physics behind an electric guitar and does not tell all this marketing bullshit that we usually here. But since guitar players are not engineers most of them will not understand what you are explaining. So they still will believe in tone wood and other myths. Anyhow, happy to have you.
@@TheApsodist Wood is not a substantial part of an electric guitar's sound. The sound of an electric guitar is the sound of inductance in a coil, not resonating wood. That's why people have made electric guitars out of resins, plastics, or other unusual materials, and they sound more-or-less the same as any other electric guitar.
The second "antenna" can be anywhere. Moving it away from the pickup and strings stops it from coloring the signal. It's orientation should match the pick-up. However, the dummy coil is still a coil. It creates an inductance that influences the circuit. Removing the pole pieces reduces the inductance, and also the antenna effect. AM radio antennas are often ferrite cores inside a coil. If the dummy is wired in series, it's a low pass filter. In parallel, it's a high pass filter. It can affect tone. I'd like to see a video with some good comparisons!
A dummy coil is the same as the second coil of a stacked pickup, the only difference is that dummy coils are under the pickguard or in any other place. Dummy coils was used by players before stacked pickups were widely manufactured, it was a solution to the "hum" problem. Imagine you have a Stratocaster that sounds really good, and you dont want to completely change the pickups but you want to get rid of the hum, you put a dummy coil, so you have the same pickups you like, but you get rid of the hum. I know Stevie Ray vaughan used a dummy coil im some of his guitars.
The only time I've heard of dummy coils (also called phantom coils) was on active instruments. I saw a patent filed by Leo Fender in the late 70s that was related to using dummy coils as a way of canceling him without affecting tone, but it only seemed to work if you ran it through an active preamp (I'd imagine to actually power the coil) and it states specifically in the patent that the dummy coil is not wired in series or parallel with the magnetic coils. The patent number is 4581974 if you wanted to look into it yourself.
Thanks for the explanation! Can you explain Suhr's noiseless system, or Ernie Ball's noiseless system? From what I understand, each uses true single coils but has either some fancy wiring (suhr i think) or active electronics (EB) to cancel hum.
They do the exact same thing but use either coils or resistance to achieve the exact same thing. I'm thoroughly annoyed by this guy. He's trying to say that the 60cycle hum is what makes a single coil sound like a single coil.lol I guess yeah but anyone that actually plays live has to deal with it. And fender did it well with noiseless pickups, suhr did it very well with there system, and Ernie ball also did it well with there's. I believe John suhr when he says his noiseless system doesn't effect the sound or dynamics of a single coil. over whoever this random ass dude is trying to start a parade for 60cycle hum. Btw almost everyone who records single coils remove the 60 cycle hum. So it's not like you're ever hearing it in you're favorite records.lol
OK, been watching more of your video's, Yeah I like my Squire too, listening to your video, Fender poorly assembled and ship, customer service was awefull, Got it to local tech, he knew I was, got lousy treatment, fixed it up. Real nice now.
Thanks for the info Dylan, very good to know. I have a 2004 American Deluxe Strat with the SCN pickups and the S-1 switching setup. I've had nothing but problems with this guitar for several years. The Middle Pickup cuts out randomly, I've replaced the 5-way switch, and the S-1 switch thinking this was the case after posting in a few forums with no luck, then I discovered that when the pickup cuts out, if I press down on the pickup cover on the bass side, it will work momentarily, or sometimes it comes back on for a minute or so. I've sent the pickup in to have it repaired (I won't mention who did the repair as it's not important) the first time it came back I didn't get any explanation for what the issue was and blindly reinstalled it in the guitar, and viola, same issue immediately, trash one new set of strings. So the pickup goes back to get fixed again (same company, new owner) who tells me that he cannot find the problem but rewinds the entire pickup, both coils just to be safe. I get it back and viola same issue no difference whatsoever. While I know that this was not the most popular Strat model (50th Anniversary). I really like the guitar, and I also like the idea of the S-1 switch for more tonal options, but now I'm at the end of my rope and will be replacing the pickups completely. Just posting this to support your comment that the Fender Noiseless pickups are pieces of junk. Thanks for all you are doing.
I had a similar problem with my SCN set that I bought brand new in 2005. The neck pickup would not work all the time. I had a hell of a time with fender trying to get it repaired under warranty, so I repaired it myself. If I remember correctly it was not just a simple soldering issue. It had to do with the base of the pickup being a circuit board instead of a fiber or plastic base as in most single coils pickups. The signal went through the circuit board with an internal copper layer to the output connecting wires. This was faulty. The feed through to this copper layer was not a good connection, re-soldering did not help. I had to bridge the connection with a jumper wire, it’s worked since then.
@@isaacramirez3729 that's no "Humbucker". On a standard Strat the Pickups are wired in parallel and the two coils of a humbucker are wired on series. Big difference. The positions you mentioned are noiseless though
I understand the two pickups on a strat can be wired in series or in parallel , but anyway you wire, it is going to sound diferent than placing them together on the neck , the neck position gets more string vibration thats is why position 3 and 5 sounds different
@@Redbelo Yip, you can wire them every way you want. But on a standard Strat it's parallel. And you are absolutely right. I have a Tele with a 4-way-switch which puts the two Pickups in series and I my main Strat has the middle and neck in series. Sound a little bit humbuckerish but no like a real humbucker. For one thing it's (as you said) the spacing of the pickups, because the coils of a humbucker are not that far apart and thus combine two coils in the same position. The other thing is the coil itself. If a double coil pickup humbucker doesn't sound the same a single coil... single coil, why should two single coils in series sound like a humbucker? Or in numbers: When x /2 doesn't equal y, why should y x 2 equal x? But two proper strat pickups in series close two each other seems like a nice setup I wanna try
There is a way to turn a stacked humbucker into a regular single coil? My Stratocaster is an hss with noiseless pick up, but as you say in the video I don't like them...I wonder if is possible to do the change I explained Thanks Dylan
Well that answered a lot of my questions. I do have some and I do use them. I like both. In my business, I have to use 90% some type of humbucking system in my guitars. I prefer the stacked type for Fender style guitars. I’ve used Seymour Duncan and some old Carvins. I don’t like the noiseless Fenders. My G&L bass has coil splits and I much prefer the depth of tone on the single coil setting (not stacks.) I would like to find a P90 type pickup that is noiseless. I understand what you said about physics and because of the mere size of those coils that it may simply not be possible. I’ve not heard great things about P100s so I’ve held off. One of my questions was going to be, would you build me a set of stacked P90s, but I already have your answer, lol! Thank you for your honesty, and your thorough explanation of the science behind your beliefs. I totally get it! This is why the Texas Toast guys respect you so much! You’re a lot alike! Thanks Dylan!
I'm a university trained E.E. attempting new guitar pickup designs. Conventional Guitar pick-ups are iron core transformers; -just like a conventional power converting transformers used in most analogue audio circuits. There are several problem so overcome. My goal is to retain the classic and desirable hard attack sound of Fender's pickups, but eliminate, 60 Hz and 50 Hz mains hum, AND ALL extraneous noise that resides in the EMF surrounding the PUP and amplification circuit. By using high quality (expensive) high impedance audio line transformers and a class D preamp, most guitars can be rendered noise free with local volume adjustment that does not change the guitar's response curve, but this is not cheap and some guitars will need routing to accommodate the added circuitry. Class D circuits, however, have no need for such x-formers. Class D pre-amplification is one method I am attempting to create a single coil noiseless pickup that also delivers the classic hard attack Fender sound. This will require a very high impedance output load, - at least 100,000 Ohms or more, but, I think the idea has promise. Ideally, this will done via circuitry rather than a transformer to keep costs low. Tantalum capacitors used in a class-D designs show promise, but I have not yet gone far with this design. I'm initially concentrating on conventional analogue induction before I proceed further with class D powering designs. Simple, improved shielding and common line chokes could make this a non-issue, except for the variable EMF environments found in theatres and emitted by many classic, great sounding, guitar valve amplifiers. Modern lighting systems are of particular annoyance, as most professional players will tell you. Also, line chokes require large and pure ferrite iron cores that are not cheap. Current staked double coil designs are simply humbuckers that look different, but they WILL sound more like humbuckers than single coil PUPS. The famous fast attack sound of Fender PUPS cannot be obtained via most hum-bucking designs. However, many years ago, I bought a 1972 Telecaster Custom guitar that has a single large hum-bucking PUP mounted at the neck. This PUP somehow captures some of the basic Fender hard attack sound, yet hum-bucks noise via conventional phase cancellation. The pole pieces are divided into two sets of three; -one for each coil, plus, perhaps Alnico 5 or 3 magnets in the coil assemblies has something to do with this? I am reluctant to dismantle this PUP as I love it's sound. But who ever created this design was on to something... I am experimenting with a PASSIVE second coil and ferrite magnet. I am trying two basic passive designs; low Voltage and no Voltage second coil circuits that are NOT electrically (directly) part of the live PUP circuit. -I.e. I am depending upon induction to phase cancel noise in the active coil ( the "passive" coil, The magnet/coil circuits are NOT directly, electrically connected to the primary coil that creates the sound). The purpose of a passive coil/magnet circuit is strictly for phase cancellation via induction. This would be inexpensive and maintain the signature Fender hard attack sound. The second (lower coil in a staked configuration will have only an INDUCTIVE relationship to the active coil / ferrite magnet. The secondary "passive" coil is a self contained circuit using low voltage with an LC - RC filter. This can be made rather small with electrolytics as the Voltage and component values are quite low. E.g. for a 60 Hz filter, 8uf - 10 uf with a 10 - 20 VDC rating and a tiny 10 - 15 ųH, ferrite iron core choke. My second design employs NO added voltage/current, but relies strictly on the close proximity and perfect alignment of the 180° reverse coil winding. Obviously, I am having less luck with the 100% passive circuit, but I have not completely given up on this design. I.e. It is possible for the "passive circuit" to induct current from the active coil / magnet, but adding a higher " bias" Voltage / current to the live coil is necessary. For all those who want to eliminate significant noise from their single coil guitar pickups, -use a high quality analogue, line level, high impedance audio transformer (these are NOT cheap, -figure $100 for one). These are small and can reside inside your guitar. They can be used with or without an active preamp. If you know a little electronics, simply find a class-D, battery operated preamp (90% + efficiency) and solder the transformer onto the tail end, output section of your guitars electronics. A good class -D preamp will insure that your output does not vary in frequency response with volume adjustment of your guitar's volume pot.
