Coupling single coils; worth it?

[Mark Hammer]

Okay, so let's say you had a bunch of single coils with alnico polepieces, and some were RWRP. Would there be any sonic advantage (OR penalty) to sticking two side by side, wiring them up as a humbucking pair and coupling them magnetically underneath with a baseplate? Or would you be better off simply leaving them as two RWRP pickups that just happened to be near each other?

[Possum]

maybe....

I think the most noticeable thing that would happen would be you would get stronger gauss at the poles, this might actually be bad maybe in string pull. It would also increase the midrange some, same deal, could be good or bad. If you have an LCR meter you can try this and see what happens at the two test frequencies, and then use your gauss meter. I suppose if it was something good it would have been done by now. There are humbuckers done with two single coil type pickups, Velvet Hammer buckers are really two strat pickups put together....

[Mark Hammer]

I guess that's essentially saying that any potential benefits would only be likely to occur if:
a) the individual pickups were not overwound
b) the magnets were not overly strong to begin with

Makes sense.

[Spence]

One of Gibson's not so fine moments was the humbucker design as seen in the Gibson Victory :



Both bobbins are slugside style. One has AlNiCo poles and the other has steel slugs. There is an inductance plate connecting the alnico to the steel slugs and the whole pickup is engulfed in copper foil. In practise, they are pretty vile pickups and uneconomical to repair.

[David Schwab]

One of Gibson's not so fine moments was the humbucker design as seen in the Gibson Victory.

The Victory bass was pretty nice.

[dpm]

I'm really interested in this line of thought. My situation is that I have 7+ string humbuckers made for multiscale instruments. For the sake of simplicity and lower cost the coils are alnico slugs and flatwork attached to a baseplate. Problem is I'm after a more typical humbucker response from them and I'm finding added capacitance helps get the tone I want from them. Could adding some steel into the equation help?

[David Schwab]

Could adding some steel into the equation help?

It should. It will raise the inductance. That should give you a darker (warmer) tone. If it gets too muddy, wind less on the pickups. Generally it seems the more inductance you have, the less windings you need. Unless you want that effect.

I can see what Gibson was trying to do. Make one coil similar to a strat, and then link those alnico slugs to the other coil to make a humbucker. Then when you select only the coil with the magnets, you get a strat type tone. I bet the copper foil killed that one!

The new PRS has a similar, but different way to do this. (bridged, tapped coils)

[Zhangliqun]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding some key point here, but this is essentially what Duncan's Stag Mag is.

Also, about 5 years ago Fender made a Jeff Beck sig Strat that had two Fender-style singles crammed together to make a bridge humbucker.

In other words, the idea will work. I've never tried a Stag Mag or the Beck Strat so I don't have an opinion on the sound.

[David Schwab]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding some key point here, but this is essentially what Duncan's Stag Mag is.

Also, about 5 years ago Fender made a Jeff Beck sig Strat that had two Fender-style singles crammed together to make a bridge humbucker.

In other words, the idea will work. I've never tried a Stag Mag or the Beck Strat so I don't have an opinion on the sound.

Did the Stag Mag have a steel plate connecting both rows of magnets? Or where they just like two single coils next to each other?

That was the question, about coupling the magnets.

I say give it a whirl.

[Plectrum]

Hey Mark! I (as "vogon") know you from stompboxes ...

A guitarist left a strat with 2 "stock design" singles in the bridge here, the single coil setting is different to a single "on it's own" in that it sounds more compressed and constricted, I imagine from the interaction of the mag field from it's neighbour.
In HB mode, it's too dark and one-dimentional for my tastes - IMO there's a lack of clarity one would get from a traditional HB wound to a similar DC resistence.
But that was my finding from just the one guitar, for what it's worth.

...Maybe tapping both coils at around 4k for the HB mode may present a more a workable solution (for my tastes), but obviously a much more complex switching/wiring scheme would be required.

[David Schwab]

In HB mode, it's too dark and one-dimentional for my tastes - IMO there's a lack of clarity one would get from a traditional HB wound to a similar DC resistence.

But how where they wound? If they are wound like regular strat pickups, that would make a dark sounding humbucker.

But that was my finding from just the one guitar, for what it's worth.

...Maybe tapping both coils at around 4k for the HB mode may present a more a workable solution (for my tastes), but obviously a much more complex switching/wiring scheme would be required.

That's how the PRS guitar works. When linking the coils as a humbucker, it switches to a lower resistance tap.

[Plectrum]

But how where they wound?

That's how the PRS guitar works. When linking the coils as a humbucker, it switches to a lower resistance tap.

Sorry, I took it as read that these were "stock" strat design singles with one in humbucking configuration - to clarify.

Wow, I never new that about the PRS, I may just have to tickle one now...
They're dear though, huh...

[David Schwab]

They're dear though, huh...

The word is "over priced" Oh, that's two words!