my favorite example of single coils in metal is the band baroness. they manage to get these killer yet magical tones out of their guitars and describe using strats and teles like using a scalpel instead of a hammer
Ive been a humbucker guy for 20 years. Bought a sss strat few months ago, and i absolutely love the sounds of the single coil for the hard rock metal tracks im recording, sounds different, yet just as heavy as humbuckers, with a unique touch to it
Tony Iommi actually used a Strat first (and recorded „Wicked World“ from Black Sabbaths Debut-Album with it) before he switched to his (P-90 equipped) Gibson SG Special, when a Pickup of the Stratocaster broke.
It's important to note that Tony did not like the single coils on the Strat because they were susceptible to picking up interference. Also, while his original "Monkey" SG had P90 pickups, and the P90 is technically has a single coil, it's a different beast to a standard single coil. They have a much wider bobbin and therefore a higher output with less hum. The P90 is much more suited to metal than a standard single coil. It's also worth noting that Tony very quickly moved onto humbuckers and uses them to this day, so is not the best example of a single coil user in metal music.
@@GarryParker That is completely Right! I personally like P-90 much more than the Fender-Style Singlecoils because of the reasons you mentioned. And yes after the Monkey-SG Tony used Humbuckers (and designed a great Set with Gibson - I love his signature Epiphone) - I was just pointing out the fact, that Metal kinda started with Singlecoils…🙂 🎸 All in all everybody should use the type of Pickups they like most.
If I could only choose a pickup for the rest of my life it would be a P-90, you can literally go from jazz to heavy metal on it. I find humbuckers too muddy for clean tones.
Single coils are great for leads and layering, I like to record one guitar track full humbucker then layer it with a single coil/split coil recording. Also I think Hank Shermann from Mercyful Fate used single coil strats
You can play metal on any old type of guitar, with any type of pickups. I've seen people play Slayer on plastic kid's guitars, and do it very well. It's the player that matters most.
My Tele is my favourite metal guitar. I find the pickups slightly hotter and by rolling off the tone a bit you can get some killer high gain tones. I prefer teles over strats simply because of the fact that the volume pot doesn’t get in my way
Lmao. Teles are the True metal guitars. Not gonna lie, In high gain music Semi Hollowbodies are good too. I used to gig with my band back then (Metal) using Epiphone Dot. But when recording of course I'm using my Ibanez's.
If I played Guitar I would have the all black Telecaster the $850 Fender or the $500 Squire (before tax) with the Bridge standard and pickup in the back a Humbucker, this way I can also do a Country Metal or Southern Metal sound when using both sets and switch to the bridge, when need be in parts, or do some Outlaw/Alt Country with just the Bridge and have that Alt country/Man in Black look to the instrument.
They were a full set of EMG SA single coils, which this guy specifically says don't buy (0:50). So don't buy them whatever you do, even if Kirk used them on his famous "Enda" Strat.
The first time I heard a single coil playing metal is on a comparison video, it's really unique. But I think I'm just gonna stick with passive humbuckers
I used to use a squier strat and I don’t have it anymore but there was something about the single coils in that guitar that I liked for higher gain applications and sounded unique in a good way, wish I still kept it
I have a 97 affinity strat. The wiring started to fail so I replaced the guard with noiseless. It's cool but you're right; those "crappy" ceramics were exceptionally crisp. I also noticed recently that the fret gap is 1\16" shorter at the 3rd fret then on most fenders clones, Almost Exactly like Gretsch frets.
@@Mike28625 I think part of it was that most cheap ceramic pickups are connected to 500k pots instead of the usual 250k, so theyre louder and brighter. Weirdly, i felt the same way about a cheap kramer pacer humbucker guitar, which had 250k pots and absolutely shredded
@@euro51116 in spite of my initial enthusiasm, I've come to realize that i don't like how the fender noiseless sounds. I play Gretsch broad'trons mostly which are kinda sorta in the filter'tron family, which are Very clear sounding humbuckers. I was hoping that the noiseless pups would be something like that but sound shrill and flat to me.
@@Mike28625 Same. I put a pricey fender noiseless vintage pickup in my esquire tele and just can't get into it. To me it's about how pickups react and their dynamics, part of why I prefer singles but love humbuckers as well, different but each great. Noiseless pickups IMO feel like a vegan meat substitute, and i'd rather eat real meat or not at all.
Sounds pretty damn metal to me!! Sorry I been commenting on all the videos bro, just trying to help you against that unforgiving algorithm. I just realized I cant binge watch old videos anymore and now i gotta wait for more content haha thanks for all the hard work man. This channel is kick ass. Gonna spread the word in the musician groups im part of. Looking forward to future content, bud.
I have several Stratocaster guitars and I love the single coils. I play them much more than my Kramer Baretta Special much like the Cosmo Kramer, I only had the strat for a long time so I played everything from rock, metal, etc… and tbh I prefer the single coils with some distortion to my humbucker.
It’s interesting in this video that after hearing the single coil, the humbucker sounds kind of lifeless. The single coil is very articulate and detailed. I am listening on a phone, but it’s still a pretty pronounced difference. I love single coils. They just have a ton of character.
Deathhammer have made some of the most brutal, raw Thrash metal albums of the last 20 years with a single coil pick up Strat. Don't sleep on them, those norwegians play some of the best old school metal in the world and their sound its pretty unique.
Let's not forget Bernie Torme from Gillan. Listen to his single coil strat sound...not metal but powerful hard rock sounds ...and he did that gig once with Ozzy.
Strats for metal? Sure. Why not! You pointed out a couple of reasons. And as for the Toxic riffage, awesome! I remember seeing them back in the day on their tour for Think This in my hometown Hengelo. It was quite a dangerous expedition to get to the venue as it was during Storm Daria on January 25th 1990. Also saw them on Dynamo Open Air before that in '88.
@@sixstringtv1 the 80's and early 90's were a golden period for metal. At least the way I remember it. But metal isn't dead. There is still a lot of talent around. New talent. We have decades of great music ahead of us! 😎
I think you can play anything on anything but I'm watching this anyway because I just like this channel! I'm a big fan of oddball alt metal and those bands use unorthodox gear combinations often.
I love that you use Think This for the demo, great album. Thanks for this video though cause I'm considering getting a strat with single coils, since all my other guitars have humbuckers, and I was trying to decide whether or not I should get a Strat with a humbucker in the bridge or not. Feel like I don't want that now!
@@cockysonuvaB I quoted him directly, it is what he said. He mightve thought as in no single coil buzz that you get, so he eliminated that. Thats what he meant, or at least thats how i understood him.
I started playing guitar like 1 and a half years ago, and bass around 4. I am 25 and an absolute noob on both Instruments BUT I gotta say i already love single coil bass tones for metal. And that Strat sounds fucking killer!
I like how single coils have this sort of untamed, wild thing about them. When you put a pedal out in front, and you're really going at it, it's so chaotic and unhinged that I feel it does a better job at expressing the spirit of rock/punk/metal. Hendrix is the finest example of this. You watch Voodoo Child at Woodstock, and your jaw just hits the floor. The feedback, the noise, the squealing bends, the other-worldly palette of sounds... none of that could have been possible with a humbucker. Yes, as you mentioned, using a humbucker makes everything so much easier. But as you also mentioned, that's not always a good thing. I've used both, and I really prefer single coils.
I recently got a peavey raptor 1 for $60, and put a leftover gfs overwound in the bridge position, it sounds really good, my other guitar is dual humbucker, and it sounds great too, but I do prefer the single coil bridge/middle sound for leads, humbucker neck position for rhythm.
Honestly it's about preference really. The bridge pickuo on a strat gets a lot of shit for being brittle but it handles gain really well. I find that I can put unreasonable amounts of gain on a single coil and get a good sound but with humbuckers, there's a sweet spot depending on the output. Granted I'm not into very high gain sounds anyway but single coils can maintain a lot of clarity, especially the strat bridge. If you have any doubts just go and listen to old school Ritchie blackmore or yngwei.
Nice to see that you keep uploading. Tell me you're a hipster guitarist without telling me you're a hipster : "I prefer playing metal on single coil pickups."