That was the best explanation I’ve ever heard. I bought a new 2023 American Ultra Stratocaster because I wanted the modern design in the body. First thing I did was take it to the Luthier for a setup and change the Gen 5 noiseless to 5 2’s. Now it’s right
+1 on your opinion of stacked humbuckers, you Sir are 100% correct on all accounts. My 2000 American Deluxe Stratocaster had Vintage Noiseless Pickups (stacked humbuckers). I loved the way the guitar played and how it resonated acoustically. I bought the guitar and immediately changed all the pickups and pots so I could make the guitar actually sound like a Stratocaster. BTW, Fender had to use 1M Ohm pots to make the pickups sound thin "like" a single coil, I switched to 250K pots to get that classic single coil tone/sound. Myself, not a fan of the noiseless pickups. They are fine for heavy distortion or a lot of gain however they lack everything that makes a single coil great. Fantastic video, thank you for the content/information.
“Well it’s a thing called physics” awesome quote. Would be cool to do a video about how you handle reducing the hum with single coils like you mentioned toward the end of the video (assuming a noise suppressor and the one pedal electroharmonix makes)
I have zexcoil pickups in my telecaster. They have 6 Coils, wach magnet has one. The more the better right? 😅 they sound very nice. Have you heard of them?
The construction of Zexcoil is mind boggling. They use magnetic pole-pieces like true single coil pickups, but then each pole-piece is placed in a standalone mini coil and each of those mini coils are paired in hum cancelling configuration. An outright crazy design but as an advantage they sound and feel exactly same as single coils.
I have an MIA deluxe strat with noiseless single coils and I have toyed with the idea of changing them. They sound great but I have never been all that happy with them. Your video has helped me decide, gonna change them. Keen to try some of yours some day but it will be genuine fender pups this time.
A great way to illustrate the "EMF/HUM" effect is to work on your fretboard while guitar is plugged in and the Dremel will make a nice "WEEEEEEEEEE" into your pickups via the motor/induction effect. I guess Paul Gilbert figured that out with the drill thing in the 80's. lol Also, put a cell phone near your pickups. The speaker's magnet will excite your pickups and you'll hear your audio loud as hell through your amp. I actually did this intentionally for an effect a client wanted. So instead of putting fake digital distortion on his spoken word thing, we had him read it into his phone and I played it back through a guitar into a distorted amp. PHYSICS!!!!
Honestly, if you're not wanting the hum of a single-coil just get a freaking noise gate. We're not in the early 2000s anymore, if you get a good one it's not going to suck out your tone. I use the Sentry in a 4 cable method and it is absolute magic.
I agree. If you filter out noise some of that noise will be the guitar string vibration. Thanks for the vid. I just bought a Fender Tele with the noiseless and I was remarking to myself that I like my Squier Tele sound without noiseless pickups better. I'm going to live with the Fender pickups and make them work for me. I bought it on sale so . . .
In my early days of messing around with pickups I never understood the laws of how the pickup works. The funny thing was I always wound up putting it back the way it was. I had spoken the Les paul once and he said the same thing to me about using a telephone mike as an pickup on his experimental guitar. He realized he did not need the diaphragm part of the microphone. We were comparing our learning experiences. My fascination was mainly with magnets.Any Who thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. c]8-)
Thanks for making these videos where you explain an element of how a guitar works in a way that a regular player can understand! I've heard that gibson puts a second coil under some of their P90s, do they work the same way as that Pile-O-Rubbish Fender noiseless? Should those pickups be thrown into the trash immediately also?
@@rickc2102 Thanks Rick! That's helpful, I'm thinking of a P90 guitar for my next guitar. Something like a junior or special, or something that style. I'll watch out for P100s!
The discussion misses a key point. Regardless of how the pickup is constructed, and whether it is a true single coil or has two coils, how does the pickup sound? For awhile, I have had a MiM Tele with standard MiM Tele single coils. I also have a Squier Tele with dual humbuckers. The MiM Tele has a noisy single coil sound that I can get rid of my moving to a certain area and rotation in my living room. When it's quiet, it sounds like single coils, like it should. The Squier is always quiet and it sounds like humbuckers. This is what I expect. They sound very different, and I like both of the sounds for different things. So I just got an Ultra Tele with the newest Fender "noiseless" pickups and an S1 switch that puts them in series in the middle position. To my ear, it sounds much more like the MiM Tele (single coils) than it does the Squier (humbuckers). It doesn't have the hum anywhere in my living room, and it really has a crisper, sweeter sound that the MiM Tele. But sound-wise. it is voiced at the high end of single coil sounds I've heard. With the S1 switch on and 3-way in the middle position, the guitar is much quieter, but the tone is a very nice single coil sounding tone. Anyway, the primary goal for pickups ought to be to create a sound the guitarist likes, not be all technically correct with categorizations. If the pickups contained tiny ants playing tiny synthesizers to generate the best single coil voicing ever, I'd be all in. You would be too.
I put Vintage Noiseless pickups in my Strat about 15 years ago. I've never felt unsure about them until I saw this video. I put SSL-1's in my friend's Strat and I've never noticed a HUGE difference in tone between the two. That could be because I also have a few other different design guitars from Ibanez RG to Gretsch to Tele Deluxe (yes, with the fake WR pickups) and I'm used to different guitars sounding differently. I'm pretty sure Dylan isn't out to change my mind about the stacked humbucker, as he put it, but I think we should be aware of the influence these videos have on us and the music we produce. I love the knowledge Dylan shares with us, and I do not disagree with him. But his opinion should not dictate the gear we use IF it is working for us the way we want it to and we're happy about it. At the end of the day, there are way more things that affect our tone from picking style, pick size, strings, to guitar wiring, cable, pedals and amps.
God damn Dylan your vids are so informative! I fken love it! Only recently I've come across low impedance pickups like Alumitone and I'd really appreciate if you could go in depth on how they are made and what the hell is beneath that thin layer on aluminium. They sound so bright and clean it's almost unreal, but at the same time they maintain the strength of regular pickups (or at least that's how they record it). Thanks in advance!
I'm about to say exactly what Dylan said we would say: I've got a Player Plus Strat. I changed the bridge pickup to a SD Hot Rail, but I kept the original neck and middle "Noiseless Single Coils." I really like the sound of them, but I far prefer regular Strat single coil pups. That being said, I still treat them like single coils. They sound great through amp settings that normal single coils would sound good through. I sometimes feel like theres something missing from the "clarity" part of the classic single coil tone. I actually forget that they're really Humbuckers sometimes though, which is probably a good thing because I use them like single coils. When I describe my Strat, I say I have an HSS Strat, with a single coil-sized humbucker in the bridge position, but that's actually not true. I actually have an HHH Strat, with 3 single coil-sized humbuckers (technically). I'm considering changing the neck and middle pups to regular Strat pickups, maybe some really hot ones, but I'm honestly not sure if I want to. I really like to be able to switch from my Hot Rails to my "single coils" without having to worry about hum. Its cool because I can have a cleanish tone with my Noiseless single coils, and switch to my Hot Rail without changing any effects or settings, and I'll have a pretty great overdrive tone. Plus, the Hot Rail obviously sounds great with more high gain stuff, but I can also engage the "single coils" and get some very high gain single coil sounds that I normally couldn't get without a lot of feedback and hum.
I loved the impassioned exposition! And I do agree. But, BUT, I know better than to be categorical about it, as someone will walk around the corner and make breathtakingly accomplished tones out of a stacked-coil (I think marketing emphasizes the 'coil' part of the stacked coil...) ...But yeah, loved listening to such learned dialogue. Subbed yonks ago, from the UK 🍀 Bless ya🍀
Good explanation and you're right about the two (single/stacked) sounding different. If I can expand on that: Humbuckers work by subtracting common mode signals, like any stray EMI that you mentioned, because the coils are connected 180 degrees out of phase. String vibrations are sensed differentially also but because of the reverse polarity of the magnets and the coils being out of phase, they add. However, the vibrations that are sensed by the bottom coil are much less than the top coil, so they sound more like a single coil than a Gibson style humbucker but not quite exact.
