I have a Strat with 2 pickups.....neck and middle. NO BRIDGE! Never use bridge p.u. EVER. Hate that ice pick tone. Neck or neck and middle together is like creamy butter. Took the bridge pickup out and gave it to a friend who needed it. Don't miss it at all. Position 1 on the switch is now a kill switch, which comes in handy. Bought a Warmouth pickguard without a cutout for the bridge p.u.!! This has been my main guitar for 6 or 7 years now. Absolutely love it! Happy picking, everybody!!
Makes sense to remove all the other pickups and switch especially if you don’t use them. I find the strat has very sharp frequencies and the only one I like is the neck pickup anyway. Especially jazz tones. I would have added the tone pot anyway as it can further enhance tone a bit. I agree about Less wiring to worry about. I’d probably swap out the single coil to a humbucker then hum is eliminated which also eliminates the need for copper shielding. Great video thanks again.
Glad you like it! In a way I agree about the tone pot. The tone pot plus the capacitor actually cuts down some of the high frequency noise. In the next video I will kinda add this with a fixed resistor and capacitor inside as if it has a tone pot turned all the way up. I would like the noise cancelling of the humbucker but am yet to find a humbucker with the brightness I like from single coils
@@JamesDeBono Hi James, Yeah another way of doing it is to remove the magnet screws of a humbucker which will give you a single coil humbucker without the noise.
@@edzammit9050 Can you explain more on this? I'm not sure how that would work. I was under the assumption that the opposing coils cancel out the noise by creating a sort of "filter" effect which is the same effect that cuts out a lot of the brightness. I didn't think it had anything to do with the magnet or screws
@@JamesDeBono Hi James. You can adjust the pole pieces from bright to muddy. Some people remove the pole screws all together to create a single coil without the hum.... th-cam.com/video/9k7d1cAzBKA/w-d-xo.html I have done this and it works, without re-cutting pickup slots in the guitar body. They become a single coil noiseless pickups. You do this at your own risk off course I'm not responsible! But I have removed the pole screws and it does work. Removing the screws on the magnets deactivates one coil in the humbucker but still cancels the noise. Once you remove the pole screws you simply turn the humbucker around so the flat pole pieces are closer to the neck and bridge respectively. Dont use good pickups though to experiment as some of the potted wax also comes out with the screws when you remove them. I did it on a cheap guitar and was surprised. My cheap Les Paul turn to a strat!! As I said its at your own risk! Ps. You then cover the open screws holes with good tape to prevent dust entering them.
@@edzammit9050 Interesting. I'm curious why manufacturers wouldn't make pickups like that available to buy if it really is the best of both worlds. It does indeed sound more bright than the regular humbucker. Some people said it's not the same as a single coil. Perhaps it's somewhere in the middle but not having hum would be very nice. Perhaps I will make another video where I use the middle pickup without poles right next to the neck pickup and test the difference between the real single coil and then with the "dummy" pickup there like a humbucker
seems you enjoy that project! what if you put the pick up in the center? very cool bro, I like tuning guitars like this too, I'm looking to do the same with my tele
The fact that you decided to use the neck pickup rather than the bridge, unlike most other single pickup guitars, is the killing point in my opinion. When we play an acoustic guitar, we play somewhere between the middle of the guitar body and the neck. If you were to play with only one pickup mounted very close to the bridge, you would never get the most natural and smooth vibration, even if you were playing close to the neck.
@@JamesDeBono I'm sorry for confusing you because my English is not good. Of course, I meant this in a good way. To exaggerate slightly, I think that the piezo pickup integrated into the bridge may sound like wooden chopsticks hitting each other rather than a natural guitar sound. Assuming you're picking open strings, let's say the guitar strings vibrate 3mm wide at the 12th fret, how much can they vibrate near the bridge? I don't think it will ever be natural. I don't know if they're intentionally pursuing that unnaturalness, but if not, it literally wouldn't be natural.
@@JamesDeBono my homemade electric guitar that me and my grandpa built when I was 11 I'm 20 soon to be 21 now has only 1 pickup in the neck with a volume and tone and some flatwound strings me and my grandpa built my guitar from scratch using hand tools in his garage my grandpa has a degree in woodworking and electronics we put the leather on after seeing Waylon's telecaster but yeah that's my guitar I use with my modified Gibson ga5 LP reissue amp Mojotone is from the same state as us so we used there parts to upgrade my amp The only things extra we added was a another knob to control the echo from the built in tape loop machine we added for slapback echo my gear setup is my homemade electric guitar plugged straight into my modified Gibson ga5 LP reissue amp I don't use pedals
Thanks for the video. Malcolm Young removed the pickups in his Grestch and I appreciate that simplicity.
That's cool! I never heard about that thanks
I have a Strat with 2 pickups.....neck and middle. NO BRIDGE! Never use bridge p.u. EVER. Hate that ice pick tone. Neck or neck and middle together is like creamy butter. Took the bridge pickup out and gave it to a friend who needed it. Don't miss it at all. Position 1 on the switch is now a kill switch, which comes in handy. Bought a Warmouth pickguard without a cutout for the bridge p.u.!! This has been my main guitar for 6 or 7 years now. Absolutely love it!
Happy picking, everybody!!
