Noiseless single coils - yay or nay?

Mr Wolf

Mr Wolf

New member
Hi all,

Apologies in advance as this is a bit of a broad question, but as I have never tried them I thought I would ask - what is the consensus with noiseless single coils? Is much sacrificed by going down the noiseless route compared to traditional single coils, if at all?

SD have a decent range, and I know different brands have their own designs too. I am looking at this in the context of an HSS build. For me I would consider noiseless as something that's nice to have for some things I do, rather than it being absolutely essential. In my mind, if they sound good in delivering a decent single coil sound I would probably opt for them. Which model I would choose is of course a separate question entirely!

Thanks

Jeff
 
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Endless debate on strat forums about Fender's "noseless" single coils.

Some would say, myself included, you lose a little of the high end spank of true single coils, others not. All in the ear of the beholder, I suppose.

What you can think about as an alternative is using true single coils, with, and if needed, a RWRP middle to give you hum canceling in P2 and P4, and, of you need it, maybe a dummy coil or the second coil on a stacked double coil coming in in P3 and P5 just for hum canceling.
 
I'm posting to follow this thread

I'm interested in a noiseless tele bridge, and am definitely interested in what you all have to say / what models are out there
 
The oldest noiseless single coils on the market are Bill Lawrence L-250's. They offer several "flavors" of noiseless units in single and double coil units. Lace Sensors are noiseless, been around since the mid-80's. Excellent track record, too. Fender's Noiseless series of pickups are top notch, enjoying great popularity as a stock item and in the aftermarket. Other brands to choose from are Bartolini, and so on. Post 'em up, guys.
 
I think that it’s hard to compare properly, because I don’t know how much of the difference is because the pickup is noiseless, or how much is because it’s intended to sound different. The Fender Vintage Noiseless I have don’t sound the same as the Japanese Squier single-coils I have, but the Squiers have ceramic bar magnets and (I think) were designed to be brighter. The noiseless pickups sound good, but different.
 
The Seymour Duncan STK-S4s are designed to sound like SSL-1s. They get very close (I can't hear a difference beyond lack of noise with rock or metal levels of gain), but in back to back testing I prefer the SSL-1s when played clean and on the edge of breakup.
 
I have gen4 Fender Noiseless in my MIM Tele and an SD Vintage Stack Neck / Little 59 Humbucker Bridge set in a DIY Tele.

Out of those two I would say the Fenders are more likely to get replaced.

The Vintage Stack sounds a teeny bit more spanky than the Fender neck. Coil split it actually gets a little louder. I think that's because the second coil actually doesn't add much to the signal (being twice as far from the strings for a start) and may indeed take something from the singal due to the extra wire being in series. I haven't experimented with wiring the two in parallel, but it's a thought.
 
DiMarzio Cruisers seem to have a decent single coily vibe. Andy Timmons has been using them for a long time, and they come stock in his signature Ibanez, of course.
 
The Classic Stack Plus are probably the best noiseless singles I've ever used. When I first tried them, I wired them up to spit on a toggle and honestly, I could not tell the difference between the two settings. It had to be super quiet in the room and had to be really focused on listening for anything that might be different. The only difference I heard was noise vs. no noise. Right now I'm running a neck and middle with a Whole Lotta Humbucker in the bridge, volume, master tone, 5-way blade.

Fender's options are really nice. I like the Hot Noiseless for the more output types (Jeff Beck certainly likes them). The Bill Lawrence designed SCN's are sweet too if you can find them. Had them in an old American Standard. A welcome improvement over the stock pickups of the era (early to mid 90's). Can't go wrong with actual Bill Lawrence pickups either.
 
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I only use noise canceling “single” coils. I also think they balance better with a bridge humbucker. If you set your amp to get a good bite from the HB they don’t end up being ice picky.

If your middle pickup is bright enough you get a good quack in the 2/4 positions.


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I am a huge fan, especially in an HSS. I use Classic Stacks, and they keep up output-wise with humbuckers (mine has a 59/Custom Hybrid). Especially if you are a performing player, you get the sound you are after without the noise.
 
IIRC an email I got from SD Tech support last month said SD single coils are wound as "souths". So if you're talking a Strat type, if you coil split a bridge humbucker to the default "north" coil you'll get hum canceling with a coil split "north" and a regular "south" middle single coil.

Same but different if in P4 if you went with a coil split stack in the neck split to "north" and the "south" single coil in the middle.

In P1 and P5, not coil split, you get hum canceling too, of course.

So that only leaves P3.

So I'm wondering if there's a way of rigging either a dummy coil that's only active in P3, or a kind of Frankenstein RWRP stack in the middle, again with an autosplit in P2 and P4, so the hum canceling coil gets deactivated, or indeed using just the noise canceling coil of the neck stack in P3.

Probably a bit OTT but..
 
Classic Stack Plus models are very much on my list to consider. 80% certain Custom Custom would be in the bridge. Output-wise, should those balance well? Apologies I am probably walking a well trodden path here!
 
My personal opinion and situation is that I prefer humbuckers to single coils in the first place, so that’s the perspective going into this…

so on my guitars with singles, I want them to be true pure single coils, noise and all. Since the design of any noise canceling single coil will to some degree take away from the sound in nature of a single coil, it’s too much of a compromise FOR ME. So my strat has ssl-1s and my tele has fender Tex mex singles, etc. and when I want noiseless, I use a humbucker.

So my vote in an HSS guitar is for pure single coils. Then you get that beautiful, chimey, sparkly, unadulterated strat sound in three of your positions with no compromise (except some hum in some environments).
 
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Try the Classic Stack Plus. They have all the beautiful, chimey, sparkly, unadulterated strat sound without the noise.
 
Mr Wolf said:
Classic Stack Plus models are very much on my list to consider. 80% certain Custom Custom would be in the bridge. Output-wise, should those balance well? Apologies I am probably walking a well trodden path here!
Click to expand...

This would be a great HSS setup.
 
Cruiser has already been mentioned, and a cool rail parallel to itself is kind of magical.

I think the one that gets missed relatively often in the bridge are Joe Bardens. They really are exceptional.

They use rails to get a lot of articulation and it's a relatively high output that retains lots of sparkly highs. It makes a superb modern Strat or Tele bridge.

And the great trick with the bardens is they roll off incredibly well with a spin a split or partial coil circuit. It doesn't take much, maybe 25% roll off and you get a very quacky classic Strat. But when you end up in the bar with all the variable lighting and noise, you can safely spin back to full humbucking :-)

And yes dummy coils can be extremely effective if you're willing to do a lot of tweaking :-)

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I have a pair of Kinmans.They sound good: singlecoily, but maybe a little less chimey & spanky than true singles.

Hum cancelling singles typically aren't quite as bright and open as the real thing.
I've sometimes been tempted to try mine with a 500K volume pot.

Still, they deliver recognizable, distinctively singlecoil type tones without the hum.
And I bet - as has doubtless been said already - in a band context, even musicians would be hard pressed to tell the difference.
 
I will add that, when I played my Strat with noiseless pickups through the red channel on my Mesa Nomad, and rolled the volume on the guitar down very low, I was very impressed by the tone. It was a similar effect to when people put a Strat through a Fuzz Face and roll the volume back. So I would say there’s probably no issues on that side of it.
 
Thanks all. Overall, I get the impression I'll probably be more than happy with noiseless. I'm on a waiting list for a build, then building time to factor so I will investigate more on the specific pickup models. Going with SD, the Custom Custom with a pair of Classic Stack Pluses are the current front runners.

Thanks

Jeff

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