Sorry to be a bore, but the Lace Dually is basically this, but with v-low noise splits. Also, people did this with strats (there's one now with a dual PU bridge) in the late 70s... (Ive seen one with three coils!) but the HB sound is never quite right.
@@Dr-Curious yes but there's never been a lace sensor pickup that sounds good. Even Eric Clapton couldn't make them sound good, go watch the Cream reunion concert in 2005, and listen to how terrible Clapton's tone is. There's a reason he ended up going back to real single coils in the end.
@@duffman18 "watch the Cream reunion concert in 2005" Even better - Go to 10:56 and 26:06, freeze frame, and try to figure out why his laces have polepieces in them and "noiseless" written on them!!!
This has always been my complaint. A split humbucker will never sound like a single coil. I've done this mod, crudely in the past. It works, folks. You have re-ignited my desire to do it again. When you have a muddy sounding humbucker, try dropping the capacitor value even more. Go from a .022 to a .01 cap. it will brighten up the sound. Thanks.
Fishman Fluence pickups have a dedicated single coil (I believe that it'd technically be a "coil tap"? ((Rather than a coil split))), and that's a large reason as to why I got them, but they are prettyyyy damn spendy so this sounds like a great option instead. I did get the Fishman's used for $230 rather than $300 new, but I'm still just blown away at how expensive name brand pickups can be! Particularly after watching the videos that compare the Chinese copies of Seymour Duncan's, really showing how cheap "good" pickups can be, and I believe how much our eyes dictate how we perceive sound (as in- if you know a pickup is $300, you'll be far more inclined to say "ooohwow!" that's amazing! And vice versa with cheap. Although the opposite can also occur, where you'll automatically think cheap pickups sound greeeat, just to subconsciously justify not wanting to spend much lol.)
This is one of those questions that will pop into your head while you're noodling with your guitar. You'll look down and see the two single and think: What's stopping me from just connecting those things and making a humbucker? Will it work? I should try it someday. But you never do. It takes guys like this to throw his hat over the wall for Humanity and not only ask the tough questions, but follow through. Love it, man!! I'm definitely going to do this now. Thanks for this.
he is right.... most buyers in Reverb want to know about finish scratches, etc. and do not really care about build quality in materials and skill... just dollar cost.
Rio Grande pickups in Houston have been putting Strat style pickups on humbucker chassis’s for years. The Muy Grande, the Tallboy & the Half Breed. I have all three on different guitars and they sound great. 4 conductor cable for wiring option.
So glad to see someone has done this and that it works. AND with a Chapman! I've been thinking of doing this with an ML1. Unless Rob Chapman finally makes an Hss strat for lefties 😉
That’s a great mod! 👍🏼 I think the Apache is little brighter sounding, would have placed it as the middle. You could run them in series or parallel too . Had planned to modify me a guitar with two different telly bridge pups close together, running them on their own, or parallel or in series (massive output). A fat warm one in the back, and a more trebbly one towards the middle.
This video kind of makes me want to try this on a hsh set up. Put the pair of singles in the neck humbucker spot and basically turn it into a hsss and use a freeway switch 10 position switch. Ill bet you can come up with some really mental combinations.
I’ve been thinking about doing this too. I also found a pickup with a A5 Strat and a Hotrail on a humbucker baseplate. I love the clarity of Strat pickups and think they would sound great on a mahogany PRS style guitar
I think this is exactly what I was looking for, because I bought some humbuckers that have just 1 cable and sound like a mix between a humbucker and a Single coil and is so unique tone!
Been thinking about doing this on an HH strat or LP guitar. I hate clean humbucker tones (aside from middle position on an HH guitar) but hate standard HSS setups so want a setup like an HS type thing but THIS is where I was headed and now I'm convinced.
@@PherotoneStudios I've got an HH Strat here I could jazz up. Already got a 5 way switch. Just need a new scratchpad ate the routes are for wide range HBs
A strat pickup is 5.5k. If you put two of those together you get 11k. And that could be too dark and muddy for most which is why the humbucker is 7 to 8K. But of course when you split that it gets too thin and quiet. Another solution is to make a bright humbucker like Gretch does, or GFS calls its "gold foil humbucker". I have it on a guitar and it's 6K and it really sounds good. But it is not a single coil.
Nice! I am actually in the process of putting 2 Dimarzio Rail pups in the bridge position! Im not a fan of the neck pup so recently I wired my strat to blend the bridge into the neck & now love it! 🤘👽🎸
I was thinking about doing just this on my contemporary tele, but wasn't quite sure how, I was thinking of getting a pickuo ring with dual mounting holes 3D printed.This was a huge help, thanks!
A guy at Gibson named Seth Lover thought about putting two coils together and made, you know, a humbucker. Someone at Gretch did it before him, I think, but Gibson got the patent.
I don't know if you are aware of this, but it's been done. Only on the bridge position instead of the neck. Robbie Robertson from "the Band" did this on the guitar that he played for their last performance, "the last waltz". Somewhat like this anyway. I don't know for sure how it was wired. He also had the body of the guitar coated in copper. I don't know if that had any affect on the sound. It had to have made it a heavier guitar though. I believe there is a Robbie Robertson model strat made this way. At least it was in the works at one point.
