I never understood why single coils could not be used for metal. Ritchie Blackmore invented classical metal with single coiled Strats, Yngwie Malmsteen uses them as well, and Tony Iommi recorded some of the heaviest riffs known to metalkind with P90's, a sort of single coil.
Because by modern standards those guys are considered more rock than metal tonally. Sabbath was heavy and dark for their time, but when it comes on the radio now it feels more like classic rock than anything resembling contemporary metal. Which is not a slight on them or an endorsement for modern music, but there is a big difference in the term “metal” between Sabbath and Meshuggah.
@@Whizzinby777 When I hear Sabbath I can hear most styles of metal. Because that's where most metal bands got their influences from. Whereas Meshuggah just sounds like djenty noise to me. Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath on the album Black Sabbath is still one of the most evil songs in history, almost 54 years after being recorded. Come back with Meshuggah in half of that time if they are still relevant. I think not.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 My post had nothing to do with the merits of any band or era. In fact I specifically mentioned that. The video is about single coils within a contemporary metal context, and you listed bands from 40-50 years ago. Contemporary metal music is significantly different than eras past, which is why you don’t see single coils used nearly as much in those genres.
Honestly, a telecaster pickup rules for metal. The brighter voicing accents the attack of notes and naturally tightens up the low end. You don’t even have to use as much gain. If your amp/cab gives you plenty of low end, you can play huge riffs/chugs and still retain some “clean tone” in your signal. Great playing and tones in this one, Ola!
@sor7en07 I'm seriously thinking of dropping the EMG T set in mine. The pickups fit into the single coil slots and I've seen videos that prove that you can get some really crunchy distorted tones from that set but you can also get that classic Tele twang from it.
I like single coils especially for low tunings! Gives a lot more clarity than a humbucker, can't explain why/how but it kinda makes it sound like baritone
Actually a noiseless singlecoil, in terms of construction, is practically a humbucker in a narrow format, nothing else. So here we are just exploring the sound of a singlecoil voiced humbucker, and not a singlecoil per se. Tell me if I am wrong, please. Chung on Ola, best content as always +++
I have a squier tele and I use it for death metal and metallic hardcore all the time, I really like that signature twanginess of a tele because it results in extremely clear pick attack when playing high gain giving you super tight and well defined chuggage! Just make sure you have a decent noise gate if you're not using noiseless singles 👍
The Fender Telecaster (with single coils) perhaps the most versatile guitar in the world and a must have in our collection. For metal it sounds awesome too and this is how I understood Ola's video: actually there are no real guitars that suit better for metal, it is just a matter of taste. Try as many guitars as possible and select those that inspire you.
I do prefer humbuckers, but for rhythm tones I use parallel wiring. It cleans up the low end and gives more brightness - while still retaining hum cancelling effect. Unlike coil splits or single coils. EDIT: also good way to tame a high output pickup, and give it more range - since parallel wiring lowers the output.
RATM may not have been considered a “metal” band in the 90’s but Tom Morello came up with some of the heaviest riffs of that decade with the neck pickup of an American Standard Tele through a Marshall.. anything is possible. I love the slinky sound of a Tele neck pickup going thru some high gain
I have been digging the hell out of my tele. I recorded a heavy rock track with it and the voicing was perfect in the mix. I also had a humbucker track playing the same thing and split it left right. I have a new tele on the way. The game changer for me is the modern C neck profile. Until then, Fender was a guitar I couldn't play. I now have 6 Fenders. I didn't at all expect to ever own Fender.
Its worth noting that the American Ultra Tele has " noiseless" single coils which are actually stacked magnets to cancel noise. Similar to Yngwie's pickups.
I've been using my teles for metal for awhile now. Even with a normal bridge pup with the right over drive and amp they can easily djent or do doom/sludge and they can still do all the tele stuff that I originally bought them for. You can even make the neck pup do yngwie if you want. In summation, teles are cool and this video is cool
Jari Mäenpää rocked with his tokai telecaster plugged into a mesa triaxis, I think in at least 4 songs of his Wintersun debut album, and it sounded absolutely amazing. Listen to the songs Sleeping Stars or Beautiful Death
The phenomenom that you are experiencing and realising Sir Ola is the funkey spank monkey at 07:05. You even got your groove on and it was a joy to watch as it has happened to me in the past when I plug in an odd combination of funky guitar, metal amp and OD pedals (Strats, Teles etc). We should all embrace this. Funky Djent/Chug anyone? :)
That guitar sounded amazing. So much clarity, percussive, everything a grear tele does. The quality of instruments available....wow. Noiseless pus....just....wow
A noiseless “single coil” and humbucker are essentially the same thing, except the two coils are stacked vertically instead of horizontally. They do get moderately better frequency response on the treble end. I often play metal on an actual single coil Tele with a noise gate and they kick ass!
Amp eq won't affect the dynamics of the pickup. You tame harsh single coil dynamics/pick attack at the source, with your tone knob. You learn this by watching professional guitar players in action.
