Opinions on single coil sized HBs?

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scriptphase

scriptphase

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Looking for opinions on single coil sized humbuckers. Love 'em? Hate 'em? Pales in comparison to the real thing?

My amazing wife got me a Suhr S-style guitar for my 50th birthday back in August. Guitar is routed for SSS. Probably 90% of my guitar playing is NWOBHM to Sunset Strip-style music and this one would get more playing time if it had a humbucker in the bridge. Contacted Suhr (CS is always amazing) and their price to route the body for a full-sized humbucker is more than fair, but between shipping both ways, the work, a new pickguard, and the humbucker itself...I'm looking at around $400 all-in.

A single coil sized HB looks like a good option on paper.
 
mooncobra said:
Dude, there is a single coil sized p90 that sounds absolutely incredible. It’s a harmonic design p90. Sounds great.

Here it is:

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Damn, that sounds good. Wonder if it would work with the SSCII system in the Suhr.
 
I’ve had a JB Jr, dimarzio fast track, and tone zone “S.”
I thought they all sounded pretty good, only reason I stuck to SSS is because I have many other HB guitars and liked having a more authentic strat around to learn different stuff on. Do you have a soldering iron? You can grab a used one for $50 and try it out, and sell if for $50 if you don’t like it. All it costs you is an hour or two and shipping/fees.
 
TotallyRadGuitars said:
I’ve had a JB Jr, dimarzio fast track, and tone zone “S.”
I thought they all sounded pretty good, only reason I stuck to SSS is because I have many other HB guitars and liked having a more authentic strat around to learn different stuff on. Do you have a soldering iron? You can grab a used one for $50 and try it out, and sell if for $50 if you don’t like it. All it costs you is an hour or two and shipping/fees.
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Yes, it`s an easy and fast thing to do and I would at least give it a try before routing the cavity. Use masking tape around everywhere, where you work on the guitar to protect the finish.
Routing the cavity can be done be every reputable guitar builder/tech in your area.
 
Duncan has quite a few offerings in the single coil size humbucker market: ‘59; ‘78; JB; Screamin Demon. I’m really partial to the little ‘59. Sounds convincingly like a Humbucker. I ‘believe’ Duncan uses ceramic mags in their single-sized hums just to improve output. To my ear, the little ‘59 sounds a lot like a full sized Duncan Custom - and the ceramic mag would explain that.
 
I've only tried a couple of the Tele-sized hums.

They sound great if you keep your expectations realistic. They usually have less lows and highs than the equivalent full-sized versions. Also, less output. They just don't sound the same. But they sound good!
 
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Never thought the stock lil HBs sounded bad per se but always thought they could be better. I've had best results with Duncan Custom shop lil hbs. My two favorites I have are modelled off a JB but have alnico V magnets instead of the ceramics usually found in the lil hbs. One of my faves is slightly underwound to std lil JB specs and uses a blade design, the other is a little hotter than standard lil JB specs and uses the screw design instead of blades. IMO both sound great and I have not considered a change to full size HB with either of these two.
 
I worked on a strat that had a Hot Rail in the bridge not to long ago ....... got to say ..... it sounded pretty dam good
 
griff10672 said:
I worked on a strat that had a Hot Rail in the bridge not to long ago ....... got to say ..... it sounded pretty dam good
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I had one in my Tele, and personally, not my thing. I found it way too dark and unaggressive. I had it with a single 500K volume, no tone, even.

It wasn't terrible, though. It was really tight as it had a low-end rolloff, and it was also REALLY hot. Like surprispingly hot. Like about Duncan Distortion, Gibson 500T levels of hot. Not quite X2N/Black Winter, but almost.
 
Of the ones I've owned (Chopper S, Chopper T, Hot Rails, Tone Zone S), the Hot Rails is the only one that truly sounds like a hot full sized bridge humbucker to me

The Choppers were close but more polite sounding overall (chopper makes for a real solid neck pickup though)

I really disliked the Tone Zone S; very bland and kinda wimpy sounding. I expected to love it because I love the full sized Tone Zone
 
My experience is that it doesn't feel like full size humbuckers. They don't necessarily sound bad. Actually I love a cool rails in the neck, that's an awesome tone. I've used a hotrails for years, it sounds good and convincing enough when recorded. But it's missing something, and I put it down to the size, ha, size does matter. There's something...it's like the width of the dynamic range or something....I know this sounds like bullshit but it's true. Same with the dimarzio super distortion version.

I'd rather go full HB in my strat and split the coils with a switch.
 
The Hot Rails doesn't sound compressed because of its width, but because it's so overwound. JMO, of course. I don't think it's any more compressed than a comparable full-size hum like the X2N or Invader, for example. You gotta consider a Hot Rails is wound that hot. Of course, it will never get THAT hot because it has a puny little Ceramic magnet underneath (compared to an Invader or a Black Winter which has like 4 or 5 times as much Ceramic in there), but even then, it does get pretty damn hot for being so tiny.

I think part of the reason why it sounds so unagressive (we might actually be referring to the same thing, now that I think about it) and unreactive to pick attack agression is because Fender-esque guitars have the the bass side of the bridge pickup slanted away from the bridge itself. Like... when playing what the Hot Rails was intended for, why on Earth would anybody want that? To make the lower strings tubbier and the high strings harsher.

I thought the Super Distortion T was way better in terms of feel and EQ, just a bit weak by comparison. Barely even Distortion-class as a pickup but EQ'd really nice. Yes, tighter/thinner than a Super Distortion, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
 
I have the hot rails in my 93 MIM strat, had it there since the mid 90s, nice pickup, but very hot. I did try it split and it sounded horrible, but with the coils in parallel it sounds great and that is how I often run it. I have also use a JB Jr and like it. It also does well with the coils in parallel.

Zexcoil makes some Z series buckers that look pretty cool, but I have never tried them.
 
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