How Do Noiseless Single Coils Work

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[stratmatt]

They dont sound like a single coil exactly or a humbucker exactly. They have their own sound and I think they sound amazing. Its not a compromise imo.

[barrelburger]

"I don't believe in compromises..." Well actually, tolerating 60 cycle hum IS a compromise. It would be more accurate to say you prefer one compromise over another, which is completely valid. But it is equally valid to prefer the cleaner albeit slightly darker sound of single-space humbucker (keeping in mind that not all single-spaced humbuckers are stacked). I actually like both, and since I have quite a few different guitars I can choose what works given the application and the environment. Everything in your signal path involves some kind of compromise.

[MaunderMaximum]

While 60Hz (or 50Hz) is certainly radiated from transformers, those aren't the only frequencies you hear in pickup hum. You can test this right now- grab your Strat and crank up you amp, and you'll likely hear many higher-pitched components in the hum. That's because the transformers and other electromagnetic components are not just radiating sine waves. Due to rectification and non-linear currents in power supplies, there are complex harmonics in the radiated energy. In fact, 60Hz is usually not even be the the loudest part of the hum we hear, since our ears are more sensitive to higher frequencies. Also, many power supplies these days are high-frequency switching type which can radiate EMI at frequencies not even related to 60Hz.

This is why notch-filtering only 60Hz won't really eliminate pickup hum.

[emiliomarquez]

Hey how about the side wounded pickups like the mudbucker on a eb1. How does that way of making a pickup affect the sound and the physics of it?

[j.a.s.]

Zexcoil pickups! Each pole piece is wound instead of one large coil.... Big premium for a full set.

[jannisderksenmusic]

I have zexcoil pickups in my telecaster. They have 6 Coils, wach magnet has one. The more the better right? 😅 they sound very nice. Have you heard of them?

[kurtarbuckle]

I have Lace pickups. Can you explain them sometime. I like your videos. Very informative

[texasfiddleman]

In an ideal world, I can use my unpotted singlecoils on all my gigs. In the real world, I can use them on about 20% of my gigs. That flashing Bud Light sign doesn’t care about great tone my unpotted single coils potentially get. Indeed, when you use a “noise free” or “stacked” pickup, there is a compromise. But then again, life is full of compromises. When I put Wilde noise free pickups in my Tele, I was freed from the inconvenience of unwanted noise. Nobody noticed any change in tone. They did notice that my sound was much cleaner. In fact when the other guitar player on one of my gigs guitar jack went out. He borrowed my Tele for the rest of the set. He was impressed on how good they sounded. He has some on order now. The majority of the Brent Mason greatness you hear is done on a Duncan stacked pickup.

[kanjosidr]

What are your thoughts about the "silent circuit" that can be found on some music man guitars?

[LeStraTele]

I've tried many stacked Strat pickups. Currently using DiMarzio Area 61 & 58. They sound good, but lack a little on the treble. They have an almost compressed top end. Your explanation is right on.

[lorenkrug]

My favorite neck pickup is a single-cool-size two blade stacked humbucker wired in parallel. Pickup height has to be very high, barely below the strings when fretted. Because the neck pickup is in parallel I tried and loved the same neck pickup in the bridge wired in series. Volume wise they balance well. I get bounce and clarity in the neck and the midrange grit n’ grind in the bridge.

[b.rodclark]

I put stacked humbuckers in my Strat and i swapped out a 250K volume pot for a 1-Meg and i was amazed how it opens up! My Carvin X-60 has a push-pull bright volume pot and the single coil sound jumps out like an actual Strat and the factory 12-lnch Celestion speaker delivers whatever tone the amp's pushing out and i love it!

[TomMilleyMusic]

"I don't believe in compromises"


Fair enough but sometimes people want a stacked humbucker simply because they have a single coil guitar that they want to make a humbucker guitar, or they want a 3 humbucker guitar but maybe don't like the look of 3 humbuckers but are ok with 3 single coil sized pickups. They don't really sound like normal humbuckers either, and that's another reason why some people want them. I'd say that's at least a good portion of the single coil sized humbucker market, so I still think you could make them. Just make sure it's clear to people that it's not going to sound like a single coil and you're not going to market them like that.

