Unusual Pickup Combos on Albums...

[Silence Kid]

Any good examples on record?

A lot (but not a majority) of guitarists have switches installed to do things like: humbuckers in parallel and/or out of phase, two pickups out of phase, two pickups in series; a whole lot of opportunities for wiring weirdness... But most of the "classic" tones were (or could have been) created by a guitarist who more or less left well enough alone, plugged in, and maybe cared about where the tone knob or amp EQ was but that was it. It's been a while since I had a guitar with a ton of switching options, but my recollection of them was mostly trying them out for five minutes at practice, realizing they were deficient in some respect, then switching back to something "normal."

Then again there are probably hundreds of session guitarists who laid down commercial jingles with two out of phase humbuckers combined in series, or something. So I'm wondering if there are any good examples of songs you can point to and say, "that's a parallel humbucker" or "that's an out of phase sound" or even "that's a split?" Guess I'm just curious about how things can work in context.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Unusual Pickup Combos on Albums...

As far as internet arguments go, there was a period where it appears one coil of Ed Van Halen's PAF in his Frankenstein may not have been working and people have argued he must have wired the 'famously non-functional' neck coil together with it for a time.

 

[TVFV]

Re: Unusual Pickup Combos on Albums...

I think Paul Gilbert wired the humbuckers in his guitar in parallel. It wasn't to get any weird sound or anything but just to get a bit more clarity.

 

[Adieu]

Re: Unusual Pickup Combos on Albums...

As far as internet arguments go, there was a period where it appears one coil of Ed Van Halen's PAF in his Frankenstein may not have been working and people have argued he must have wired the 'famously non-functional' neck coil together with it for a time.

Eddie just likes to mess with interviewers and delights in creating rumors, especially when it comes to "secret sauce"'-type formulas

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Unusual Pickup Combos on Albums...

Eddie just likes to mess with interviewers and delights in creating rumors, especially when it comes to "secret sauce"'-type formulas

It didn't come from Eddie. It came from people listening to his sound and noticing the change. It also came from either Seymour or Eddie's tech who noted that when they took the humbucker out and tested it, only one coil was working.

 

[Adieu]

Re: Unusual Pickup Combos on Albums...

It didn't come from Eddie. It came from people listening to his sound and noticing the change. It also came from either Seymour or Eddie's tech who noted that when they took the humbucker out and tested it, only one coil was working.

Well Ive seen videos of older, cropped hair Eddie bs'ing about old pickups and amps he had back in the day

Also, for the record, most of the distinctive early sound "mysteries" are solved by Ibanez catalogs.

Ed messed up his old Destroyer w/ Super 70s (the original A8-mag PAF wind), tried buying a newer one but it never sounded the same --- cause they changed the specs that year. Different pickups, not A8.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Unusual Pickup Combos on Albums...

I'd think that unless you hear it from an artist or engineer themselves, it is difficult to tell. Jimmy Page has no shortage of strange tones in a lot of Zep's material, and the options on his sig LP leads me to believe he actually uses those tones, but unless I were to talk to him (and he remembered accurately) we may never know. I just maintain that those odd combos are out there waiting for people to record them.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Unusual Pickup Combos on Albums...

Steve Morse, on his Telecaster, had one of the earliest examples of odd pickup combos I ever saw.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Unusual Pickup Combos on Albums...

Good point on Page, a lot of his tones stand out as unconventional to me and there is his wiring to corroborate...

(I also don't like a lot of his guitar sounds.)

 

[BlueSkiesAndPaign]

Re: Unusual Pickup Combos on Albums...

I think the best example would probably be all of Brian May's stuff (both Queen and solo) for sure. He built his own SSS guitar, uses those Burn Tri Sonic pickups, has used all 3 pickups at once, neck+bridge position and whatnot. Each pup has a different on/off switch and there's 3 phase switches that he exploits beyond measure.

The pickup positions and phases for each part of various Queen songs have been documented well.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Unusual Pickup Combos on Albums...

I would say the plug in guys and the innovators are about 50/50. The plug in guys are always the ones who use something already found by an earlier innovator

But even something generic like LP + Marshall is an innovation at the heart of it.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Unusual Pickup Combos on Albums...

Steve Morse, on his Telecaster, had one of the earliest examples of odd pickup combos I ever saw.

This is true...4 pickups, sort of like his signature Music Man. His sounds are uniquely his, though...and it is hard to get that sound without his technique.