After watching this video I realized that this is the sound I want for my Symphonic Fusion Progressive (Death) Metal project, so I bought a Fender Telecaster and fitted it with a noiseless pickup and a baritone neck... Thanks for the nicest chugging never heard in my life
I have been such a "no Tele" guy for a long time, I just recently got an HH which I have now paired with the Dimarzio Crunch Lab and Liquifire and have enjoyed ever since. It's been quite a while that the thought of having an S-S Tele has been chasing and haunting me. Plus I have seen all this "Tele is all you need", "the most versatil guitar ever" and so on videos...that I am really considering one, it´s been good to see your video. And also, it surprised me to see that metalheads also agree with this statement, it has almost made me decide to get a regular Tele at some point...maybe end of this year...yeahh
You definitely should get one 👍🏻I’ve had a Mexican telecaster that I bought for $200- 32 years ago and it is actually a really well built guitar that plays extremely smoothly and sounds great all around through almost any amp I have Marshall’s , Peavy , Laney and a few others . I own 13 different guitars and even though some of them are way more expensive and look a good deal cooler that telecaster has always been about 5 feet away from my couch all those years and I do play it all the time. Definitely consider getting even an older used Mexican model if you can’t get a USA right now because of the cost, for the price I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
Duuuude for sure what you said "the string separation" is that magic. Those 6 string chords just sound so clear, and under high gain it stays so beautiful and crunchy and crisp and it's so Moldable. I LOVED my friends Schecter PT which is a télé type with high outpout pickups, and that thing chugged and shredded. I loved it.
Yngwie Malmsteen tone is one of my favorite tones. He may not be considered modern metal, but his single coil tone would work well on a modern metal album.
@@internetselling let me rephrase, single stack. The single stack is what makes the difference in the tone. It shortens the magnetic window. This is what I am referring to.
Jari Mäenpää (from Wintersun) used a telecaster with single coils to record the debut album songs in Standard D and Drop C tunings. It sounds great (just listen to the song Beautiful Death).
I’ve used my Nashville telecaster on multiple recordings and it gets plenty of “heavy” it has all the fundamental tones that pair well with bass tones like a precision or something with a humbucker type set up to supply the beef, I love that kind of mix. Dynamic and plenty of space for the guitars to do what they do! some of my heaviest mixes were done with low-medium output pickups. I think every “metal” guitar player needs a guitar that’s low output to medium. It’s important to be aware of the feel of the instrument, to be able to hear how YOU sound. Sometimes super heavy metal guitars can get in the way of anything short of mosh pit inducing crunch
The best metal guitar I ever had was a Fender Tele, and I was going through a Fender Princeton 65 or the G-DEC. Unfortunately I had to sell it because we were worrying about the new baby having something to eat (during the Great Recession in 2008/09) and we had no idea my wife's job would recall her in 2 weeks. No regrets! Now I play my daughter's Squire Tele and it's still a hoot!
We recorded all of our upcoming songs with a tele with single coils, even mostly with the split neck pickup, and it sounds brutal "manly" in drop Ab! 🤟🏼
Silly Ola, this isn't a true single-coil, its a single-coil stacked humbucker!! I demand you obtain a high quality 'true' single coil bridge pickup to satisfy me. Love the video concept. I'm all about single coils for hard rock and metal. Ola you're the best!
As someone who has experimented with guitars, I love a Telecaster sound but the pickups have to be modern (low output vintage pickups don’t push enough for me) and you NEED a noise gate. My first main gig guitar was a Mexican Standard Telecaster and I loved it so much. You could push a lot of gain into it yet it still had the note clarity. My backup was a Squier Telecaster custom with humbuckers which sounded darker but didn’t have the note clarity. I gradually went to humbucker guitars after that but still bring out my current Tele sometimes for recording so the it cuts through the mix.
I use a mix of single coil and humbuckers in my setup but when I use single coils, typically I use fuzzes into a boost to take the trebles off rather than distortion which tends to highlight too much of that treble. You also compensate a lot of the low end and you get all of the "nasty" single coil mids and attack. Another trick is having an E standard setup and downtuning the E to a low A because the single coils again compensate the low tuning making them sound a lot more chunky. I've written some of my fave post-metal type riffs with that setup!
My first Guitar was a Harley Benton Stratocaster. And i played a lot with it. Years. I started to play Metal with it. Even faster and heavier Stuff. Its completely fine :) It has a unique yet heavy and nice Sound. And Hands Down, nobody can stand a Chance against the Clean Sound of a Strat played on the Neck Single Coil
don't quote me on that, but I thought that Yngwie uses stacked humbuckers that look like single coils. I'm not sure about his early days though, those ones were probably true single coils
So I'm a bit of a guitar minimalist. I have an Ibanez (Prestige) RGD 7 string and a Fender (American Pro II) HSS Stratocaster. The Strat has really been the main guitar since I got it - I looooooove single coils in the neck position, and the guitar just feels like home to me. I feel like this combination covers everything I want super well, and I've genuinely been a bit stumped when I think about what else I could really want out of a guitar.......... I think this video made me want a Telecaster with a single coil in the bridge. That sounds noticeably better than when I split the coil in my Strat's humbucker, and just straight up bad-ass.
It sounds incredible tbh, even better than some of the other guitars you demo sometimes lol. Sure the gear makes the most of it but singles do sound amazing.
Yup! My old school Malmsteen Strat, Black Arts Pharoah Supreme, with a Boss SD-1 boosting and tightening everything up is a crushing tone and the harmonics are gorgeous.
Teles are great for distortion! Even though I love metal and abrasive music, I'm a classic Fender guy, the guitars just feel and play right for me. But I was never able to get a decent heavy tone with stock single coil Fenders until I got a Tele. Even if they're not as thick as a humbucker, the way they cut through a mix makes up for it. They also work well in a heavy band context if you have another guitarist playing a Les Paul - The LP gives the girth and the Tele gives the sparkle.
Tommy Iommi started it all with P90s in his SG. Maybe try a guitar with those too! Personally I would love a pickup with the tightness a singlecoil gives at high gain without the hum!
humbucker in single coil format is a great option here, no need to destroy your guitar. i have the duncan distortion in single coil format in some older strat style guitars and i just love it! cheers 🎸🎸
There used to be a hardcore band from Nashville called With Hell At Our Backs, they used all Fender Teles and Jazz Basses and they were the shit. Honestly one of the best recorded high gain rhythm sounds I've ever heard.