...and then there are the NF series stacks by Wilde that have high permeability magnets on the sides between the coils, mathematically designed by the late Bill Lawrence so flux lines from the strings don't reach the bottom coil. The pole piece alloy attracts flux lines much more than does AlNiCo, yet it doesn't roll off highs as do Steel poles. Thinner wire is used for better efficiency from the increased coil density, and it allows for better coil shape variation per model. Due to the boost in inductance from the pole piece alloy less wire is needed for a given inductance target than with AlNiCo so the ~25% higher coil DCR (from thinner wire of two equal size coils) isn't enough to significantly reduce the highs or output, although the denser coil oriented within the strongest magnetic region from the strings does produce stronger note fundamentals and maximum clarity.
Thanks for that sober info about the stacked "single coil". The hum fundamental is 60Hz but the buzz and noise we all hear are the harmonics above 60Hz ie 120Hz+ in the AC/device EMI fields in the air. Rarely do guitar amps reproduce the 60Hz fundamental tone.
I like that Phrase..... The tone and dynamics WILL BE COMPROMISED on Noise cancelling pickups... PERIOD, so far same thing when you use a Noise filter pedal, but in the pedal you can decide the amount of compromised signal
Yeah, I tried a lot of different stacked single coil sized humbuckers. Just can't nail that tone, that chime. I went back to the good ol true single coils.
I used to play the bayside mall in Miami 1’s a week and it was the only gig I would pick up radio stations through my guitar. Was so annoying. I used a les paul hum-bucker. It was so loud I had to turn my volume down in between songs and parts of songs. The gig was an out door on a big stage and the water behind me. I’ve play hundreds of gigs but never had that happen.
I use Kinman Noiseless pickups (i.e. stacked humbuckers) on my 2-pickup Strat. Generally, I find humbuckers too muddy, and single coils too jangly for my taste. The Kinman pickups are a good "noiseless" solution for me. I like the way they sound, and they have a small single coil footprint. Regular humbuckers get in the way of my fingerpicking. I don't find that the Kinman pickups lack any clarity or sensitivity. I also like them because they don't sound just like humbuckers or single coil pickups.
I put the VN pups on my MIM and agree, they do not sound exactly like, single coil pups. There is indeed a subtle difference. The Neck sounds awesome, the 4 position sounds good on the clear, The bridge is a bit bright, but workable. The 2 positions sounds like lynyrd skynrd, perfectly. The middle needs some tweaking. i typically roll the tone to a 7 and that seems to work, but the neck is so much better. I disagree with Dylan as they appear to sound really well, Clean is awesome, and crunch is pretty darn good too. They are a little finicky, so setting them the right height is crucial.
Hi Dylan love your technical uploads. one question how dose Eric Clapton get such a fabulous sound with noiseless pickups are they a different pickup to fender noiseless looking forward to your answer Thank you Dylan Regards Anthony Marin
I’m a bass player and my opinions and questions are open for answers and corrections. Are you saying noiseless single coils(stacked humbuckers) sound halfway between single and regular buckers? If so perhaps you don’t like buckers? Perhaps, as on single coil basses, when driving only one pickup to change tone configuration causes noise, the solution might be change tone without pickup selection while driving all pups. My next custom bass will drive three pups and have three tonal swaps, warm, cut and solo. Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer single coil, but I find many buckers can produce the same tonality with adequate equalization. Just discovered your channel, am eager to watch and learn more.
Like the Duckbucker or the Vintage rails? These models divide the pole pieces between the side by side coils, the rail on one coil gets the top three strings and the rail on the other gets the bottom three strings. The coils are wired in parallel, Thereby minimizing the Humbucking sound, the output and the noise. I like mine a lot. Very "Stratty". IMHO, there are many different sounds from single coil pickups of different varieties. But these two odd ball "noiseless" pickups sound very convincing next to the plethora of single coils. And I do agree that the stacked humbuckies have not much a single coil sound at all. Nor do "Hot Rails" of anyone's making. But give that Duckbucker a try before you dismiss noiseless pups.
Thanks for the great video and adding science to the art. I learned something new today. Stacked coils aren’t reverse wound but reverse connected. Keep up the great work.
The stacked coils could also be wound in opposite directions but the start and finish wires from each coil would have to connected differently. The same applies to traditional humbucker with two coils side by side.
DYLAN, it would be much better if you made video lessons using the chalk board again to explain different types of noiseless pickups like stacked noiseless pickups, bipolar pickups, inline pickups, which are single coil humbucker pickups. To go over how the HUM is getting cancelled out which causes high frequency loss and touch sensitivity issues but explain on the chalk board would help out a lot.
Possibly it does matter though that the more vertical design may cut a tighter slice of the string phase. As Viktor was explaining, it's not just 60hz, it's all radio interference being cancelled, vs. letting the magnetic generation through. Possibly some string sound is coming through as radio, but also possibly the more muted sound of a HB is due to doubling the resistance path towards capicitance, like the dynamic response of a freeway traffic jam or breath response of bagpipes.
Just bought a Seymore-Duncan Tele-style stack, wish I had seen this sooner. But whatever this my first attempt, not expecting perfection. Thanks for these videos btw, keeping me sane during lockdown
Can you make a video on using a Dummy coil vs stacked pickup which is better. How to dummy coil a P90 Gibson and a SSS Strat. I have both strat and 50's les paul with p90's which is better to go with. I love all these pickups tones and dont want them to change actually but also can get rid off some hum. Thanks!
I read about noiseless pickups that aren’t stacked but rather work by the same principle of a p-Bass pickup (1 coil for 3 strings)... no idea if you explained that type before cause I just found your channel but I would be interested in an opinion/explanation on how they differ soundwise from singlecoils and other noiseless pickups
Ok... “noiseless” vs twin blade bucker in a single coil enclosure? Anyone else made curious? As always great stuff and I appreciate your input. Keep up the amazing work. I need to get my buddy to pull the trigger on some classic Strat pups.
Thank you for this excellent explanation of differences between single coils and stacked humbuckers (noiseless single coils). Can you please explain dummy coils in general and whether they are possibly any better or worse? Can you address the following? Music Man Silent Circuit Ilitch Air Coil Ulbrick Noise Reduction System Suhr Noise Cancelling System G & L Z-Coil (3 lower strings and three higher strings wound separately) Split Noiseless designs in general Zex Coils (where each pole is individually wound)
Is this the same principal in say an EMG active single coil such as their retroactive crossroads set? Or is it down to the preamp to filter the noise out? Great video by the way, easy for the likes of me to understand!
(EDIT) oh okay, you seem to have covered this question in two seperate videos I think . . . . my bad. Very much apprieciate the amount of time you've put into these videos. When you tap a humbucker, does it only use half of the coil or does it reverse the polarity of second coil ? ? ? If not how would a humbucker sound if you accidentally wired them both in the same direction ? ? ? i.e. not in output to output configuraiont that you described.
The reason why I'd want one of these stacked humbuckers, is for my classic Mustang to look like original, but without the hum. I absolutely adore the mustang's design, and I love how it looks with the solid single coil covers, but they don't have nowhere near the output I need for playing Nivana songs, and they hum like crazy. I know Kurt used humbuckers in the bridge position, the jag-stang has a S-H configuration, but to me it doesn't look like a Mustang anymore.
Dylan! I do EMI for a living. Well, actually I evaluate other peoples EMI on our equipment. Your explanations are so close--SO close. As an engineer I'd say it was more than close enough. My favorite was "electrically going backwards." I'm gonna use that at work. Well done!
I take the facts you provide and love you for taking things apart from each other to give a detailed explanation. I leave your opinion about NL with you :) Thanks for putting this out and all the best!
Hi Mr. Dylan. Recently started watching your channel. Great content delivered in a simple no-nonsense manner. Question concerning noiseless “single coil” designs. What would be the advantages/disadvantages of combining 2 coils, one wrapped around the top 3 pole pieces north side up, and the other wrapped around the bottom 3 pole pieces South side up? To take it even further, what about wrapping coil around each individual polepiece? One could then not only design each coil specifically for each string, plus choose alternating polarities to cancel electronagnetic noise, or same polarity. What would be the advantages/tradeoffs? Thx again for your channel.
Speaking of soft playing and dynamics, I'll take a noiseless pickup any day of week over a 60 cycle hum in my recordings. Try playing soft in a noisy environment where the hum is louder than your playing. I've had a American Deluxe Strat that came with noiseless pickups for more than 15 years, did thousands of shows around the world with it and it never failed me. Does it sound exactly like a single coil? No. Do I care? No. If you want that true single coil sound without compromise, have both. Noiseless pickups can be a life saver in some cases. I've been in some studios where you'd have to be in a very specific to minimize noise. If a noise can distracts you from your playing then the sound of your playing will suffer a lot more than if you used noiseless pickups and let your heart and fingers speak. If you're in a noiseless environment, than great and lucky you, take out your vintage sounding single coils but let's not crap on humbuckers and noiseless pickups. That's just narrow minded. But this might just be bait and I was dumb enough to bite...
They dont sound like a single coil exactly or a humbucker exactly. They have their own sound and I think they sound amazing. Its not a compromise imo.
This all demonstrates why I adore our craft so much.
We all do it so differently, sculpt our own lines.
I respect most, a rig set-up that the player can explain his choices.
Many would find my stage guitar set-up utterly horrendous. Bucker bridge and coil neck, with a fair bit of volume disparity. But, see, I specced that disparity (Dave Walsh-Eternal Guitars -HotRod Custom Pickups, West Sussex UK) in my own set.