Tony Iommi used a Gibson SG with P90s on all of the early Black Sabbath stuff so I don't wanna fucking hear it if someone says you can't use single coils for metal.
Possibly the best thrash tone I’ve heard was from a G&L ASAT Classic. The tone knob and the bridge pickup right into some gain and it was there. Through multiple distortion types it still got there. Singles kick ass if you like them. I prefer humbuckers, generally, but that’s just a preference. My problem with them for ME is the attack of how I play makes the attack from singles too prominent. I find Fender Wide-Range to have the best balance for me. It has just enough of that jangle and attack for me. The middle position turns any guitar into a Rickenbacker, so that’s for cleans, but regardless, it’s what’s for me.
The distinction of single coils for more clean tones and humbuckers for more high gain stuff is a bit of a relic from the times when guitar players were kinda limited by their gear and most importantly amps available on the market. These days, with endless options on amps and signal processing, the difference between single coils and humbuckers can be largely mitigated and it essentially becomes a question of personal preference, not the sound you're after. (Also, Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden does/did play true single coil Strat at times, to mix it up a bit, as he said.)
Ty Tabor of King's X has used a Strat for his whole career, and played through a Gibson LAB series L5 (SOLID STATE) amp, and has an incredibly heavy tone...I recently saw them live and his stage setup includes a couple Orange amps...
All of the Mercyful Fate albums were done with single coils. Hank Shermann used a Seymour Duncan SL-2 single coil in the bridge of a cheap Strat copy that was used in studio for the recordings of Melissa, Don't Break The Oath and In The Shadows. That specific pickup sounds a lot like a Telecaster bridge pickup. From 1994 onward beginning with the album Time; Hank used a standard single coil American Fender Strat on the rest of the MF albums. Tony Iommi also used single coil P90s in his SG on all of the earth Black Sabbath records up to around Never Say Die when he finally switched to humbuckers.
Yngwie's signature pups as well as the old Dimarzio HS-3 and HS-4's that used to be his signature pups are stacked humbuckers as well. My only issue with traditional single coils is dealing with the noise and feedback if you don't have a good compression setup. I think alot of beginners grab a strat type guitar, turn up the gain, and then wonder why the feedback look is so horrendous when they are not muting the stings and then write them off.
@@sixstringtv1 True, but your average noobie goes down to guitar center and plugs in a bullet strat into the first Line 6 cab he can get near on the "Extreme" setting. Bad times for sure lol
@sixstringtv1 i have that exact contemporary strat special you have hanging in the background. Ive been tossing around the idea of making a video using that exact guitar for some modern death metal riffing which is why i was searching for single coil modern metal riffs at this moment, leading to this video. Quite a coincidence. Those contemporary strat specials guitars make some very solid heavy tones. Love the 2 point trem and the tuning stability. Its defininetly a special guitar. Would love to see you make a video with it, doing some heavy, metal riffs
When i heard the outro solo to Mr Crowley for the 1st time I knew i wanted to learn, but obviously didn't know anything about pickups... Thank Fn goodness the guy at moonlight music recommended a fat strat(99-01 mim) and im pretty sure it has fender's "atomic" bridge humbucker because it's hot AF. i remember my cousin being surprised i didn't need a distortion pedal.
That 'recording' it's an official video, not recording sessions footage. And the guitar it's an Esp, not a stratocaster. Moreover we cannot be sure those are single coils and not noiseless pickups which basically are humbuckers.
@@sixstringtv1 Oh! I would have never guessed! 😱 I might have heard that song maybe once... 🙉 I thought the riff sounded very Megadethy and thought maybe it was from some prog, thrash or power metal band 🤔 Killer riff thou!
Honestly if it's a pickup (besides maybe a piezo) you can play metal with it. My first 2 years of playing was on a triple s strat, then I eventually tried humbuckers (I prefer the classic EMG 81/85 set) and they sounded great with heavy gain and distortion. While I prefer a humbucker, there is nothing wrong with singles. If they sound good, then they are good.
yes, you can play, my first ""show"" I played ride the lightning with my tagima tg-530 with single coils, and it sounded good because I'd put distortion on it, but it's all way better with humbuckers
since the 1980's the can you play Metal on a Strat had been settled. The classic bridge and neck single coil with the bridge having the Telecaster metal around the bridge debate got settled in the 1970's when some early metal was done by Led Zepplin like the Immigrant song on a Telecaster in some live performances or a few bands used a Telecaster like Deep Purple in the late 1960's early 1970's.
I guess what it comes down to is that you can get a great heavy crunch riff tone out of single coils, but to do so you have to go through at least one pedal if not a combo of pedals, whereas you can get that tone with humbuckers going straight into the amp.
Queen were producing metal sounds decades before metal existed (check out Stone Cold Crazy, and Sheer Heart Attack). Brian May has Trisonic single coils.
Dude, you made a little mistake in the beginning. When you listed Active Pickup users. You mentioned Randy Rhoads. Overall great video, even though i didn't prefer your single coil sound for rythm.
@@sixstringtv1 Couldn't tell you about Rhoads but I know for certain that Alexi Laiho did not at any point of his career use anything else than EMG's, yet you mention him to use passive pickups.
@@sixstringtv1 From looking at pictures of the guitars he used, it doesn't seems like they did had active pickups. In general, jackson is an interesting brand. Since all their models where custom ordered guitars. Because Jackson started as a Custom Guitar Shop.
@@sixstringtv1 the Jackson Rhodes's legacy as a guitar is definitely beyond just Randy Rhodes. Most of the Jackson Rhodes guitars out there are not speced like how Randy would've liked them, same deal with the Gibson Les Paul (sorry Fluff, you can bully me on Facebook all you want lol)
I love using my tele with singles coupled with anything humbuckered up for mega dirt, adds a bit of clarity to the sound. Yeah they hum when not playing but thats what a volume control or noise gate was built for, also high gain itself brings a ton of noise. Great video as ever sir and some top notch playing to help eliminate the myth that singles suck in metal.
Nicely put together and well informed video, I always say the gear doesn't matter as much as the imagination of the player does. Whether it's single coils, humbuckers, mini humbuckers, active or passive or whatever; it's about you. Have you ever heard of the technical death metal band Gorod? They're from France, and one of their players uses a single coil tele on a lot of their recordings. While they're known with fans of that style, I feel they're still underrated in death metal as a whole. Definitely recommend them if you haven't heard their stuff.
So I've got an unrelated question but this is the most recent video of yours that features the Splattercaster so prominently, I figured this is the best place to ask; I've got a Strat around the same year as your Splattercaster. Mine is a MIM 2000 model. I was just wondering how often do you have the frets releveled for a 20 year old guitar that you clearly play very often? Have you ever had to re-fret it completely? My guitar came with pretty short frets before they changed over to the more modern medium jumbo. Wasn't sure if your Splattercaster came with larger frets for it's time as it's a special edition guitar.
Randy Rhoads never used active pickups. He used the stock pickups in his Les Paul, and in his other guitars he played a Dimarzio Distortion and Dimarzio's PAF. He also used Seymour Duncan's JB and Jazz pickups
The irony with humbuckers is that it's really hard (for me anyway) to find humbuckers that stand out in terms of tone. The fact that single coils are low output is a feature, not a bug. Just as you demonstrated here, you can run those low output pickups through boost pedals and an array of effects and come out with a hand crafted sound. You can do this with humbuckers, of course, but it just seems harder to me to get a real standout tone from humbuckers vs single coils or P90s. Like you, I also preferred the strat sound you created.
I mostly use single coils that aren't too hot. I also sound much more guttural than most music I've heard. Two things help with that. Using a modded Fender amp that can be put in class A mode and the Snarling Dogs 'Black Dog' pedal.
I run a telecaster with a warmoth barotone neck rocking single coils and it fuuuuuucks. Im running Bare Knuckle's Sinner pickups. Its a 15ohm neck and a 21.5 ohm bridge. I almost exclusively run the neck because of how heavy it sounds. Im thinking of switching the bridge to a humbucker soley for a tone variation since i honestly believe nothing can compete with that neck pickup as far a heavieness.