I don't want to be picky, but "noiseless single-coils" are actually humbuckers. I have some Duncans of that sort in my Strat. They sound like single coils, so, whatever. Just saying... 🙂 Doesn't make a difference for the points made, though. Of course, you can use single coils for metal. Why not? Just a matter of personal taste.
To be fair, a noiseless single coil (and single coils like Yngwie uses) are actually more or less humbuckers in a single coil housing. They are either stacked or side by side coils. Still, I think the narrower pickup magnet field of a single coil shape does affect tone somewhat. A Seymour Duncan Hot Rails is pretty much the standard for single coil metal tones from the bridge. As far as I know, Trevor Peres of Obituary has used humbuckers in a single coil housing in a Fender Strat for most of his career. I think if one used a true single coil like a Seymour Duncan SSL1 in this demo on high gain, the first thing you would notice is hiss and hum that would have to be controlled with a noise gate. Edit: Ola's opening talk about pickups vs. preamps vs. power amps and where tone comes from in the chain is also one of taste. Some players prefer their output and grit from their pickups. Others prefer it from later in the signal chain. I tend to agree with Ola that, for modern metal, flatter sounding pickups with the preamp doing most of the distortion is best. High output pickups were designed in the 1970s and 80s as a way to overdrive the front of amps like Plexis at a time when a Plexi or Marshall JCM 800 was as distorted as you could get and a Tube Screamer was needed for an additional boost. With today's world of infinite gain, you could play death metal with 50s spec pickups. It might not be ideal, but you're going to dial in your tone to compensate later in the chain. Of course, in modern recording we now also have impulse responses which add yet another variable to the tone chase. Aaron
I remember being crazy about John 5's Fender Bigsby with single coil Hotrail pickups. He used that for Marilyn Manson's Golden Age of Grotesque album and the tone was amazing. I wish I could get a 7 string with single coil style hot rail pick up.
Actually, this is the exact setup Steven Wilson used on the latest Porcupine Tree album. A tele through a badcat. The grit and more open sound can create truly a wall of sound. The compression of humbuckers isn't always a good thing. Oh, and it is also more percussive sounding and can help in the mix
Is nobody going to point out the fact that fender’s noiseless single-coils aren’t single-coils at all? They’re just humbuckers where the two pickups are stacked on top if each other instead of side by side…
@@swiftyasaninja Actually they are single coils. The second coil is only used for noise suppression. And really just play it you will hear single coils (very good ones in my opinion).
@@swiftyasaninja The names we give to pickups : single coils/humbuckers, don't allow to define precisely the Fender Noiseless technology, because this is something else. So they are made of two coils but only one is used for providing the useful signal. That's why they are considered as single coils.
@@mattpn Sooo… It has two coils, one of which picks up the signal while the other cancels out the 60 cycle hum… Call it what ever you want but it’s functionally the same as a humbucker, its a hum- canceling pickup.
I was playing in metal band in 1993 where my main guitar was a stock telecaster. I only ever got compliments on my sound. It was more open with better string separation and a more immediate attack. It was bright but not ice pick bright, and cut through the band mix so well. The other guitarist used a regular superstrat style guitar with a humbucker in the bridge and we complimented each other perfectly.
My main axe has one pickup position only: humbucker bridge. The humbucker is slanted, EVH style. What I've had in there (for 13 years?) is a DiMarzio DP-156 "Humbucker From Hell". But, for most of that time, until about a year ago, I didn't know that it was backwards. The DP-156's hotter coil was closer to the neck. That made a negative impact on the pinch harmonics and chunk. When I got a clue and realized the pickup was wrong and turned it around, it was a big difference. So yes, I feel that remark Ola made about the slanted pickup. The DP-156 is amazing. Wired in series, it has only 5.7 KOhm resistance. It has crystal clear highs like a single coil, even in that configuration: no split coil, no parallel, just series. To avoid using a tone shaping pedal, I put a switch into the guitar which can kick in a 1 nF or 2 nF capacitance across the pickup to change the resonant peak and cut highs. With the switch disengaged I get the glassy single-like tone. With 1 nF, it's sort of "PAF like", and then with 2 nF, a bit closer to a distortion pickup. I use 2 nF for the high gain stuff. 1 for jazzy cleans. Off for total cleans.
I am using a Telecaster with Fender tex mex single coil pickups from metalcore era (2005) in drop tuning to nowadays and I sold the ESP eclipse 2. Single coil sounds strange to our metalheads ears at the beginning but if you continue to play it, you will love it bro!
I ran into Seymour Duncan at the NAMM show, and he suggested a Quarter Pounder pickup for my tele bridge pickup, and he was right. it chugs now. but John 5 plays tele exclusively, and his tone is monstrous.
I play this exact model and it's definitely my "metal tone" at this point. It cuts through a mix like no one's business. Layering this with one of my PRS guitars is just MASSIVE sounding.
I love a Telecaster !!! Such a clean pure sound. I also love vintage DeArmond single coil pickups (the OG rock pickup) on an arch-top hollowbody guitar.