It drives an amp at full tilt filth, and flick of a switch I'm all cleaned up and chiming. I loved getting a pickup set made, am looking forward to visiting that small company again.
I loved what this channel had to say. Made his case with staunch vigour.
For a studio Tele, I agree with him. Purity of voice, and all that.
But for a persons stage guitar, I don't agree with him. Getting your own tone to work live is a unique and personal thing, you have to make good calls that stick, a results orientated situation, and a man chooses his tools with care.
Finding out the best Strat sound I ever heard, had EMG in, well... ...that turned me upside down, and I've kept an open mind ever since.
I liked classic wide open tones... HATED active coils, despised the modern look with no pole pieces visable... But, I had to shut up. I had to shut up, and listen, and learn.
I still don't use EMG, nor an active set, on my stage axes. But I do have a Tele and a Strat so equipped for recording, and noodling about. Sounds amazing.
You got anything of you playing that set-up here on TH-cam? Be cool to see🍀stay healthy out there man
@@blacktoothfox677, I put Kirk Hammett's loaded pickguard/ scratchplate on my Strat, and it sounds absolutely fabulous and wonderfully beautiful! I hope the batteries don`t die, lol!
This^^
I love the single sized humbuckers.
I even put them on guitars originally fitted with full size humbuckers.
But i hate the hum, to me the compromise would be to record in weird positions to have a single coil chime with the less hum i can manage, and ignoring the remaining hum.
@@blacktoothfox677 My favourite "Texas blues" neck pickup tone so far comes from a Duncan Detonator swapped with alnico 5 magnets, they were supposed to be mounted on cheap metal guitars.
Though i didn't try EMGs on a proper setup yet, only in crappy rental service amps, i might need to try some actives on my own gear.
"I don't believe in compromises..." Well actually, tolerating 60 cycle hum IS a compromise. It would be more accurate to say you prefer one compromise over another, which is completely valid. But it is equally valid to prefer the cleaner albeit slightly darker sound of single-space humbucker (keeping in mind that not all single-spaced humbuckers are stacked). I actually like both, and since I have quite a few different guitars I can choose what works given the application and the environment. Everything in your signal path involves some kind of compromise.
It bears mentioning that the entire guitar is a design of compromise, from its scale, to its fret placement and pickups. The guy in the video has no clue what he's talking about.
Daniel Villasana electricity is a compromise.
Period.
🤦🏻♂️you're taking his opinion out of context
You're nitpicking...
I think what he's saying is that there are better compromises to be made that removes hum. You can noise gate your hum out which kills the hum when you aren't playing. Ideally with a noise gate, the notes you play will be much louder than the 60hz noise so your amp will amplify your signal more than the noise. You can also eq the 60hz away. There are many pedals as well that will do either solution or a combination of both for your signal. With pedals or studio solutions, you still get what you like about your single coils, but can change or tweak your hum cancelling solution. With a humbucking pickup you are locking yourself into a different sound, and different dynamics with no real way to add it back.
Same goes for active vs passive pickups for feel where you can always increase the output or add eq or add compression to your signal with a passive pickup to make it feel more like an active, but it's pretty hard to take an active pickup and give it more dynamic range.
That being said if you like the sound of any solution that further limits options like a humbucking pickup or active pickups, or a guitar with only one pickup, or a single channel amp, than you should absolutely use it and keep your setup simple. Humbuckers and active pickups have both grown from solutions to a problem to their own sound which is also pretty cool. I think the difference is that flexibility and versatility are important compromises that don't fit every situation. If a friend if mine was worried about hum from their telecaster, I wouldn't recommend Humbuckers or active pickups as a solution because both would fundamentally change the sound and feel of their guitar.
While 60Hz (or 50Hz) is certainly radiated from transformers, those aren't the only frequencies you hear in pickup hum. You can test this right now- grab your Strat and crank up you amp, and you'll likely hear many higher-pitched components in the hum. That's because the transformers and other electromagnetic components are not just radiating sine waves. Due to rectification and non-linear currents in power supplies, there are complex harmonics in the radiated energy. In fact, 60Hz is usually not even be the the loudest part of the hum we hear, since our ears are more sensitive to higher frequencies. Also, many power supplies these days are high-frequency switching type which can radiate EMI at frequencies not even related to 60Hz.
This is why notch-filtering only 60Hz won't really eliminate pickup hum.
Are we still talking about noise from the pickups specifically? Or is it something introduced inherently by the amp? I'm not clear on it from your explanation. Like, I know that if you sent a 60 hz sine to an amp and it gets distorted there are going to be upper harmonics when the waveform gets clipped. Is that what we're talking about? Or some other noise related to the pickups?
@@Schwa_Iska I'm talking about electromagnetic radiation that is produced by any powered-up electrical device near the guitar. Your amp, a fluorescent light, microwave, air conditioner, etc. Any of these will radiate electrical noise that can be "heard" by guitar pickups.
Occasionally I have gotten hum from microphones in the past that did not have balanced output, and typically the 120 Hz harmonics are more audible.
I often hear my watch ticking thru my amp. Comes in handy if I wanna play 60bbm.
@@roryadamthat's the worst noise I get from any of my single coils, that ticking. Drives me crazy😄
I usually set my tone control so far down the ticking disappears along with all the high end clarity of the sound just to be rid of the ticking😂
Zexcoil pickups! Each pole piece is wound instead of one large coil.... Big premium for a full set.
G&L use something similar for their Z-coil, except it’s one coil for the three lower strings and one for the three higher strings.
@@zaphod888 I've seen them. Only problem is fitting them in a conventional Strat housing. Most like might have to route etc. If you haven't heard or seen this demo your missing out. These Zexcoils are amazing. th-cam.com/video/dNJV6r2en5w/w-d-xo.html
I have Lace pickups. Can you explain them sometime. I like your videos. Very informative
we did.
I saw it. I thought you did it because I asked
In an ideal world, I can use my unpotted singlecoils on all my gigs. In the real world, I can use them on about 20% of my gigs. That flashing Bud Light sign doesn’t care about great tone my unpotted single coils potentially get. Indeed, when you use a “noise free” or “stacked” pickup, there is a compromise. But then again, life is full of compromises. When I put Wilde noise free pickups in my Tele, I was freed from the inconvenience of unwanted noise. Nobody noticed any change in tone. They did notice that my sound was much cleaner. In fact when the other guitar player on one of my gigs guitar jack went out. He borrowed my Tele for the rest of the set. He was impressed on how good they sounded. He has some on order now. The majority of the Brent Mason greatness you hear is done on a Duncan stacked pickup.
I loved that Stratty sound from the custom shop 69s but couldn’t handle the buzzing so I went with the Wilde Noise Free pickups. Now the Strat is quiet as a mouse and very chimey but doesn’t sound like the cs 69s. My rationale is that I’m not Hendrix and will never achieve his tonal abilities but I’m me and the Wilde pu work for my tone. Tone is personal like religion
Another great explanation from a respected authority that continues to teach me so much. I am indebted to you Sir!!
Bravo, great explanation ! 😊
I would love for you to dissect a Lace Sensor pickup and discuss the different types. I have a mid 90s Strat Plus and it’s really a great sound. Thanks for all your work!
we did. please subscribe and search it
Hopefully this will make the whole pickups&noise issue clear and accessible:
any magnetic (not piezo) pickup is two things at the same time - a dynamo (an electric generator) and a radio antenna (it's also an inductor and a load, but it's totally irrelevant to this conversation).
As a dynamo (generator) it relies on a piece of magnetic metal (i.e. strings) moving through the magnetic field to create alternating current in the coil and consequently in the guitar+amp circuit (just like a hydroelectric dam, only weaker). Coil direction + magnetic polarity define the phase of the electric current (I think it's called "the right hand rule" but I don't remember anymore). Take two coils, flip one, they are now out of phase and cancel each other. Flip one of the bar magnets (or a group of individual magnet rods), and now you've flipped the phase again, so both are now in phase and the vibration of the strings is captured by both coils nearly identically ('nearly' because they 'see' two different parts of the string). This is what RWRP means - reverse wound, reverse polarity (two 180˚ reverses put you back where you started), in phase electrodynamically.
As a radio antenna, the coil does not rely on the magnets, it simply picks up whatever is within it's frequency sensitivity range. But the coil direction still matters, so the two coils pick up the same exact RF interference over the air (or vacuum for that matter, works in outer space the same way), but it travels down the circuit out of phase, cancelling itself out.
This works in the same exact way for coils in parallel ('between' positions on Strat, Tele, split singles on P-Bass, any two-coil-in-parallel set-up) and series (humbucker) arrangement. It works similarly (though not as efficiently) in Valco/Supro lap steel pickups, some split singles with same magnetic polarity, dummy coils and yes, stacked noiseless.
Hope it helps.
uh.... that is what the video was about
@@DylanTalksTone totally, but I thought the "electromagnetic generator" part could've been more systematically explicated, which is what I tried to do.
Just here to help, nothing more.
I put stacked humbuckers in my Strat and i swapped out a 250K volume pot for a 1-Meg and i was amazed how it opens up! My Carvin X-60 has a push-pull bright volume pot and the single coil sound jumps out like an actual Strat and the factory 12-lnch Celestion speaker delivers whatever tone the amp's pushing out and i love it!