Been wondering about this for a long time. Thanks for doing it, seems so simple to do yet not enough examples. I hated the generic "singlecoils stacked is just normal humbuckers" answer which I knew was wrong due to the way they were constructed and put together.
I did this a few years ago with a single coil pickup wound to duncan antiquity strat specs and a single coil size P90. I prefer it to any neck humbucker.
I've had a Dillion copy of a Fender strat since the early 2000s. I just realized today (May 18, 2023) that the bridge "Humbucker" is actually 2 single coils. I hardly play that guitar and never noticed the 2 sets of adjustment screws next to the humbucker. Now I'm experimenting with different height combinations. 🙂
Sounds great! Also, this video gets me closer to what I want, which is basically a single coil in the neck, BUT, in the position closest to the neck. I would take the other coil out (the one closer to the bridge) and run just the one single coil near the neck, and put in a dummy bobbin cover in the empty space, or a nickel cover over the whole thing. I bet that would sound fantastic, you'd get more of that "hollow" strat sound.
If you enjoy building yourself and experementing for their own sake , great ! And enjoy ! But several of the aftermarket pickup makers offer a variety of single coils in humber casings / size footprint .
SD StagMag (SH-3) is one of Duncan's oldest pickups in their arsenal...basically two AlNiCo 2 single coils as a humbucker. Sounds fantastic as hb and truly stratty when split. I freaking love this little-known Duncan pickup.
I've never had any use for split-coil humbucker sounds either, so that's good motivation for trying this. This seems effective, but you'd still be getting coupling between the magnetic fields of the two sides, even when they're split. Have you tested that? Perhaps a non-metallic baseplate would help to isolate.
One way of getting back that single coil upper end is to use 1 meg volume pots. The best pickups for that clear sound and use with gain seem to be rail pickups. Dimarzio's in particular sound great with a 1 meg pot as they often have a decent amount of bass built in. But a good pair in the neck might be a Dimarzio Norton S on the Bass side and something bright or neutral with the Fast Track 1 or Cruiser Bridge. Eventually would the proximity to each other even out the magnetism between the magnets on each pickup?
@@PherotoneStudios I tried researching years back the idea of a rail pickup mounted with a single coil sized sustainer. Apparently a sustainer and magnetic pickup can't live side by side...
I'm so glad that someone has done this. Im wondering.. are the polarities at the top of each pickup the same, or like a normal humbucker, are they different... and does it make a difference anyway.
Very cool, try series / parallel for the neck to get a thicker humbucker sound. The switch wires it parallel which is thinner sounding. The way to probably do it a little bit more affordably is to use tele neck pickups.
now we need to see a black beauty style guitar with six single coils. that is the next logical progression. with individual mute switches. so you can have any combination
Did you wire them individually as two single coil sounds, I was always thinking of wiring them in series like a humbucker and using a coil tap switch to get the true sing coil tone instead of splitting an actual humbucker which, of course isn’t the same as a single coil tone. It basically the of splitting a humbucker, pairing two single coils in series. Does it work? What does the series wiring sound like? You have done the hardest part, the mechanical work now just the wiring in series and test. Anyway it was a thought since I never heard of it before. Thanks maybe in another video?
I'm looking to do this exact thing but with a Seymour Duncan Vintage rail (not a hot rail) and a Robert Cray Neck Pickup. I appreciate the video but with the swimming verb I can't hear the absolute pickup difference that well. Plus I don't know what amp or amp sim you're playing through which would further aid in absolute tone reference. Thank you for posting though 🙂 --Jason ✌🏻&❤
Lace sensor has been doing this for a long time with their dually pickups were you can get two single coil pickups to work individually or both at the same time
Am pondering a variant of this idea to get a tele with both single coil AND a single coil-sized humbucker option in the neck position. Any complications I've overlooked? In a perfect world I'd cover them both over somehow with a humbucker PAF cover to improve the look
I’ve actually got a Dimarzio rail pickup in there at the moment and a Bareknuckle single coil so it’s definitely doable, Not sure about how to fit a humbucker cover over two pickups but I did fit a humbucker cover over a single coil recently if that helps?
After reading this I went through and counted the unmodified ones. There’s 3: one I’m selling, one I’ll probably sell snd the third will be modified soon
To broaden available coils: looks like some of the DiMarzio and Duncan Strat pickups place the connectors directly on the bottom of the pickups, and don't have the triangular plastic of traditional Strat pickups
Interesting. Nickel vs Brass chassis. 🤔So did a quick price check, and the nickel don’t seem as pricey as expected, so got me thinking, a not too expensive upgrade.
You might be able to rewire it to replace the out of phase position to give you both neck coils in series. It might require a proper 5 throw switch, but they're not hard to find.
Thanks I’ve been pondering doing something like this on a Kramer beretta special I’ve got because I don’t care for the tones of a clean bridge HB, so I was thinking about putting a JBJr or another rail single coil sized HB closet to the bridge in the single HB ring of my beretta and then maybe something like a Duncan quarter pound in the neck side of the bezel to hopefully get a kinda fat middle-ish position clean to edge of break up tones but still have the bridge HB because \,,/, METAL! I would use a push/Push single volume pot to switch between the two pickups like the Charvel Henrik Danhage signature. I want to keep the clean single volume knob look and I rarely use a tone control. I might have to get a stacked pot to have 500k on the HB and 250k on the single and then I’d have to come up with a stealth way of switching PU unless I used a concentric stacked pot and both were always on and I could blend and control the level on the pot . Ok you see why I never actually do any of these experiments because, I can never decide exactly what I want to do and give myself options paralysis thinking of the different ways I could do it..... if I ever actually did do it lol.
