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Single coils are the sh*t.


zorrow

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Now I've been playing more varied stuff, from Latin to reggae to funk to rock'n'roll and blues, I'm kinda getting bored of my humbuckers.

I'm even becoming a tad jealous of the more articulate tone and dynamics that my Strat and Tele fellow bandmates respectively enjoy.

And NO. It's not in their fingers. When I play their guitars, I do get what I want to hear: more snap, more attack and more clarity.

I still wail on the solo department, but seriously, I might be seeling soon a bunch of Vees to get me a Strat and a Tele. Those ones are the sh*t to me now.

I thought I was going to stick to the Vees forever. Boy I was wrong! :(

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For at least a year all of my humbucker equipped electric guitars have remained in their cases, and I'm only playing single coils - strat, tele, or P90s. As you say very well, more snap, attack and clarity. Unfortunately, also more noise.

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I know what you mean, I've been a set neck, humbucker player forever. For harder rock, that worked best of course.

But I'm older and mellower, and the band I'm in now is doing more varied stuff from the '70s and '80s, like Fleetwood Mac, Pretenders, Eurythmics, Tears for Fears. Now I need jangle, and my HB guitars just weren't doing it.

Plugged in a Squier Classic Vibe Tele Thinline, and there was the jangle and cut I had been missing. Seems a shame I've got two nice Les Pauls and an Ibanez semi-hollow that just don't cut it like the Tele does.

Hamer-wise, my Phantom Custom has two singles on it, so it holds its own.

But I had to change all my amp settings now for single coils. A whole new world to get used to, not to mention the longer scale length, my hands are tired!

Regards,

Jim

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I know what you mean, My Suhr ML Standard-equipped Daytona has been getting 90% of my playing time lately. I had a hard time getting on with singlecoils after switching over to humubuckers a long time ago, but it all came together with this guitar for some reason (it was great even with the stock SSL1's). I have it wired so one tone controls the neck and the other controls the bridge; the middle is wide-open. Great sounds in all the positions.

-

Austin

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Same here. Not sure why, since I've always "identified" as a LP/Humbucker guy my entire life. I really like the extra snap and clean tones of a Strat/Daytona over pretty much everything else. Still don't like regular ol' Strat bridge pickups though...they squeal like an angry pig to me.

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Unfortunately, also more noise.

Murkat turned me on to Wilde Bill's NF (noisefree singles) for my Strat earlier this year. The L200's sound amazingly like great vintage Strat pickups. I put a L290 in the bridge and it does a great job of providing the extra umph needed in that position, but still sounds somewhat single-coily.

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Singles are good for a lot of stuff. Strats can be to ice picky through Marshalls, but they love P90s.

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Everybody wants what they can't have...

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Best of both worlds. Single coils in the front, party in the back:

August2012SalePhotos078.JPGAugust2012SalePhotos050.JPGDCOTeles012.JPGteledeluxe011.JPG

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...I thought I was going to stick to the Vees forever. Boy I was wrong! :(

It just needs some singles to the V. ;)

When I check on what I've got. Without a plan, I turned all of my guitars into some sort of single coil except for the Standard Custom. I now have Double Ds, P90s, Strat type single coils, Tri Sonics, and finally PAFs.

There seem to be a greater variety on the single side though.

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One Lipstick Tube's all I got. It's got a cool sound (and plays surprisingly well).

Dano3011.jpg

One time in the future I will own one of those...

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One Lipstick Tube's all I got. It's got a cool sound (and plays surprisingly well).

Dano3011.jpg

One time in the future I will own one of those...

Looks just like my old dano... :(

But,

my dano had the logo scraped betwwen the G and B string area, to reveal the original copper finish with original dano logo, continous.

Awesome instrument. Miss it very much.

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My band's on a break as the drummer broke his thumb, and I had part of Thursday off as my flight to London didn't leave 'til late afternoon. So I went to the rehearsal space and did some sound checking, just for fun, and from curiosity, A-B-Cing guitars.

Thinking the Phantom A5 will smoke 'em all... The Special sounds good, okay... wait, my '79 Aria Pro II Les Paul with the ancient DiMarzio beats them both... on through a couple other guitars but the Aria is number one still.

Then the Daytona.

Dammit.

Each string is clear, it responds better to dynamics. More flexible, from the deep neck p'up sound to the twang of the bridge. And with neck and middle selected, it has more BOTTOM than the humbucker guitars, as well as more clarity and definition. Oh, it goes through the amp's overdriven sound, the dirt box or the Fuzz factory better than the humbucker guitars... just as ballsy, but doesn't get muddy sounding.

Finally the thing stays in tune forever because (are all Daytonas like this?) the route for the vibrato is such that when I set it up with the bridge plate 1/16" or so off the body, level (The Way By Gawd I've Always Set Up Strats to Float) it goes down smoothly, but is blocked from pulling up... the locking Sperzels sure help, too.

Yeah, single coils rule. 'Specially in a Daytona. Those stock pickups are really good in that guitar.

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I love them all......but.....I gravitate towards SCs unless I need heavy distortion....since I rely 100% on amps for distortion, I love my HBs for heavier tones....but I love p90s, my teles, Ric, and my Strat. I dig my Strat bridge pup....it is connected to the tone pot so no issues there. I even have put HB sized pups in my Artist, though now it sports a vintage BL L 90 in the bridge to go with a Vintage Vibe custom SC in the neck.

The new p90 I put in my recently acquired Korina Special JR makes it just about the perfect guitar.....snarl cranked but beautiful cleans when you roll the volume.....yeah, SCs are the shit!

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