Yeah those 1 meg pots are super bright. Going from a 250k, which I believe is the least bright, would make a huge difference
Isn't the question rather does a stacked humbucker sounds better than an regular humbucker.
no
My favorite neck pickup is a single-cool-size two blade stacked humbucker wired in parallel. Pickup height has to be very high, barely below the strings when fretted. Because the neck pickup is in parallel I tried and loved the same neck pickup in the bridge wired in series. Volume wise they balance well. I get bounce and clarity in the neck and the midrange grit n’ grind in the bridge.
Hey how about the side wounded pickups like the mudbucker on a eb1. How does that way of making a pickup affect the sound and the physics of it?
I like this question. I think it would be a cool video.
It's a P90. Essentially.
"Other ways to male your guitar quiet then compromising on the pickup". Please direct me to video on the other ways to make the guitar quiet. I plan to look at 5/2 neck tele. Just came across your videos, and appreciate your easy, short, clear cut approach to education with proof, No fluff or big personalities - just good honest information that can be trusted. "Thank you Dylan"
Reminds me of getting up for an early college class, only this is not boring!! Man you do a great job of explaning things!
Solutions in the order of effectiveness:
Solution 1:Get a hum debugger pedal and use your regular single coils with it.....very little to zero noise and hardly anyone ll notice a change in tone.....
Solution 2:Get a set of dimarzio areas and experience absolutely no noise(even better than regular humbuckers) and get a workhorse of a guitar going, achieving almost all the tone without the annoying part...
Solution 3 Get ANY set of kinman pickups that are also completely noiseless but added the fact that are 100 percent indistinguishable from true single coils...
If you find yourself not liking any of the solutions above and still think you hear differences..congrats..you are now part of the elite team of...avengers of tone...of course you still cant tell a dom chord from a major 7th chord but lets not talk about that now.....
Ok, i'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but i would really appreciate an answer. so... if i take a stacked single coil with 4 leads and i wire it to a switch where in one position, it's noise cancelling (normal), and then in the other position, it feeds "coil 1 finish" into "coil 2 start" (or whatever you would have to do to make a "continuous" coil). would that position then sound like a normal single coil? i mean wouldn't it effectively be just a single coil with a gap in the wiring from where they're stacked together? i get that that would change the sound but would it at least be closer? i know you'd then get "hum" but this type of switch, if it worked, would give people the option of sounding like a true single with hum vs sounding like a noiseless pickup without the hum.
This is an interesting question, I would like to hear the answer too. I am not pro in electronic, but I think it is not the same when you have one continuous wire and have that same wire split in two then solder back into one, I think impedance is changed and that is affecting wire to not act like one continuous coil. Like I said this is just basic logic, I would like to hear from Dylan on this idea.
@@myhapylife thanks! me either, i know just enough to get myself into wiring trouble haha
The Bottom coil is on the other side of the magnet so gets a reversed signal. Connecting end of top coil to start of bottom coil would cancel out the signal. You might get a super out of phase tone because the bottom coil won't get exactly the same signal as the top but it would be very low signal with all the noise.
@@CommandLineCowboy ahhhh damn. ok... well i guess there's a reason i (with almost no knowledge on the subject) didn't just revolutionize guitar technology haha!
I hate the hum. I love my noiseless. Hum is the enemy.
Play it correctly😂.
@@20cmusic there's no correct playing with hum 😁
"I don't believe in compromises"
Fair enough but sometimes people want a stacked humbucker simply because they have a single coil guitar that they want to make a humbucker guitar, or they want a 3 humbucker guitar but maybe don't like the look of 3 humbuckers but are ok with 3 single coil sized pickups. They don't really sound like normal humbuckers either, and that's another reason why some people want them. I'd say that's at least a good portion of the single coil sized humbucker market, so I still think you could make them. Just make sure it's clear to people that it's not going to sound like a single coil and you're not going to market them like that.
I had kind of the same thought. By that logic, humbuckers are a compromise to a single coil and shouldn't be made either.
lol... I love when having an opinion strikes a nerve
@@DylanTalksTone Who are you responding to? Because I was just pointing out another side of why someone might want a single coil sized humbucker. No nerves were struck
I’ve got a set of Fender noiseless pickups. A few quirks to them:
1) In order to get a good sound, you absolutely need higher-ohm volume and tone pots. This can actually carry a nice benefit, in that they’ll match up well with standard humbuckers for any kind of HSS or HSH setup. (The big no-no is mixing them in a set with any standard Fender-style single-coil.)
2) You also REALLY need a treble-bleed circuit, or else rolling down the volume will just sap all useful tones out.
You follow these guidelines, and you’ll have a decent enough time with them.
So my ears did not lie to me all this time? I used to feel like an idiot, thinking that those noiseless "singles" lacked "character", but still not being able to put my finger on where exactly. Thanks for clearing it all up. Your message is very "single coil" in style. Nuanced, yet direct. Clear without being shrill. It cuts through effortlessly, without the need for brute force. ;-)
Thanks for another awesome dissection of tone, Dylan. I'm wondering if you've ever checked out the pickups from a PRS Vela. I played on one and I thought it was really great sounding. I'm thinking there's some marketing gimmick going on though. The bridge pickup they are saying is a "wide range" from the Starla, and a "Type D singlecoil" in the neck. Both sounded really good in my opinion but I'm just curious what the guys from those two actually tell us about them.
I've tried many stacked Strat pickups. Currently using DiMarzio Area 61 & 58. They sound good, but lack a little on the treble. They have an almost compressed top end. Your explanation is right on.
Thanks for answering my questions on Fender " noiseless single coils".
How about a dummy coil that isn't in circuit but wired straight to ground?
That’s how my telecaster is wired, with the hum bucker in the neck, it sounds like a single coil without hum, it sounds like a strat on my telecaster,it was on accident, because I got the ground and hot mixed up but yeah.
Great explanation, thank you! I recently bought a like new, used Squire Contemporary and was fighting the single coil humm. Long story short I opened it up and found the tone pot lead never soldiered from the Chinese factory and the Hum-bucker lead soldiered but literally hanging by 3 of the copper strands. So I repaired those two things and it sounded better but still hummed badly. Turns out the 5 bulb chandelier on a reostat in my kitchen was the cause of the terrible buzz. Turning the light off stopped all but a very tiny humm from the single coils and silenced the hummbucker that was humming too. As you said they ARE Definitely picking up noise through the air. Find the source and stop the buzz and open up the guitar and check every solder joint.
What are your thoughts about the "silent circuit" that can be found on some music man guitars?
Dylan thank you so much. I am so glad that someone here in the "guitar community" understands the physics behind an electric guitar and does not tell all this marketing bullshit that we usually here. But since guitar players are not engineers most of them will not understand what you are explaining. So they still will believe in tone wood and other myths. Anyhow, happy to have you.
You got me until the tone wood part. It's not magic, it's physics. That tone wood is a myth is itself a myth.
@@TheApsodist Wood is not a substantial part of an electric guitar's sound. The sound of an electric guitar is the sound of inductance in a coil, not resonating wood. That's why people have made electric guitars out of resins, plastics, or other unusual materials, and they sound more-or-less the same as any other electric guitar.
Everything matters, and makes a difference.
Except when it doesn't.
Nought worth getting upset about ... "Can't we all just get along?"
😂
Tone carbon fibre makes for some excellent electric guitars…
Why do some people put a dummy coil in with no magnet then before the output jack? The math you provided makes sense to me but I have seen that work.
The second "antenna" can be anywhere. Moving it away from the pickup and strings stops it from coloring the signal. It's orientation should match the pick-up. However, the dummy coil is still a coil. It creates an inductance that influences the circuit. Removing the pole pieces reduces the inductance, and also the antenna effect. AM radio antennas are often ferrite cores inside a coil. If the dummy is wired in series, it's a low pass filter. In parallel, it's a high pass filter. It can affect tone. I'd like to see a video with some good comparisons!
A dummy coil is the same as the second coil of a stacked pickup, the only difference is that dummy coils are under the pickguard or in any other place. Dummy coils was used by players before stacked pickups were widely manufactured, it was a solution to the "hum" problem. Imagine you have a Stratocaster that sounds really good, and you dont want to completely change the pickups but you want to get rid of the hum, you put a dummy coil, so you have the same pickups you like, but you get rid of the hum. I know Stevie Ray vaughan used a dummy coil im some of his guitars.
@@papasmamas1 Scott Henderson also
@@papasmamas1 The Ritchie Blackmore signature Strat has a dummy coil, too.
The only time I've heard of dummy coils (also called phantom coils) was on active instruments. I saw a patent filed by Leo Fender in the late 70s that was related to using dummy coils as a way of canceling him without affecting tone, but it only seemed to work if you ran it through an active preamp (I'd imagine to actually power the coil) and it states specifically in the patent that the dummy coil is not wired in series or parallel with the magnetic coils. The patent number is 4581974 if you wanted to look into it yourself.
Thanks for the explanation! Can you explain Suhr's noiseless system, or Ernie Ball's noiseless system? From what I understand, each uses true single coils but has either some fancy wiring (suhr i think) or active electronics (EB) to cancel hum.