A humbucker IS two single coils back to back. There are humbuckers with the characteristics you hear in this video. The DiMarzio DP-156 ("Humbucker From Hell") has a DC impedance of 5.8 kOhm ... in series! The two coils are unbalanced (tonally, not such that they don't cancel hum). Another one is the DiMarzio EJ (Eric Johnson) custom neck.
Thanks mate. Orange Rocker 15 terror dialled in super clean but flat EQ. That was probably a Celestion Greenback cone. SM57 just off the centre of the dust cap. No post production but that was a hall of Fame reverb in the loop on the Church setting
Easily check the magnetic polarity of each pickup with a compass. A correct pair is North on one and South on the other in the pair. Note that the winding direction matters and matches the magnets! You'll want the inner pickups to be N-S paired so it will remain humbuckers even on separate 'pickups'. Read up on RWRP pickups and PRails if you want mostly hum-free sounds.
Real late comment but concept i came up with a couple of days ago pickup with two coils, one with enough turns to output like a single coil, other one intended to be turned like one side of a humbucker; the single coil is coil tapped to the same count of turns as the humbucker side coil splitting means that the first coil gets all turns of copper active, making a proper single coil sound, and turning off the coil split Just turns it into a humbucker by using the coil tap could this work
That’s exactly the thought process that inspired this idea. I’ve tried a humbucker of that design but it wasn’t quite to the spec I wanted so I didn’t like the sound I’ll get a pickup winder and make one how I want so it’s an actual single coil and an actual humbucker
Actually, that's not true about the copper. Copper comes in specific gauges. 42 gauge is common. A vintage Fender single coil is wound about 8k turns, which yields a specific DC resistance - maybe 5-6k. Using magnetic pole pieces in Humbuckers seems like a great idea, and I am not sure why they don't do that. I think Gibson first used the P90, which has a bar magnet, and then when the humbucker came out, they kept the bar magnet. Fender used to make a Wide Range humbucker that did this and I think one of the old Filter-trons did that - but all of these humbucker like pickups have used bar magnets for some time.
Don't Lollar make proper fender wide range humbuckers these days? Because Fender themselves don't make them anymore and haven't for decades, they instead just have standard humbuckers with a wide-range faceplate on them, so they look like wide ranges, but don't sound like them. So Lollar make ones that are built the same as the real wide ranges.
I just got a super cheap project husk on Reverb (Just a First Act guitar that someone had fully dismantled) to fiddle around and learn about wiring, etc without messing up a good guitar, and it needs a pickup. It is routed for a single humbucker in the bridge, and I've been trying to figure out what I want to put in it. I really like this idea. I was thinking of a GFS humbucker of some sort with a coil split, but this sounds like a great experiment. If one of the pickups is RWRP to the other, it should function as a humbucker when their both on right? (I assume if they're not of similar output, then it likely wouldn't fully buck hum, but at least it'd be less hum.)
This is exactly what I was looking for. It sounds great. One question I have is, I only have a three way switch and I just wanted one single coil to replace my neck humbucker, can you just do one single coil in the neck position? The guitar I want to do this to is a Cort KX100. Thank you, I’m glad I’m not the only one with brilliantly mad ideas 😂
I was thinking of trying this with one of my HSH guitars to have 5 single coils. Seems too easy. With creative wiring should be able to get more tone options. That is why I was checking out your video. I was waiting for a serious down side that I was missing. Never came. Thanks for the video. I have pickups coming soon!!
I have a Jackson pro dinky 2 with jb SD . Can i put a neck strat on my neck slot? Or something close to single neck pickup coil for classic strat sound?
I can't believe they don't make these! I found your video after searching for something...and nobody is doing it! It seems so painfully obvious, I can't imagine why they're aren't doing some kind of single coil in a PAF style nickel cover. I do know that James Valentine from ....one of those pop rock bands like Train... I can think of their name, "She will be Loved"..., I think that's it..?! Know that 'un..?? Sure you do....radio wouldn't let you forget it for a few years there..back then.. Anyways....he has a tele slanted single coil in a chrome PAF cover on his MusicMan signature. I can't believe there aren't a myriad of such options. How many Gibson players would like , say...a stratty single coil in the neck position of their Les Pauls..?? It doesn't have to stay there forever.... Lord knows I love my neck position in my Les Paul ALMOOOOOST as much as I love the bridge... But damn, doesn't that sound like a magnificent toooooaaaaan potensh.. : a the crisp, lush clean tones of a Strat.... in the set neck mahogany neck / and deep, rich 'hoggin' nanny bod.. all chunky n' phat ...n', ....along with the Stoptail... I just think hat would the most spectacular clean & low gain Toanz.... The guy from mahogany rush had something of a similar idea, with his Batwing SG's, and his triple Strat singles paced into the Batwing... Sounded incredible, too! Edit: forgive me, I went on one helluva ramble/rant !! 😊
So, nothing changed except location in the guitar? Asking bc I’m making a guitar, from scratch. Haven’t cut pickup cavities yet but want the appearance of HH w having HSS… no flipping magnets or wiring in series/ parallel??
