What is the best rock guitar pickup, single coil, humbucker, or P90?

Question

I am wanting to build a solid body guitar and want to have a guitar that is versatile for all genres if that is possible with one musical instrument. Played for 44 yrs and I find that they all have merits. Interested in some input from others thank you

Answer 1

In my opinion, single coils near the bridge by themselves are unusable. Way too thin with too much treble.

But combine them with a middle position or a neck position signle coil, ala a Strat or a Tele, and it's a beautiful sound.

A single coil by itself at the neck positon cuts through anything and is my prefered setting on my Strat.

P90s ARE in fact single coil pickups, they are much more powerful than "standard" singlecoils and are razor sharp. But they are even more prone to feed back issues, especially in live situations.

Humbuckers can give you a fatter, smoother sound for all styles of music. And of course feedback issues are almost nonexistant.

My ideal solidbody would have a Gibson PAF hunbucker at the bridge, and Fender Texas Specials in the middle and neck positions.

4 way switching - neck, middle, neck/bridge, bridge.

Single volume pot, a neck tone pot and a bridge tone pot,

A one piece maple neck (to brighten the sound).

A brass nut, and use .011 strings.

Answer 2

I don't think there is one definitive "Best Rock Pickup" answer, cause a lot of great stuff was done with all three possibilities you mention. My personal choice is a humbucker, and one of the many "blade" style ones , which prevent signal drop-out when bending and shaking strings. For the record - i don't believe in "Split Coil" humbuckers doubling as single coil pickups. One of my Ibanez guitars has a "push-pull" tone pot that splits the pickup....electronically speaking, but i KNOW the difference in sound, and i don't believe using half a coil of a humbucker is a true authentic single coil sound - reason why i never engage the feature. Never tried P90's , but heard them and i kinda like that midrange "honk" they put out when using some heavy saturation. I've recently added a strat (first all single coil axe i've ever owned) to my "stable", and i find it better at clean sounding "shimmer" type things more than rock distortion type sounds - too thin...then again i'm used to humbuckers for years. You might check out EMG's "active" single coil set for your project, they are pretty beefy, probably due to them being an actave as opposed to passive set. Dimarzio also makes a "Stacked" single coil pickup, two coils on top of each other instead of side by side, which translates to a single coil sound, but humbucker power levels, Yngwie Malmsteen uses those...if you are familiar with his sound. You didn't specify exactly what kind of design you're going to base your project on, traditional or some radical new idea shape, type of woods used, type of bridge, etc. - cause THAT will play a factor also. I'd say...go to your local music shop and try some different variations of pickups - brands , specs, etc. There's a lot of companies making "product" out there. Hope some of this helps.

Answer 3

It really depends on your personal preference. Humbuckers have a fat, rich sound made famous by the Gibson Les Paul. Single coil pickups have a somewhat brighter and gutsier sound, making the Fender Stratocaster and a Telecaster so popular for rock. I'm not familiar with the P90. Anyway, if you're building your own guitar, why not put in one of each? Or you could use a humbucker with a coil tap so you can switch it to a single-coil sound.

Answer 4

As others have said, it really comes down to the fact that you need to know what you want. After 44 years, you know that one pickup (or one amp or guitar or pedal) can't do it all. Any choice will be a compromise. The humbucker with a coil tap would be versatile but wouldn't really nail that biting single-coil tone, would it? And for grinding it out, you can't beat a P-90.

Can't I just have three guitars, then?

Good luck!

Answer 5

How about a Hybrid like all the manufacturers are coming out with/ Start with an acoustic style bridge with a transducer beneath the saddle, then a humbucker midway and single coil by the neck and BAM!!! Toss in a set of 18:1 Grover tuners and no one can touch it.

Answer 6

Do your favorite players play Gibson Les Pauls (humbucker) or Fender Stratocasters (single coil)? I play a 1973 Fender Stratocaster but would love a Gibson Les Paul. I've seen guitars that have a combination, maybe one humbucking and one or two single coil pickups. It may have been Stevie Ray Vaughn or maybe Jeff Beck, probably Vaughn.

Answer 7

That depends on what you sound you like, but a humbucking pickup can be "coil tapped" so that if you pull a switch it behaves exactly like a single coil pickup, so humbucers with coil tap switches give you more tone options. You might want to try more than one pickup combination, and if you are building it for somebody in particular, ask them what THEY like.

Answer 8

There is no "best" pickup. It all depends what you're looking for in your sound. Find an artist you like the sound of, and see what they play, then try and get the same components.

Personally, I like my Fat Strat because I can go single coil or humbucker.

Answer 9

persoanlly, I find that I can get alot of stuff out of my tele with just the 2 single coils and paying attention to the tone settings and distortion levels on my amp. I prefer the middle posistion, both pups going and a little extra gain.

It's really just a personal thing though. P-90's do kick some majot **** though.

Answer 10

The humbucker is smooth, single coil is pretty raw, go with the humbucker and you can depend on a tube screamer to rough it up.