The science of single pickup guitars

[littlebadboy]

Thought of sharing this, if you are interested in the science of a single pickup guitar.

https://youtu.be/FI8l9BCOm-U

What say you?

[Überschall]

I say my best sounding guitar is a single pickup guitar.

[Kagami]

They sound even better with the sonic enhancement cavity in the neck position.

[Blazon_Stone]

I dont care about any percieved "sound difference". Guitarists are too navel-gazing about stuff that doesnt matter in the real world.

All I care about is how awesome they LOOK.

[desertdweller]

This guy made it work.

[DonBot]

I rarely ever use a neck pickup and have only one guitar without so...

[Dan0151]

This guy made it work.

and this guy !

[Ryan]

They look cooler, therefore they sound better. Science fact.

[playstopause]

They sound even better with the sonic enhancement cavity in the neck position.

[Darren]

That was great. I knew Rhett Shull was a good player, but that was a really smart video (and he included sources!)

[Drew]

Bright-seeming, very articulate guy, and a well-produced video, but he takes FOREVER to get to the point.

Over and above the impact of multiple points of magnetic pull along the string from a pickup simply being there in the first place, it also makes you wonder a little about the AMOUNT of magnetic pull from various pickups. Humbuckers with weaker magnets in theory should have less magnetic pull along the string than those with stronger ones, so two vintage spec humbuckers ,might exhibit less of this than ones with powerful ceramic magnets. And, while I'm a singlecoil lover at heart, they do exhibit quite a bit more magnetic pull and you're talking three not two. Is it possible that part of the singlecoil "sound" and some of that roundness of a good neck singlecoil is the product of the pull from the middle and bridge? Conversely, the ML Standard in the neck of my natural finish Suhr is a bit more explosive in the top end than the same pickup in my silver Strat, and the relative lack of pull from a single humbucker vs a pair of singlecoils absolutely could be the factor.

Now I'm starting to think about the tonal impact of HSS vs SSS, and how I'd go about testing that,

[Kagami]

Bright-seeming, very articulate guy, and a well-produced video, but he takes FOREVER to get to the point.

Over and above the impact of multiple points of magnetic pull along the string from a pickup simply being there in the first place, it also makes you wonder a little about the AMOUNT of magnetic pull from various pickups. Humbuckers with weaker magnets in theory should have less magnetic pull along the string than those with stronger ones, so two vintage spec humbuckers ,might exhibit less of this than ones with powerful ceramic magnets. And, while I'm a singlecoil lover at heart, they do exhibit quite a bit more magnetic pull and you're talking three not two. Is it possible that part of the singlecoil "sound" and some of that roundness of a good neck singlecoil is the product of the pull from the middle and bridge? Conversely, the ML Standard in the neck of my natural finish Suhr is a bit more explosive in the top end than the same pickup in my silver Strat, and the relative lack of pull from a single humbucker vs a pair of singlecoils absolutely could be the factor.

Now I'm starting to think about the tonal impact of HSS vs SSS, and how I'd go about testing that,

The weak magnets and boosted output is one of the things EMG used to market its active pickups in the past and why they suggest putting them as close as possible to the strings.