They do the exact same thing but use either coils or resistance to achieve the exact same thing. I'm thoroughly annoyed by this guy. He's trying to say that the 60cycle hum is what makes a single coil sound like a single coil.lol I guess yeah but anyone that actually plays live has to deal with it. And fender did it well with noiseless pickups, suhr did it very well with there system, and Ernie ball also did it well with there's. I believe John suhr when he says his noiseless system doesn't effect the sound or dynamics of a single coil. over whoever this random ass dude is trying to start a parade for 60cycle hum. Btw almost everyone who records single coils remove the 60 cycle hum. So it's not like you're ever hearing it in you're favorite records.lol
I have been enjoying the few videos of yours I have watched. Thanks for good content.
OK, been watching more of your video's, Yeah I like my Squire too, listening to your video, Fender poorly assembled and ship, customer service was awefull,
Got it to local tech, he knew I was, got lousy treatment, fixed it up. Real nice now.
One video I would love you to do is to explain exactly how tapped single coils are made !
Thanks for the info Dylan, very good to know. I have a 2004 American Deluxe Strat with the SCN pickups and the S-1 switching setup. I've had nothing but problems with this guitar for several years. The Middle Pickup cuts out randomly, I've replaced the 5-way switch, and the S-1 switch thinking this was the case after posting in a few forums with no luck, then I discovered that when the pickup cuts out, if I press down on the pickup cover on the bass side, it will work momentarily, or sometimes it comes back on for a minute or so. I've sent the pickup in to have it repaired (I won't mention who did the repair as it's not important) the first time it came back I didn't get any explanation for what the issue was and blindly reinstalled it in the guitar, and viola, same issue immediately, trash one new set of strings. So the pickup goes back to get fixed again (same company, new owner) who tells me that he cannot find the problem but rewinds the entire pickup, both coils just to be safe. I get it back and viola same issue no difference whatsoever. While I know that this was not the most popular Strat model (50th Anniversary). I really like the guitar, and I also like the idea of the S-1 switch for more tonal options, but now I'm at the end of my rope and will be replacing the pickups completely. Just posting this to support your comment that the Fender Noiseless pickups are pieces of junk. Thanks for all you are doing.
I had a similar problem with my SCN set that I bought brand new in 2005. The neck pickup would not work all the time. I had a hell of a time with fender trying to get it repaired under warranty, so I repaired it myself. If I remember correctly it was not just a simple soldering issue. It had to do with the base of the pickup being a circuit board instead of a fiber or plastic base as in most single coils pickups. The signal went through the circuit board with an internal copper layer to the output connecting wires. This was faulty. The feed through to this copper layer was not a good connection, re-soldering did not help. I had to bridge the connection with a jumper wire, it’s worked since then.
Can you explain a Dummy Coil
Can a humbucker be built from two full size single coils ? So you can get the original single coil sound ? What would that humbucker sound like ?
I'm no engineer but, I think that's what positions 2 and 4 do on a strat.
@@isaacramirez3729 If the middle pickup is reverse-wound reverse-polarity (RWRP) then yes, 2 & 4 cancel hum.
@@isaacramirez3729 that's no "Humbucker". On a standard Strat the Pickups are wired in parallel and the two coils of a humbucker are wired on series. Big difference. The positions you mentioned are noiseless though
I understand the two pickups on a strat can be wired in series or in parallel , but anyway you wire, it is going to sound diferent than placing them together on the neck , the neck position gets more string vibration thats is why position 3 and 5 sounds different
@@Redbelo Yip, you can wire them every way you want. But on a standard Strat it's parallel. And you are absolutely right. I have a Tele with a 4-way-switch which puts the two Pickups in series and I my main Strat has the middle and neck in series. Sound a little bit humbuckerish but no like a real humbucker. For one thing it's (as you said) the spacing of the pickups, because the coils of a humbucker are not that far apart and thus combine two coils in the same position. The other thing is the coil itself.
If a double coil pickup humbucker doesn't sound the same a single coil... single coil, why should two single coils in series sound like a humbucker? Or in numbers: When x /2 doesn't equal y, why should y x 2 equal x?
But two proper strat pickups in series close two each other seems like a nice setup I wanna try
It's right there in the name: stacked coils are not one single coil
There is a way to turn a stacked humbucker into a regular single coil?
My Stratocaster is an hss with noiseless pick up, but as you say in the video I don't like them...I wonder if is possible to do the change I explained
Thanks Dylan
Well that answered a lot of my questions. I do have some and I do use them. I like both. In my business, I have to use 90% some type of humbucking system in my guitars. I prefer the stacked type for Fender style guitars. I’ve used Seymour Duncan and some old Carvins. I don’t like the noiseless Fenders. My G&L bass has coil splits and I much prefer the depth of tone on the single coil setting (not stacks.) I would like to find a P90 type pickup that is noiseless. I understand what you said about physics and because of the mere size of those coils that it may simply not be possible. I’ve not heard great things about P100s so I’ve held off. One of my questions was going to be, would you build me a set of stacked P90s, but I already have your answer, lol! Thank you for your honesty, and your thorough explanation of the science behind your beliefs. I totally get it! This is why the Texas Toast guys respect you so much! You’re a lot alike! Thanks Dylan!
Love my new noiseless pickups in my #1.
I'm a university trained E.E. attempting new guitar pickup designs.
Conventional Guitar pick-ups are iron core transformers; -just like a conventional power converting transformers used in most analogue audio circuits.
There are several problem so overcome. My goal is to retain the classic and desirable hard attack sound of Fender's pickups, but eliminate, 60 Hz and 50 Hz mains hum, AND ALL extraneous noise that resides in the EMF surrounding the PUP and amplification circuit.
By using high quality (expensive) high impedance audio line transformers and a class D preamp, most guitars can be rendered noise free with local volume adjustment that does not change the guitar's response curve, but this is not cheap and some guitars will need routing to accommodate the added circuitry.
Class D circuits, however, have no need for such x-formers. Class D pre-amplification is one method I am attempting to create a single coil noiseless pickup that also delivers the classic hard attack Fender sound. This will require a very high impedance output load, - at least 100,000 Ohms or more, but, I think the idea has promise. Ideally, this will done via circuitry rather than a transformer to keep costs low.
Tantalum capacitors used in a class-D designs show promise, but I have not yet gone far with this design. I'm initially concentrating on conventional analogue induction before I proceed further with class D powering designs.
Simple, improved shielding and common line chokes could make this a non-issue, except for the variable EMF environments found in theatres and emitted by many classic, great sounding, guitar valve amplifiers. Modern lighting systems are of particular annoyance, as most professional players will tell you. Also, line chokes require large and pure ferrite iron cores that are not cheap.
Current staked double coil designs are simply humbuckers that look different, but they WILL sound more like humbuckers than single coil PUPS.
The famous fast attack sound of Fender PUPS cannot be obtained via most hum-bucking designs. However, many years ago, I bought a 1972 Telecaster Custom guitar that has a single large hum-bucking PUP mounted at the neck. This PUP somehow captures some of the basic Fender hard attack sound, yet hum-bucks noise via conventional phase cancellation. The pole pieces are divided into two sets of three; -one for each coil, plus, perhaps Alnico 5 or 3 magnets in the coil assemblies has something to do with this? I am reluctant to dismantle this PUP as I love it's sound. But who ever created this design was on to something...
I am experimenting with a PASSIVE second coil and ferrite magnet. I am trying two basic passive designs; low Voltage and no Voltage second coil circuits that are NOT electrically (directly) part of the live PUP circuit. -I.e. I am depending upon induction to phase cancel noise in the active coil ( the "passive" coil, The magnet/coil circuits are NOT directly, electrically connected to the primary coil that creates the sound). The purpose of a passive coil/magnet circuit is strictly for phase cancellation via induction. This would be inexpensive and maintain the signature Fender hard attack sound.
The second (lower coil in a staked configuration will have only an INDUCTIVE relationship to the active coil / ferrite magnet. The secondary "passive" coil is a self contained circuit using low voltage with an LC - RC filter. This can be made rather small with electrolytics as the Voltage and component values are quite low. E.g. for a 60 Hz filter, 8uf - 10 uf with a 10 - 20 VDC rating and a tiny 10 - 15 ųH, ferrite iron core choke.
My second design employs NO added voltage/current, but relies strictly on the close proximity and perfect alignment of the 180° reverse coil winding.
Obviously, I am having less luck with the 100% passive circuit, but I have not completely given up on this design. I.e. It is possible for the "passive circuit" to induct current from the active coil / magnet, but adding a higher " bias" Voltage / current to the live coil is necessary.
For all those who want to eliminate significant noise from their single coil guitar pickups, -use a high quality analogue, line level, high impedance audio transformer (these are NOT cheap, -figure $100 for one). These are small and can reside inside your guitar. They can be used with or without an active preamp. If you know a little electronics, simply find a class-D, battery operated preamp (90% + efficiency) and solder the transformer onto the tail end, output section of your guitars electronics. A good class -D preamp will insure that your output does not vary in frequency response with volume adjustment of your guitar's volume pot.
Check out Bill Lawrence's insight
That was the best explanation I’ve ever heard. I bought a new 2023 American Ultra Stratocaster because I wanted the modern design in the body. First thing I did was take it to the Luthier for a setup and change the Gen 5 noiseless to 5 2’s. Now it’s right
+1 on your opinion of stacked humbuckers, you Sir are 100% correct on all accounts.