I feel like any tone/pickup configuration can be applied to metal in the right context. Obviously hamburgers are the standard for metal as you mentioned, but you can definitely get a totally different tone with a single coil. Which in reality just broadens your range technically. I remember back when I was a teenager coming across a local duo on MySpace 😂 who only played acoustics. It was just to kids playing metal style stuff on acoustics tuned down. I can't remember want tuning but probably alot of drop down stuff if I recall. My point is it actually had a unique sound. I wish I could find it today but I can't for the life of me remember what they called them selves. It was like they couldn't get a whole band together so they did the next best thing and just did a metal inspired acoustic thing. An honestly it was neat hearing full songs with just two acoustics do metal. It sounded as if you had two dime bag inspired guitarist just on acoustic. My overall point is that any tone can work it the right context. It can even inspire a new sound it the right hands. That's just my opinion of course. But let's be honest single coils do sound great for clean stuff. Regardless of style. 🤣
First time commenter, long time casual watcher. Just felt I should let yall know that the Fender Noiseless Single-Coil is actually, in fact, just a stacked humbucker designed to fit into a single coil slot. Shocking, I know. Sincerely, A professional electromagnetic technician
Cool! Almost everybody else that does this uses a thinline tele with the humbucker. That tone you got was amazing. Imagine that with a gritty p-bass down low. And a soundgarden style drum tone.
I used to only like humbuckers because that's what I've been told was "metal" and "more versatile" and whatnot. Recently I've fallen in love with the brighter sound and extra clarity of single-coils. Listen to Demento by Stoned Statues for that classic tele sound in a metal setting!
That was super cool. That sound is just a unique sound in general. Fun idea. Also, that Texas Tea tele might be the best looking telecaster in history.
Using 10 gauge strings for single coils improves the bottom end-I like backing off the gain to about 4-5 so that clean/crunchy sound comes out. I love to play open chords with tones that let them ring through ✌🏻
There's something organic about a single coil, especially the Telecaster ones. You hit the nail on the head with the string sound separation where it feels like every string gets its own "space" and together it can sound very "meaty". Time to buy a Telecaster... :)
Still got the Ultra Tele! I ended up getting this same model and finish in 2020. ...and now i have the same model in white coming. Ended up loving it so much i had to have two!
Many producers use single coil and mix it a slight bit in the mix, because you here the attack better because of the treble sound en dynamics. So the overall track sounds clear, you won’t notice But its there often
Any guitar can be metal with the right player
And the right tone, because that matters too
@@paradigmshiftz7. There's no such thing
With the right amp
Don't forget the right strap...oh, and the right shoes.....
what about the left one?
Humbuckers are the hammer, single coils are the sword
Luca, I'm gonna steal that line...
@@clintwilson6380 we will
hmm that's a brilliant quote do you mind if i use it Luca?
This video proves that every guitar player will appreciate a tele once they reach 40.
hey i am 29 😭
I got mine at 20 and 29 years on, i appreciate it more each time i pick it up.
True...
35 and just sold all mine. Hate teles
I got my first of a few Teles when I was in my late 20s/early 30s.
I never understood why single coils could not be used for metal. Ritchie Blackmore invented classical metal with single coiled Strats, Yngwie Malmsteen uses them as well, and Tony Iommi recorded some of the heaviest riffs known to metalkind with P90's, a sort of single coil.
P90's to my ears sound a bit like half-way between a single-coil and a humbucker, they have elements from both pickup tones in their sound.
Because by modern standards those guys are considered more rock than metal tonally. Sabbath was heavy and dark for their time, but when it comes on the radio now it feels more like classic rock than anything resembling contemporary metal. Which is not a slight on them or an endorsement for modern music, but there is a big difference in the term “metal” between Sabbath and Meshuggah.
@@Whizzinby777 When I hear Sabbath I can hear most styles of metal. Because that's where most metal bands got their influences from. Whereas Meshuggah just sounds like djenty noise to me. Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath on the album Black Sabbath is still one of the most evil songs in history, almost 54 years after being recorded. Come back with Meshuggah in half of that time if they are still relevant. I think not.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 My post had nothing to do with the merits of any band or era. In fact I specifically mentioned that. The video is about single coils within a contemporary metal context, and you listed bands from 40-50 years ago. Contemporary metal music is significantly different than eras past, which is why you don’t see single coils used nearly as much in those genres.
Because it sounds,thin and brittle. Its not pleasing to the ears. Atleast not for me
Honestly, a telecaster pickup rules for metal. The brighter voicing accents the attack of notes and naturally tightens up the low end. You don’t even have to use as much gain. If your amp/cab gives you plenty of low end, you can play huge riffs/chugs and still retain some “clean tone” in your signal. Great playing and tones in this one, Ola!
I couldn't have said it any better. 🎯
I've got a Squier Baritone Tele, and it makes for a a gnarly base for a metal tone, whether it's B-standard or drop -A.
Two words: Jim Root
@@Ernesto87 I think Jim's teles have emg's though, no? Those guitars look beautiful
@sor7en07 I'm seriously thinking of dropping the EMG T set in mine. The pickups fit into the single coil slots and I've seen videos that prove that you can get some really crunchy distorted tones from that set but you can also get that classic Tele twang from it.
It sounds so beautiful. Especially the neck singlecoil with the Tubescreamer.
Tele neck pus can have a killer lead sound.
I like single coils especially for low tunings! Gives a lot more clarity than a humbucker, can't explain why/how but it kinda makes it sound like baritone
I like humbucker for metal, but I absolutely love that spanky metal tone. To me, it doesn’t seem to intrude on the bass as much.
Actually a noiseless singlecoil, in terms of construction, is practically a humbucker in a narrow format, nothing else. So here we are just exploring the sound of a singlecoil voiced humbucker, and not a singlecoil per se. Tell me if I am wrong, please. Chung on Ola, best content as always +++
Tom morello uses a stock telecaster pickup for metal, and he uses the neck one at that.
