Can You Get Good Humbucker Tone on a Strat? - Let's Find Out!
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- čas přidán 29. 09. 2019
- This is a question I get asked A LOT, so let's grab some guitars and find out!
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Brian May's single coils are wired in series and can sound like humbuckers.
He actually has his pickups wired so that the switches can alternate each pickup between series and parallel, so he gets a massive variety of tones... but in general, he does tend to favor in series configurations from what I've been able to tell.
@@kryptych I'm sorry but you've been misinformed. They are hard wired in series. Three switches are to turn them on and off individually, and three switches are to reverse the phase individually.
Ilker Yücel
That is incorrect. The switches are for reversing phase
It also helps that his pickups have high output compared to regular single coils
homade is best
Darrell you seem like the sweetest most down to earth kind of guy. I love how all of your videos are totally dummy proof too. If you have kids I bet they can't get enough of your patient and kind demeanor. Hope you see this and keep killing it!
PS You are one hell of a guitar player!
I’ve watched a TON of guitar CZcamsrs and you seem like the most honest, most informative and most mature then the countless channels out here thanks for doing what you do it is much appreciated, Scott Paul Johnson is also a great CZcamsr
That’s why I always found it weird when people claim “a SSS strat can sound like a Les Paul”. Position 2 and 4 always sounded more quacky.
They do, but if wired in series it's pretty close, and if you tweak the eq just right you get even closer. Certainly close enough for cover band gigs.
Use your tone pods, thats the secret, a strat has 2 for a reason
@@laughingdaffodils5450 Yeah, I'm kinda with you on that statement, to a point. The harmonics are significantly different as are the impedances. So when pretty close ain't cuttin it, I pickup my LP.
no one has ever said that
@@rocknrollguitar pots, short for potentiometer. Not pods. And they are worthless
From Leo: I love the 4 way mod. I have even used it on a Tele that I split the neck humbucker, between the tone knob split switch and the 4 way pickup selector, you can find about anything you need.
Great video Darrell. This is why we need guitars with different pickups. I tried explaining this to my wife but every guitar sounds the same to her 😳 lol
She must be watching GregsGuitars on CZcams.
This video is proof that this legend of a man does not give up on any of us, thanks for your patience and good will to make this video. :) Best regards from Austria
I personally Strats are the most versatile of them all. Like for example, a Les Paul is more for Rock and Blues, and Strats can do so as well, adding on like Jazz, Funk, Country, etc. Strats are my favorite of the bunch. Great showcase and performance indeed here!
The Les Paul was originally designed to be a jazz guitar. Just wanted to point that out.
@@keeganaustin9078 Ahh gotcha. Didn't actually know that fact. Nonetheless, I don't see many playing Les Pauls for that Purpose
@@RC32Smiths01 yeah they generally don't.
@@TheArmchairrocker I had a roommate who was a brilliant jazz guitarist, and he played an LP most of the time, even though he owned archtops and more "traditional" jazz boxes. He's the only jazz guitarist besides Les Paul himself that I can recall playing an LP.
@@RC32Smiths01 I don't either. I just find it interesting how it was designed to be a jazz guitar but became the first guitar people think of when it comes to rock n roll.
9:28 I assume you meant to say "single-coil sized humbucker"?
😂😂😂 Yup!
Yeah that's what he meant . Many years ago a mate brought his new Jackson or Charvel (don't remember which ) around to show me and it had stacked humbuckers on it and it sounded great but Kevin being Kevin lost interest in it and sold/swapped it for something else within a few months.
The black Strat with the humbuckers is awesome looking and awesome sounding! Thanks Darrell.
Your videos are always top notch quality and loaded with valuable information. They are an invaluable tool for teaching and informing. Please keep up the great work. ✌️
Great Video Darrell. I like that your finding creative ways to show off many of your fine guitars in one single video. Inspired!
I can't explain how helpful video you've made.. Seriously... You talked about all different perspectives, and you give such an helpful solutions.. Just.. Just thank you man ! 😊👌👏
This was so informative! I’m a bit embarrassed to say, I’ve never quite known the specific reason why people wire series and parallel. Now I understand better. Thanks, Darrel!
Informative info on pickups and guitar wiring, good job Darrel.He's not talking about pedals or amps people just how pickups work.
I've tweaked and fiddled for decades, and beyond major pickup reconfigs, only humbuckers sound like humbuckers. I switch guitars, it's the only solution I've found. Thanks for this, excellent presentation and explanations.
This comparison has been on my to-do list for a long time!
Hopefully it helps clear a few things up, and gives you guys some possible ideas for modding :)
Enjoy!
My strat: imp.i114863.net/xM2Qy
Wow! Great explanation! I didn't know the construction details of a humbucker--- good diagram and explanation. Kudos!! Excellent video. :)
You should look at the freeway 10 way blade switches. Stewmac has them.
