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Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

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  • #31
    Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

    The closer to the bridge a pickup is, the brighter it sounds. Also on a Strat there’s no tone control for the bridge pickup.

    If you adjust your amp for a bright neck pickup sound the bridge will sound like an ice pick.

    This is one reason people started putting humbuckers at the bridge on Strats. They are fuller sounding.

    You can get single coils that are wound hotter to sound darker, or single coil size humbuckers. Either would fix the problem.


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    • #32
      Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

      Originally posted by DavidRavenMoon View Post
      Also on a Strat there’s no tone control for the bridge pickup.
      This is traditional, but usually not the case these days. American made non-reissues have had bridge tone controls for a long time now, and even reissue models have had modern (i.e. tone on bridge) Strat wiring since 2012. MIM Standards to a point had vintage (no tone on bridge) wiring (with the exception of a 5-way instead of a 3-way).
      Originally posted by LesStrat
      Yogi Berra was correct.
      Originally posted by JOLLY
      I do a few chord things, some crappy lead stuff, and then some rhythm stuff.

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      • #33
        Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

        Originally posted by DavidRavenMoon View Post
        You can get single coils that are wound hotter to sound darker, or single coil size humbuckers. Either would fix the problem.
        I agree 100%, my recommendations are to wire a tone pot to go to the bridge or master tone, and to put a humbucker/high output single coil in the bridge.

        Higher output tends to send a stronger signal, particularly in the midrange, which is often what you really want for a bridge pickup in particular. Another thing I've found that works well for specifically Strats is to combine either tone mod and higher output bridge with slightly angling the bridge pickup down towards the treble end, which softens the attack. Note this will also affect your quack sound in position 2.

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        • #34
          Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

          Helix, that is Line6, I believe?
          I had a POD Pro once, and there are settings for input impedance for guitar.
          You could try and play with that a bit, maybe if there on Helix which I believe exist.
          Maybe there are other settings too, like hb or sc mode or similar.

          With POD Pro I had issues with overs peak led lit for even medium output humbuckers - so ditched it.
          If you make a guitar processor and it does not fix normal hb input, then something is wrong.

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          • #35
            Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

            Originally posted by Willy25 View Post
            IThere’s no tone knob for the bridge pickup. It’s a strat
            You can change that. I'd suggest rewiring the tone knob for the middle pickup to the bridge position.
            "It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled" - Mark Twain

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            • #36
              Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

              Originally posted by Fender_Punk View Post
              You can change that. I'd suggest rewiring the tone knob for the middle pickup to the bridge position.
              Me too.

              I would not want my Strat wired so one tone control is connected to both the neck and middle.

              I never use the middle pickup by itself. Only in combination with either the bridge pickup or neck pickup and if they each have a tone control it'll affect the middle pickup too when they're combined.

              But for me, my bridge pickup has to have a tone control so I can dial that treble down when I'm soloing for that Eric Clapton woman tone and Eric Johnson's violin tone. And my own tone.
              “Practice cures most tone issues” - John Suhr

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              • #37
                Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                I wouldn't mess with it. Connecting the tone pot to the bridge will likely dull the sound in humbucker mode.

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                • #38
                  Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                  Originally posted by ehdwuld View Post
                  yeah I set my RG2 up with out of Phase position that I never use

                  its there if I want it
                  I just never have
                  When I rewired my LP I installed coil split push/pulls for tone knobs....I NEVER use them.

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                  • #39
                    Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                    I like a single on the neck from time to time
                    and splitting a Jazz gives me that sound

                    but all the rest of the options I get from my Triple Shot rings, that I put on everything, I dont use
                    EHD
                    Just here surfing Guitar Pron
                    RG2EX1 w/ SD hot-rodded pickups / RG4EXFM1 w/ Carvin S22j/b + FVN middle
                    SR500 / Martin 000CE-1/Epiphone Hummingbird
                    Epiphone Florentine with OEM Probuckers
                    Ehdwuld branded Blue semi hollow custom with JB/Jazz
                    Reptile Green Gibson Custom Studio / Aqua Dean Shire semi hollow with piezo
                    Carvin Belair / Laney GC80A Acoustic Amp (a gift from Guitar Player Mag)
                    GNX3000 (yea I'm a modeler)

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                    • #40
                      Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                      I use split humbuckers all the time, but they are what they are- thinner, noisier versions of the humbucker. Still a useful sound, but certainly not as big sounding as the full version. A tone knob helps.
                      Administrator of the SDUGF

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                      • #41
                        Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                        Originally posted by Pete Stevens View Post
                        I wouldn't mess with it. Connecting the tone pot to the bridge will likely dull the sound in humbucker mode.
                        Why would it? Humbucker guitars have tone controls.


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                        • #42
                          Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                          Originally posted by DavidRavenMoon View Post
                          Why would it? Humbucker guitars have tone controls.


                          Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
                          A humbucker guitar normally has 500k pots for volume and tone to make the humbuckers see approx. 250k with the knobs at 10. The OPs guitar likely has 250k pots to accommodate the single coils. Adding a tone would make the bridge twinbucker see 125k instead of 250k, which would siphon of the highs.
                          Last edited by Pete Stevens; 05-26-2020, 12:06 PM.

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                          • #43
                            Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                            Originally posted by Pete Stevens View Post
                            A humbucker guitar normally has 500k pots for volume and tone to make the humbuckers see approx. 250k with the knobs at 10. The OPs guitar likely has 250k pots to accommodate the single coils. Adding a tone would make the bridge twinbucker see 125k instead of 250k, which would siphon of the highs.
                            Not exactly, Tone only affects specific frequency band. Using 500k tone would help issue a lot.
                            "So understand/Don't waste your time always searching for those wasted years/Face up, make your stand/And realize you're living in the golden years"
                            Iron Maiden - Wasted Years

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                            • #44
                              Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                              Originally posted by Jacew View Post
                              Not exactly, Tone only affects specific frequency band. Using 500k tone would help issue a lot.

                              I'm sure you're correct about the specific frequency band, I'm just relaying my experience with a similar HSS setup. In my case the bridge PU is a single coil sized Pro Track. After installing it I added tone to bridge and the Pro Track sounded rather dull (250k volume + 500k tone). Then I DIY-ed the tone pot to a no-load and that brought life back to the Pro Track. It's quite a big difference going from 10 (no-load) to 9 (~480k). The OP probably has 250k tone pots which would make the difference even larger.

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                              • #45
                                Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                                I'm going to say something controversial.

                                Your bridge pickup sounds harsh, because it's a bridge pickup.

                                The true tonal qualities of a guitar are found moving away from the bridge position -and the thing people like at the bridge position is the attack of the string -but the rest of the tone of a bridge pickup is usually a garbage compromise to get that initial attack.

                                That's why blending pickups if you want tone with attack is the strategy -but it's not easy to make work without experimentation.

                                Come at me -you bridge pickup only dorks.


                                Also -I'm not discounting the OP/TS pickups as not extra harsh, --but they are all harsh.
                                Last edited by NegativeEase; 05-29-2020, 05:33 PM.
                                “For me, when everything goes wrong – that’s when adventure starts.” Yvonne Chouinard

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