Yeah, these aren't single coil. it's the reason I don't like Fender Ultras, with all those active bullshittery going on.
You are wrong, please. 😀
@@darksu6947 Beat me to it. Well played good sir, I tip my hat to you.
@@icblundell60 Thank you kind sir. I tip my tip to your tip, but no homo. 😁
I have a squier tele and I use it for death metal and metallic hardcore all the time, I really like that signature twanginess of a tele because it results in extremely clear pick attack when playing high gain giving you super tight and well defined chuggage! Just make sure you have a decent noise gate if you're not using noiseless singles 👍
@particlejim My 2006ish Affinity Tele sounded absolutely BRUTAL stock for metal it was crazy!
i've always said that single coils are BRUTAL for metal tone. even for humbuckers i always say the more twangy ones have the best tone imo
I love Teles for metal. The switch from neck to bridge is really noticable, and the brightness/clarity of a single-coil is just lovely.
True 👍💥‼️
Me too
The Fender Telecaster (with single coils) perhaps the most versatile guitar in the world and a must have in our collection. For metal it sounds awesome too and this is how I understood Ola's video: actually there are no real guitars that suit better for metal, it is just a matter of taste. Try as many guitars as possible and select those that inspire you.
I do prefer humbuckers, but for rhythm tones I use parallel wiring.
It cleans up the low end and gives more brightness - while still retaining hum cancelling effect. Unlike coil splits or single coils.
EDIT: also good way to tame a high output pickup, and give it more range - since parallel wiring lowers the output.
RATM may not have been considered a “metal” band in the 90’s but Tom Morello came up with some of the heaviest riffs of that decade with the neck pickup of an American Standard Tele through a Marshall.. anything is possible. I love the slinky sound of a Tele neck pickup going thru some high gain
Tom Morello is such a god. holy fuck
Can't say I like his tone though
I have been digging the hell out of my tele. I recorded a heavy rock track with it and the voicing was perfect in the mix. I also had a humbucker track playing the same thing and split it left right. I have a new tele on the way. The game changer for me is the modern C neck profile. Until then, Fender was a guitar I couldn't play. I now have 6 Fenders. I didn't at all expect to ever own Fender.
Its worth noting that the American Ultra Tele has " noiseless" single coils which are actually stacked magnets to cancel noise. Similar to Yngwie's pickups.
Yeah, I had the strat. They are good pickups for all styles TBH
Straight to the Impelliteri album !!
I've been using my teles for metal for awhile now. Even with a normal bridge pup with the right over drive and amp they can easily djent or do doom/sludge and they can still do all the tele stuff that I originally bought them for. You can even make the neck pup do yngwie if you want. In summation, teles are cool and this video is cool
Jari Mäenpää rocked with his tokai telecaster plugged into a mesa triaxis, I think in at least 4 songs of his Wintersun debut album, and it sounded absolutely amazing. Listen to the songs Sleeping Stars or Beautiful Death
You are a man with culture! I love that album. The sound is crazy.
Yes! The twang on Beautiful Death is just too satisfying
An overlooked metal album but definitely a memorable one. I love the album cover as well, but the guitar tone is soooo good!!!
Single coils are perfect for metal! Sounds fantastic!. Every metal guitarist should own single coil guitar.
I love everything about this tone. The guitar, pickup, amp, cab, mic placement.
The phenomenom that you are experiencing and realising Sir Ola is the funkey spank monkey at 07:05. You even got your groove on and it was a joy to watch as it has happened to me in the past when I plug in an odd combination of funky guitar, metal amp and OD pedals (Strats, Teles etc). We should all embrace this. Funky Djent/Chug anyone? :)
Please make it real
That guitar sounded amazing. So much clarity, percussive, everything a grear tele does. The quality of instruments available....wow. Noiseless pus....just....wow
A noiseless “single coil” and humbucker are essentially the same thing, except the two coils are stacked vertically instead of horizontally. They do get moderately better frequency response on the treble end. I often play metal on an actual single coil Tele with a noise gate and they kick ass!
So right about the string separation on single coil.. you can hear individual notes in a chord much more than a humbucker. Great content!
With any single coil, utilize that tone knob to smooth the top end. You will get amazing results.
No playing with the tone knob at all?! I demand a part 2! :3
@@smoreshauntedi remove the tone caps and EQ on the amp
for cleans yeah, but just having a tone knob in the circuit in the first place does that, and for distorted it just makes wool
Amp eq won't affect the dynamics of the pickup. You tame harsh single coil dynamics/pick attack at the source, with your tone knob.
You learn this by watching professional guitar players in action.
After watching this video I realized that this is the sound I want for my Symphonic Fusion Progressive (Death) Metal project, so I bought a Fender Telecaster and fitted it with a noiseless pickup and a baritone neck... Thanks for the nicest chugging never heard in my life
Been using P90's and singles for my band forever! I love how they cut through and the definition they bring really helps on my 8 strings
u just taught me a valueable lesson... its not about the guitar as much as i thought it was... its the amp and your fingers...
I have been such a "no Tele" guy for a long time, I just recently got an HH which I have now paired with the Dimarzio Crunch Lab and Liquifire and have enjoyed ever since. It's been quite a while that the thought of having an S-S Tele has been chasing and haunting me. Plus I have seen all this "Tele is all you need", "the most versatil guitar ever" and so on videos...that I am really considering one, it´s been good to see your video. And also, it surprised me to see that metalheads also agree with this statement, it has almost made me decide to get a regular Tele at some point...maybe end of this year...yeahh
You definitely should get one 👍🏻I’ve had a Mexican telecaster that I bought for $200- 32 years ago and it is actually a really well built guitar that plays extremely smoothly and sounds great all around through almost any amp I have Marshall’s , Peavy , Laney and a few others . I own 13 different guitars and even though some of them are way more expensive and look a good deal cooler that telecaster has always been about 5 feet away from my couch all those years and I do play it all the time. Definitely consider getting even an older used Mexican model if you can’t get a USA right now because of the cost, for the price I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
The Tele has got a thing and you need to google tele tricks because there’s a lot of moves you can make to get different sounds out of it.