Another awesome video Darrell. I have a fat Mexican strat that I love for all types of sounds. But you confirmed my direction of 4 way switching on my tele. Thank you for always giving the best comparison on your channel. Your new studio looks Awesome!!✊😊
9:37 a Humbucker sized single coil 🤣🤣 no offense,love all of your videos
I laughed at this also lol
Yeah that one really confused me, thought he was talking about p90s for a second there
GFS markets a humbucker sized p90. The " mean 90". So there s that, lol
Love me some H90s
Cant imagine the noise
I'm gonna tell you a secret: plug a fuzz into a marshall style amp. Dial the fuzz to around 80% fuzz and roll the strat volume to 9-8ish until you get just the enough of dirt from the fuzz but not entirely fuzz. Voilá there you have it.
LOL - the smashing pumpkins sound : ) This is why I bought a Strat today... When you have fuzz on those single coils it screams...
Or you can buy an orange. Those things naturally have tons of thick fuzz, plus they look cool
I asked this question on your previous video, thanks for the response! Very clear and informative video as always!
I use a Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster pedal. Apart from boosting the output on single coil pickups, the Resonance Switch lowers the resonant peak of the pickup giving you a sound similar to a humbucker. Position 1 on the switch drops the resonance 2-3kHz to sound like a vintage humbucker whilst position 3 drops the resonance 3-5kHz to sound like a high-output humbucker. Works for me :-D
What a great video! You've answered many of the theoretical questions I had about series/parallel tones on two classic platforms. Well done. By the way, gorgeous finish on your LP. SDG.
Great job explaining that! That's why your videos are so awesome! I also learned a lot in your alnico magnet comparison!
Darrell, thank you for all your content. In a concise amout of time you explain and demonstrate information that is interesting and knowledgeable. 👍👍❤
_I’m always popping into your channel to learn new things. 🎩🎵 Great demo/explanation in your vid!_
You get such great sound on your vids. Even my iPhone sounds clear and can discern tonal differences. Nice demo!!
i'm absolutely in love with that humbucker tone
This was a great comparison. I actually thought you were going to compare single coil sized humbuckers on a Strat to a HH Strat to a Les Paul. I think that would be interesting.
09:28 or even "a humbucker size single coil"
Hi!
Great idea, I'll add it to my list
@@phililpb which is essentially a p90?
@@phililpb lmao, I remember that
Very solid info , and presented very well .. this is one of your best videos 👍👍
Thank you for continuing to do the math for us to see. I, for one, learn so much from your videos. 🤯
As an experiment, I recently installed a single coil sized humbucker in the bridge of my Strat copy. Just a cheap one...$12. I was amazed at the difference! If I liked it, I was planning on installing a better quality pickup. It sounds so good, I'm keeping it!👍😎🎸🎶
Your riffs today are off the charts. Real interesting
Loving that new studio.
Big Help Brad.
Very Informative. Thanks
*FASCINATING!*
Thanks for sharing bro!
thanks for this video !! this is the topic I'm looking for
I had my local guitar shop install the single coil humbucker as per your last option and it made a world of difference.
I just ordered the Epiphone Les Paul Modern with push-pull pots and coil splitting. So it can sound like a humbucker when I want that, but it can also sound like a single coil. I'm very excited to get my hands on that baby and start experimenting with all the tones!! Thanks for the great explanation Darrell. Your videos are some of the best out there!
The comparison demo videos are really useful, even if I lack the musical vocabulary to describe those differences. Nicely done, Darrell, as usual.
GREAT info today. Thanks!
GREAT info Darrel.
Thank you very much !
Great tutorial Darrell. I love your EPI, it has it all, looks, sound, versatile. You could gig with that one guitar.
I recently moded my strat to have a parallel/series switch for positions 2 and 4 and have kind of a humbucker sound. The best mod I could have made! I love the sounds and versatility!
6:20 didn't even notice that the paoletti has the fretboard finish already worn down. That's cool!
Another excellent vid. Thanks, Darrell
Awesome video and very informative.
Thank you so much for sharing.
😃🎸
Good topic Darrell! Looking forward to watching this video later. I have a push-pull on both my strats to give me neck+middle and middle+bridge in series. I use it sometimes, but generally prefer the less muddy tone of single coils. I find there's a bit more of a quack with my Strat pseudo-humbuckers than on my LP's proper humbuckers, but they're a bit closer to a proper humbucker sound than the LP gets to single coil tone when I split the coils.
Great content as always, Sir! Thanks!
I’ve put a hot rail on the bridge with pull/push to split it. Works great and sound amazing. Bought the whole pick guard assemble with three single coils and the hot rails separate and had my guitar teacher installing the whole thing. It costed all around $30aus at the time. The most amazing is that it is a Squier start affinity that already sounded amazing for some reason. Now it sounds killer and everyone who has either listened or played has made a face of unbelief when they see it.