I just did my Strat with just a bridge and neck pickup, wired like a Tele. I love it.
Makes sense to remove all the other pickups and switch especially if you don’t use them. I find the strat has very sharp frequencies and the only one I like is the neck pickup anyway. Especially jazz tones. I would have added the tone pot anyway as it can further enhance tone a bit. I agree about Less wiring to worry about. I’d probably swap out the single coil to a humbucker then hum is eliminated which also eliminates the need for copper shielding. Great video thanks again.
Glad you like it! In a way I agree about the tone pot. The tone pot plus the capacitor actually cuts down some of the high frequency noise. In the next video I will kinda add this with a fixed resistor and capacitor inside as if it has a tone pot turned all the way up. I would like the noise cancelling of the humbucker but am yet to find a humbucker with the brightness I like from single coils
@@JamesDeBono Hi James, Yeah another way of doing it is to remove the magnet screws of a humbucker which will give you a single coil humbucker without the noise.
@@edzammit9050 Can you explain more on this? I'm not sure how that would work. I was under the assumption that the opposing coils cancel out the noise by creating a sort of "filter" effect which is the same effect that cuts out a lot of the brightness. I didn't think it had anything to do with the magnet or screws
@@JamesDeBono Hi James. You can adjust the pole pieces from bright to muddy. Some people remove the pole screws all together to create a single coil without the hum.... th-cam.com/video/9k7d1cAzBKA/w-d-xo.html
I have done this and it works, without re-cutting pickup slots in the guitar body. They become a single coil noiseless pickups. You do this at your own risk off course I'm not responsible! But I have removed the pole screws and it does work. Removing the screws on the magnets deactivates one coil in the humbucker but still cancels the noise. Once you remove the pole screws you simply turn the humbucker around so the flat pole pieces are closer to the neck and bridge respectively. Dont use good pickups though to experiment as some of the potted wax also comes out with the screws when you remove them. I did it on a cheap guitar and was surprised. My cheap Les Paul turn to a strat!! As I said its at your own risk! Ps. You then cover the open screws holes with good tape to prevent dust entering them.
@@edzammit9050 Interesting. I'm curious why manufacturers wouldn't make pickups like that available to buy if it really is the best of both worlds. It does indeed sound more bright than the regular humbucker. Some people said it's not the same as a single coil. Perhaps it's somewhere in the middle but not having hum would be very nice. Perhaps I will make another video where I use the middle pickup without poles right next to the neck pickup and test the difference between the real single coil and then with the "dummy" pickup there like a humbucker
It sounded exactly like a acoustic guitar should sound if it just decided to turn electric. And that's a compliment.
Great video! Thinking of doing the same with a single Seymour Duncan Texas Hot in the neck pos
Just need to shield the whole pickguard and cavity. Cool idea. I think srv has a strat woth only a neck pu too.
He did indeed have a yellow, neck p.u. only Strat he played quite often. Unfortunately, it was stolen after he finished a show in the mid-80s.
I'm about to do this, leaving only the bridge pickup. Making a travel guitar.
seems you enjoy that project! what if you put the pick up in the center? very cool bro, I like tuning guitars like this too, I'm looking to do the same with my tele
John Frusciante's piece at the end was cool
Heyyyy I think you are the first person to recognize what it was!
Looking forward to the full song cover!
@@sedoyotec The full song doesn't even exist haha. I have thought about trying to finish it in my own way though
Very cool
The fact that you decided to use the neck pickup rather than the bridge, unlike most other single pickup guitars, is the killing point in my opinion. When we play an acoustic guitar, we play somewhere between the middle of the guitar body and the neck. If you were to play with only one pickup mounted very close to the bridge, you would never get the most natural and smooth vibration, even if you were playing close to the neck.
When you say "killing" do you mean that in a good or bad way?
@@JamesDeBono I'm sorry for confusing you because my English is not good. Of course, I meant this in a good way. To exaggerate slightly, I think that the piezo pickup integrated into the bridge may sound like wooden chopsticks hitting each other rather than a natural guitar sound. Assuming you're picking open strings, let's say the guitar strings vibrate 3mm wide at the 12th fret, how much can they vibrate near the bridge? I don't think it will ever be natural. I don't know if they're intentionally pursuing that unnaturalness, but if not, it literally wouldn't be natural.
Single pickup guitars rule!
Great idea .
can you Wiring...Single Pickup Activ . 1 volume 1 Tone ?
It is possible to do that as well!
@@JamesDeBono my homemade electric guitar that me and my grandpa built when I was 11 I'm 20 soon to be 21 now has only 1 pickup in the neck with a volume and tone and some flatwound strings me and my grandpa built my guitar from scratch using hand tools in his garage my grandpa has a degree in woodworking and electronics we put the leather on after seeing Waylon's telecaster but yeah that's my guitar I use with my modified Gibson ga5 LP reissue amp Mojotone is from the same state as us so we used there parts to upgrade my amp
The only things extra we added was a another knob to control the echo from the built in tape loop machine we added for slapback echo my gear setup is my homemade electric guitar plugged straight into my modified Gibson ga5 LP reissue amp I don't use pedals
Its weird only neck pickup you shoild instead install one humbucker on bridge
It had a humbucker on the bridge but I don't really like that sound