Single coil sized humbucker in bridge position with Fender Noiseless Vintage

[geeware]

Hello guys,

I'm new to this forum, so please excuse me for my lack of knowledge about it...

I need your help with I'm on, with a Fender MIM Std Strat to boost it. I plan on using a mid-boost circuit and a Clapton Woman Tone (I've bought from gfs). I also want to install a killswitch and an onboard tuner (N-Tune), but that's not my concern for now.

I mostly play blues, but often go to rock, even hard rock a bit... I play a bit of jazz sometimes, but not my main style. The project of this Strat is to be able to cover everything I want my own way.

So I was thinking using a set of Fender Noiseless Vintage (Alnico 2), but to be a bit more versatile, I came with the idea of replacing the single coil Noiseless with a Humbucker as the bridge pickup.

As I want to keep the "original" Strat design - and I know I may loose a bit of humbucker sound -, I turned to a single coil sized humbucker. I'd like to split the humbucker, but I don't know if that's possible with a single coil sized (my guess would be that yes, since technically it still is a 2 coils humbucker).

After a lot of research (design and sound), I laid my eyes (rather my ears than my eyes, but still) on two models :
- The Pearly Gates Single-Coil-Sized Humbucker for Strat (although the website says it's an Alnico 5, it seems to be a Alnico 2)
- The Little ‘59 for Strat SL59-1 (using ceramic magnets)

I've used a full-sized PG on a Les Paul (which didn't belong to me) and liked the sound, but found it to rocky rather than being vintagy-blues (if that makes any sense). So my guess is that the Lil‘59 would be more suited for my needs. But - there's always a but -, it uses ceramic magnets where the PG uses alnico 2 magnets (same "kind" as the Fender Vintage Noiseless I want on neck/middle positions).

So, according to your experiences, which one would you think will go along best with the Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups ? Does the fact that the Lil‘59 uses ceramic magnets where the Fender use alnico will really make a difference ?

== For those who want a summary, 2 questions :
* Is it possible to split a single coil sized humbucker ?
* Which one between the Pearly Gates Single-Coil-Sized Humbucker for Strat (alnico 2) and the Little ‘59 for Strat SL59-1 (ceramic) will get along best with Fender Noiseless Vintage (alnico 2)

Any other suggestion or piece of advice will be more than appreciated.

Thanks for your help !

 

[DreX]

Re: Single coil sized humbucker in bridge position with Fender Noiseless Vintage

If you like "vintagy-blues", then I don't think single coil sized humbuckers in the bridge (or any humbucker in the bridge of a Strat) will sound right. Humbuckers more readily have a warm, open sound in Gibson guitars, it works for BB King, but humbuckers in a Strat don't get that sound, and single coil sized humbuckers definitely don't produce that sound. I'd say they work for rock or jazz, but not blues. If I wanted noiseless+strat+blues, I'd go for a hot single coil themed bridge, like a DiMarzio Area or something.

 

[ericmeyer4]

Re: Single coil sized humbucker in bridge position with Fender Noiseless Vintage

Personally I would stick with the noiseless pickups in all positions, but to answer your two questions:

* Is it possible to split a single coil sized humbucker ? Yes, if the pickup is 4 conductor you can split them. However, why do you want too? They would have a rather narrow field and would hum when paired with your noiseless single coils (Which are humbuckers with stacked coils instead of side by side coils).
* Which one between the Pearly Gates Single-Coil-Sized Humbucker for Strat (alnico 2) and the Little ‘59 for Strat SL59-1 (ceramic) will get along best with Fender Noiseless Vintage (alnico 2)- booth will get along find with the NS pickups. Don't worry about the magnet type so much. Alnico does not always mean better than Ceramic. The little 59 is a fine sounding pickup.

 

[geeware]

Re: Single coil sized humbucker in bridge position with Fender Noiseless Vintage

Thanks for your answer DreX.

