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I personally like the Hot stuff. Hot high gain humbuckers with a good low end and clarity. I much prefer them to be overly bright and ice pick than dark as I enjoy tweaking eq and its much easier to tone down bright than bring the bright from the dark. Subtractive EQ rules.

I like the traditional alnico II sounds with good low/mid tension scatter wound pups but I just dont have the patience or money to make the most of them by pairing them with an amp or gat of equal goodness.

Single coils... while not really being my thing, If I was to buy a strat I wouldn't be putting anything else but a set of Suhr fletcher landeus in there.

Single coils have never been my bag, so I'll leave them to the folks that dig em.

Experimented a little over the years, mostly due to unhappiness of a stock arrangement.

The biggest revelation was putting Suhr Aldrich's into a Les Paul...gave me the "removes the blanket" issue that irked me.
Despite being high output they're warm without being muddy & have great note articulation.
Play nice with a variety of amps, pure win all-round.

For super strats, can't go past the good ol JB.
I had Adrian install a BK Nailbomb & that seemed to be like a more "open" JB variant.....to my ears anyway.

higainer wrote:Single coils have never been my bag, so I'll leave them to the folks that dig em.

Experimented a little over the years, mostly due to unhappiness of a stock arrangement.

The biggest revelation was putting Suhr Aldrich's into a Les Paul...gave me the "removes the blanket" issue that irked me.
Despite being high output they're warm without being muddy & have great note articulation.
Play nice with a variety of amps, pure win all-round.

For super strats, can't go past the good ol JB.
I had Adrian install a BK Nailbomb & that seemed to be like a more "open" JB variant.....to my ears anyway.

I nearly put a Suhr humbucker in my Les Paul yesterday. It required that I extend the wires and after I did I wasn't happy it was measuring what it should so I just put it to one side until I'd time to investigate. Only frustration is the extra 3mm spacing. It'll irk me.

I used to be a hot humbucker kinda guy, and I guess I still am.

The one exception being the Whole Lotta Humbuckers - I think because they are so balanced and hi-fi sounding they seem higher output than their ohmage implies.

Also in general I prefer Alnico to Ceramic magnets - Ceramics are usually a bit "crispy" to my ears so I really don't like them for clean and prefer the alnico warmth for gain too.

Molly wrote: My Mrs never comments on my guitar sound but yesterday just casually said: "That sounds good".

What's she after

Green Bastard wrote:

Molly wrote: My Mrs never comments on my guitar sound but yesterday just casually said: "That sounds good".

What's she after

Less raiding of the holiday funds?

Molly wrote:

higainer wrote:Single coils have never been my bag, so I'll leave them to the folks that dig em.

Experimented a little over the years, mostly due to unhappiness of a stock arrangement.

The biggest revelation was putting Suhr Aldrich's into a Les Paul...gave me the "removes the blanket" issue that irked me.
Despite being high output they're warm without being muddy & have great note articulation.
Play nice with a variety of amps, pure win all-round.

For super strats, can't go past the good ol JB.
I had Adrian install a BK Nailbomb & that seemed to be like a more "open" JB variant.....to my ears anyway.

I nearly put a Suhr humbucker in my Les Paul yesterday. It required that I extend the wires and after I did I wasn't happy it was measuring what it should so I just put it to one side until I'd time to investigate. Only frustration is the extra 3mm spacing. It'll irk me.

Extra 3mm spacing?
Sounds like a Floyd spec.
Gibby one is 50mm, no issues

Favourite all time pu, mid 60's P90's clear see through plastic showing copper windings inside. They have vintage tone with just a touch more wallop.
Find different pu's suit different guitars and with a P90 because it contains two magnets a lot can be achieved mixing and matching I like an UOA5 with an A2 in the neck and an A4/ A2 in the bridge.
Not overly fond of Gibson humbuckers but they too can be improved with some magnet swapping and more significantly taking out some of the wax with a hairdryer. Potted pu's don't respond like unpotted if you like a wide dynamic response so taking some wax out helps enormously. I know the potting is to help with squeals etc at high volume but having in the past gigged a pair of 100 watt Marshall's with no issues I fail to see the point( all a matter of stagecraft )
Also a big fan of Z90's. Have had Wolfetone's , Sheptones, Stephens Design, all good, all better in some guitars than others. Yet to try Throwbak's, almost cheaper to buy another guitar.

Low output PAFs for me too. I have a few DiMarzio 36th Annis, two in my LP Custom and one in my 335 (bridge). I went through about 8 neck pickups on the 335 until I settled on a Whole Lotta Humbucker. I think that SD Seth Lovers are heinously underrated. They're such a sweet sounding pickup, very dynamic and versatile too. I have been impressed with Loller Imperials in the past too. P90 wise, I think that Gibson are still have to beat. I've never felt the need to 'upgrade' any of the Gibson P90s I've had, and have always been impressed when they've been through the shop, too.
I've had a lot of success with the DiMarzio noiseless singles in the past, and am also a big fan of the SD Quarter Pounder and SSL1 pickups.

I always liked SD Blackouts, but it appears I'm in the minority.

DeArmond gold foil single coils work great in hollow bodies.

hamo wrote:I always liked SD Blackouts, but it appears I'm in the minority.

I certainly prefer them to EMGs.

Some other people have Whole Lotta Humbuckers here

I have them and was so impressed that i could not understand why they are not a heck of a lot more popular. These pups will get pulled from this gat and transplanted into my next gat if I ever sell it for something else.

Polar Bear wrote:Low output PAFs for me too. I have a few DiMarzio 36th Annis, two in my LP Custom and one in my 335 (bridge). I went through about 8 neck pickups on the 335 until I settled on a Whole Lotta Humbucker. I think that SD Seth Lovers are heinously underrated. They're such a sweet sounding pickup, very dynamic and versatile too. I have been impressed with Loller Imperials in the past too. P90 wise, I think that Gibson are still have to beat. I've never felt the need to 'upgrade' any of the Gibson P90s I've had, and have always been impressed when they've been through the shop, too.
I've had a lot of success with the DiMarzio noiseless singles in the past, and am also a big fan of the SD Quarter Pounder and SSL1 pickups.

I absolutely agree here about the SD Seth Lovers and Gibson P90s. I've got Seth Lovers in my sunburst LP and they're clear and very articulate. All my P90 guitars have Gibsons in them and I feel no need to change, they sound great. I think a prime example of this is Molly's R6. The neck pick up sounds so clear and full. Run through a plexi it's heaven! For singles SSL-1s in a strat are amazing.

The Burns Tri-Sonic pups in the Brian May gat we got my nephew are fairly unique sounding. They do not sound like typical single coils.