Tips for fattenning up single coils

Ant Music

Ant Music

Fractal Fanatic
Hi guys. I have a strat style guitar with a HSS pickup configuration. I am using my neck pickup single coil mainly for the cleans and I am happy with the tone in isolation but when I jam with the other guitarist my clean tones tend to sound a little thin in comparison.

I tried to remedy this by cranking the mids on the clean amp (vibroverb) and engaging the Fat switch but I'm still not quite there I think.

Any tips are welcome. Thanks guys.
 
There are many options:

Cab block high cut, a guitar amp only puts out to about 8000 in reality.
Amp block, high cut or reduce treble and presence.
Add a EQ block and cap out the top end like the cab block would.
Amp block graphic EQ.
 
Also you might want to turn the guitar vol way down and push the MV of the amp and tweak the Input Trim and Input Drive, etc., to taste. Then fine tweak per Cliff Notes (read them all).
 
smcrosby said:
Also you might want to turn the guitar vol way down and push the MV of the amp and tweak the Input Trim and Input Drive, etc., to taste. Then fine tweak per Cliff Notes (read them all).
Click to expand...

I have found this to be true. Rolling your volume knob back to 8 can act like a high cut. I use this a lot with Plexi style amps and single coils.
 
smcrosby said:
Also you might want to turn the guitar vol way down and push the MV of the amp and tweak the Input Trim and Input Drive, etc., to taste. Then fine tweak per Cliff Notes (read them all).
Click to expand...

Sounds good but I can't be doing this every time I switch from high gain to clean.

I'm already switching from Humbucker in bridge position (for high gain) to Single coil in neck position (for clean). It'd be too much work for quick transitions to also have to ride the volume knob with each transition.
 
Try a 59Bassguy and bring up the gain enough to add a bit of grit. That will fatten your tone and give it some cut.

My really clean Carr patch is a great fit on some songs and it gets lost in others. That's when I use the 59 Bassman. One of these two amps always does the job for me, unless I need some Marshall crunch! :)

Terry.
 
I would not use EQ after the amp. It's too late by then.

Pre EQ is better suited for changing what's supposed to be coming out of the guitar.

I used tone match to do a little study of the sound of two guitars.
You can experiment with this or place a parametric EQ block in the front of your preset. Experiment with different tone shaping techniques.
My favorite DiMarzio bridge HB (a custom model) has a bump at 200Hz and rolloff above 2k.
Here is an image showing how I'd EQ my Strat to get a voice and vibe evocative of the humbucker.

Axe-Edit.png


Humbuckers also typically have hotter output, so running the EQ in front addresses this as well by letting you add some gain via the PEQ LEVEL control.

Remember though the differences between pickups go far beyond flat "tone" curves... a single coil behaves completely differently with what I'd call "formant-like" qualities that will be impossible to handle in this way. A slanted single will also have totally different content per string than a straight bucker. You're not going to simulate that (or de-simulate, as it were). This is not even to mention the effects of string pull, the different attack characteristics, etc. etc. etc.

Still -- you can use pre-EQ help buckerize a SC. As for the noise... I can't help you there ;-)
 
geamala said:
Sounds good but I can't be doing this every time I switch from high gain to clean.

I'm already switching from Humbucker in bridge position (for high gain) to Single coil in neck position (for clean). It'd be too much work for quick transitions to also have to ride the volume knob with each transition.
Click to expand...

Others have given some really good suggestions for altering your clean patch, but if you are really close already you could just roll your neck pup tone knob back a hair.
 
Admin M@ said:
I would not use EQ after the amp. It's too late by then.

Pre EQ is better suited for changing what's supposed to be coming out of the guitar.

I used tone match to do a little study of the sound of two guitars.
You can experiment with this or place a parametric EQ block in the front of your preset. Experiment with different tone shaping techniques.
My favorite DiMarzio bridge HB (a custom model) has a bump at 200Hz and rolloff above 2k.
Here is an image showing how I'd EQ my Strat to get a voice and vibe evocative of the humbucker.

Axe-Edit.png


Humbuckers also typically have hotter output, so running the EQ in front addresses this as well by letting you add some gain via the PEQ LEVEL control.

Remember though the differences between pickups go far beyond flat "tone" curves... a single coil behaves completely differently with what I'd call "formant-like" qualities that will be impossible to handle in this way. A slanted single will also have totally different content per string than a straight bucker. You're not going to simulate that (or de-simulate, as it were). This is not even to mention the effects of string pull, the different attack characteristics, etc. etc. etc.

Still -- you can use pre-EQ help buckerize a SC. As for the noise... I can't help you there ;-)
Click to expand...

Funny, I was just thinking about trying a tone match to get my strat neck pup to sound more like the bridge pup. I don't need a lot, just a little more of that upper mid drive so it distorts better for soloing. I would have it engaged in my solo scene.
 
A typical trap is that when you program sounds at lower volumes, you might start to add highs to hear all the details. That way you don't have enough lows and mids in your presets. The right way would have been to let the highs untouched and just crank up the volume.
If that's the case here just start to decrease highs and increase level instead step by step and listen how it's getting richer in the liws and mids.
 
jakel said:
Others have given some really good suggestions for altering your clean patch, but if you are really close already you could just roll your neck pup tone knob back a hair.
Click to expand...

I don't have one. It has one volume and one tone.
 
Admin M@ said:
I would not use EQ after the amp. It's too late by then.

Pre EQ is better suited for changing what's supposed to be coming out of the guitar.

I used tone match to do a little study of the sound of two guitars.
You can experiment with this or place a parametric EQ block in the front of your preset. Experiment with different tone shaping techniques.
My favorite DiMarzio bridge HB (a custom model) has a bump at 200Hz and rolloff above 2k.
Here is an image showing how I'd EQ my Strat to get a voice and vibe evocative of the humbucker.

Axe-Edit.png


Humbuckers also typically have hotter output, so running the EQ in front addresses this as well by letting you add some gain via the PEQ LEVEL control.

Remember though the differences between pickups go far beyond flat "tone" curves... a single coil behaves completely differently with what I'd call "formant-like" qualities that will be impossible to handle in this way. A slanted single will also have totally different content per string than a straight bucker. You're not going to simulate that (or de-simulate, as it were). This is not even to mention the effects of string pull, the different attack characteristics, etc. etc. etc.

Still -- you can use pre-EQ help buckerize a SC. As for the noise... I can't help you there ;-)
Click to expand...

Great idea!!! I'll definitely give this a shot. Thanks a heap!

By the way I'm not having any noise issues, I'm not sure where you got that from.
 
Since you are playing an HSS guitar, I'm not too sure about the point of making the SC sound like a humbucker? Just use the bridge pup?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom