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Want to start a fight? Tell a Stratocaster or Telecaster player (Or a .38 Special or Vaquero player) that a split humbucker will sound just like his guitar. It doesn’t and I am here to tell you why.
First – why single coils sound so pure.
1. A single coil picks up its vibrations from a single area above the string. A humbucker picks up the signal from two places along the string. Close together, but still two places. These dual signals differences cause some of the harmonics to cancel each other out.
2. Another reason is that the magnet in the pickups pull on the strings. (If a pickup is adjusted too high and is too close to the string this can cause serious sound problems.) By doubling this magnetic pull and having it in two places, such as with a humbucker, it effects the string vibrations more therefore disturbing the harmonics.
If you split coils in a humbucker so that only one coil is active you have canceled out the differences listed in no. 1 above. However, you have not done anything about no. 2. There is still twice as much magnetic stress on the strings. Not to mention that you magnetic field is still being interupted by another magnetic field. Just because you cut off the output of the coil does not mean you turn off the magnetic field.
Another reason that is only applicable on some guitars is pickup placement. Leo Fender knew what he was doing when he placed the neck pickups on his famed Strats and Teles. Notice these pickups have a bright warmth that is very distinguishable, very pure in tone. It is because the pickups are placed in a sweet spot in the intonation. The magnets are lined up exactly half way between the 12th fret and the bridge saddles. This is a harmonic area. Many newer guitars have 24 fret necks. Well, sorry but you can not have a fret and a pickup in the same spot. Many people really like a 24-fret guitar. I have played many I like also. But if I could only have one guitar it would not have 24 frets. I almost never am in a situation where I am actually playing on the 24th fret so I would much rather use that beautiful harmonic area to place a pickup in.
So no matter how much it makes your recording engineer squirm, if you want that single coil sound there is only one way to get it. You just have to put up with the buzz. So when the engineer swears about it, remind him it was not you who decided to use florescent lighting in a studio!
As of Summer 2002 I will be testing Kinman pickups in .38 Secials. These ppickups reportedly will reduce single coil hum dramatically. We will see!
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