@@sixstringtv1 ah right. I just remembered seeing his smug face on some ads for Dimarzio back in the 80s, but you’re right, that would’ve been after he became well known. Love the channel, by the way.
I can't agree more that having a unique sound is essential. Some players you can just hear a few notes and you know exactly who it is, and that's something everyone should aim for. Using pickup brands that are good, but not very popular, would be a good place to start. Same with amps and pedals. Using cheaper pedals rather than industry favourites is a good place to start, as long as it sounds good, because how many great guitar players would be recording using boutique or genre-standard pedals that aren't EHX, Boss, Catalinbread, Keeley etc? The 99 guys that played before you would've had humbucker-Boss-Marshall sound, so go for something a little less worn out. Try going with single coils because metal is saturated with humbuckers. If you still think it's too thin then try P90s, since that sound birthed the genre. I have to ask though, why did you say to avoid EMG pickups at the start of the video? I have a set of EMG DG20s in my strat and they sound unreal. Ther range of tones you can get is unlike anything I've had before without, at least, a 5+ band EQ. I couldn't recommend them enough.
I will say while I’m truly quite impressed with the fairly aggressive sound you got out of that strat, it was kinda hard to hear over a scratchy high noise coming from the bass guitar. I honestly thought my headphones or my phone speakers were messed up or something.
In the era of amps with insane gain stages,hi quality emulations like axe-fx kemper and the likes or very high end but also quite affordable amp sims that live inside your DAW you really dont need much to drive those amps hard and i prefer the added clarity of a single coil(even if driven hard) over a high powered but a bit muddy humbucker....its like punching vs knifing.....a punch ll hit you hard and bruise you up...and the knife ll make you bleed.....all in all i prefer noiseless pickup single coil sets for everything....
I don't understand why some people say it's "too" quiet. My videos are a bit below average volume-wise but If I turn up the volume on my phone they're way too loud
Man just hearing Jon Schaffer`s name these days almost bring a single tear to my eye, since i never got to see iced Earth live, being my favorite ever band and having their festivals of the wicked albumart tattooed on me...
@@sixstringtv1 Fuck yeah! I used to have Jon`s signature Icebuckers in alot of guitars, but the guy who makes them stopped shipping worldwide because of costs so that ended aswell :/
I’m not saying you can’t play metal on a single coil…but sometimes these guitars are loaded with stacked single coils…dimarzio HS-2 for example…so it looks like they’re playing a standard single coil when they are actually using a single coil size humbucker…this fooled me for a long time…rock on bro!!!
That's all I have, anyway: Giannini's THS 1 single coil. Also, I can only use the bridge pick up. _Also,_ I don't have any pedals, only a 15w cube with distortion (actually, the clean channel is somehow broken, so I only use the distorted channel), and it only has Volume, Gain, Low, Mid and High knobs. I take Highs... Up, that sounds weird, well, it's up to 70%. But I also take the Mids above to Low, although I play metal with fast picking riffs. I don't wanna sound like anybody, even if I could, but I really miss some things, like a proper distortion pedal, so that I can write more dynamic songs, as a good Opeth fan. BUT, I really wish to change this pick up. Yeah, maybe I throwing all of this away hah Probably I'll get another guitar, too, but this one is special, so I want to upgrade it.
Whats the names of these demo songs? The harmonies were really nice. I know its not really singles, but i compared chugs with humbuckers vs those same pickups split, and while split is a bit brighter, i guess to my ears i just didnt like the initial attack, it sounded twangy to me. Though i still wanna us humbuckers wired to split, since i think split cleans sound nice.
I'm building a (pink :P) Tele and opted for "tradition", so ashtray and single coils. And sure as hell I'm gonna play metal on it. 🙃 Planning to put it in Eb standard. And I was surprised how good the Strat sounded, tbh. Great video. :)
I havnt used actives yet but the sound of emg 81s are so badass but the Seymour Duncan JB has done the job well for me , and the new Thrash factor pickups are those on steroids lol best pickup for metal I have used… and Yngwie is a good example BUT he uses stacked single coils so even he technically uses a pickup closer humbuckers (That Stevie T clip is cringe.. u said it best the strat sound is a single coil neck or bridge bell like tone )
I own a silver triple single coil strat and it sounds terrible with distortion/gain up to 10 when I try to play metal or rock on this silver strat. I'm still saving up for a new guitar with humbuckers which will sound better for metal and rock
One big error you made about Alexi Laiho using a passive pickup actually. He has his own proprietary EMG ABQ which is an onboard preamp that boosts the signal, which means his pickup configuration is actually ACTIVE, just like how most basses that have been described to have active pickups are often passive pickups with an onboard active EQ. So in actuality, Alexi did use active pickups until he passed away.
Except theoretically and factually those pickups were still passive (EMG HZ2 and the earlier Jackson equivalent). It's just the additional active preamp boost he had in ALL his guitars 💁♂ I guess u could call it half-active set or something 🤷♂
@@MaximusAdonicus Again, basses that claim to have active pickups also had passive pickups with an active onboard EQ, so Alexi's setup is no different from that, his onboard pre is just an active signal boost. The only difference between that and EMG/Blackouts is that those pickups have that same active boost just underneath the pickups themselves and you just connect everything through that. That's what active pickups generally are. They're basically passive pickups with some additional accessory that boosts either the entire signal or specific frequencies via battery. It doesn't matter if the said accessory is underneath the pickups themselves or not. So to conclude, Alexi WAS using active pickups.
@@WintermintP Yeah... but no! The basses are irrelevant, they can claim what they want. It's a mix of marketing and confusion. The question is really simple: Are EMG HZ and Jackson J50-BC pickups active or passive? Answer: PASSIVE! You can also go to the EMG site and check out the specs for the ALX set where it says that the pickup in that set is... *drumroll* PASSIVE! The difference in Alexi's sets thru his life was that he used an additional active EQ boost. It's different than the preamp boosts built in active pickups 'cos u can change the amount of boost and the frequencies yourself. And here's the kicker: even without the boost or the battery the pickup still fully works 'cos it's PASSIVE!!! Now tell me again what happens to active pickups when u remove the battery? Boom! That's 3 strikes and u are out! xD Epilogue: Adding an active EQ to a passive pickup doesn't suddenly make the pickup itself active! It only makes the passive pickup BEHAVE similar to an active pickup while still remaining physically 100% passive. It's a hybrid of both worlds. Also it's rather well known that Alexi was a fan of passive pickups. According to the webs he only had ONE guitar with active pickups. Also all his signature models sold have either passive pickups or the passive pickup + boost combo.
@@MaximusAdonicus Again, you're missing the point. Any pickup is basically a passive until you add an active accessory in the circuit. With the EMGs you're talking about, it just so happens to be that the said active accessory is soldered and epoxied into the casing so you can't connect without the accessory unless you destroy the pickup itself. Also, if you're going to go by that logic of "oh you can turn off active mode and it's a passive," EpiActive pickups themselves are active and they can still run without batteries in passive mode. They're still no different from EMG themselves, it's just that the EpiActive pickups had Passive mode in them but still classified as active pickups. Likewise, the active setup that I have is a pair of Guitarmory Atlas pickups with an active PA-2 preamp that makes the entire setup an active setup, making the pickups active because they're useless without that battery. But the hidden PA-2 can always be dug out of the cavity and be switched off momentarily, just like Passive mode. Does that make the pickups any more passive? No. It's still an active setup, with the active accessories bypassed to preserve battery life. When I was a kid I went to a guitar shop to find that a guitar had Seymour Duncan active pickups with humbuckers that had one thin coil and a P90 each, and one of the guys said that it's got active pickups with a switch that lets you bypass the battery. Again, still active setup, just with a bypass switch. Even with Dingwall NG2 and NG3, they have a switch on it that lets you use the Tone Capsule like a regular tone knob. Does it make the setup passive? No, it just has a bypass method but once you flip it back on, the EQ can add frequencies into the bass itself. I recall a luthier being interviewed about active pickups and he sums it up well as far as differences between actives and passives go. And there's only one difference. With passive pickups, you can only attenuate and take stuff out. With active pickups, you can add stuff. You can add frequencies, you can boost the overall signal, and so on. But to boost whatever you want, you need an external power source to act as an amplifier. That's where the term "active" comes from, which leads into the next bit. And really, the definitions of active and passive doesn't just stop at guitars/basses. This isn't about marketing at all. Any passive device just means it does not need an external power source, such as typical headphones as they work fine and they themselves don't use any power by any means and they just deliver the information sent through their cable. An SM57 or any dynamic microphone is basically a passive microphone. And then you have active devices, which require an additional external power source to gather the necessary power to do stuff. That's why condensers require phantom power. They require an additional power source, making them active microphones, and you even have stuff like active ribbon microphones that, you guessed it, require phantom power. Tube mics even have their own amplifiers because they need an even bigger power generator to make them work. If you want to ACTUALLY know the difference between active and passive devices IN GENERAL, just look at active and passive DI boxes. Passive DI boxes don't require any power. Active DI boxes need phantom power. It speaks for itself. So, no, it's really NOT that simple because the definitions "active" and "passives" go well beyond just mere pickups and guitars and basses.
