Single coils quieter than humbuckers?

skunkwerx

Recently picked up a Squire Tele with single coils. My first venture away from humbuckers. So this maybe a stupid post but I no no.

I noticed when I plugged it in, its quiet compared to every other guitar I own, which are all humbucker equipped. 
When I switch to a gainy channel its less noticeable, but the difference between a humbucker guitar on the clean channel vs the squire with its single coils is pretty noticeable!

I then wondered why is it a lot more noticeable/quieter on just the clean channels? I can turn the amp volume up obviously to compensate, but then the gainy channel is too loud when kicked in. Would have thought the gain channels would have been quieter too just like the cleans.. 

Any info welcome! 

TTBZ

Yeah I think that's pretty common. I've found my neck p90 seems a lot louder than my bridge humbucker though, think it's the extra dynamics/less compression which makes it seem louder. Which is weird as at the same time it sounds cleaner/less saturated than the bridge bucker.

ICBM

Yes, it’s normal. Fender-type single coils have about half the number of windings that a typical humbucker has, so they produce about half the signal voltage. Although this isn’t half the volume, it is noticeably quieter as well as brighter sounding. (Simplified a bit, but that’s the general reason.)

It will be more noticeable with a clean sound because overdrive/distortion acts as a sort of compressor/limiter and tends to even out volume differences.

A P90 is closer in output to a humbucker than a Fender-type single coil even though it is actually a single coil, because it has more windings - which is also why it has a fatter tone. It will sound clearer than a humbucker though.

You can also get higher-wound Fender-type pickups if you want more output volume, along with also a fuller tone.

vasselmeyer

It is the case because there are generally fewer windings on a single coil pickup than on a humbucker. I play a PRS DGT and when I switch to the single coil sound I also kick in an Xotic EP Booster with enough lift to give the pickup parity volume with the humbucker sound. It means I can use the guitar for every song in the set without having to mess around with amp/FX volumes.

crunchman

I prefer lower output pickups.  They give you a lot more control on that edge of breakup kind of sound.  With a good amp you can hit the strings softly and it will sound clean, but hit them hard and it will sound driven.  With high output pickups they just seem to drive the amp all the time.

Higher output pickups generally sound muddy as well - more mid-range and not as much detail.

You can always add more gain, or a boost, to low output pickups.

robinbowes

I recently bought a Fender Level Set Buffer to address precisely that problem. I'd tell you how it worked, but I haven't actually had chance to plug it in yet!

flying_pie

robinbowes said:

I recently bought a Fender Level Set Buffer to address precisely that problem. I'd tell you how it worked, but I haven't actually had chance to plug it in yet!

I use an EQ pedal to do the same thing. It works fine. 

skunkwerx

Cheers all! 

Every days a school day. I presumed single coils being single would be the culprit, but it was just an unexpected thing! 

Voxman

crunchman said:

I prefer lower output pickups.  They give you a lot more control on that edge of breakup kind of sound.  With a good amp you can hit the strings softly and it will sound clean, but hit them hard and it will sound driven.  With high output pickups they just seem to drive the amp all the time.

Higher output pickups generally sound muddy as well - more mid-range and not as much detail.

You can always add more gain, or a boost, to low output pickups.

This may seem a silly question, but would lowering the pick-up height be similar to having a lower output pick-up? 

Alegree

Voxman said:

crunchman said:

I prefer lower output pickups.  They give you a lot more control on that edge of breakup kind of sound.  With a good amp you can hit the strings softly and it will sound clean, but hit them hard and it will sound driven.  With high output pickups they just seem to drive the amp all the time.

Higher output pickups generally sound muddy as well - more mid-range and not as much detail.

You can always add more gain, or a boost, to low output pickups.

This may seem a silly question, but would lowering the pick-up height be similar to having a lower output pick-up? 

Not that I agree with the first comment, but no, it's not similar.