I've noticed within the last few years that many players have developed a real paranoia about single coil hum (I'm not one of them). In light of this, I wonder why these players who love the tone of their singles simply don't install a dummy coil in their guitars rather than reluctantly replacing them with stacks. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Dummy Coil vs. Stack
- Thread starter Martian
- Start date
Robert S.
Super Moderator
Re: Dummy Coil vs. Stack
It's not that guitar players have receintly gotten wierd about hum as much as the gain of many modern amps is so high that the noise can sometimes be unbearable. I love the tone of single coils through a Deluxe Reverb or simular amp but run them through a Mesa or a TSL with the gain cranked up and they just arent manageable.
Never bothered with the whole dummy coil thing but then again I actually like the tone of the stacked singles SD offers.
It's not that guitar players have receintly gotten wierd about hum as much as the gain of many modern amps is so high that the noise can sometimes be unbearable. I love the tone of single coils through a Deluxe Reverb or simular amp but run them through a Mesa or a TSL with the gain cranked up and they just arent manageable.
Never bothered with the whole dummy coil thing but then again I actually like the tone of the stacked singles SD offers.
Hellion
New member
Re: Dummy Coil vs. Stack
Eric Johnson for a time was using DiMarzio stacked single coils but only utilizing one of the coils, the other was a dummy coil. He said that even with the other one not hooked up, he was able to lose about 40 percent of the hum. Now that might have been DiMarzio marketing talking, but that was the story at the time. I personally like the sound of SD stacks. I don't think it's so much the number of coils in question, it's the size of the "window" being sensed by the pup that creates the tone.
Eric Johnson for a time was using DiMarzio stacked single coils but only utilizing one of the coils, the other was a dummy coil. He said that even with the other one not hooked up, he was able to lose about 40 percent of the hum. Now that might have been DiMarzio marketing talking, but that was the story at the time. I personally like the sound of SD stacks. I don't think it's so much the number of coils in question, it's the size of the "window" being sensed by the pup that creates the tone.
Boston Joe
New member
Re: Dummy Coil vs. Stack
I can vouch for the lack of hum. I recently added a push/pull pot to an HS-2 and HS-3 in a Strat and the lack of hum when split really surprised me. I have no shielding in the guitar either (save for around the control cavity), and it's actually pretty quiet at high gain-- well, not as noisy as stock single coils.
Hellion said:
I can vouch for the lack of hum. I recently added a push/pull pot to an HS-2 and HS-3 in a Strat and the lack of hum when split really surprised me. I have no shielding in the guitar either (save for around the control cavity), and it's actually pretty quiet at high gain-- well, not as noisy as stock single coils.