Great post by the way!
Brilliant vid. Thanks Darrell
Exacto! Y de hecho pasa lo mismo cuando haces el split coil y pretendes que sonará como una single coil. Gracias por tus vídeos maestro, he visto varios y te las sabes we!!
THAT'S THE GUITAR I WANT!!! Great choice Darrell!
The fender strat elite has a button that changes the wiring to series if you want and you have a lot more gain, it sounds amazing
You can use a boost pedal, volume pedal, eq pedal, wah pedal, or a classic low gain overdrive pedal with gain set at min and level set at max and play with the tone control on the guitar and the pedal to simulate humbucker tone using single coils. They sound close enough this way.
great job here Darrell!
Really well done!
I did this series mod on a G&L. Asat. Tribute and the sound was massive. Great mod.
Nice video Darrell!!
good video. i liked the tele switch. it sounded great.
i have got a 2010 American Special HSS with Atomic humbucker and Greasebucket circuit, absolutely love this guitar.
Fascinating video, thanks Darrell. Your Fat Strat is still one of the best sounding guitars that you own.
I added a push/pull pot that puts the neck pickup in series with whatever combination is selected. With the bridge and a bit of tone rolled off it does a very good humbucker impression, but without the hum cancelling.
I already know these, but I just love watching your videos and listenting to you lol :)
Your channels awesome, don't stop making videos
I have a S-Type guitar in a HSS configuration. The humbucker can be split so it's very versatile.
Great video once again
Love your channel always
The "tele-mod" is epic on jazz style basses. Great video. I would love to se the reverse version as well. Single coil and phase(Peter Green mod) options for humbucker guitars :)
I really love the sound of series-connected 2 pickups of my jazz master.
You’re addressing one of the biggest conundrums in Rock Darrell. Everyone loves the playability, look and the spanky bell tone from a Strat, but sometimes you want a thicker bridge sound for overdriven lead tones? People try installing a humbucker at the bridge, but end up with issues with the 250k pots. The series wiring option to me is really the ideal compromise.
I’ve put a 10 way Freeway blade switch into my HSS guitar. It gives me 10 great sounds. Not a cheap option, but no push/pulls or mini switches. It gives me series or split JB humbucker along with all kinds of series and parallel combinations of the three pickups.
I was expecting at least one "solution" to involve tone control and a boost or OD pedal.
I agree that the P-rails are a versatile and interesting way to approach this problem. I installed these in a Warmoth project Tele for humbucking options with Fender scale length.
So how did you like the P-rails? Holy Grail or no?
@@nazmoking3171 I love the sheer number of options. The guitar is a a Tele with mahogany body, maple top, and rosewood fingerboard. I also added strat comfort contour cuts. I won't go into all the other details, but the theory was to get choice of LP tone with humbucker and big single coil tele sound with bridge P90. Neither are exactly those sounds, but it does make a huge array of tones. I wanted to experiment without giving up Fender scale length, as I just feel clumsy on Gibson scale for some reason.
I would recommend the P-rails, but keep in mind that the guitar and scale length are part of the equation also. Also, if they were installed on a strat body, a floating bridge would have its own tone contribution aa well (the springs)
I also HIGHLY recommend Warmoth. The quarter sawn neck with stainless frets plays wonderfully. The only bad thing about Warmoth is that it is easy to get carried away with options.
Good Info Darrell. I have a Seymour Duncan hot rails in my old strat in the bridge. It sounds pretty good. I didn't want to cut/ route anything on the guitar so I went that way.
In my opnion with my experience, To make a single coil sound like humbucker you just have to change the location of the Middle pickup to the bridge pickup. then select the 3rd position, and you'll have a humbucker tone with TONE knob working (great to play Eric jhonson too)
That's is hard work. Just wire the tone pots so that one is controlling the already there bridge pickup. Besides, fender stratocaster is not the only guitar in the world. Other SSS guitar with master tone knob will do this.
@@fuzzfizz Good idea! but The focus of my comment is not the Tone knob to control bridge pickup, its that the middle pickup, in general have the "equalization" and tone of humbucker but this tone(humbucker sound/tone) will only really be noticed if you put the middle pickup on the location of the bridge pickup and use the 3rd position, of course maybe it will not sound like humbucker in all guitars but in my opnion it works on a big part of them because the middle pickup generally have his generic/standard sound characteristc. worked on my guitar.
@@mateusmusic4383 it doesn't. Most guitar have the same pickup, the difference is middle pickup is Rwrp. The reason why yours sounded different is because previously the bridge pickup have no tone control. Adding tone control rolls of highs, as well as using different pot value. Just wire your bridge pickup to the tone pot and it will sound exactly as you described your middle pickup in bridge position. Also let the middle pickup be in middle as it will be in phase and humcancelling in position 2 and 4 with neck and bridge pickup. Don't swap place.
