2016/02/20 19:22:05
bpmcgeeney@gmail.com
Hi there!
I've got a guitar that has a set of humbuckers that doesn't have the option to coil split.  Is there anyway to get that sound from equalization? Thanks guys!
2016/02/20 20:34:25
tlw
Not 100%, though there are one or two pedals about that claim to be able to make a humbucker sound like a single coil and eq can get you some way there. And Billy Gibbons is reputed to have used a bank of graphic equalisers to make whatever collection of oddball guitars he uses on stage sound pretty much like a Les Paul.

I suggest you take a look at Seymour Duncan's pickup comparison chart - http://www.seymourduncan....ickup-comparison-chart

It has a rough indication of comparative output levels, bass/mid/treble and resonant peak for lots of their pickups.

As a general rule though, single coils tend to have less mids, a bit less bass and more top, and the strongest frequencies/point of maximum Q tends to be both narrower and higher than humbuckers. Guitars put out very complex waveforms though, and getting something like convincing Strat "quack" and frequency cancellation when two pickups are on may be difficult. The easiest sort of eq fix might be to make a bridge 'bucker sounding more like a Tele bridge or a P90.
2016/03/12 08:37:22
jpetersen
You don't say how many pickups your guitar has.
If there are 3, reverse the middle pickup and connect it to the neck pickup.
No bridge pup. Kinda counter-intuitive.
Now experiment with condesers in the 47nF to upper pF range and listen out for a value that delivers that "Quack".
 
Humbuckers have double the number of turns of a single-coil, so inevitably you'll have a loss of high frequencies.
2016/03/12 09:12:28
mettelus
tlw

As a general rule though, single coils tend to have less mids, a bit less bass and more top, and the strongest frequencies/point of maximum Q tends to be both narrower and higher than humbuckers. Guitars put out very complex waveforms though, and getting something like convincing Strat "quack" and frequency cancellation when two pickups are on may be difficult. The easiest sort of eq fix might be to make a bridge 'bucker sounding more like a Tele bridge or a P90.




+1 to this. DiMarzio's site is another resource to check (Humbuckers vs Strat-style on the left) - they use a scale of 1-10 for each frequency band so is a bit easier to visually compare. As tlw stated, in general, single coils are more bright (sometimes "brittle") with less "mud" on the bottom end than a humbucker. The mids can be comparable, depending on the pickups chosen.
 
FWIW, I have a DiMarzio D Activator set in my guitar (both are wired to cut-coil but rarely used in this manner). The neck is incredibly bright, but not brittle (very similar to most Strat's specs), while the bridge is pretty flat-lined. I bought them because they boasted "the most power output without active electronics" when I purchased them, and they are quite powerful and incredibly clean. Just in case you get into projects in the future, that set (even not wired for cut-coil) is very versatile "as is."
 
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