Yes, you can and it's been done for years. The initial problem was that single coils had such a very low output compared to contemporary humbuckers that guitarists went to great lengths in order to drive their amps harder - heavier strings, higher actions, tape machines as preamps......but some stellar tones were produced (Uli on Tokyo Tapes anyone?) Modern single coils have such a variety of output levels, resistance levels, the choice of rails or pole pieces, magnet types.......it's not even a question....it's a matter of changing people's perspective. As far as Randy Rhoads - I have NEVER seen any pickups associated with him other that Super Distortions, SH-4 and JB-2 and T-Tops.
No worries! I'm pretty sure EMG 81s would have been around towards the end of his life but, as you say, despite so many of his signature models being equipped with them, I haven't seen any picture of him using them personally. Single coils for rock and metal is an interesting topic - the extra frequency response certainly makes a guitar sound fuller and you can always add more gain to the signal if you need it to compensate for lower output. Keep up the good work on the channel, it's certainly growing :)
I like using the middle position for rhythms on my HH ltd guitar. It's kinda twangy but palm mutes are still rich sounding. Singles are nice but I find em a bit too bright for palm muting.
I have an american pro II strat and the single coils are pretty low output and using a distortion pedal makes my amp sound like it's about to blow up. But when it comes to blues and classic rock, I think it sounds great. But i'll leave all the metal stuff to my explorer.
You can play metal with single coils. It may take a little big of work to get the sound right, but you can do it, and some single coils work better than others. I can think of single coils that work better for metal than a lot of humbuckers. For instance, I think the Duncan Quarter Pounder works great for metal. It's a heavy duty, raw, powerful pickup with strong low end. Also, a lot of stacked buckers like the DiMarzio Injector, Virtual Solo, Heavy Blues 2, HS-2, HS-3 and HS-4; and the Duncan stacked single coils, some of which sound outrageously good with distortion. I go back and forth from single coils to humbuckers. I also think P-90s can really kick ass with high gain, although they don't always do a tight chug if that's your thing. It's not my thing a I go for more of a classic rock era tone, so a P-90 is great for me.
im confident Eddie van halen played with, essentially, a tapped humbucker -effectively a single coil ... it was a broken JB .... when I tap my kramer 84 to single coil -it sounds just like him ... just sayin .... also -and i could be very wrong here -but I dont remember seeing the humbucker tapping option till the wolfgangs came out in the 90s -but i think the fact his "signature" guitars had those features says something.
My personal take is that single coils just need to be processed differently than humbuckers. The primary issue is that humbuckers lose some of the upper harmonics to the two coils not being in perfect phase with one another, so a lot of modern distortion pedals and amps aren't designed to keep that part of the audio spectrum in check. This makes single coils tend towards sounding harsh. To counteract this players need to experiment with the tone control and implement other means to filter out those frequencies, which are also quite dissonant against the fundamental. Rats are perfect for this, as they are incapable of reproducing those frequencies due to the parts used, as are a lot of fuzzes which are pretty much all based on designs that premiered in the 60s when humbuckers were only really on guitars aimed at jazz players (remember that Les Pauls and other Gibson guitar designs were initially adopted by British and American rock musicians partially because they were going relatively cheap second hand at that time. Getting a strat or telecaster in England was a big deal because of import duties post-war but finding a Les Paul on tour in the USA that had either gone unsold or was traded in was relatively accessible. There wasn't a speculator market on electric guitars back then, those guitars were used and the stores had more interest in making good on their investment in new instruments). I'm also doing some experiments with flatwound strings, as those would have been what players used when fender was designing his pickups. Long story short you can't always expect to be able to use the same signal chain for everything and get equally good results.
I have a set of single coils from the undisputed best pick-up manufacturer in the multi-verse, EMG (jk), in one tele with an afterburner in it and an esquire with a seymour duncan hot stack and I'd say both do the job fairly well. (does it count if you run a preamp boost?)
my favorite example of single coils in metal is the band baroness. they manage to get these killer yet magical tones out of their guitars and describe using strats and teles like using a scalpel instead of a hammer
thanks for the introduction to Baroness
Saw them open for Lamb of God. Horrible in my opinion.
upvote for Baroness 👍
@@Brent-Nelson68 I thought they were pretty good.
@@Brent-Nelson68 same. Not a fan of them whatsoever
Ive been a humbucker guy for 20 years. Bought a sss strat few months ago, and i absolutely love the sounds of the single coil for the hard rock metal tracks im recording, sounds different, yet just as heavy as humbuckers, with a unique touch to it
Tony Iommi actually used a Strat first (and recorded „Wicked World“ from Black Sabbaths Debut-Album with it) before he switched to his (P-90 equipped) Gibson SG Special, when a Pickup of the Stratocaster broke.
You're right 🤔
It's important to note that Tony did not like the single coils on the Strat because they were susceptible to picking up interference. Also, while his original "Monkey" SG had P90 pickups, and the P90 is technically has a single coil, it's a different beast to a standard single coil. They have a much wider bobbin and therefore a higher output with less hum. The P90 is much more suited to metal than a standard single coil.
It's also worth noting that Tony very quickly moved onto humbuckers and uses them to this day, so is not the best example of a single coil user in metal music.
@@GarryParker That is completely Right! I personally like P-90 much more than the Fender-Style Singlecoils because of the reasons you mentioned.
And yes after the Monkey-SG Tony used Humbuckers (and designed a great Set with Gibson - I love his signature Epiphone) - I was just pointing out the fact, that Metal kinda started with Singlecoils…🙂 🎸
All in all everybody should use the type of Pickups they like most.
20 points... most don't know and or refuse to believe it.
If I could only choose a pickup for the rest of my life it would be a P-90, you can literally go from jazz to heavy metal on it. I find humbuckers too muddy for clean tones.
Single coils are great for leads and layering, I like to record one guitar track full humbucker then layer it with a single coil/split coil recording. Also I think Hank Shermann from Mercyful Fate used single coil strats
That's a cool idea. gotta try that
I have seen him using single coil strats, but also humbucker equipped strats and flying Vs.
KIRK HAMMET PLAYED A SINGLE COIL STRAT IN ONE
That Melissa tone sounds super singley
You can play metal on any old type of guitar, with any type of pickups. I've seen people play Slayer on plastic kid's guitars, and do it very well. It's the player that matters most.
I'll never forget seeing Zakk Wylde play Black Sabbath on a mini Hello Kitty guitar
@@sixstringtv1 I've got one of those! It's adorable!
My Tele is my favourite metal guitar. I find the pickups slightly hotter and by rolling off the tone a bit you can get some killer high gain tones. I prefer teles over strats simply because of the fact that the volume pot doesn’t get in my way
I'm not a big fan of Teles, but I somehow still really want a thinline.
@@sixstringtv1 me too lol. They just look so damn good
Lmao. Teles are the True metal guitars.
Not gonna lie, In high gain music Semi Hollowbodies are good too. I used to gig with my band back then (Metal) using Epiphone Dot. But when recording of course I'm using my Ibanez's.
If I played Guitar I would have the all black Telecaster the $850 Fender or the $500 Squire (before tax) with the Bridge standard and pickup in the back a Humbucker, this way I can also do a Country Metal or Southern Metal sound when using both sets and switch to the bridge, when need be in parts, or do some Outlaw/Alt Country with just the Bridge and have that Alt country/Man in Black look to the instrument.