@@PherotoneStudios the pickups came from a strat…but, they’re going into a solid body… I’ll be using pickup rings to mount So, in theory, if they attract side by side, I should be good… If they do NOT attract, prob not gonna work w those pickups?
I recently replaced the Chapman seymour duncan neck pickup on my Chapman ML3 Pro modern with a SH-2n jazz and in switch positions 2 thru 4 the combinations sound out of phase. any ideas? I wonder if SD Chapman bridge pickup and SH-2n are wired differently internally. i may just get the SD JB and replace bridge pickup.
That's what I was thinking but I didn't see a reply to your question. A normal hb has north screws and south slugs. I'd be looking for single coils with different polarity. Did you ever find a solution? I'd really like to try this as splitting coils has always been disappointing for me.
What would be the difference between Neck humbucker in parallel mode vs 2 single coils in a humbucker slot? I suppose with the latter, you could experiment with different pickups, but are there other benefits?
dual single coil are something that i wanted to try because i saw in the past ESP guitars made a guitar for a Japanese Guitarist signature models that contained 4 single coils it sound ridiculous (of course in good way) but until now i can't find any leaks about wiring diagram lol
I think so. Barre magnets on single coils and humbuckers have slightly different orientations so you’d need to make sure they were the right way round and you’d need one reverse polarity. Also I’m not sure how you’d fit a ceramic pickup to a humbucker plate as the magnet would shatter if you drilled though it
@@PherotoneStudios but arent the bar magnet supposed to magnetize the poles in a ceramic pickup. So wouldn't removing the bar magnet mean the pickup wouldnt work? I was planning to glue the pickups to the base plate. I am using the neck and middle pickup from yamaha pacifica 012 to put in a H-H ibanez Would appreciate a better solution with the parts i have available? Thankyou for the respones
@@PherotoneStudios already got the parts lined up. baseplate from old muddy epiphone pickup and some old ceramic no name single coils as coils. still need to get myself a proper magnet. neodym would be a cool option, am not sure yet. might try an alnico 8 or something weird like that. do you think i could get away with not waxing them if i use good quality isolation tape around the coils? little feedback is ok, i just dont want it to squeel at whisper volumes (like my super 70s did ;)
![Kodak Black - Catch Fire [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/A4ch-olIuZo/mqdefault.jpg)
Such a great idea mate :-)
Sorry to be a bore, but the Lace Dually is basically this, but with v-low noise splits. Also, people did this with strats (there's one now with a dual PU bridge) in the late 70s... (Ive seen one with three coils!) but the HB sound is never quite right.
@@Dr-Curious yes but there's never been a lace sensor pickup that sounds good. Even Eric Clapton couldn't make them sound good, go watch the Cream reunion concert in 2005, and listen to how terrible Clapton's tone is. There's a reason he ended up going back to real single coils in the end.
@@duffman18 "There's a reason he ended up going back to real single coils in the end." You mean the vintage noiseless humbuckers he uses now?
@@duffman18 "watch the Cream reunion concert in 2005" Even better - Go to 10:56 and 26:06, freeze frame, and try to figure out why his laces have polepieces in them and "noiseless" written on them!!!
I literally just thought of this and was like: huh I wonder how that would sound
This has always been my complaint. A split humbucker will never sound like a single coil. I've done this mod, crudely in the past. It works, folks. You have re-ignited my desire to do it again. When you have a muddy sounding humbucker, try dropping the capacitor value even more. Go from a .022 to a .01 cap. it will brighten up the sound. Thanks.
Neck humbuckers are an issue when played through low wattage tube amps where you get this thick tone- pushing towards overdrive
Fishman Fluence pickups have a dedicated single coil (I believe that it'd technically be a "coil tap"? ((Rather than a coil split))), and that's a large reason as to why I got them, but they are prettyyyy damn spendy so this sounds like a great option instead. I did get the Fishman's used for $230 rather than $300 new, but I'm still just blown away at how expensive name brand pickups can be! Particularly after watching the videos that compare the Chinese copies of Seymour Duncan's, really showing how cheap "good" pickups can be, and I believe how much our eyes dictate how we perceive sound (as in- if you know a pickup is $300, you'll be far more inclined to say "ooohwow!" that's amazing! And vice versa with cheap. Although the opposite can also occur, where you'll automatically think cheap pickups sound greeeat, just to subconsciously justify not wanting to spend much lol.)
This is one of those questions that will pop into your head while you're noodling with your guitar. You'll look down and see the two single and think: What's stopping me from just connecting those things and making a humbucker? Will it work? I should try it someday. But you never do. It takes guys like this to throw his hat over the wall for Humanity and not only ask the tough questions, but follow through. Love it, man!! I'm definitely going to do this now. Thanks for this.
he is right.... most buyers in Reverb want to know about finish scratches, etc. and do not really care about build quality in materials and skill... just dollar cost.
Rio Grande pickups in Houston have been putting Strat style pickups on humbucker chassis’s for years. The Muy Grande, the Tallboy & the Half Breed. I have all three on different guitars and they sound great. 4 conductor cable for wiring option.
Needs a push/pull so you can have them in series too. 2 singles in series is awesome
i've been thinking of this for more like 10 years! good to know it works as i expected!
I would have thought Bareknuckle would make you that.
Sounds proper good!