My 2000 American Deluxe Stratocaster had Vintage Noiseless Pickups (stacked humbuckers).
I loved the way the guitar played and how it resonated acoustically. I bought the guitar and immediately changed all the pickups and pots so I could make the guitar actually sound like a Stratocaster.
BTW, Fender had to use 1M Ohm pots to make the pickups sound thin "like" a single coil, I switched to 250K pots to get that classic single coil tone/sound.
Myself, not a fan of the noiseless pickups. They are fine for heavy distortion or a lot of gain however they lack everything that makes a single coil great.
Fantastic video, thank you for the content/information.
A video pitched at my level of knowledge - thanks, very helpful.
“Well it’s a thing called physics” awesome quote. Would be cool to do a video about how you handle reducing the hum with single coils like you mentioned toward the end of the video (assuming a noise suppressor and the one pedal electroharmonix makes)
I have zexcoil pickups in my telecaster. They have 6 Coils, wach magnet has one. The more the better right? 😅 they sound very nice. Have you heard of them?
The construction of Zexcoil is mind boggling. They use magnetic pole-pieces like true single coil pickups, but then each pole-piece is placed in a standalone mini coil and each of those mini coils are paired in hum cancelling configuration. An outright crazy design but as an advantage they sound and feel exactly same as single coils.
Can Permanent Neodymium Magnet be used to wind pickups? If no, why?
What is the disadvantage doing so?
I have an MIA deluxe strat with noiseless single coils and I have toyed with the idea of changing them. They sound great but I have never been all that happy with them. Your video has helped me decide, gonna change them. Keen to try some of yours some day but it will be genuine fender pups this time.
A great way to illustrate the "EMF/HUM" effect is to work on your fretboard while guitar is plugged in and the Dremel will make a nice "WEEEEEEEEEE" into your pickups via the motor/induction effect. I guess Paul Gilbert figured that out with the drill thing in the 80's. lol Also, put a cell phone near your pickups. The speaker's magnet will excite your pickups and you'll hear your audio loud as hell through your amp. I actually did this intentionally for an effect a client wanted. So instead of putting fake digital distortion on his spoken word thing, we had him read it into his phone and I played it back through a guitar into a distorted amp. PHYSICS!!!!
You have officially become my pickup sensei.
Honestly, if you're not wanting the hum of a single-coil just get a freaking noise gate. We're not in the early 2000s anymore, if you get a good one it's not going to suck out your tone. I use the Sentry in a 4 cable method and it is absolute magic.
I agree. If you filter out noise some of that noise will be the guitar string vibration. Thanks for the vid. I just bought a Fender Tele with the noiseless and I was remarking to myself that I like my Squier Tele sound without noiseless pickups better. I'm going to live with the Fender pickups and make them work for me. I bought it on sale so . . .
In my early days of messing around with pickups I never understood the laws of how the pickup works. The funny thing was I always wound up putting it back the way it was. I had spoken the Les paul once and he said the same thing to me about using a telephone mike as an pickup on his experimental guitar. He realized he did not need the diaphragm part of the microphone. We were comparing our learning experiences. My fascination was mainly with magnets.Any Who thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. c]8-)
Thanks for making these videos where you explain an element of how a guitar works in a way that a regular player can understand! I've heard that gibson puts a second coil under some of their P90s, do they work the same way as that Pile-O-Rubbish Fender noiseless? Should those pickups be thrown into the trash immediately also?
Pretty sure that's what they call P-100s. There's probably a reason their tone isn't as lauded as the P-90's.
@@rickc2102 Thanks Rick! That's helpful, I'm thinking of a P90 guitar for my next guitar. Something like a junior or special, or something that style. I'll watch out for P100s!
your videos are great man. very informative. between you and dan from guns and guitars, my axes are so damn good these days haha. keep em comin bud.
Wow you learn something new everyday I have sensor lace noiseless pickups and a guitar and never knew that's what they were thanks for the info
The discussion misses a key point. Regardless of how the pickup is constructed, and whether it is a true single coil or has two coils, how does the pickup sound? For awhile, I have had a MiM Tele with standard MiM Tele single coils. I also have a Squier Tele with dual humbuckers. The MiM Tele has a noisy single coil sound that I can get rid of my moving to a certain area and rotation in my living room. When it's quiet, it sounds like single coils, like it should. The Squier is always quiet and it sounds like humbuckers. This is what I expect. They sound very different, and I like both of the sounds for different things.
So I just got an Ultra Tele with the newest Fender "noiseless" pickups and an S1 switch that puts them in series in the middle position. To my ear, it sounds much more like the MiM Tele (single coils) than it does the Squier (humbuckers). It doesn't have the hum anywhere in my living room, and it really has a crisper, sweeter sound that the MiM Tele. But sound-wise. it is voiced at the high end of single coil sounds I've heard.
With the S1 switch on and 3-way in the middle position, the guitar is much quieter, but the tone is a very nice single coil sounding tone.
Anyway, the primary goal for pickups ought to be to create a sound the guitarist likes, not be all technically correct with categorizations. If the pickups contained tiny ants playing tiny synthesizers to generate the best single coil voicing ever, I'd be all in. You would be too.
I put Vintage Noiseless pickups in my Strat about 15 years ago. I've never felt unsure about them until I saw this video. I put SSL-1's in my friend's Strat and I've never noticed a HUGE difference in tone between the two. That could be because I also have a few other different design guitars from Ibanez RG to Gretsch to Tele Deluxe (yes, with the fake WR pickups) and I'm used to different guitars sounding differently. I'm pretty sure Dylan isn't out to change my mind about the stacked humbucker, as he put it, but I think we should be aware of the influence these videos have on us and the music we produce. I love the knowledge Dylan shares with us, and I do not disagree with him. But his opinion should not dictate the gear we use IF it is working for us the way we want it to and we're happy about it. At the end of the day, there are way more things that affect our tone from picking style, pick size, strings, to guitar wiring, cable, pedals and amps.
After watching his video I feel uncomfortable now using noiseless lol
God damn Dylan your vids are so informative! I fken love it!
Only recently I've come across low impedance pickups like Alumitone and I'd really appreciate if you could go in depth on how they are made and what the hell is beneath that thin layer on aluminium. They sound so bright and clean it's almost unreal, but at the same time they maintain the strength of regular pickups (or at least that's how they record it). Thanks in advance!
I'm about to say exactly what Dylan said we would say: I've got a Player Plus Strat. I changed the bridge pickup to a SD Hot Rail, but I kept the original neck and middle "Noiseless Single Coils." I really like the sound of them, but I far prefer regular Strat single coil pups.
That being said, I still treat them like single coils. They sound great through amp settings that normal single coils would sound good through. I sometimes feel like theres something missing from the "clarity" part of the classic single coil tone. I actually forget that they're really Humbuckers sometimes though, which is probably a good thing because I use them like single coils.
When I describe my Strat, I say I have an HSS Strat, with a single coil-sized humbucker in the bridge position, but that's actually not true. I actually have an HHH Strat, with 3 single coil-sized humbuckers (technically). I'm considering changing the neck and middle pups to regular Strat pickups, maybe some really hot ones, but I'm honestly not sure if I want to. I really like to be able to switch from my Hot Rails to my "single coils" without having to worry about hum. Its cool because I can have a cleanish tone with my Noiseless single coils, and switch to my Hot Rail without changing any effects or settings, and I'll have a pretty great overdrive tone.
Plus, the Hot Rail obviously sounds great with more high gain stuff, but I can also engage the "single coils" and get some very high gain single coil sounds that I normally couldn't get without a lot of feedback and hum.
Great Video Dylan.Great info as always.
I loved the impassioned exposition!
And I do agree. But, BUT, I know better than to be categorical about it, as someone will walk around the corner and make breathtakingly accomplished tones out of a stacked-coil (I think marketing emphasizes the 'coil' part of the stacked coil...)
...But yeah, loved listening to such learned dialogue.
Subbed yonks ago, from the UK 🍀
Bless ya🍀
Good explanation and you're right about the two (single/stacked) sounding different. If I can expand on that: Humbuckers work by subtracting common mode signals, like any stray EMI that you mentioned, because the coils are connected 180 degrees out of phase. String vibrations are sensed differentially also but because of the reverse polarity of the magnets and the coils being out of phase, they add. However, the vibrations that are sensed by the bottom coil are much less than the top coil, so they sound more like a single coil than a Gibson style humbucker but not quite exact.
...and then there are the NF series stacks by Wilde that have high permeability magnets on the sides between the coils, mathematically designed by the late Bill Lawrence so flux lines from the strings don't reach the bottom coil. The pole piece alloy attracts flux lines much more than does AlNiCo, yet it doesn't roll off highs as do Steel poles. Thinner wire is used for better efficiency from the increased coil density, and it allows for better coil shape variation per model. Due to the boost in inductance from the pole piece alloy less wire is needed for a given inductance target than with AlNiCo so the ~25% higher coil DCR (from thinner wire of two equal size coils) isn't enough to significantly reduce the highs or output, although the denser coil oriented within the strongest magnetic region from the strings does produce stronger note fundamentals and maximum clarity.
The best explanation I ever heard
Would you prefer a dummy coil for humbucking capabilities rather than a stacked coil?
Would you show an example of how lace sensors are made? Is it similar to fenders noiseless stacked humbucker?