Kirk Hammett used a single-coil Fernandes Strat on many songs, including Master Of Puppets.
They were a full set of EMG SA single coils, which this guy specifically says don't buy (0:50). So don't buy them whatever you do, even if Kirk used them on his famous "Enda" Strat.
On the One music video no less...
@@GarryParker "Don't buy them whatever you do, because this guy said so"? Hmmm
The first time I heard a single coil playing metal is on a comparison video, it's really unique. But I think I'm just gonna stick with passive humbuckers
That's cool too.
lol, never listened to Malmsteen ?
@@multslash not a big fan of malmsteen, some of his bigger hits are cool but idk it just seems like he is throwing arpeggios around hoping it fits...
I love that you had the fan on for the playing parts
I used to use a squier strat and I don’t have it anymore but there was something about the single coils in that guitar that I liked for higher gain applications and sounded unique in a good way, wish I still kept it
I have a 97 affinity strat. The wiring started to fail so I replaced the guard with noiseless. It's cool but you're right; those "crappy" ceramics were exceptionally crisp. I also noticed recently that the fret gap is 1\16" shorter at the 3rd fret then on most fenders clones, Almost Exactly like Gretsch frets.
@@Mike28625 I think part of it was that most cheap ceramic pickups are connected to 500k pots instead of the usual 250k, so theyre louder and brighter.
Weirdly, i felt the same way about a cheap kramer pacer humbucker guitar, which had 250k pots and absolutely shredded
@@euro51116 in spite of my initial enthusiasm, I've come to realize that i don't like how the fender noiseless sounds. I play Gretsch broad'trons mostly which are kinda sorta in the filter'tron family, which are Very clear sounding humbuckers. I was hoping that the noiseless pups would be something like that but sound shrill and flat to me.
@@Mike28625 Same. I put a pricey fender noiseless vintage pickup in my esquire tele and just can't get into it. To me it's about how pickups react and their dynamics, part of why I prefer singles but love humbuckers as well, different but each great.
Noiseless pickups IMO feel like a vegan meat substitute, and i'd rather eat real meat or not at all.
@@euro51116 the impossible pickup
Sounds pretty damn metal to me!! Sorry I been commenting on all the videos bro, just trying to help you against that unforgiving algorithm. I just realized I cant binge watch old videos anymore and now i gotta wait for more content haha thanks for all the hard work man. This channel is kick ass. Gonna spread the word in the musician groups im part of. Looking forward to future content, bud.
I'm always happy about comments 😎
That Harley Benton bass sounds absolutely massive in the mix, I’d love to see a video of how you record bass.
I don't currently have a bass amp, so I actually recorded this with Bias FX 2 🤣
@@sixstringtv1 Whatever settings you are using sounds great! Keep up the good work!
Strats have so much heart that with the love you can give them they will sound in all possible scenarios, unless you are a purist.
Facts!!
I have several Stratocaster guitars and I love the single coils. I play them much more than my Kramer Baretta Special much like the Cosmo Kramer, I only had the strat for a long time so I played everything from rock, metal, etc… and tbh I prefer the single coils with some distortion to my humbucker.
Me too
It’s interesting in this video that after hearing the single coil, the humbucker sounds kind of lifeless. The single coil is very articulate and detailed. I am listening on a phone, but it’s still a pretty pronounced difference. I love single coils. They just have a ton of character.
Deathhammer have made some of the most brutal, raw Thrash metal albums of the last 20 years with a single coil pick up Strat. Don't sleep on them, those norwegians play some of the best old school metal in the world and their sound its pretty unique.
Deathhammer fukks💪
I tried looking for a video about this for a while but couldn’t find one. Happy to see someone clear it up.
Surprised there weren't videos about this before, but I'm glad I can be the one 😎
Let's not forget Bernie Torme from Gillan. Listen to his single coil strat sound...not metal but powerful hard rock sounds ...and he did that gig once with Ozzy.
Strats for metal? Sure. Why not! You pointed out a couple of reasons.
And as for the Toxic riffage, awesome!
I remember seeing them back in the day on their tour for Think This in my hometown Hengelo. It was quite a dangerous expedition to get to the venue as it was during Storm Daria on January 25th 1990.
Also saw them on Dynamo Open Air before that in '88.
DAMN! Wish I could've been around to see that
@@sixstringtv1 the 80's and early 90's were a golden period for metal. At least the way I remember it. But metal isn't dead. There is still a lot of talent around. New talent. We have decades of great music ahead of us! 😎
I think you can play anything on anything but I'm watching this anyway because I just like this channel!
I'm a big fan of oddball alt metal and those bands use unorthodox gear combinations often.
Exactly!
I love that you use Think This for the demo, great album. Thanks for this video though cause I'm considering getting a strat with single coils, since all my other guitars have humbuckers, and I was trying to decide whether or not I should get a Strat with a humbucker in the bridge or not. Feel like I don't want that now!
If I'm not mistaken, Brian May has used single coils extensively. To me, his tone is an example of a crushing single coil sound.
Yeah...but he has said that he himself switched polarities on his pick ups, so he basically gets a humbucker.
@@cycomiles4225 May's pickup polarities were wired series and "out-of-phase" so NOT humbucking
@@cockysonuvaB I quoted him directly, it is what he said. He mightve thought as in no single coil buzz that you get, so he eliminated that. Thats what he meant, or at least thats how i understood him.
I started playing guitar like 1 and a half years ago, and bass around 4. I am 25 and an absolute noob on both Instruments BUT I gotta say i already love single coil bass tones for metal. And that Strat sounds fucking killer!
Yngwie said of Joe Satriani playing in Deep Purple "I love Joe but he's playing Richie's stuff with a humbucker and that is just wrong"
Facts
bass tone is growly - good job
I like how single coils have this sort of untamed, wild thing about them. When you put a pedal out in front, and you're really going at it, it's so chaotic and unhinged that I feel it does a better job at expressing the spirit of rock/punk/metal. Hendrix is the finest example of this. You watch Voodoo Child at Woodstock, and your jaw just hits the floor. The feedback, the noise, the squealing bends, the other-worldly palette of sounds... none of that could have been possible with a humbucker. Yes, as you mentioned, using a humbucker makes everything so much easier. But as you also mentioned, that's not always a good thing. I've used both, and I really prefer single coils.
took me a while but even my strat tracks sound alot more rockin then my humbucker metal tracks....
Well said!
I recently got a peavey raptor 1 for $60, and put a leftover gfs overwound in the bridge position, it sounds really good, my other guitar is dual humbucker, and it sounds great too, but I do prefer the single coil bridge/middle sound for leads, humbucker neck position for rhythm.
Honestly it's about preference really. The bridge pickuo on a strat gets a lot of shit for being brittle but it handles gain really well. I find that I can put unreasonable amounts of gain on a single coil and get a good sound but with humbuckers, there's a sweet spot depending on the output. Granted I'm not into very high gain sounds anyway but single coils can maintain a lot of clarity, especially the strat bridge. If you have any doubts just go and listen to old school Ritchie blackmore or yngwei.
💯💯
Nice to see that you keep uploading. Tell me you're a hipster guitarist without telling me you're a hipster : "I prefer playing metal on single coil pickups."
Tony Iommi and Yngwie Malmsteen are so hipster
Tony Iommi used a Gibson SG with P90s on all of the early Black Sabbath stuff so I don't wanna fucking hear it if someone says you can't use single coils for metal.
Possibly the best thrash tone I’ve heard was from a G&L ASAT Classic. The tone knob and the bridge pickup right into some gain and it was there. Through multiple distortion types it still got there.
Singles kick ass if you like them. I prefer humbuckers, generally, but that’s just a preference.
My problem with them for ME is the attack of how I play makes the attack from singles too prominent.
I find Fender Wide-Range to have the best balance for me. It has just enough of that jangle and attack for me. The middle position turns any guitar into a Rickenbacker, so that’s for cleans, but regardless, it’s what’s for me.