So glad to see someone has done this and that it works. AND with a Chapman! I've been thinking of doing this with an ML1. Unless Rob Chapman finally makes an Hss strat for lefties 😉
That someone was Seth Lover, working at Gibson in 1955. Doh?
Hey Rob, this is amazingly creative... At some point I'm going to try this... Thanks for sharing it.
I have been wondering about this myself… very cool video, thanks!
I've wanted to do this for years but I didn't know how to tackle it, so thank you for the tutorial!
That’s a great mod! 👍🏼
I think the Apache is little brighter sounding, would have placed it as the middle.
You could run them in series or parallel too .
Had planned to modify me a guitar with two different telly bridge pups close together, running them on their own, or parallel or in series (massive output). A fat warm one in the back, and a more trebbly one towards the middle.
This video kind of makes me want to try this on a hsh set up. Put the pair of singles in the neck humbucker spot and basically turn it into a hsss and use a freeway switch 10 position switch. Ill bet you can come up with some really mental combinations.
I’ve been thinking about doing this too. I also found a pickup with a A5 Strat and a Hotrail on a humbucker baseplate. I love the clarity of Strat pickups and think they would sound great on a mahogany PRS style guitar
I’m from NYC and won’t curse, England taught us than, but I will get blunt “Blood Brink”!!! Subscribed👍👍👍
Came here from Tiktok and I don’t regret it!
Love it. Thanks mate
I know this is an old video, but everytime I have an idea, I search it on Google Nd its always you guys doing exactly what I want to do!
Subscribed!
Love it.
I think this is exactly what I was looking for, because I bought some humbuckers that have just 1 cable and sound like a mix between a humbucker and a Single coil and is so unique tone!
I thought this was a strange decision when you first told me.... turns out to be awesome. Might have to get you to do this with my tele 😏
This far I have never been wrong. A true beacon of knowledge
God damn i love bareknuckles. They sound so good. Sweet idea. I want to try it.
That sounds awesome mate!!. Great idea!.
Been thinking about doing this on an HH strat or LP guitar. I hate clean humbucker tones (aside from middle position on an HH guitar) but hate standard HSS setups so want a setup like an HS type thing but THIS is where I was headed and now I'm convinced.
Mate. That’s exactly why I did it. I know how you feel. Which guitar would you do it on?
@@PherotoneStudios I've got an HH Strat here I could jazz up. Already got a 5 way switch. Just need a new scratchpad ate the routes are for wide range HBs
A strat pickup is 5.5k. If you put two of those together you get 11k. And that could be too dark and muddy for most which is why the humbucker is 7 to 8K. But of course when you split that it gets too thin and quiet.
Another solution is to make a bright humbucker like Gretch does, or GFS calls its "gold foil humbucker". I have it on a guitar and it's 6K and it really sounds good. But it is not a single coil.
Nice! I am actually in the process of putting 2 Dimarzio Rail pups in the bridge position! Im not a fan of the neck pup so recently I wired my strat to blend the bridge into the neck & now love it! 🤘👽🎸
I was thinking about doing just this on my contemporary tele, but wasn't quite sure how, I was thinking of getting a pickuo ring with dual mounting holes 3D printed.This was a huge help, thanks!
That Barekuckle '63 rules 🔥
This is an incredible idea. I am kind of pissed I have never thought about this
Right?
I was just thinkin bout it this morning…looked it up, and there it is….lol
A guy at Gibson named Seth Lover thought about putting two coils together and made, you know, a humbucker. Someone at Gretch did it before him, I think, but Gibson got the patent.
I like it a lot. I’m going to do the same on my SG junior.
Awesome idea. Thanks!
Thanks mate
Saw this and subbed. It's a great idea and I love the sound.
I don't know if you are aware of this, but it's been done. Only on the bridge position instead of the neck. Robbie Robertson from "the Band" did this on the guitar that he played for their last performance, "the last waltz". Somewhat like this anyway. I don't know for sure how it was wired. He also had the body of the guitar coated in copper. I don't know if that had any affect on the sound. It had to have made it a heavier guitar though. I believe there is a Robbie Robertson model strat made this way. At least it was in the works at one point.
Been wondering about this for a long time. Thanks for doing it, seems so simple to do yet not enough examples.
I hated the generic "singlecoils stacked is just normal humbuckers" answer which I knew was wrong due to the way they were constructed and put together.
I did this a few years ago with a single coil pickup wound to duncan antiquity strat specs and a single coil size P90. I prefer it to any neck humbucker.
Sounds and looks awesome, Amazing Idea.
Also 6:02 Barekuckle :-)
I've had a Dillion copy of a Fender strat since the early 2000s. I just realized today (May 18, 2023) that the bridge "Humbucker" is actually 2 single coils. I hardly play that guitar and never noticed the 2 sets of adjustment screws next to the humbucker. Now I'm experimenting with different height combinations. 🙂
Robbie Robertson did this in the 70s with a Strat, moving the middle pickup down next to the bridge pickup.
Sounds great! Also, this video gets me closer to what I want, which is basically a single coil in the neck, BUT, in the position closest to the neck. I would take the other coil out (the one closer to the bridge) and run just the one single coil near the neck, and put in a dummy bobbin cover in the empty space, or a nickel cover over the whole thing. I bet that would sound fantastic, you'd get more of that "hollow" strat sound.