Duuuude for sure what you said "the string separation" is that magic. Those 6 string chords just sound so clear, and under high gain it stays so beautiful and crunchy and crisp and it's so Moldable.
I LOVED my friends Schecter PT which is a télé type with high outpout pickups, and that thing chugged and shredded. I loved it.
Love the RHCP “shallow be thy game” riffing… such an underrated song from an underrated record
He likes to play that riff when he does single coil testing. Dave Navarro rules.
Actually really shows how the type of guitar and its natural voicing makes a player lean into the type of music it calls for. Lovely video!
Yngwie Malmsteen tone is one of my favorite tones. He may not be considered modern metal, but his single coil tone would work well on a modern metal album.
Yngwie doesn’t use single coil pickups. He uses stacked, one vertically stacked on top of another humbucker pickups…
@@internetselling let me rephrase, single stack. The single stack is what makes the difference in the tone. It shortens the magnetic window. This is what I am referring to.
Absolutely. In fact, I prefer it - especially for lower-tuned and extended range stuff. Gives it more chunk and clarity.
Jari Mäenpää (from Wintersun) used a telecaster with single coils to record the debut album songs in Standard D and Drop C tunings. It sounds great (just listen to the song Beautiful Death).
Literally was just about to put this. 🤣 one of the most incredible metal albums ever made, and it was from a TELE.🤘
I always think that I can tell exactly how you feel by your facial expressions.
I appreciate your very understanding comments and expressions.
I have those pickups on my telecaster baritone, sounds brutal, awesome note separation with low tunings and distortion
I’ve used my Nashville telecaster on multiple recordings and it gets plenty of “heavy” it has all the fundamental tones that pair well with bass tones like a precision or something with a humbucker type set up to supply the beef, I love that kind of mix. Dynamic and plenty of space for the guitars to do what they do! some of my heaviest mixes were done with low-medium output pickups. I think every “metal” guitar player needs a guitar that’s low output to medium. It’s important to be aware of the feel of the instrument, to be able to hear how YOU sound. Sometimes super heavy metal guitars can get in the way of anything short of mosh pit inducing crunch
Awesome playing as always man! Can you try P90s on metal as well?
Tony Iomi had p90s at the beginning of Sabbath.
Carcass 🤘
Second to thiis
Just ask PhilX
Yes ..even more heavy!
The best metal guitar I ever had was a Fender Tele, and I was going through a Fender Princeton 65 or the G-DEC. Unfortunately I had to sell it because we were worrying about the new baby having something to eat (during the Great Recession in 2008/09) and we had no idea my wife's job would recall her in 2 weeks. No regrets! Now I play my daughter's Squire Tele and it's still a hoot!
We recorded all of our upcoming songs with a tele with single coils, even mostly with the split neck pickup, and it sounds brutal "manly" in drop Ab! 🤟🏼
I dont know why, but hearing you play metal in standard tuning was refreshing! Rock on!
Silly Ola, this isn't a true single-coil, its a single-coil stacked humbucker!! I demand you obtain a high quality 'true' single coil bridge pickup to satisfy me. Love the video concept. I'm all about single coils for hard rock and metal. Ola you're the best!
As someone who has experimented with guitars, I love a Telecaster sound but the pickups have to be modern (low output vintage pickups don’t push enough for me) and you NEED a noise gate. My first main gig guitar was a Mexican Standard Telecaster and I loved it so much. You could push a lot of gain into it yet it still had the note clarity.
My backup was a Squier Telecaster custom with humbuckers which sounded darker but didn’t have the note clarity.
I gradually went to humbucker guitars after that but still bring out my current Tele sometimes for recording so the it cuts through the mix.
I use a mix of single coil and humbuckers in my setup but when I use single coils, typically I use fuzzes into a boost to take the trebles off rather than distortion which tends to highlight too much of that treble. You also compensate a lot of the low end and you get all of the "nasty" single coil mids and attack.
Another trick is having an E standard setup and downtuning the E to a low A because the single coils again compensate the low tuning making them sound a lot more chunky. I've written some of my fave post-metal type riffs with that setup!
Full disclosure, I am a tele guy. Seeing you playing a tele through a Bad Cat for that tone would explode some heads 10 or 20 years ago. Love this!
I actually like single coil more in metal than the humbucker sound, it's more focused and stands better in the mix
My main guitar has Z coils. It's pretty close to a single coil sound, but still bucks that hum.
My first Guitar was a Harley Benton Stratocaster. And i played a lot with it. Years. I started to play Metal with it. Even faster and heavier Stuff. Its completely fine :)
It has a unique yet heavy and nice Sound. And Hands Down, nobody can stand a Chance against the Clean Sound of a Strat played on the Neck Single Coil
That Amp sounds sensational, so good with single coils . Awesome video
I have used my tele for over 10 years with my edm metal band in drop c. Fits perfectly in the mix.
don't quote me on that, but I thought that Yngwie uses stacked humbuckers that look like single coils. I'm not sure about his early days though, those ones were probably true single coils
Correct. He uses his signature Seymour Duncan Fury stacked humbuckers
The ones in this vid are stacked also
So I'm a bit of a guitar minimalist. I have an Ibanez (Prestige) RGD 7 string and a Fender (American Pro II) HSS Stratocaster. The Strat has really been the main guitar since I got it - I looooooove single coils in the neck position, and the guitar just feels like home to me. I feel like this combination covers everything I want super well, and I've genuinely been a bit stumped when I think about what else I could really want out of a guitar.......... I think this video made me want a Telecaster with a single coil in the bridge. That sounds noticeably better than when I split the coil in my Strat's humbucker, and just straight up bad-ass.