Thanks for that sober info about the stacked "single coil". The hum fundamental is 60Hz but the buzz and noise we all hear are the harmonics above 60Hz ie 120Hz+ in the AC/device EMI fields in the air. Rarely do guitar amps reproduce the 60Hz fundamental tone.
I like that Phrase..... The tone and dynamics WILL BE COMPROMISED on Noise cancelling pickups... PERIOD, so far same thing when you use a Noise filter pedal, but in the pedal you can decide the amount of compromised signal
Hooked on your awesome content man! How about a video on the PRS narrowfield pickups?
Yeah, I tried a lot of different stacked single coil sized humbuckers.
Just can't nail that tone, that chime.
I went back to the good ol true single coils.
I used to play the bayside mall in Miami 1’s a week and it was the only gig I would pick up radio stations through my guitar. Was so annoying. I used a les paul hum-bucker. It was so loud I had to turn my volume down in between songs and parts of songs. The gig was an out door on a big stage and the water behind me. I’ve play hundreds of gigs but never had that happen.
Good video. As always
I use Kinman Noiseless pickups (i.e. stacked humbuckers) on my 2-pickup Strat. Generally, I find humbuckers too muddy, and single coils too jangly for my taste. The Kinman pickups are a good "noiseless" solution for me. I like the way they sound, and they have a small single coil footprint. Regular humbuckers get in the way of my fingerpicking. I don't find that the Kinman pickups lack any clarity or sensitivity. I also like them because they don't sound just like humbuckers or single coil pickups.
My Kinman Hank Marvins sounds lovely. Like Joe Bardens too.
I put the VN pups on my MIM and agree, they do not sound exactly like, single coil pups. There is indeed a subtle difference. The Neck sounds awesome, the 4 position sounds good on the clear, The bridge is a bit bright, but workable. The 2 positions sounds like lynyrd skynrd, perfectly. The middle needs some tweaking. i typically roll the tone to a 7 and that seems to work, but the neck is so much better. I disagree with Dylan as they appear to sound really well, Clean is awesome, and crunch is pretty darn good too. They are a little finicky, so setting them the right height is crucial.
Hi Dylan love your technical uploads. one question how dose Eric Clapton get such a fabulous sound with noiseless pickups are they a different pickup to fender noiseless looking forward to your answer Thank you Dylan
Regards Anthony Marin
Today I learned that I love stacked humbuckers.
I’m a bass player and my opinions and questions are open for answers and corrections.
Are you saying noiseless single coils(stacked humbuckers) sound halfway between single and regular buckers?
If so perhaps you don’t like buckers?
Perhaps, as on single coil basses, when driving only one pickup to change tone configuration causes noise, the solution might be change tone without pickup selection while driving all pups.
My next custom bass will drive three pups and have three tonal swaps, warm, cut and solo.
Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer single coil, but I find many buckers can produce the same tonality with adequate equalization.
Just discovered your channel, am eager to watch and learn more.
used this video as a reference during a Know Your Gear livestream. Thank gangsta!
How about Lace sensors? True single coil configuration, no?
Your sincerity and teaching are cool... 👍👍👍
Like the Duckbucker or the Vintage rails? These models divide the pole pieces between the side by side coils, the rail on one coil gets the top three strings and the rail on the other gets the bottom three strings. The coils are wired in parallel, Thereby minimizing the Humbucking sound, the output and the noise. I like mine a lot. Very "Stratty". IMHO, there are many different sounds from single coil pickups of different varieties. But these two odd ball "noiseless" pickups sound very convincing next to the plethora of single coils. And I do agree that the stacked humbuckies have not much a single coil sound at all. Nor do "Hot Rails" of anyone's making. But give that Duckbucker a try before you dismiss noiseless pups.
Thanks for the great video and adding science to the art. I learned something new today. Stacked coils aren’t reverse wound but reverse connected. Keep up the great work.
The stacked coils could also be wound in opposite directions but the start and finish wires from each coil would have to connected differently. The same applies to traditional humbucker with two coils side by side.
DYLAN, it would be much better if you made video lessons using the chalk board again to explain different types of noiseless pickups like stacked noiseless pickups, bipolar pickups, inline pickups, which are single coil humbucker pickups. To go over how the HUM is getting cancelled out which causes high frequency loss and touch sensitivity issues but explain on the chalk board would help out a lot.
Possibly it does matter though that the more vertical design may cut a tighter slice of the string phase. As Viktor was explaining, it's not just 60hz, it's all radio interference being cancelled, vs. letting the magnetic generation through. Possibly some string sound is coming through as radio, but also possibly the more muted sound of a HB is due to doubling the resistance path towards capicitance, like the dynamic response of a freeway traffic jam or breath response of bagpipes.
DAM YOUR PHYSICS!! Good explanation. Basically no free lunch with pickups.
Have you done a video on active pickups yet? That would be cool just to get into their construction and what not
Just bought a Seymore-Duncan Tele-style stack, wish I had seen this sooner. But whatever this my first attempt, not expecting perfection. Thanks for these videos btw, keeping me sane during lockdown
That's the pickup Jeff Buckley had on his tele. You can get perfect tones from it.
Can you make a video on using a Dummy coil vs stacked pickup which is better. How to dummy coil a P90 Gibson and a SSS Strat. I have both strat and 50's les paul with p90's which is better to go with. I love all these pickups tones and dont want them to change actually but also can get rid off some hum. Thanks!
I read about noiseless pickups that aren’t stacked but rather work by the same principle of a p-Bass pickup (1 coil for 3 strings)...
no idea if you explained that type before cause I just found your channel but I would be interested in an opinion/explanation on how they differ soundwise from singlecoils and other noiseless pickups
Ok... “noiseless” vs twin blade bucker in a single coil enclosure? Anyone else made curious?
As always great stuff and I appreciate your input. Keep up the amazing work. I need to get my buddy to pull the trigger on some classic Strat pups.
Thank you for this excellent explanation of differences between single coils and stacked humbuckers (noiseless single coils). Can you please explain dummy coils in general and whether they are possibly any better or worse?
Can you address the following?
Music Man Silent Circuit
Ilitch Air Coil
Ulbrick Noise Reduction System
Suhr Noise Cancelling System
G & L Z-Coil (3 lower strings and three higher strings wound separately)
Split Noiseless designs in general
Zex Coils (where each pole is individually wound)
Is this the same principal in say an EMG active single coil such as their retroactive crossroads set? Or is it down to the preamp to filter the noise out?
Great video by the way, easy for the likes of me to understand!
(EDIT) oh okay, you seem to have covered this question in two seperate videos I think . . . . my bad.
Very much apprieciate the amount of time you've put into these videos.
When you tap a humbucker, does it only use half of the coil or does it reverse the polarity of second coil ? ? ?
If not how would a humbucker sound if you accidentally wired them both in the same direction ? ? ? i.e. not in output to output configuraiont that you described.
Just came here to nerd out on some guitar stuff. Mission Accomplished, keep on ,keeping on Dylan!
The reason why I'd want one of these stacked humbuckers, is for my classic Mustang to look like original, but without the hum. I absolutely adore the mustang's design, and I love how it looks with the solid single coil covers, but they don't have nowhere near the output I need for playing Nivana songs, and they hum like crazy. I know Kurt used humbuckers in the bridge position, the jag-stang has a S-H configuration, but to me it doesn't look like a Mustang anymore.
Dylan! I do EMI for a living. Well, actually I evaluate other peoples EMI on our equipment. Your explanations are so close--SO close. As an engineer I'd say it was more than close enough. My favorite was "electrically going backwards." I'm gonna use that at work. Well done!
Fender Jazz Noiseless pickups kick ass. Even better, they are voiced very silmilar to factory singles.
I take the facts you provide and love you for taking things apart from each other to give a detailed explanation. I leave your opinion about NL with you :) Thanks for putting this out and all the best!
Hi Mr. Dylan. Recently started watching your channel. Great content delivered in a simple no-nonsense manner.
Question concerning noiseless “single coil” designs. What would be the advantages/disadvantages of combining 2 coils, one wrapped around the top 3 pole pieces north side up, and the other wrapped around the bottom 3 pole pieces South side up?
To take it even further, what about wrapping coil around each individual polepiece? One could then not only design each coil specifically for each string, plus choose alternating polarities to cancel electronagnetic noise, or same polarity. What would be the advantages/tradeoffs?
Thx again for your channel.
Speaking of soft playing and dynamics, I'll take a noiseless pickup any day of week over a 60 cycle hum in my recordings. Try playing soft in a noisy environment where the hum is louder than your playing. I've had a American Deluxe Strat that came with noiseless pickups for more than 15 years, did thousands of shows around the world with it and it never failed me. Does it sound exactly like a single coil? No. Do I care? No. If you want that true single coil sound without compromise, have both. Noiseless pickups can be a life saver in some cases. I've been in some studios where you'd have to be in a very specific to minimize noise. If a noise can distracts you from your playing then the sound of your playing will suffer a lot more than if you used noiseless pickups and let your heart and fingers speak. If you're in a noiseless environment, than great and lucky you, take out your vintage sounding single coils but let's not crap on humbuckers and noiseless pickups. That's just narrow minded. But this might just be bait and I was dumb enough to bite...
Yeah. They for sure have their place.
I have never heard a stacked pickup that sounded good. And the Lace is a pretty darn clean Stratocaster single coil.