I’ve just done a video on a single strat pickup in a humbucker slot if that helps :
ruclips.net/video/cJxJhzHB7Is/видео.html
Dimarzio makes a pickup called the Bluesbucker, which is essentially what you are describing
If you enjoy building yourself and experementing for their own sake , great ! And enjoy !
But several of the aftermarket pickup makers offer a variety of single coils in humber casings / size footprint .
This is it, dully impressed.
Another option is buying a Semour Duncan StagMag. Relatively cheap and a great sound.
SD StagMag (SH-3) is one of Duncan's oldest pickups in their arsenal...basically two AlNiCo 2 single coils as a humbucker. Sounds fantastic as hb and truly stratty when split. I freaking love this little-known Duncan pickup.
You have done smth I was always thinking of
I've never had any use for split-coil humbucker sounds either, so that's good motivation for trying this. This seems effective, but you'd still be getting coupling between the magnetic fields of the two sides, even when they're split. Have you tested that? Perhaps a non-metallic baseplate would help to isolate.
One way of getting back that single coil upper end is to use 1 meg volume pots. The best pickups for that clear sound and use with gain seem to be rail pickups. Dimarzio's in particular sound great with a 1 meg pot as they often have a decent amount of bass built in.
But a good pair in the neck might be a Dimarzio Norton S on the Bass side and something bright or neutral with the Fast Track 1 or Cruiser Bridge.
Eventually would the proximity to each other even out the magnetism between the magnets on each pickup?
Interestingly I’ve had a Dimarzio rail in the neck of this for a long time now. Can’t remember which one though. Works fine next to the Bareknuckle
@@PherotoneStudios I tried researching years back the idea of a rail pickup mounted with a single coil sized sustainer. Apparently a sustainer and magnetic pickup can't live side by side...
You might be interested in The 80's fender and Squier H2, the pickups are back to back single coils.
Great idea 💡
I'm so glad that someone has done this. Im wondering.. are the polarities at the top of each pickup the same, or like a normal humbucker, are they different... and does it make a difference anyway.
Brilliant!
Very cool, try series / parallel for the neck to get a thicker humbucker sound. The switch wires it parallel which is thinner sounding.
The way to probably do it a little bit more affordably is to use tele neck pickups.
now we need to see a black beauty style guitar with six single coils. that is the next logical progression. with individual mute switches. so you can have any combination
Did you wire them individually as two single coil sounds, I was always thinking of wiring them in series like a humbucker and using a coil tap switch to get the true sing coil tone instead of splitting an actual humbucker which, of course isn’t the same as a single coil tone. It basically the of splitting a humbucker, pairing two single coils in series. Does it work? What does the series wiring sound like? You have done the hardest part, the mechanical work now just the wiring in series and test. Anyway it was a thought since I never heard of it before. Thanks maybe in another video?
I'm looking to do this exact thing but with a Seymour Duncan Vintage rail (not a hot rail) and a Robert Cray Neck Pickup. I appreciate the video but with the swimming verb I can't hear the absolute pickup difference that well. Plus I don't know what amp or amp sim you're playing through which would further aid in absolute tone reference. Thank you for posting though 🙂 --Jason ✌🏻&❤
Lace sensor has been doing this for a long time with their dually pickups were you can get two single coil pickups to work individually or both at the same time
I’ve never tried Lace Sensor pickups. I’ll investigate and put them in something
Excellent!
Am pondering a variant of this idea to get a tele with both single coil AND a single coil-sized humbucker option in the neck position. Any complications I've overlooked? In a perfect world I'd cover them both over somehow with a humbucker PAF cover to improve the look
I’ve actually got a Dimarzio rail pickup in there at the moment and a Bareknuckle single coil so it’s definitely doable,
Not sure about how to fit a humbucker cover over two pickups but I did fit a humbucker cover over a single coil recently if that helps?
Love how you constantly mod your guitars. Do you have any you’ve left entirely alone?
After reading this I went through and counted the unmodified ones. There’s 3: one I’m selling, one I’ll probably sell snd the third will be modified soon
@@PherotoneStudios haha - love it!
To broaden available coils: looks like some of the DiMarzio and Duncan Strat pickups place the connectors directly on the bottom of the pickups, and don't have the triangular plastic of traditional Strat pickups
Interesting. Nickel vs Brass chassis. 🤔So did a quick price check, and the nickel don’t seem as pricey as expected, so got me thinking, a not too expensive upgrade.
ingenious!
You might be able to rewire it to replace the out of phase position to give you both neck coils in series. It might require a proper 5 throw switch, but they're not hard to find.
Great content on your channel. Subbed!
Thanks mate. Hope you enjoy the content
Thanks I’ve been pondering doing something like this on a Kramer beretta special I’ve got because I don’t care for the tones of a clean bridge HB, so I was thinking about putting a JBJr or another rail single coil sized HB closet to the bridge in the single HB ring of my beretta and then maybe something like a Duncan quarter pound in the neck side of the bezel to hopefully get a kinda fat middle-ish position clean to edge of break up tones but still have the bridge HB because \,,/, METAL! I would use a push/Push single volume pot to switch between the two pickups like the Charvel Henrik Danhage signature. I want to keep the clean single volume knob look and I rarely use a tone control. I might have to get a stacked pot to have 500k on the HB and 250k on the single and then I’d have to come up with a stealth way of switching PU unless I used a concentric stacked pot and both were always on and I could blend and control the level on the pot . Ok you see why I never actually do any of these experiments because, I can never decide exactly what I want to do and give myself options paralysis thinking of the different ways I could do it..... if I ever actually did do it lol.