[mentalitydesignvideo]

Hopefully this will make the whole pickups&noise issue clear and accessible:

any magnetic (not piezo) pickup is two things at the same time — a dynamo (an electric generator) and a radio antenna (it's also an inductor and a load, but it's totally irrelevant to this conversation).

As a dynamo (generator) it relies on a piece of magnetic metal (i.e. strings) moving through the magnetic field to create alternating current in the coil and consequently in the guitar+amp circuit (just like a hydroelectric dam, only weaker). Coil direction + magnetic polarity define the phase of the electric current (I think it's called "the right hand rule" but I don't remember anymore). Take two coils, flip one, they are now out of phase and cancel each other. Flip one of the bar magnets (or a group of individual magnet rods), and now you've flipped the phase again, so both are now in phase and the vibration of the strings is captured by both coils nearly identically ('nearly' because they 'see' two different parts of the string). This is what RWRP means — reverse wound, reverse polarity (two 180˚ reverses put you back where you started), in phase electrodynamically.

As a radio antenna, the coil does not rely on the magnets, it simply picks up whatever is within it's frequency sensitivity range. But the coil direction still matters, so the two coils pick up the same exact RF interference over the air (or vacuum for that matter, works in outer space the same way), but it travels down the circuit out of phase, cancelling itself out.

This works in the same exact way for coils in parallel ('between' positions on Strat, Tele, split singles on P-Bass, any two-coil-in-parallel set-up) and series (humbucker) arrangement. It works similarly (though not as efficiently) in Valco/Supro lap steel pickups, some split singles with same magnetic polarity, dummy coils and yes, stacked noiseless.

Hope it helps.

[BigShtsie]

Ok, i'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but i would really appreciate an answer. so... if i take a stacked single coil with 4 leads and i wire it to a switch where in one position, it's noise cancelling (normal), and then in the other position, it feeds "coil 1 finish" into "coil 2 start" (or whatever you would have to do to make a "continuous" coil). would that position then sound like a normal single coil? i mean wouldn't it effectively be just a single coil with a gap in the wiring from where they're stacked together? i get that that would change the sound but would it at least be closer? i know you'd then get "hum" but this type of switch, if it worked, would give people the option of sounding like a true single with hum vs sounding like a noiseless pickup without the hum.

[BluesAndNoise]

I would love for you to dissect a Lace Sensor pickup and discuss the different types. I have a mid 90s Strat Plus and it’s really a great sound. Thanks for all your work!

[Helllllllsing]

Isn't the question rather does a stacked humbucker sounds better than an regular humbucker.

[jordanshrago]

What about silent single coil systems that use a battery like the Suhr JM Pro?

[kellypeterson]

What do you think of the illitch or Ulbrich systems? Or dummy coils?

[BradHutchings]

The discussion misses a key point. Regardless of how the pickup is constructed, and whether it is a true single coil or has two coils, how does the pickup sound? For awhile, I have had a MiM Tele with standard MiM Tele single coils. I also have a Squier Tele with dual humbuckers. The MiM Tele has a noisy single coil sound that I can get rid of my moving to a certain area and rotation in my living room. When it's quiet, it sounds like single coils, like it should. The Squier is always quiet and it sounds like humbuckers. This is what I expect. They sound very different, and I like both of the sounds for different things.

So I just got an Ultra Tele with the newest Fender "noiseless" pickups and an S1 switch that puts them in series in the middle position. To my ear, it sounds much more like the MiM Tele (single coils) than it does the Squier (humbuckers). It doesn't have the hum anywhere in my living room, and it really has a crisper, sweeter sound that the MiM Tele. But sound-wise. it is voiced at the high end of single coil sounds I've heard.

With the S1 switch on and 3-way in the middle position, the guitar is much quieter, but the tone is a very nice single coil sounding tone.

Anyway, the primary goal for pickups ought to be to create a sound the guitarist likes, not be all technically correct with categorizations. If the pickups contained tiny ants playing tiny synthesizers to generate the best single coil voicing ever, I'd be all in. You would be too.