Your Tele at 6:50 is absolutely beautiful.
Hi Darrell, Excellent Video 👍👍👍.
I have a few mini Humbuckers in the Bridge position on two of my Strats, Seymour Duncan George Lynch, sound Amazing!
Take care♥️.
Melbourne, Australia.
GR8 vid Darrell. Thnx!!!!
This is a great channel. Super professional, well produced and you're great talking on camera.
And that all black Strat is so awesome.
I have a parts-caster with 3 single coils and a circuit of my own design consisting of a "master" 3-way switch that has neck-middle and middle-bridge in SERIES on the outside positions, and in the middle all the single and parallel (or all off) combinations possible with individual on-off switches.
EDIT: I forgot to add that those series positions actually give that fat-boost humbucker sound, although a little muddy (I blame the tone pot and cap that have strat-like values since that's this guitar's primary function).
This was as good an explanation and demo I have ever seen! Nailed it! Thanks...... I used the excuse both guitars are different so I got my LP and Strat to cover the bases. She still hates me however!
My Baja Tele has the 4 way switch.
An amazingly versatile guitar.
Hi Darrell, can you do a video that shows us specifically how to wire the pickups in series to get the desired effect?
Great vid. Very informative. I just had the two tone controls on my Strat wired with two different resistors. One is the typical bass-y sounding one, and the other makes it sound more midrange-y. With the midrange tone rolled down, it starts to sound very humbucker-like and drives dirt pedals more like a weaker output humbucker - think PAF. Not exact, but close.
This guy is easily top 3 of all the people ive seen in the way he describes things, presents details, and just the overall package of the post. As Judge Smails said: top notch, TOP NOTCH!
This made me fall in love with single coils more haha!
You are certainly one of the most knowledgeable and talented players that I sub to. I just really enjoy your channel. Thanks.
Kevin O'Rourke
Thanks for the kind words Kevin!
Hi Darrell, Excellent Video 👍👍👍.
Some great solutions, I wanted a Humbucker in the Bridge position of one of my Strats, purchased a Seymour Duncan Mini Humbucker, as one of your solutions, Absolutely Brilliant, I bought the George Lynch Screaming Demon which really is a Slighty Beefed up Paf, and I have kept the Strat look.
Take care♥️👍.
Melbourne, Australia.
Yep. They'd have to be wired in series. My American Deluxe Tele, has the S1, so it's in series when engaged and both pickups are chosen.
What I like about your style Daz is you don't muck around and just do it.
I've added a 2nd 5 way switch, so now my strat has 4 serial modes beyond the 5 parallel modes of a standard strat. 1st new mode is of course bridge and middle series with RWRP (Humbucker style). 2nd new mode is middle and neck in series but out of phase (Brian May style) and then I can put those new serial modes in parallel with the 3rd pickup for more gain and a slightly different sound.
I suppose Clapton’s active mid boost with the TBX control exists to get into humbucker tone territory? I have not tried it but am curious.
You can also get single coil sized humbuckers and switch out the single coils for them and it would make a really unique sound
I loaded a Tom Anderson set of HSH on a great strat and it is truly amazing.
I love my Ultrasonic Singlecoil shape humbuckers they are the best of both worlds totally silent when it comes to hum and as bright as possible for a humbucker.
What about sound of normal humbucker vs angeled humbucker (like eddie van helen or billie joe armstrong)
That really depends on how the humbucker is laid out. Angled was first done because it matched up the Fender string spacing better than when it was straight. Now both string spacings are widely available from the pickup makers.
A Telecaster with a 4-way switch can rule the world! I put a 4-way in all my Teles that have the traditional single coil pickups (I have a lot of Teles, with various pickup types). Turns a mountain cat into a Dinosaur!
That seems to work best with Tele pickups, though. I tried it with P90s, and the effect was not so pleasing, and I think humbuckers would just sound awful (double series?). I just built a Strat recently (first time owning one). Maybe I'll add a switch for series/parallel at some point to see what it sounds like. I didn't even think of that when I was wiring it up.
Have wired my bridge humbucker with push-pull on parallel instead of coil tap.
Tried both wiring, but overall preferred parallel
exc info + vid - - def going back to the P-Rails vid too - - to me, an angled bridge humbucker is the ticket
- a "no Quack" H/B that's brighter than HSS and less shrill than SSS bridge... plus the 2&4 tones
Great video Darrell. Answered many questions. Was the blue Strat an Elite? Beautiful. Don't remember seeing that one before.
Oh man that strat lead sound in those single coils sounded awesome! Not a humbucker but it isn’t supposed to be!