Guitar pioneer!
A humbucker IS two single coils back to back. There are humbuckers with the characteristics you hear in this video. The DiMarzio DP-156 ("Humbucker From Hell") has a DC impedance of 5.8 kOhm ... in series! The two coils are unbalanced (tonally, not such that they don't cancel hum). Another one is the DiMarzio EJ (Eric Johnson) custom neck.
I love this! 👊🏻
Another thing you could try would be to remove the magnets from one of the coils to create a dummy coil
That sounds SHOCKINGLY good. What is your signal path in this video?
Thanks mate. Orange Rocker 15 terror dialled in super clean but flat EQ. That was probably a Celestion Greenback cone.
SM57 just off the centre of the dust cap.
No post production but that was a hall of Fame reverb in the loop on the Church setting
Hi, how did you screw into the bobbins? That's the part I can't figure out how to do without breaking the pickup.
Easily check the magnetic polarity of each pickup with a compass. A correct pair is North on one and South on the other in the pair. Note that the winding direction matters and matches the magnets! You'll want the inner pickups to be N-S paired so it will remain humbuckers even on separate 'pickups'. Read up on RWRP pickups and PRails if you want mostly hum-free sounds.
Wouldn’t the magnet base keep you from having to have a flat plate to “level” the humbuckers plate?
Real late comment but concept i came up with a couple of days ago
pickup with two coils, one with enough turns to output like a single coil, other one intended to be turned like one side of a humbucker; the single coil is coil tapped to the same count of turns as the humbucker side
coil splitting means that the first coil gets all turns of copper active, making a proper single coil sound, and turning off the coil split Just turns it into a humbucker by using the coil tap
could this work
That’s exactly the thought process that inspired this idea. I’ve tried a humbucker of that design but it wasn’t quite to the spec I wanted so I didn’t like the sound
I’ll get a pickup winder and make one how I want so it’s an actual single coil and an actual humbucker
Actually, that's not true about the copper. Copper comes in specific gauges. 42 gauge is common. A vintage Fender single coil is wound about 8k turns, which yields a specific DC resistance - maybe 5-6k.
Using magnetic pole pieces in Humbuckers seems like a great idea, and I am not sure why they don't do that. I think Gibson first used the P90, which has a bar magnet, and then when the humbucker came out, they kept the bar magnet. Fender used to make a Wide Range humbucker that did this and I think one of the old Filter-trons did that - but all of these humbucker like pickups have used bar magnets for some time.
Don't Lollar make proper fender wide range humbuckers these days? Because Fender themselves don't make them anymore and haven't for decades, they instead just have standard humbuckers with a wide-range faceplate on them, so they look like wide ranges, but don't sound like them. So Lollar make ones that are built the same as the real wide ranges.
Nah mate. Tones all in the string gauge 😂😂
Well done lad, looks like the wiring’s a bit of a faff but you’ve got something really cool there x
Still waiting on a video explaining how you use the Behringer X32 for recording.
no link to the CLEAR Bobbins used =/ Brilliant
Pretty cool idea 👍 good shit
I just got a super cheap project husk on Reverb (Just a First Act guitar that someone had fully dismantled) to fiddle around and learn about wiring, etc without messing up a good guitar, and it needs a pickup. It is routed for a single humbucker in the bridge, and I've been trying to figure out what I want to put in it. I really like this idea. I was thinking of a GFS humbucker of some sort with a coil split, but this sounds like a great experiment. If one of the pickups is RWRP to the other, it should function as a humbucker when their both on right? (I assume if they're not of similar output, then it likely wouldn't fully buck hum, but at least it'd be less hum.)
Instead of a coil split , try parallel wiring ( with switch if desired ) . It will sound more single coil like than a split or tap .
This is exactly what I was looking for. It sounds great. One question I have is, I only have a three way switch and I just wanted one single coil to replace my neck humbucker, can you just do one single coil in the neck position? The guitar I want to do this to is a Cort KX100. Thank you, I’m glad I’m not the only one with brilliantly mad ideas 😂
Have I got a treat for you. Made a video a couple of weeks ago doing exactly what you need :
ruclips.net/video/cJxJhzHB7Is/видео.html
@@PherotoneStudios i mean, don’t freak out but i love you man
love you more
I was thinking of trying this with one of my HSH guitars to have 5 single coils. Seems too easy. With creative wiring should be able to get more tone options. That is why I was checking out your video. I was waiting for a serious down side that I was missing. Never came. Thanks for the video. I have pickups coming soon!!
This is honestly one of the best mods I’ve ever done. I changed one pickup to a rail style one so it’s now HSH. It’s awesome
I have a Jackson pro dinky 2 with jb SD . Can i put a neck strat on my neck slot? Or something close to single neck pickup coil for classic strat sound?
Cool vid man
Is the wiring for position 2 (neck and middle) in series or parallel?
I can't believe they don't make these!
I found your video after searching for something...and nobody is doing it!
It seems so painfully obvious, I can't imagine why they're aren't doing some kind of single coil in a PAF style nickel cover.