It sounds incredible tbh, even better than some of the other guitars you demo sometimes lol.
Sure the gear makes the most of it but singles do sound amazing.
Playing metal on a tele is my go to haha love my tele. Def want to buy a fender tele by the end of the year.
Single coil + Fuzz + Distortion = Ultimate Sludge, Doom tones
Yup! My old school Malmsteen Strat, Black Arts Pharoah Supreme, with a Boss SD-1 boosting and tightening everything up is a crushing tone and the harmonics are gorgeous.
Teles are great for distortion! Even though I love metal and abrasive music, I'm a classic Fender guy, the guitars just feel and play right for me. But I was never able to get a decent heavy tone with stock single coil Fenders until I got a Tele. Even if they're not as thick as a humbucker, the way they cut through a mix makes up for it. They also work well in a heavy band context if you have another guitarist playing a Les Paul - The LP gives the girth and the Tele gives the sparkle.
Tommy Iommi started it all with P90s in his SG. Maybe try a guitar with those too! Personally I would love a pickup with the tightness a singlecoil gives at high gain without the hum!
Man, when you drop tuned it, instantly brought RATM and Unsane to mind.
humbucker in single coil format is a great option here, no need to destroy your guitar. i have the duncan distortion in single coil format in some older strat style guitars and i just love it! cheers 🎸🎸
The pickup his tele has is already a humbucker since a "noiseless single" is just a stacked humbucker
@@d1slexycpengu1n not near the output of a high gain humbucker like the duncan distortion for example..
There used to be a hardcore band from Nashville called With Hell At Our Backs, they used all Fender Teles and Jazz Basses and they were the shit. Honestly one of the best recorded high gain rhythm sounds I've ever heard.
I don't want to be picky, but "noiseless single-coils" are actually humbuckers. I have some Duncans of that sort in my Strat. They sound like single coils, so, whatever. Just saying...
🙂
Doesn't make a difference for the points made, though. Of course, you can use single coils for metal. Why not? Just a matter of personal taste.
Tom Morello has been using a stock tele neck for 30+ years… and his tone is great with his JCM800.
It almost gives the metal sound a jazzy flair and I absolutely love it.
Always thought a noiseless single coil pickup might be a great solution to better cut through with heavily downtuned stuff
Noiseless single are stacked humbuckers but since they are narrower it has a bit different sound than your avarage p.a.f.
To be fair, a noiseless single coil (and single coils like Yngwie uses) are actually more or less humbuckers in a single coil housing. They are either stacked or side by side coils. Still, I think the narrower pickup magnet field of a single coil shape does affect tone somewhat. A Seymour Duncan Hot Rails is pretty much the standard for single coil metal tones from the bridge.
As far as I know, Trevor Peres of Obituary has used humbuckers in a single coil housing in a Fender Strat for most of his career.
I think if one used a true single coil like a Seymour Duncan SSL1 in this demo on high gain, the first thing you would notice is hiss and hum that would have to be controlled with a noise gate.
Edit: Ola's opening talk about pickups vs. preamps vs. power amps and where tone comes from in the chain is also one of taste. Some players prefer their output and grit from their pickups. Others prefer it from later in the signal chain.
I tend to agree with Ola that, for modern metal, flatter sounding pickups with the preamp doing most of the distortion is best. High output pickups were designed in the 1970s and 80s as a way to overdrive the front of amps like Plexis at a time when a Plexi or Marshall JCM 800 was as distorted as you could get and a Tube Screamer was needed for an additional boost.
With today's world of infinite gain, you could play death metal with 50s spec pickups. It might not be ideal, but you're going to dial in your tone to compensate later in the chain.
Of course, in modern recording we now also have impulse responses which add yet another variable to the tone chase.
Aaron
im a fan of singles. I like that Fender sound. Those iconic glassy "cleans". Narrow aperture singles, specifically.
Absolutely yes !
I remember being crazy about John 5's Fender Bigsby with single coil Hotrail pickups. He used that for Marilyn Manson's Golden Age of Grotesque album and the tone was amazing. I wish I could get a 7 string with single coil style hot rail pick up.
Actually, this is the exact setup Steven Wilson used on the latest Porcupine Tree album. A tele through a badcat. The grit and more open sound can create truly a wall of sound. The compression of humbuckers isn't always a good thing. Oh, and it is also more percussive sounding and can help in the mix
You'll have to have noiseless single coils the rest just comes to preference as far as which pickup is voiced
This is awesome. I gotta try this on my 3 coil tele.
Is nobody going to point out the fact that fender’s noiseless single-coils aren’t single-coils at all? They’re just humbuckers where the two pickups are stacked on top if each other instead of side by side…
@@swiftyasaninja Actually they are single coils. The second coil is only used for noise suppression. And really just play it you will hear single coils (very good ones in my opinion).
@@mattpn Didn’t you just contradict your first sentence with your second?
@@swiftyasaninja The names we give to pickups : single coils/humbuckers, don't allow to define precisely the Fender Noiseless technology, because this is something else. So they are made of two coils but only one is used for providing the useful signal. That's why they are considered as single coils.