The reason I'd like to add a humbucker is to extend the range of style I want to play with my strat, but trying to keep a good balance when I play blues (also why I want to split it).

I heard and read that DiMarzio are more suited for hard rock/metal than blues... I have considered an Area model (especially Area 58), but what I've read is that they're more recommended for neck/middle than bridge... plus, it's a double stack humbucker, not a "real" two coil. I guess for those, the splitting will be impossible (tapping maybe ?).

But I'll start again looking that way, maybe I left this option aside too soon...

 

[geeware]

Re: Single coil sized humbucker in bridge position with Fender Noiseless Vintage

Thanks for your answer Eric.

I have thought about keeping noiseless on all positions, but wanted to extend the range of style I wanted to play... And also, thanks for answering my summarized questions

 

[ericmeyer4]

Re: Single coil sized humbucker in bridge position with Fender Noiseless Vintage

Thanks for your answer Eric.

I have thought about keeping noiseless on all positions, but wanted to extend the range of style I wanted to play... And also, thanks for answering my summarized questions

Take a look at some Jeff Beck. He has been using Fender noiseless pickups for a while and those pickups are capable of covering the range of music you are looking to play.

 

[DreX]

Re: Single coil sized humbucker in bridge position with Fender Noiseless Vintage

The reason I'd like to add a humbucker is to extend the range of style I want to play with my strat, but trying to keep a good balance when I play blues (also why I want to split it).

I have lots of single coil sized humbuckers, so I have hands on experience with this. IMO series/parallel gets you a better single coil tone with single coil sized humbuckers than splitting, because it also gives you a single coil sound, but is louder and covers a wider area of the strings in addition to retaining noise cancelling. So far you've only mentioned splitting, are you familiar with having humbuckers in series vs parallel? I think you'd really like parallel mode. If you do that, then yes, they would sound good for blues, because parallel wins you back that single coil high end clarity and disposes of some of the excess bass, which IMO is the recipe for a rich, expressive blues tone.

 

[geeware]

Re: Single coil sized humbucker in bridge position with Fender Noiseless Vintage

Take a look at some Jeff Beck. He has been using Fender noiseless pickups for a while and those pickups are capable of covering the range of music you are looking to play.

Yea true... I just wanted to had a big project... and making it good, extending the range to the maximum.

I have lots of single coil sized humbuckers, so I have hands on experience with this. IMO series/parallel gets you a better single coil tone with single coil sized humbuckers than splitting, because it also gives you a single coil sound, but is louder and covers a wider area of the strings in addition to retaining noise cancelling. So far you've only mentioned splitting, are you familiar with having humbuckers in series vs parallel? I think you'd really like parallel mode. If you do that, then yes, they would sound good for blues, because parallel wins you back that single coil high end clarity and disposes of some of the excess bass, which IMO is the recipe for a rich, expressive blues tone.

I was thinking either having a switch to split/series or wiring the 5-way switch to split when I'm in position 1 (bridge only) I'll have the pickup wired in series mode, and in all other positions have it wired in split... Honestly, I've never thought about adding a switch to go from series to parallel and letting split aside... But that's actually interesting and a good idea ! I'm not really familiar with parallel wiring, but I'll look into that. And in any case, I can always go back

Thanks again to both of you

 

[DreX]

Re: Single coil sized humbucker in bridge position with Fender Noiseless Vintage

Get a push pull pot instead of a switch.

 

[geeware]

Re: Single coil sized humbucker in bridge position with Fender Noiseless Vintage

Get a push pull pot instead of a switch.

I thought about that, but I will have one on the volume for the n-tune, and the two tones are used for the circuits... so I'll have a small toggle switch for that, and one for each other functions (a bit like that)

 

[geeware]

Re: Single coil sized humbucker in bridge position with Fender Noiseless Vintage

I've found this on SD website, that looks quite interesting, and would let me play with and experiencing a lot... What do you think ?

Also, I think the Lil59 will be better than the PG for the sound I'm looking for.