I do know that James Valentine from ....one of those pop rock bands like Train... I can think of their name,
"She will be Loved"..., I think that's it..?!
Know that 'un..?? Sure you do....radio wouldn't let you forget it for a few years there..back then..
Anyways....he has a tele slanted single coil in a chrome PAF cover on his MusicMan signature.
I can't believe there aren't a myriad of such options.
How many Gibson players would like , say...a stratty single coil in the neck position of their Les Pauls..??
It doesn't have to stay there forever.... Lord knows I love my neck position in my Les Paul ALMOOOOOST as much as I love the bridge...
But damn, doesn't that sound like a magnificent toooooaaaaan potensh.. : a the crisp, lush clean tones of a Strat.... in the set neck mahogany neck / and deep, rich 'hoggin' nanny bod.. all chunky n' phat ...n', ....along with the Stoptail...
I just think hat would the most spectacular clean & low gain Toanz....
The guy from mahogany rush had something of a similar idea, with his Batwing SG's, and his triple Strat singles paced into the Batwing... Sounded incredible, too!
Edit: forgive me, I went on one helluva ramble/rant !! 😊
So, nothing changed except location in the guitar?
Asking bc I’m making a guitar, from scratch. Haven’t cut pickup cavities yet but want the appearance of HH w having HSS…
no flipping magnets or wiring in series/ parallel??
Are you body mounting or is there a pickguard?
The middle pickup was reverse would and reverse polarity I believe, so would work like a HSS strat
@@PherotoneStudios the pickups came from a strat…but, they’re going into a solid body…
I’ll be using pickup rings to mount
So, in theory, if they attract side by side, I should be good…
If they do NOT attract, prob not gonna work w those pickups?
Does the volume drop if you mute 1 of the coils, as compared to having both coils active?
Pretty sure this is how the bridge position pickup on Robbie Robertson’s bronze Stratocaster was.
I recently replaced the Chapman seymour duncan neck pickup on my Chapman ML3 Pro modern with a SH-2n jazz and in switch positions 2 thru 4 the combinations sound out of phase. any ideas? I wonder if SD Chapman bridge pickup and SH-2n are wired differently internally. i may just get the SD JB and replace bridge pickup.
Flip the hot and ground on the bridge pickup and it’ll be fine and take the phase out
7.30..you replaced the pickups on a Chapmann..is that legal mate?
So, are both pickups both the same polarity and same winding direction?
That's what I was thinking but I didn't see a reply to your question. A normal hb has north screws and south slugs. I'd be looking for single coils with different polarity. Did you ever find a solution? I'd really like to try this as splitting coils has always been disappointing for me.
nice
What would be the difference between Neck humbucker in parallel mode vs 2 single coils in a humbucker slot? I suppose with the latter, you could experiment with different pickups, but are there other benefits?
The humbucker would sound like two split humbucker coils in parallel and the single coils would sound more like a strat.
Can you have them activated at the same time?
Are these wired in series or just parallel?
Imagine 4 all together in the bridge position
Like, what to do if you want hss but you've only got hh guitar
I've been wondering why no one did this back in the day.
Would prefer just clean sounds for the test and a hum comparison.
You invented the Fender wide-range humbucker. Just buy some wide-ranges.
dual single coil are something that i wanted to try
because i saw in the past ESP guitars made a guitar for a Japanese Guitarist signature models that contained 4 single coils
it sound ridiculous (of course in good way) but until now i can't find any leaks about wiring diagram lol
Was it Aoi's ESP A-I (or II or III) [arc] 艶?
@@sissy_christ666 pricesely!!
glad somebody knows that lolol
Is it necessary to remove the bar magnets at bottom??
Yes. The pole pieces in single coils are the magnets
@@PherotoneStudios even for ceramic pickups?
I
I think so. Barre magnets on single coils and humbuckers have slightly different orientations so you’d need to make sure they were the right way round and you’d need one reverse polarity.
Also I’m not sure how you’d fit a ceramic pickup to a humbucker plate as the magnet would shatter if you drilled though it
@@PherotoneStudios but arent the bar magnet supposed to magnetize the poles in a ceramic pickup. So wouldn't removing the bar magnet mean the pickup wouldnt work?
I was planning to glue the pickups to the base plate.
I am using the neck and middle pickup from yamaha pacifica 012 to put in a H-H ibanez
Would appreciate a better solution with the parts i have available?
Thankyou for the respones
Think I see what you mean. I’d keep the bar magnets on the single coils
Check out the Warman GRail.
do you have to put one in upside-down, shown at @0:02 ,
been thinking of doing this and i wanted to check
The one in the “middle position” is RWRP
how does one screw the single coils onto the base plate? the normal holes for the adjustment screws or do i have to drill in between the pole pieces?
I pre-drilled the base plate and then used the standard humbucker screws to fix the pickups to it.
These should locate between the pole pieces
@@PherotoneStudios got it thx
Let me know how you get on. Glad someone else is trying this as it’s so cool
@@PherotoneStudios already got the parts lined up. baseplate from old muddy epiphone pickup and some old ceramic no name single coils as coils.
still need to get myself a proper magnet. neodym would be a cool option, am not sure yet. might try an alnico 8 or something weird like that.
do you think i could get away with not waxing them if i use good quality isolation tape around the coils? little feedback is ok, i just dont want it to squeel at whisper volumes (like my super 70s did ;)