Hi all, I'm struggling with some principles in connection with my Duo Sonic.
DS was originally a SS configuration.
Added a Seymour Duncan SH4JB to the bridge - love it.
Have decided to potentially change the neck pickup as I find the stock one 'harsh'. Whilst I'm in there, I'll do some other mods.
I think I'll Coil tap the neck HB (like I say the guitar was originally an SS so this wasn't previously done).
I've also bought a capacitor, and once fitted this may fix the harshness of the neck single coil (these guitars bizarrely come fitted with 500k pots, and so this may be the issue). So far so good.
Is it an utter stupid ideal to try and get a 'Stratty' sound from this configuration if I make the middle position a tapped HB/SC combo.
Do I need to get a RW/RP single coil mid position strat pup to do this? will the existing SC do this? what if I use the current one and reverse wire it?
Thanks in advance.
Humbucker/single coil issues
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Bradley-Jazz
- PAT. # 2.972.923
- Posts: 796
- Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2016 12:00 pm
- Location: Sheffield, UK
Re: Humbucker/single coil issues
Do you mean the "out of phase" position 2 and 4 sounds on a Strat? You don't need a RW/RP pickup, in fact there is a school of thought that RW/RWP diminishes the "quackiness" of the in between position sounds.
The Strat sound is down to the position of the pickups and hence the frequencies that cancel out between the two pickups (the harmonics that are vibrating upwards over one pickup and are vibrating down over the other at the same time will cancel). On my Duo Sonic SS, the in between position is a bit stratty as the pickups are closer to each other than on a tele, for example, and are of pretty Strat-like construction. But they are not as close to each other as on a Strat so it is by no means a clone, but I like the sound.
If you tap your Humbucker, then I suspect that taking out the coil nearest the bridge and leaving the one nearer the neck in circuit would be your best bet, to keep the pickup spacing as close as you can. I think reverse wiring the neck SC will put it electrically out of phase (which is different to the Strat "out of phase" sound, hence my quotes), and you will get a much thinner tone.
If you are reasonably handy with a soldering iron, you can just rewire and try it before you go and buy a new pickup - solder is cheap!
By the way, I like the pickups in my Duo-Sonic, but I do find I use the tone control more on there than on some of my other guitars to soften the bite a bit (as I get older I use the tone more and more anyway!).
The Strat sound is down to the position of the pickups and hence the frequencies that cancel out between the two pickups (the harmonics that are vibrating upwards over one pickup and are vibrating down over the other at the same time will cancel). On my Duo Sonic SS, the in between position is a bit stratty as the pickups are closer to each other than on a tele, for example, and are of pretty Strat-like construction. But they are not as close to each other as on a Strat so it is by no means a clone, but I like the sound.
If you tap your Humbucker, then I suspect that taking out the coil nearest the bridge and leaving the one nearer the neck in circuit would be your best bet, to keep the pickup spacing as close as you can. I think reverse wiring the neck SC will put it electrically out of phase (which is different to the Strat "out of phase" sound, hence my quotes), and you will get a much thinner tone.
If you are reasonably handy with a soldering iron, you can just rewire and try it before you go and buy a new pickup - solder is cheap!
By the way, I like the pickups in my Duo-Sonic, but I do find I use the tone control more on there than on some of my other guitars to soften the bite a bit (as I get older I use the tone more and more anyway!).
All the cheeses....
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AndyMansh
- PAT PEND
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- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2021 7:46 am
Re: Humbucker/single coil issues
"If you tap your Humbucker, then I suspect that taking out the coil nearest the bridge and leaving the one nearer the neck in circuit would be your best bet"
Aaaaaaah, this is why I come to you guys - it hadn't even crossed my mind that I could choose which half of the bucker to tap!
I agree with you on the tone, my DS and Mustang are the only guitars I ever have my tone knob at 50% as a default.
Aaaaaaah, this is why I come to you guys - it hadn't even crossed my mind that I could choose which half of the bucker to tap!
I agree with you on the tone, my DS and Mustang are the only guitars I ever have my tone knob at 50% as a default.