@@mattpn Sooo… It has two coils, one of which picks up the signal while the other cancels out the 60 cycle hum… Call it what ever you want but it’s functionally the same as a humbucker, its a hum- canceling pickup.
I was playing in metal band in 1993 where my main guitar was a stock telecaster. I only ever got compliments on my sound. It was more open with better string separation and a more immediate attack. It was bright but not ice pick bright, and cut through the band mix so well. The other guitarist used a regular superstrat style guitar with a humbucker in the bridge and we complimented each other perfectly.
Ola! That guitar sounded great with those pickups. Try it with some black metal riffs
Want to bust out my '52 Reissue after watching this. Back to the roots.
Tom Morello is that one man🔥He's killing it ,man.Neck single coil all time on💪
My main axe has one pickup position only: humbucker bridge. The humbucker is slanted, EVH style. What I've had in there (for 13 years?) is a DiMarzio DP-156 "Humbucker From Hell". But, for most of that time, until about a year ago, I didn't know that it was backwards. The DP-156's hotter coil was closer to the neck. That made a negative impact on the pinch harmonics and chunk. When I got a clue and realized the pickup was wrong and turned it around, it was a big difference. So yes, I feel that remark Ola made about the slanted pickup. The DP-156 is amazing. Wired in series, it has only 5.7 KOhm resistance. It has crystal clear highs like a single coil, even in that configuration: no split coil, no parallel, just series. To avoid using a tone shaping pedal, I put a switch into the guitar which can kick in a 1 nF or 2 nF capacitance across the pickup to change the resonant peak and cut highs. With the switch disengaged I get the glassy single-like tone. With 1 nF, it's sort of "PAF like", and then with 2 nF, a bit closer to a distortion pickup. I use 2 nF for the high gain stuff. 1 for jazzy cleans. Off for total cleans.
I am using a Telecaster with Fender tex mex single coil pickups from metalcore era (2005) in drop tuning to nowadays and I sold the ESP eclipse 2.
Single coil sounds strange to our metalheads ears at the beginning but if you continue to play it, you will love it bro!
I ran into Seymour Duncan at the NAMM show, and he suggested a Quarter Pounder pickup for my tele bridge pickup, and he was right. it chugs now. but John 5 plays tele exclusively, and his tone is monstrous.
This is literally the best tones out of all the Ola videos.
Sounds great. Raven were one of the heaviest bands ever in the early 80s and used single coils. Thanks for making the video
I've been using a Tele for everything I play in standard tuning for the past 6-7 years now and I love it.
I play this exact model and it's definitely my "metal tone" at this point. It cuts through a mix like no one's business. Layering this with one of my PRS guitars is just MASSIVE sounding.
I love a Telecaster !!! Such a clean pure sound. I also love vintage DeArmond single coil pickups (the OG rock pickup) on an arch-top hollowbody guitar.
I feel like any tone/pickup configuration can be applied to metal in the right context. Obviously hamburgers are the standard for metal as you mentioned, but you can definitely get a totally different tone with a single coil. Which in reality just broadens your range technically. I remember back when I was a teenager coming across a local duo on MySpace 😂 who only played acoustics. It was just to kids playing metal style stuff on acoustics tuned down. I can't remember want tuning but probably alot of drop down stuff if I recall. My point is it actually had a unique sound. I wish I could find it today but I can't for the life of me remember what they called them selves. It was like they couldn't get a whole band together so they did the next best thing and just did a metal inspired acoustic thing. An honestly it was neat hearing full songs with just two acoustics do metal. It sounded as if you had two dime bag inspired guitarist just on acoustic. My overall point is that any tone can work it the right context. It can even inspire a new sound it the right hands. That's just my opinion of course. But let's be honest single coils do sound great for clean stuff. Regardless of style. 🤣
I love Telecaster bridge pickups for everything. They cut really well
First time commenter, long time casual watcher.
Just felt I should let yall know that the Fender Noiseless Single-Coil is actually, in fact, just a stacked humbucker designed to fit into a single coil slot. Shocking, I know.
Sincerely,
A professional electromagnetic technician
God I love all olas videos .. He answers all questions in someone's head perfectly in his videos. Ty!
Cool! Almost everybody else that does this uses a thinline tele with the humbucker. That tone you got was amazing. Imagine that with a gritty p-bass down low. And a soundgarden style drum tone.
I used to only like humbuckers because that's what I've been told was "metal" and "more versatile" and whatnot. Recently I've fallen in love with the brighter sound and extra clarity of single-coils. Listen to Demento by Stoned Statues for that classic tele sound in a metal setting!
Love the “clincky” sound ❤ you can hear the wires!
Love telecasters, they seem to do any style well😎
That was super cool. That sound is just a unique sound in general. Fun idea. Also, that Texas Tea tele might be the best looking telecaster in history.
Using 10 gauge strings for single coils improves the bottom end-I like backing off the gain to about 4-5 so that clean/crunchy sound comes out. I love to play open chords with tones that let them ring through ✌🏻
It’s nice to see you broaden your horizon
Um not joking. One of the most beautiful sounds you did in this channel.
There's something organic about a single coil, especially the Telecaster ones. You hit the nail on the head with the string sound separation where it feels like every string gets its own "space" and together it can sound very "meaty". Time to buy a Telecaster... :)
Still got the Ultra Tele! I ended up getting this same model and finish in 2020. ...and now i have the same model in white coming. Ended up loving it so much i had to have two!
Many producers use single coil and mix it a slight bit in the mix, because you here the attack better because of the treble sound en dynamics. So the overall track sounds clear, you won’t notice But its there often
At lot of them double track like this (and don't tell the guitarists LOL).