Single Coil Variations

[ehdwuld]

So what's the best single coil version?
I'm just getting back into strat tone
And im just wondering what your thoughts are

There are more variations but this was all the software would let me add

 

[Sam SG]

Why dont you have slug coil strat pickups with ceramic magnets on the bottom on the list.
Thats my vote.
They sound nothing like a classic strat which is why I like umm.
Ive been through
Fender CS 69
Fender Fat 50s
Fender Texas Specials
DiMarzio Blue Velvet
DiMarzio Blue Velvets I peeled down to 5.8k
DiMarzio HS3
DIMarzio FS1( kinda liked that in bridge)
DiMarzio Area 58
DiMarzio Area 67(?) ( both area pups were absolutely trash i tgrew um out)
2000s Amr Standard pups( bridge was decent)
Fender 1970s X2
Fender 70s flat poles
Duncan APS1( not bad)

Although the DiMarzio SDS1 is intetesting me lately.

 

[freefrog]

DiMarzio Area 58
DiMarzio Area 67(?) ( both area pups were absolutely trash i tgrew um out)

In Area's, signal coil and bottom noise cancelling bobbin are asymetrical. This mismatching causes a comb filtering effect present with most stack pickups but in this case, unpleasingly focused in the high harmonics. DiMarzio has tried to minimize this side effect by using a shield between coils but it doesn't suffice to give a natural high end roll off.

Indifferent side note - I've worked on a way to avoid this downside on a similar design... ;-)

Also: the two models sticking out in your list are the FS1 and 2000s Amr Standard pups. Like "slug coil strat pickups with ceramic magnets on the bottom", what they have in common is their higher inductance compared to normal Strat pickups.

Guitar heroes of yesteryears compensated the lack of inductance of classic Strat models and made them less trebly / warmer sounding by using high cable capacitance. There's a famous interview where Cesar Diaz talks about that. Here is an excerpt:

"Anyway, I sent messages to both Lenny Kravitz and Eric Johnson that part of the secret to getting great tone was using weaker pickups and coil cables. The coil cables add a lot of capacitance and inductance to your signal chain, therefore, when you’re playing through a Marshall, you’re cutting back on the high frequencies. When we were doing the In Step album with Stevie, I had an endorsement with Monster Cables. They would send me all of this free stuff and I was very excited because I could manage these things for a guy like Stevie, who really didn’t even know how to wash dishes. All he knew how to do was play the guitar, but God bless him for that, because he really did something with what he knew. Anyway, I took these cables we got to Stevie and he said, “I hate these things.” I asked him, “Why, man, they’re the best cables in the world?” He said, “They pass to much electricity.” Those were his exact words, and I’ll never forget it as long as I live. “They pass too much electricity.”
They were too efficient…
"Yeah, so he sent me out to the local Radio Shack and told me to buy every gray coil cord they had – not the black ones, only the gray ones. And I thought, “Hhmm, this freakin’ hick from Dallas is telling me this?” I got them and ran them through my capacitance meter and found out that they added like almost .05 mfd to the signal chain. That made it sound solid – it was like having a tone control, and the brightness and harshness that the Marshalls had was eliminated. There isn’t a single picture of Hendrix…back then they already had high-end cables, but there isn’t a single picture of Hendrix where you see him playing with a straight cable. Why? This is something I brought up to Eric Johnson – whether he heard me or not I don’t know, but it could be the second coming of coil cables."

As I've repeated it in one of my last rambling sessions, the effect of coily cables can be emulated by a simple cap from hot to ground, as explained a long time ago by Bill Lawrence and illustrated in a recent video:

 

[Sam SG]

I got an old whirwind coily I can mess with. But only strat I got that dont have ceramics is my HSS. With Super D in bridge.