I'm giving up on noiseless single coils.

[Structo]

Lefty I ran through the same gamut of noiseless pickups and ususally resorted to a humbucker bridge pickup in the Lonestar configuration.

But as far as noiseless single coils, I have a strat that I installed Fender Hot Noiseless pups in.
I liked them much more than the Area pickups as far as real strat tones go.

They aren't that hot and have plenty of spank and quack.

[PaisleyTube]

I even hate rw/rp-mid-pu-sets!

no hum no gain, no gain no hum, etc.

[rocketeer]

I have the BPSSC on my main Strat with Lindy Fralin single coils. Sounds great!! I have a no load tone pot that is the one that disconnects itself from the circuit when fully clockwise to get the "brightest" sound possible out of these pickups. When you rotate it away from "10" it adds the tone cap to the circuit. I would say that when I switched to the BPSSC it was the equivalent of stepping down from "no load" tone to "load" tone. Which is just a micro difference in extreme high end. The BPSSC does not get rid of 100% of hum....I'd say 85% which is totally acceptable in keeping real single coil tone. Making measurements, this is a 300 ohm dummy coil wound on to the inside of their backplate along with a little circuit to "balance" their coil pickup strength to your coil. Near 100% cancellation can occur if the coil is on the exact plane as the pickup which is what Suhr guitars do with the coil routed into the cavity surrounding the pickups. Brilliant design. Check out his patent online. It's basically an antenna to pick up the noise and then add it to the audio signal out of phase. The 3" x 6" coil diameter is way more efficient in picking up the noise rather than a small pickup size tight coil. That's how he can keep the coil resistance low.

I too have tried all the "noiseless" designs. The Area 67's are the most realistic of all in my opinion. Sorry ... the EMG's to me are sterile sounding.

[leadfootdriver]

Lefty,

Have you tried EMG active pup's? I've been using them for at least 25 years in all my single-coil-equipped guitars. Maybe it's because I've been using them for so long that I've just become accustomed to their sound, but I like them quite a bit.

If you have tried them, what is it about them you don't like?

Thanks,
Lou

Actually, I've keep going back to EMG-SA's for many years. It seems my pattern over the years has been:

- Try a single coil
- Get sick of the noise, go back to EMG.
- Try a noise-less.
- Don't like the tone, go back to EMG.
- Repeat over and over.

But I think I will try single coils one more time with either the BPSSC, or a dummy coil.

All the pickups I have I eventually sell, except the EMG-SA's.

Maybe if I could come up with a way to power the preamp without having to install a battery in the guitar, I'd just leave them in.

the X-Series are more open sounding than the originals.

[vibratoking]

I like true single coils. Have used Fender, Fralins. Rio Grande and Kinmans with equal success. Shield the cavity, set the pickup height correctly, and all is good. I also put one tone pot on the neck and one on the bridge. Nothing in the middle.

Noiseless single coils just aren't right to me and, I agree, that actives are sterile.

[rp]

Damn modern radiation.

Never thought of this - that the ether was much cleaner when Leo wound his first Broadcaster pickups. Maybe an all tube analog studio in a salt mine is the answer

[LeftyStrat]

Damn modern radiation.

Never thought of this - that the ether was much cleaner when Leo wound his first Broadcaster pickups. Maybe an all tube analog studio in a salt mine is the answer

Yeah, seems I got along fine for years with single coils. But nowadays just about everything has a microprocessor in it. Then you've got the compact fluorescents, SMPS, laptops, etc.

When I get near my laptop I can wave my guitar around and make light saber sounds.

I've been meaning to record some of the hum for analysis. It would be interesting to see the frequency components. What I hear is much more high end hash than 60 cycle hum.

Of course I think I have more computers in my house than people, and I have a wife and three kids.

[LeftyStrat]

Well, I guess I'm going to try one more set. I ordered some GFS Neovin's:

http://guitarfetish.com/GFS-Noise-Free- ... _c_38.html

We'll see how it goes. When they get here, I'll put the Dimarzio's on eBay.

[Cliff Schecht]

I looked at those a lot. I'm very curious about what you think of them Lefty.

FWIW I have a set of Fender SCN that I picked up cheap at a Guitar Center. I REALLY like those pickups. While they don't necessarily nail a vintage Strat tone, they have a great clarity to them and and still sound great in a Strat (big fat neck and decently hot bridge that is still very touch sensitive). The best part of these really is the noise performance. They are by far the lowest noise pickups I've ever used. Quieter than my nicest humbuckers. When I'm troubleshooting an amp for noise, I always use these pickups.

[statorvane]

Check out this thread on ReRanch - from a builder whose opinion I respect - re. GFS Neovin Pickups:

http://www.reranch.com/reranch/viewtopic.php?t=51854

These were for a Thinline Tele.

[Reeltarded]

Cool.

But, if you can spell intreeging you can afford to spend more than $50 on a pair of pickups, you cheap eleetist ivy leeger.

[bluesfendermanblues]

+1 on BPSSC, which I have installed on two strats (SD ant neck, SD SSC-1 mid and SD Twangbanger in Bridge). You can't "hear" the BPSSC at all it doesnt add to or detract from the tone at all. Only drawback is the price witch is a little high.

Up untill installing the BPSSC, I tried all kind of noiseless pickups including EMG and never liked any of them. I play mainly blues and noise is a challange on small stages where you tend to be quite close to your amp.

BTW, Shielding the guitars with cobber foil of magnetic paint is fine for reducing RF, but doesnt remove hum at all.

[butwhatif]

http://wildepickups.com/

[jelle]

Damn modern radiation.

Never thought of this - that the ether was much cleaner when Leo wound his first Broadcaster pickups. Maybe an all tube analog studio in a salt mine is the answer

Yeah, seems I got along fine for years with single coils. But nowadays just about everything has a microprocessor in it. Then you've got the compact fluorescents, SMPS, laptops, etc.

Well, if I have to choose between my '64 strat or the computer...simple choice!

[Reeltarded]

Ok, well if you really want to get rid of the strat.. I'll take it.



See ya on youtube, ya big facebook!