Full size humbuckers that sound more like single coils?

fretmeister · June 30

Are there any non stupid priced humbuckers that sound close to single coils?
Fralin do a silly priced one, but I don’t want to spend that!

It will be for my cheap LTD LP type. I want some of that sweet single coil top end.

BobHillman · June 30

Does it need to be a humbucker? I'm assuming that it would need to fit in a standard humbucker rout, and there are numerous P90s made to fit a standard HB rout (Axesrus, Oil City Pickups being two of many options) and I seem to remember that Oil City Pickups also produce Strat & Tele style single coil pickups in a humbucker sized package.

Funkfingers · June 30

DiMarzio Humbucker From Hell is supposed to sound single coil-ish. Their Bluesbucker is supposed to sound like a P90 (but doesn't really).

P90s are single coils but, perhaps, not the sort you desire.

Alegree had a Frigid Haze (Stratocaster) single coil in a humbucker cover listed in his Clearance section.

EMG-H, -HA

LionAquaLooper · June 30

I'm assuming you've explored the option of an actual humbucker with a coil split?

Funkfingers · June 30

LionAquaLooper said:

I'm assuming you've explored the option of an actual humbucker with a coil split?

That only sounds like a true single coil if the dual coil pickup is two singles strapped together. e.g. Seymour Duncan The Mag, Stag Mag, OCP Brassknuckle.

Sporky · June 30

Funkfingers said:

DiMarzio Humbucker From Hell is supposed to sound single coil-ish.

That was going to be my suggestion.

willo · June 30

@OilCityPickups has an HB-sized P90 and a full HB-sized Firebird pickup which could get you some way.

Mojo Pickups also has HB-sized P90s, Charlie Christians, gold foils and filtertrons.

borntohang · June 30

Not a fan of splits, but highly recommend parallel wiring for single coil sounds. Very spanky, low output, single style sharp attack, no noise!

Everythingon10 · June 30

willo said:

@OilCityPickups has an HB-sized P90 and a full HB-sized Firebird pickup which could get you some way.

Mojo Pickups also has HB-sized P90s, Charlie Christians, gold foils and filtertrons.

I don't think they're currently listed on the site, by OCP have also done and I bet would still make to order the 'big block' Telecaster bridge pickup on a humbucker baseplate.

DiMarzio Humbucker from Hell is the one I've heard about too. However, it got its name from how incredibly bright it sounds in the bridge position, so it's usually recommended as neck-only.

Some humbuckers wired in parallel can sound nicely single coily. The best one I've tried is the Bare Knuckle Polymath, but that's definitely in the "silly priced" category. Sound samples I've heard of the Super Distortion in parallel sound good though. My first thing to try for this job would be a Super Distortion in parallel for the bridge and a Humbucker from Hell in the neck I think.

stickyfiddle · June 30

Lollar El Rayo looks really good for this - I’ve been very tempted a couple of times.

@octatonic has some iirc

Whitecat · June 30

McNelly Stagger Swaggers are worth a look. They are designed with this intent in mind.

Seziertisch · June 30

Try removing the screws from one of the coils of the HB and see what it does for you

https://youtu.be/3k9nS4JtANU?si=FT_BPCsjAc8AiKLH

fretmeister · June 30

stickyfiddle said:

Lollar El Rayo looks really good for this - I’ve been very tempted a couple of times.

@octatonic has some iirc

I like Lollars but one of those is 50% of the cost of the guitar!

fretmeister · June 30

LionAquaLooper said:

I'm assuming you've explored the option of an actual humbucker with a coil split?

Yeah - the guitar has splits already. It’s very uninspiring.

jpttaylor · June 30

You could try a Lace Sensor Dually humbucker. They're basically two individual single coils wrapped together so when they're split you get actual authentic single coil sounds. I use the Red-Blue in my Telecaster with a mini toggle for each coil, the versatility is brilliant.

ToneControl · June 30

Have you seen the Kinman Twangbuckers?
I have some, they are really crisp sounding, and I am usually a single coil guy, since forever.

timmypix · June 30

fretmeister said:

LionAquaLooper said:

I'm assuming you've explored the option of an actual humbucker with a coil split?
Yeah - the guitar has splits already. It’s very uninspiring.

Try wiring a resistor in parallel; what PRS call a partial split. It made the splits much more useable in my guitars.

ICBM · June 30

timmypix said:

Try wiring a resistor in parallel; what PRS call a partial split. It made the splits much more useable in my guitars.

This does work very well.

The resistor simply connects between the coil split junction and ground (or hot, if you’re splitting to the other coil) - the value is best determined by trial and error, or it may be better to fit a trimmer. 5K would be a good value that includes all the useful range for most purposes. PRS uses 2.2K for the bridge pickup and 1.1K for the neck.

Dave_Mc · June 30

Funkfingers said:

LionAquaLooper said:

I'm assuming you've explored the option of an actual humbucker with a coil split?

That only sounds like a true single coil if the dual coil pickup is two singles strapped together. e.g. Seymour Duncan The Mag, Stag Mag, OCP Brassknuckle.

Or there are ones which have one rod magnet coil and another more humbucker-like coil. Even better if the rod coil is tapped slightly for the humbucker tones as it tends to overpower the humbucker coil otherwise. E.g. Gemini Magick series, Catswhisker S-bucker and Alegree Solar Flare (I've only tried the Gemini).

I would guess the Frigid Haze in a humbucker cover you mentioned would do well for the single coil tones, but I haven't tried it. It really depends on whether you need the humbucker tones too- if you do, the Gemini etc. ones are the way to go. If you don't, I would guess the Frigid Haze (and similar) are.

Or the standard humbucker plus resistor trick for splits... if the humbucker tones are most important.

(I agree with you about P90s- I know they're technically single coils, but they don't really sound Fendery, at least to my ears.)

ICBM said:

timmypix said:

Try wiring a resistor in parallel; what PRS call a partial split. It made the splits much more useable in my guitars.

This does work very well.

The resistor simply connects between the coil split junction and ground (or hot, if you’re splitting to the other coil) - the value is best determined by trial and error, or it may be better to fit a trimmer. 5K would be a good value that includes all the useful range for most purposes. PRS uses 2.2K for the bridge pickup and 1.1K for the neck.

Agreed, although I had a couple of guitars where I had them fully up to 5k and still would've liked a little more leeway. My feeling is- just to be absolutely safe- 10k on the bridge pickup and 5k on the neck. (5k does give you more fine control, and I'm not sure why those couple of guitars were still a little thin, IIRC they were actually slightly hotter than some other bridge humbuckers which were absolutely fine with quite a bit less than 5k! I don't think I'd accidentally selected the screw coil either, again I think I did that on at least one guitar and it was fine with 5k...)

Funkfingers · July 1

For a regular, humbucker-sized pickup that possesses some of the high frequency content associated with a single coil, look no further than the Oil City Pickups Winterizer II.

Order with 4-conductor + shield output cable. This will make it easy to resolve phase issues with your other pickup(s).

TTBZ · July 1

I believe Alegree makes one that's designed to be wired in parallel which I guess would give more of a singlecoil sound.

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Full size humbuckers that sound more like single coils?

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