The distinction of single coils for more clean tones and humbuckers for more high gain stuff is a bit of a relic from the times when guitar players were kinda limited by their gear and most importantly amps available on the market. These days, with endless options on amps and signal processing, the difference between single coils and humbuckers can be largely mitigated and it essentially becomes a question of personal preference, not the sound you're after.
(Also, Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden does/did play true single coil Strat at times, to mix it up a bit, as he said.)
Ty Tabor of King's X has used a Strat for his whole career, and played through a Gibson LAB series L5 (SOLID STATE) amp, and has an incredibly heavy tone...I recently saw them live and his stage setup includes a couple Orange amps...
All of the Mercyful Fate albums were done with single coils. Hank Shermann used a Seymour Duncan SL-2 single coil in the bridge of a cheap Strat copy that was used in studio for the recordings of Melissa, Don't Break The Oath and In The Shadows. That specific pickup sounds a lot like a Telecaster bridge pickup.
From 1994 onward beginning with the album Time; Hank used a standard single coil American Fender Strat on the rest of the MF albums.
Tony Iommi also used single coil P90s in his SG on all of the earth Black Sabbath records up to around Never Say Die when he finally switched to humbuckers.
Yngwie's signature pups as well as the old Dimarzio HS-3 and HS-4's that used to be his signature pups are stacked humbuckers as well. My only issue with traditional single coils is dealing with the noise and feedback if you don't have a good compression setup. I think alot of beginners grab a strat type guitar, turn up the gain, and then wonder why the feedback look is so horrendous when they are not muting the stings and then write them off.
Yngwie started on regular Strats though.
And I intentionally used my JCM800 KK2203 cause it has the strongest and fastest noisegate you'll ever hear
@@sixstringtv1 True, but your average noobie goes down to guitar center and plugs in a bullet strat into the first Line 6 cab he can get near on the "Extreme" setting. Bad times for sure lol
@sixstringtv1 i have that exact contemporary strat special you have hanging in the background. Ive been tossing around the idea of making a video using that exact guitar for some modern death metal riffing which is why i was searching for single coil modern metal riffs at this moment, leading to this video. Quite a coincidence. Those contemporary strat specials guitars make some very solid heavy tones. Love the 2 point trem and the tuning stability. Its defininetly a special guitar. Would love to see you make a video with it, doing some heavy, metal riffs
When i heard the outro solo to Mr Crowley for the 1st time I knew i wanted to learn, but obviously didn't know anything about pickups...
Thank Fn goodness the guy at moonlight music recommended a fat strat(99-01 mim) and im pretty sure it has fender's "atomic" bridge humbucker because it's hot AF. i remember my cousin being surprised i didn't need a distortion pedal.
I love when Kirk Hammett played a single coil Strat for recording one
That 'recording' it's an official video, not recording sessions footage. And the guitar it's an Esp, not a stratocaster. Moreover we cannot be sure those are single coils and not noiseless pickups which basically are humbuckers.
4:37 What is this song? I could swore I've heard that intro riff, but can't put my thumb on it 🤔
Harvest Pyre by Abbath 😎
@@sixstringtv1 Oh! I would have never guessed! 😱 I might have heard that song maybe once... 🙉 I thought the riff sounded very Megadethy and thought maybe it was from some prog, thrash or power metal band 🤔 Killer riff thou!
Honestly if it's a pickup (besides maybe a piezo) you can play metal with it. My first 2 years of playing was on a triple s strat, then I eventually tried humbuckers (I prefer the classic EMG 81/85 set) and they sounded great with heavy gain and distortion. While I prefer a humbucker, there is nothing wrong with singles. If they sound good, then they are good.
yes, you can play, my first ""show"" I played ride the lightning with my tagima tg-530 with single coils, and it sounded good because I'd put distortion on it, but it's all way better with humbuckers
What guitar is at 2:11 with the zebra humuckers? It looks awesome!
If you wind back the treble to about 4 or 5 on the bridge pick up, you loose that strat “spank” add treble on the amp.
Question, for a SSS configuration - do you use just the bridge or bridge+mid ?
since the 1980's the can you play Metal on a Strat had been settled. The classic bridge and neck single coil with the bridge having the Telecaster metal around the bridge debate got settled in the 1970's when some early metal was done by Led Zepplin like the Immigrant song on a Telecaster in some live performances or a few bands used a Telecaster like Deep Purple in the late 1960's early 1970's.
I guess what it comes down to is that you can get a great heavy crunch riff tone out of single coils, but to do so you have to go through at least one pedal if not a combo of pedals, whereas you can get that tone with humbuckers going straight into the amp.
Yeah, that's probably why he said it was in fact easier 😐
That splatter strat is sooo cool
😁😁
Queen were producing metal sounds decades before metal existed (check out Stone Cold Crazy, and Sheer Heart Attack).
Brian May has Trisonic single coils.
What did the author play? Nice music, especially the first composition.
What is the song that starts at 5:35?
Think This by Toxik
Dude, you made a little mistake in the beginning.
When you listed Active Pickup users.
You mentioned Randy Rhoads.
Overall great video, even though i didn't prefer your single coil sound for rythm.
A lot of his signature models are EMG equipped, I assumed he used those towards the end of his life no?
@@sixstringtv1 Couldn't tell you about Rhoads but I know for certain that Alexi Laiho did not at any point of his career use anything else than EMG's, yet you mention him to use passive pickups.
@@sixstringtv1 From looking at pictures of the guitars he used, it doesn't seems like they did had active pickups.
In general, jackson is an interesting brand.
Since all their models where custom ordered guitars.
Because Jackson started as a Custom Guitar Shop.
@@luciel3893 Alexi Laiho used Passive EMG pickups.
@@sixstringtv1 the Jackson Rhodes's legacy as a guitar is definitely beyond just Randy Rhodes.
Most of the Jackson Rhodes guitars out there are not speced like how Randy would've liked them, same deal with the Gibson Les Paul (sorry Fluff, you can bully me on Facebook all you want lol)
Hey...what single coil pickups would you suggest for metal? Thanks in advance for your advice.
Your recording is clipping something crazy on the guitar playing.
Toxik -Think This! Great album!
I love using my tele with singles coupled with anything humbuckered up for mega dirt, adds a bit of clarity to the sound. Yeah they hum when not playing but thats what a volume control or noise gate was built for, also high gain itself brings a ton of noise.
Great video as ever sir and some top notch playing to help eliminate the myth that singles suck in metal.
I just spit my coffee in the “draw” moment 😂😂😂😂
what fender model is that greyish one in the demo? looks dope
Nicely put together and well informed video, I always say the gear doesn't matter as much as the imagination of the player does. Whether it's single coils, humbuckers, mini humbuckers, active or passive or whatever; it's about you.
Have you ever heard of the technical death metal band Gorod? They're from France, and one of their players uses a single coil tele on a lot of their recordings. While they're known with fans of that style, I feel they're still underrated in death metal as a whole. Definitely recommend them if you haven't heard their stuff.
So I've got an unrelated question but this is the most recent video of yours that features the Splattercaster so prominently, I figured this is the best place to ask;
I've got a Strat around the same year as your Splattercaster. Mine is a MIM 2000 model. I was just wondering how often do you have the frets releveled for a 20 year old guitar that you clearly play very often? Have you ever had to re-fret it completely?
My guitar came with pretty short frets before they changed over to the more modern medium jumbo. Wasn't sure if your Splattercaster came with larger frets for it's time as it's a special edition guitar.
The guitar has never had any fret work.
Minute 6:30 and a few seconds later; was it the riff from Think This by Toxik?
Yes!! 😎
@@sixstringtv1 nice to hear it!!! Just one thing: we almost totally disagree about Megadeth… Ha ha ha!!! Have you learnt it by ear or with Tabs?
Where did you get that shirt?
seymour duncan quarter pound singlecoil ssl-4. Is a great sounding pickup 4 metall.
