I think I'm falling out of love with humbuckers?

[skullservant]

Well, I started out with Humbuckers. My Jaguar, which I've had the longest, has humbuckers as well. But after playing my Jazzmaster single coils, and the P90 in my Telemaster, I plugged in my Jaguar last night and was just generally unimpressed. It just felt like there was a blanket over everything.

Anyone else have a falling out with a particular type of pickup?

[Chankgeez]

I'm with you in the preference for single coils over humbuckers.

Despite some minor inconveniences associated with microphonic pickups, I really love microphonic single coils. Which I'll never fall out with.

[ryan summit]

the neck hb in my sg in my tr2 is unusable
i want something as microphonic as the teisco pups to replace it with
but somewhat reliable
so keep talking,im all ears

[skullservant]

I bought a full sized Fender WRHB that I briefly installed into a Strat. Not quite a humbucker, not quite single coil. But it was heavy as hell while still being REALLY clear. I keep teeter tottering with the idea of routing my Jaguar to fit WRHB's beause of how awesome it sounded in that strat

[Chankgeez]

the neck hb in my sg in my tr2 is unusable
i want something as microphonic as the teisco pups to replace it with
but somewhat reliable
so keep talking,im all ears

Well, all the guitars I've got are vintage "cheapies". So, the microphonic pickups aren't by design. I think you'd have a hard time finding a modern drop-in pickup that's built to be intentionally microphonic. Your best bet'd probably be to find someone selling old microphonic pickups like from a Teisco or something.

I'm not sure I'd describe microphonic pickups as "reliable". Predictable? Maybe. Reliable? Maybe not.

I love microphonic pickups because they're so sensitive (like me). With that sensitivity comes great responsibility though. You must remain diligent not to release great squalls of feedback at any given moment. If you play at very high volumes or use really high gain pedals or amps, there may be trouble. Also, you have to not mind the pickups picking up and transmitting every single sound you make with the guitar, like knocking it into things and stuff like that. It is really fun to be able to talk/sing/yell into your pickups though.

[skullservant]

That's actually what I kind of like about single coils... The detail, the crispness, and how they FEEDBACK. They just do it so much better for me than humbuckers, and a lot more easily too.

[Achtane]

Yeah, old microphonic pickups are awesome and shouldn't be too hard to find. I've never really been a fan of guitar humbuckers; I already use flatwounds and, unless it's with the Valve Junior, always play through a bass amp, so with humbuckers removing even more clarity I may as well add a fixed tone cap at that point. Even just switching my bridge pickup from single to humbucking, it's like "...where did my fun go?"
Plus humbuckers tend to be higher output than singles and I'm not a fan of super hot pickups.

[fever606]

single coils for life. jag singles are my favourite pickup of all time, p90s and jazzies right behind 'em.

i have some respect for the wrhb in the neck of the tele custom, though...

also, FEEDBACK.

[skullservant]

Honestly thinking of putting traditional Jag singlecoils in my Blacktop with those fancy pickup rings. Anyone ever do that? Are they regular single coil size or a ltitle bigger?

[coldbrightsunlight]

AFAIK jag pickups are regular single coil size, mine certainly look the same as my strat pickups except for the wires coming from the base at a different place.

And jag single coils are really the way to go, I freaking love the one I have, and I'm thinking I should probably swap the humbucker for another single, because I've adored the single in both bridge and neck positions.

[skullservant]

GONNA DO IT. Probably just going to get those silly looking pickup ring adapters

[ryan summit]

man you guys are speakin my language
my bridge bucker is clear and heavy and im fine with it
i ve got a teisco thats wiring is shot and its not a rare bird
so i want to use the pickups in somethin cause they sound awesome for noisy shit and fback
instead of gettin a new guitar, id like to drop em in the neck
(honestly cause you just said it was ok, despite all other opposition to it)
tell me if this is crazy though, wiring them both side by side in the neck
a)more noise
b) dont have to worry bout fillin in the bucker hole
will it work,and how would you wire them
not how-to, but as far as configuration

[skullservant]

You'd be wiring it up as a sort of faux-humbucker using both in the neck. I'm not sure how it would sound though to be honest. You'd essentially just wire both pickups together (for example black wire to black wire to switch, white wire to white wire to switch), or you could get fancy and wire them with the option of splitting into single coils...

[ryan summit]

you feel like walkin me through it if i stumble
cause i got a new soldering iron
very litte experience(17 patch cords+/-)
and a set of balls that has fucked up numerous electronic devices
(including a gibson explorer 12yrs ago)

[skullservant]

Yeah dude, not a problem!