having trouble getting good od/dist with single coils

[hithere]

hey guys my recent amp has been a princeton reverb ri which I love, but I find it so much easier to get a good od tone with pedals with my humbucker guitars than a strat or tele.

My sd-1 generally makes the singles sound straight up fizzy, and it's almost impossible to get rid of.

I can get easier od/dist tones out of microcube practice amp amp with my singles than my princeton, and I enjoy tons of others tele/strat tones.

I don't think it could be the sd-1's fault, perhaps it could be the speaker? Sounds wonderful with humbuckers though.


maybe running through a marshall cab could make a difference?

 

[rockinr0ll]

OD/Dist. SC sound a lot different than when the Humbuckers are driven. It might just not be your "flavor", if you will. I use my H's for OD and my SC for clean. Try that.

 

[tbwrench]

My Les Paul custom is awesome with the Marshall but my Eric Johnson strat has no balls at all for overdriven sounds. The strat is great for blues with light OD or clean tones, in fact the clean tones are superior to the LP. So I will use the right tool for the job. On the pother hand, my brother builds guitars and his strat has some kind of hot bridge pickup and that guitar screams with overdrive. I think it is a hot rails or a stacked humbucker I don't recall. It is awesome!! Maybe a different pickup would help you get the sound you need. Best wishes. TBW.

 

[Purgasound]

High output pickups handle and push overdrive and distortion much better. You almost have to take on a different approach to shaping gain through a single coil. It's a different beast. Usually a pedal that can saturate the hell out of a signal with way too much distortion can sometimes take off some of the harshness and brittle bite of a single coil, but it depends as all single coils aren't the same just like humbuckers.

 

[rich88uk]

you can always install singlespaced humbuckers if your not getting the sound you are after

 

[ken361]

I have a duncan hot rail in my strat, sounds sweet

 

[watchtheskies]

hey guys my recent amp has been a princeton reverb ri which I love, but I find it so much easier to get a good od tone with pedals with my humbucker guitars than a strat or tele.

My sd-1 generally makes the singles sound straight up fizzy, and it's almost impossible to get rid of.

I can get easier od/dist tones out of microcube practice amp amp with my singles than my princeton, and I enjoy tons of others tele/strat tones.

I don't think it could be the sd-1's fault, perhaps it could be the speaker? Sounds wonderful with humbuckers though.


maybe running through a marshall cab could make a difference?

I used to have a Boss graphic EQ pedal to use with single coil guitars, helped me to tailor a more consistent sound live when swapping between my old Strat and my Les Paul, it also gave my strat a bit of a signal level boost, which also helped

 

[Trick]

hey guys my recent amp has been a princeton reverb ri which I love, but I find it so much easier to get a good od tone with pedals with my humbucker guitars than a strat or tele.

My sd-1 generally makes the singles sound straight up fizzy, and it's almost impossible to get rid of.

I can get easier od/dist tones out of microcube practice amp amp with my singles than my princeton, and I enjoy tons of others tele/strat tones.

I don't think it could be the sd-1's fault, perhaps it could be the speaker? Sounds wonderful with humbuckers though.


maybe running through a marshall cab could make a difference?

Well Strats will always sound thin compared to a Humbucker equipped guitar, even if you install hot rails or whatever. Part of the problem might be that you are using a distortion pedal. What you need is an Overdrive pedal i.e. Ibanez Tube Screamer or Boss OD I or II or any OD pedal will work. Like SRV use to do, he would use two Tube Screamers, one for a slight boost and one for more gain. Then you'll hear what you want. But a Humbucker will always sound ballsier. Humbuckers have a touch more output than a single coil and they also compress the sound as well, that's why single coils sound better for cleans and always represent the sound of the string better. Listen to Hendrix's tone using a Strat compared to when he was using a Flying V, you'll hear the difference. If you play Metal, a Humbucker is the way to go, or if you're into Strats and want to play Metal then you'll end up with a Malmsteen tone or Uli and Blackmore. Which is great too!

 

[DC135er]

DiMarzio makes twin blade humbuckers that are the same size as a single coil. Carvin makes them also. A friend and fellow guitarist had the DiMarzios, I have the Carvins. I highly recommend them both.

 

[MKB]

There are quite a few guitarists that can get a good thick tone out of a Strat, but they usually use pedals or custom amps. There are other factors at play also; many Strats have the pickups too close to the strings so the magnets pull on the strings and cause fret buzz, which single coils do NOT like. Many artists with stock Strats (such as SRV and Robin Trower) will use huge strings and high action, and will drop the pickups very low to get the tone they want.

One thing though; there are stock vintage type Strats out there that sound nice and thick on their own due to good wood and finish. If you find one, BUY IT. They are out there but are rare.

Also FWIW, I've never had a problem getting a ripping lead pickup tone from a good Tele. They seem to tolerate lighter strings and closer pickup settings much better than a Strat. The Tele bridge pickup through a good amp is a thing of true beauty.

Jimi's signal chain is an interesting study. He had several devices in his chain (such as the Fuzz Face and Univibe, plus those old coiled cords) that significantly altered the sound of his Strat, mainly in dumping high end. But the result was beautiful. It's interesting to hear his tone turn very dark and muffled when he plugged in a Gibson into the same setup.