💯💯
Blackmore agrees :)
Randy Rhoads never used active pickups. He used the stock pickups in his Les Paul, and in his other guitars he played a Dimarzio Distortion and Dimarzio's PAF. He also used Seymour Duncan's JB and Jazz pickups
My bad, assumed he'd been an EMG user shortly before his death because his signature guitars often have EMGs
@@sixstringtv1 Totally understandable. Great video BTW. I really enjoy your content! Keep up the great work
The irony with humbuckers is that it's really hard (for me anyway) to find humbuckers that stand out in terms of tone. The fact that single coils are low output is a feature, not a bug. Just as you demonstrated here, you can run those low output pickups through boost pedals and an array of effects and come out with a hand crafted sound. You can do this with humbuckers, of course, but it just seems harder to me to get a real standout tone from humbuckers vs single coils or P90s. Like you, I also preferred the strat sound you created.
Agreed. Much easier to build off of the sound of a lower output single coil. A humbucker is more like a finished product
I have an Yngwie Strat and I love it for modern metal tones.
The old Dimazrio pickups are better tho
@@sixstringtv1 I can't discern a difference in the demos I have heard.
You'll hear it if you play both
Fender Strats tend to have this percussive sound that doesn't fit the warmer mahogany tone of most "metal-conforming" guitars.
Exactly what makes me love them even more
I mostly use single coils that aren't too hot. I also sound much more guttural than most music I've heard. Two things help with that. Using a modded Fender amp that can be put in class A mode and the Snarling Dogs 'Black Dog' pedal.
I run a telecaster with a warmoth barotone neck rocking single coils and it fuuuuuucks. Im running Bare Knuckle's Sinner pickups. Its a 15ohm neck and a 21.5 ohm bridge. I almost exclusively run the neck because of how heavy it sounds. Im thinking of switching the bridge to a humbucker soley for a tone variation since i honestly believe nothing can compete with that neck pickup as far a heavieness.
I could be wrong but didn’t Yngwie use Dimarzio HS series pickups, which are basically humbuckers, just stacked vertically instead of horizontally?
He started on regular stock strats tho
@@sixstringtv1 ah right. I just remembered seeing his smug face on some ads for Dimarzio back in the 80s, but you’re right, that would’ve been after he became well known. Love the channel, by the way.
Sorry if this has been asked already. Did you use a noise gate?
Yeah! The white Boss one
This proves you can play what you like, if you can play… 🤷♂️ Great playing! Enjoyed the video!
What about comparing noiseless single-coil to humbuckers?
I feel like it’s a matter of the player as well, if you need humbuckers to make a riff sound heavy, then you should reassess your song writing.
I can't agree more that having a unique sound is essential. Some players you can just hear a few notes and you know exactly who it is, and that's something everyone should aim for. Using pickup brands that are good, but not very popular, would be a good place to start. Same with amps and pedals. Using cheaper pedals rather than industry favourites is a good place to start, as long as it sounds good, because how many great guitar players would be recording using boutique or genre-standard pedals that aren't EHX, Boss, Catalinbread, Keeley etc?
The 99 guys that played before you would've had humbucker-Boss-Marshall sound, so go for something a little less worn out.
Try going with single coils because metal is saturated with humbuckers. If you still think it's too thin then try P90s, since that sound birthed the genre.
I have to ask though, why did you say to avoid EMG pickups at the start of the video? I have a set of EMG DG20s in my strat and they sound unreal. Ther range of tones you can get is unlike anything I've had before without, at least, a 5+ band EQ. I couldn't recommend them enough.
I will say while I’m truly quite impressed with the fairly aggressive sound you got out of that strat, it was kinda hard to hear over a scratchy high noise coming from the bass guitar. I honestly thought my headphones or my phone speakers were messed up or something.
In the era of amps with insane gain stages,hi quality emulations like axe-fx kemper and the likes or very high end but also quite affordable amp sims that live inside your DAW you really dont need much to drive those amps hard and i prefer the added clarity of a single coil(even if driven hard) over a high powered but a bit muddy humbucker....its like punching vs knifing.....a punch ll hit you hard and bruise you up...and the knife ll make you bleed.....all in all i prefer noiseless pickup single coil sets for everything....
Why is the volume of your videos so quiet?
I had to crank the level on this one and it still not loud enough.
I don't understand why some people say it's "too" quiet. My videos are a bit below average volume-wise but If I turn up the volume on my phone they're way too loud
Man just hearing Jon Schaffer`s name these days almost bring a single tear to my eye, since i never got to see iced Earth live, being my favorite ever band and having their festivals of the wicked albumart tattooed on me...
Iced Earth is sick!
@@sixstringtv1 Fuck yeah! I used to have Jon`s signature Icebuckers in alot of guitars, but the guy who makes them stopped shipping worldwide because of costs so that ended aswell :/
I’m not saying you can’t play metal on a single coil…but sometimes these guitars are loaded with stacked single coils…dimarzio HS-2 for example…so it looks like they’re playing a standard single coil when they are actually using a single coil size humbucker…this fooled me for a long time…rock on bro!!!
Don't be fooled by stacked single coils. But even Ynwgie started on a regular stock Stratocaster
That's all I have, anyway: Giannini's THS 1 single coil. Also, I can only use the bridge pick up. _Also,_ I don't have any pedals, only a 15w cube with distortion (actually, the clean channel is somehow broken, so I only use the distorted channel), and it only has Volume, Gain, Low, Mid and High knobs.
I take Highs... Up, that sounds weird, well, it's up to 70%. But I also take the Mids above to Low, although I play metal with fast picking riffs.
I don't wanna sound like anybody, even if I could, but I really miss some things, like a proper distortion pedal, so that I can write more dynamic songs, as a good Opeth fan.
BUT, I really wish to change this pick up. Yeah, maybe I throwing all of this away hah Probably I'll get another guitar, too, but this one is special, so I want to upgrade it.
Whats the names of these demo songs? The harmonies were really nice. I know its not really singles, but i compared chugs with humbuckers vs those same pickups split, and while split is a bit brighter, i guess to my ears i just didnt like the initial attack, it sounded twangy to me. Though i still wanna us humbuckers wired to split, since i think split cleans sound nice.
The songs were Harvest Pyre by Abbath and Think This by Toxik
I'm building a (pink :P) Tele and opted for "tradition", so ashtray and single coils. And sure as hell I'm gonna play metal on it. 🙃 Planning to put it in Eb standard. And I was surprised how good the Strat sounded, tbh. Great video. :)
I havnt used actives yet but the sound of emg 81s are so badass but the Seymour Duncan JB has done the job well for me , and the new Thrash factor pickups are those on steroids lol best pickup for metal I have used… and Yngwie is a good example BUT he uses stacked single coils so even he technically uses a pickup closer humbuckers
(That Stevie T clip is cringe.. u said it best the strat sound is a single coil neck or bridge bell like tone )
Hey man what brand guitar rack is that in the bottom left corner
I use a Fender Squier Classic Vibe 50s with fender alnico V and its a chug machine
We have 30 releases on Bandcamp and I play the same squire strat on all of them and it sounds badass haha
Gimme link (DM it to me on Instagram)
It would be amazing if you could do a video about micing a cab. From personal experience I know how hard and frustrating it can be to do this well.
It sure can, I still fuck up plenty muself, but I'll definitely do that!
John 5 plays alot of telecasters with single coils in them
I own a silver triple single coil strat and it sounds terrible with distortion/gain up to 10 when I try to play metal or rock on this silver strat. I'm still saving up for a new guitar with humbuckers which will sound better for metal and rock
One big error you made about Alexi Laiho using a passive pickup actually. He has his own proprietary EMG ABQ which is an onboard preamp that boosts the signal, which means his pickup configuration is actually ACTIVE, just like how most basses that have been described to have active pickups are often passive pickups with an onboard active EQ. So in actuality, Alexi did use active pickups until he passed away.
woops
Except theoretically and factually those pickups were still passive (EMG HZ2 and the earlier Jackson equivalent). It's just the additional active preamp boost he had in ALL his guitars 💁♂ I guess u could call it half-active set or something 🤷♂
@@MaximusAdonicus Again, basses that claim to have active pickups also had passive pickups with an active onboard EQ, so Alexi's setup is no different from that, his onboard pre is just an active signal boost. The only difference between that and EMG/Blackouts is that those pickups have that same active boost just underneath the pickups themselves and you just connect everything through that. That's what active pickups generally are. They're basically passive pickups with some additional accessory that boosts either the entire signal or specific frequencies via battery. It doesn't matter if the said accessory is underneath the pickups themselves or not. So to conclude, Alexi WAS using active pickups.
@@WintermintP Yeah... but no! The basses are irrelevant, they can claim what they want. It's a mix of marketing and confusion.
The question is really simple:
Are EMG HZ and Jackson J50-BC pickups active or passive?
Answer:
PASSIVE!
You can also go to the EMG site and check out the specs for the ALX set where it says that the pickup in that set is... *drumroll* PASSIVE!
The difference in Alexi's sets thru his life was that he used an additional active EQ boost. It's different than the preamp boosts built in active pickups 'cos u can change the amount of boost and the frequencies yourself. And here's the kicker: even without the boost or the battery the pickup still fully works 'cos it's PASSIVE!!! Now tell me again what happens to active pickups when u remove the battery?
Boom! That's 3 strikes and u are out! xD
Epilogue:
Adding an active EQ to a passive pickup doesn't suddenly make the pickup itself active! It only makes the passive pickup BEHAVE similar to an active pickup while still remaining physically 100% passive. It's a hybrid of both worlds.
Also it's rather well known that Alexi was a fan of passive pickups. According to the webs he only had ONE guitar with active pickups. Also all his signature models sold have either passive pickups or the passive pickup + boost combo.
@@MaximusAdonicus Again, you're missing the point. Any pickup is basically a passive until you add an active accessory in the circuit. With the EMGs you're talking about, it just so happens to be that the said active accessory is soldered and epoxied into the casing so you can't connect without the accessory unless you destroy the pickup itself. Also, if you're going to go by that logic of "oh you can turn off active mode and it's a passive," EpiActive pickups themselves are active and they can still run without batteries in passive mode. They're still no different from EMG themselves, it's just that the EpiActive pickups had Passive mode in them but still classified as active pickups.
Likewise, the active setup that I have is a pair of Guitarmory Atlas pickups with an active PA-2 preamp that makes the entire setup an active setup, making the pickups active because they're useless without that battery. But the hidden PA-2 can always be dug out of the cavity and be switched off momentarily, just like Passive mode. Does that make the pickups any more passive? No. It's still an active setup, with the active accessories bypassed to preserve battery life.
When I was a kid I went to a guitar shop to find that a guitar had Seymour Duncan active pickups with humbuckers that had one thin coil and a P90 each, and one of the guys said that it's got active pickups with a switch that lets you bypass the battery. Again, still active setup, just with a bypass switch. Even with Dingwall NG2 and NG3, they have a switch on it that lets you use the Tone Capsule like a regular tone knob. Does it make the setup passive? No, it just has a bypass method but once you flip it back on, the EQ can add frequencies into the bass itself.
I recall a luthier being interviewed about active pickups and he sums it up well as far as differences between actives and passives go. And there's only one difference. With passive pickups, you can only attenuate and take stuff out. With active pickups, you can add stuff. You can add frequencies, you can boost the overall signal, and so on. But to boost whatever you want, you need an external power source to act as an amplifier. That's where the term "active" comes from, which leads into the next bit.
And really, the definitions of active and passive doesn't just stop at guitars/basses. This isn't about marketing at all. Any passive device just means it does not need an external power source, such as typical headphones as they work fine and they themselves don't use any power by any means and they just deliver the information sent through their cable. An SM57 or any dynamic microphone is basically a passive microphone. And then you have active devices, which require an additional external power source to gather the necessary power to do stuff. That's why condensers require phantom power. They require an additional power source, making them active microphones, and you even have stuff like active ribbon microphones that, you guessed it, require phantom power. Tube mics even have their own amplifiers because they need an even bigger power generator to make them work.
If you want to ACTUALLY know the difference between active and passive devices IN GENERAL, just look at active and passive DI boxes. Passive DI boxes don't require any power. Active DI boxes need phantom power. It speaks for itself.
So, no, it's really NOT that simple because the definitions "active" and "passives" go well beyond just mere pickups and guitars and basses.
Yes, you can and it's been done for years. The initial problem was that single coils had such a very low output compared to contemporary humbuckers that guitarists went to great lengths in order to drive their amps harder - heavier strings, higher actions, tape machines as preamps......but some stellar tones were produced (Uli on Tokyo Tapes anyone?)
Modern single coils have such a variety of output levels, resistance levels, the choice of rails or pole pieces, magnet types.......it's not even a question....it's a matter of changing people's perspective. As far as Randy Rhoads - I have NEVER seen any pickups associated with him other that Super Distortions, SH-4 and JB-2 and T-Tops.
My bad for Randy, I've seen lots of Randy Rhoads Vs equipped with EMGs, I assumed he used them towards the end of his life.
No worries! I'm pretty sure EMG 81s would have been around towards the end of his life but, as you say, despite so many of his signature models being equipped with them, I haven't seen any picture of him using them personally.
Single coils for rock and metal is an interesting topic - the extra frequency response certainly makes a guitar sound fuller and you can always add more gain to the signal if you need it to compensate for lower output.
Keep up the good work on the channel, it's certainly growing :)
I like using the middle position for rhythms on my HH ltd guitar. It's kinda twangy but palm mutes are still rich sounding. Singles are nice but I find em a bit too bright for palm muting.
I have an american pro II strat and the single coils are pretty low output and using a distortion pedal makes my amp sound like it's about to blow up. But when it comes to blues and classic rock, I think it sounds great. But i'll leave all the metal stuff to my explorer.
What the song on 5.38?
You can play metal with single coils. It may take a little big of work to get the sound right, but you can do it, and some single coils work better than others. I can think of single coils that work better for metal than a lot of humbuckers. For instance, I think the Duncan Quarter Pounder works great for metal. It's a heavy duty, raw, powerful pickup with strong low end. Also, a lot of stacked buckers like the DiMarzio Injector, Virtual Solo, Heavy Blues 2, HS-2, HS-3 and HS-4; and the Duncan stacked single coils, some of which sound outrageously good with distortion. I go back and forth from single coils to humbuckers. I also think P-90s can really kick ass with high gain, although they don't always do a tight chug if that's your thing. It's not my thing a I go for more of a classic rock era tone, so a P-90 is great for me.
Much love for the SplatterCaster
im confident Eddie van halen played with, essentially, a tapped humbucker -effectively a single coil ... it was a broken JB .... when I tap my kramer 84 to single coil -it sounds just like him ... just sayin .... also -and i could be very wrong here -but I dont remember seeing the humbucker tapping option till the wolfgangs came out in the 90s -but i think the fact his "signature" guitars had those features says something.
IMO - the QP tele bridge pu sounds killer for metal.
My personal take is that single coils just need to be processed differently than humbuckers.
The primary issue is that humbuckers lose some of the upper harmonics to the two coils not being in perfect phase with one another, so a lot of modern distortion pedals and amps aren't designed to keep that part of the audio spectrum in check. This makes single coils tend towards sounding harsh.
To counteract this players need to experiment with the tone control and implement other means to filter out those frequencies, which are also quite dissonant against the fundamental. Rats are perfect for this, as they are incapable of reproducing those frequencies due to the parts used, as are a lot of fuzzes which are pretty much all based on designs that premiered in the 60s when humbuckers were only really on guitars aimed at jazz players (remember that Les Pauls and other Gibson guitar designs were initially adopted by British and American rock musicians partially because they were going relatively cheap second hand at that time. Getting a strat or telecaster in England was a big deal because of import duties post-war but finding a Les Paul on tour in the USA that had either gone unsold or was traded in was relatively accessible. There wasn't a speculator market on electric guitars back then, those guitars were used and the stores had more interest in making good on their investment in new instruments).
I'm also doing some experiments with flatwound strings, as those would have been what players used when fender was designing his pickups.
Long story short you can't always expect to be able to use the same signal chain for everything and get equally good results.
I have a set of single coils from the undisputed best pick-up manufacturer in the multi-verse, EMG (jk), in one tele with an afterburner in it and an esquire with a seymour duncan hot stack and I'd say both do the job fairly well. (does it count if you run a preamp boost?)
Ofcourse it counts! 😎