I can't think of a reason to buy any humbuckers other than overwound humbuckers.

[rand z]

I'm not a big HB fan, but I do like them for specific purposes.

I like a 8-9K HB bridge pu for certain blues/rock applications.

Slightly over-driven they can get "creamy" (think Allmans/Slide) which I believe is a good sound for the Blues/Rock thingy.

I prefer a 7-8K HB neck pu for any Jazzy/Bluesy thing.

Normally, I use a P 90 neck and/or Tele bridge for most everything; it covers a lot of basses (with the use of the tone pot).

imo.

 

[TheCheapGuitarist]

Fine. Carry on buying them then

I'll need more guitars to put them in. HEY......

 

[TheCheapGuitarist]

Well yeah, it can't lose highs if it never had any. Lack of highs is what a lot of people like myself don't like about overwound humbuckers.

That's where the amp's tone knobs come into play.

 

[TheCheapGuitarist]

I seriously doubt I will ever buy another humbucker that is not an EVH Wolfgang. Those things are amazing!

What about it do you like? Just curious, as I've never tried one.

 

[bottlenecker]

That's where the amp's tone knobs come into play.

They can't add what isn't there.

 

[TheCheapGuitarist]

I like humbuckers that are closer to single coil (my fave guitar pickups) than anything overwound. I think humbuckers are cool for their noise control and the PAF tone has some rightious sonic information that singles dont accentuate.

But my favorite sounding hbs are well under 9k impedance. Closer to 7k.

I do have a Gretsch Pro Jet that I put HS Filtertrons into. Those are in a completely different category, and I like them as well. But I had to put a treble bleed mod in that guitar to retain highs when rolling the volume off.

 

[Robert H.]

I’ve got a Lollar High Wind in the neck slot of a Suhr T style and Bare Knuckes Mules (Slightly Underwound) in a CS 336. Love em both. There are enough knobs and switches on guitars and amps for me to find the sounds I like. Strum on.

 

[jvin248]

Interesting. I imagine hot humbuckers would also split better as each coil is closer to a standard single coil resistance.

I have a Tele Esquire-H on a 4-way switch.
16kohm humbucker with a ceramic magnet.
Pickup is set low with screw poles raised.

I get Strat middle, Strat#2 quack, Tele Twang, LP hot humbucker. Rolling the tone knob I can fake a Strat or Tele neck pickup.

It's a fun versatile guitar.

.

 

[middy]

I have a Tele Esquire-H on a 4-way switch.
16kohm humbucker with a ceramic magnet.
Pickup is set low with screw poles raised.

I get Strat middle, Strat#2 quack, Tele Twang, LP hot humbucker. Rolling the tone knob I can fake a Strat or Tele neck pickup.

It's a fun versatile guitar.

.

Don’t suppose you have wiring diagram laying around your digital desktop?

 

[northernguitar]

I'm not a big HB fan, but I do like them for specific purposes.

I like a 8-9K HB bridge pu for certain blues/rock applications.

Slightly over-driven they can get "creamy" (think Allmans/Slide) which I believe is a good sound for the Blues/Rock thingy.

I prefer a 7-8K HB neck pu for any Jazzy/Bluesy thing.

Normally, I use a P 90 neck and/or Tele bridge for most everything; it covers a lot of basses (with the use of the tone pot).

imo.

My favourite humbuckers have checked in under 10k, but I don't always find that means much. Hot buckers are nice for leads and Heavy Metal crunch, but they always seem too hot to use for some Classic Rock, Garage, or Blues. I cut my teeth on a MIJ LP-style guitar that was loaded with T-Tops. They've always seem best for the heavy tones I want, but not so hot they turn chords with lighter distortion to mush. My favourite is the Vineham '6070', which they bill as a 'hot T-Top'. It is slightly overwound, but just a hair hotter than the classic T-Top.

 

[badscrew_projects]

I can't think of a reason to buy any overwound humbucker​

 

[hopdybob]

work t on a guitar that had some 15Kohm blade single coil size humbuckers and they were dark.
thats why i like the Bill & Becky Wilde pickups.
do clean and mean and from the vision of Bill, you have a amp to adjust to your liking.

i could not really do that with those 15Kohm buckers

 

[loopfinding]

...is corrected by the amp's tone knobs and the kicker is (ready for it?)

the kicker is that by jacking the treble your signal to noise ratio for quiet parts goes to hell, haha.

i try to keep my sources as bright (at the pickups, so no overwinding) and hot (boost signal with a pedal that is much quieter than the amp) as possible before the amp so i don't have to have the amp (the part of the signal chain i can't mute or attenuate) so hissy (or hummy if there is some residual ripple), during more delicate parts or at idle.

as a result i can keep my amp set low, and my treble no higher than i need it. when my volume pedal is down, there is almost nothing coming from my rig. when it's all the way up, i'm at max distortion.

maybe that isn't necessary in a rock-levels context, but if you're outside of that and you want some grind, it quickly becomes noticeable just how much noise you're emitting (vs an upright or a horn player or somebody like that).

there is also the problem with high output humbuckers that they can be too woofy for dirt pedals. i don't want to worry about bass cutting before dirt anymore than i already have to.

 

[BFcaster]

After all these years, I am still trying to grasp why an over-wound is wanted for a bridge pickup.
Back in the 50's companies made a Filtertron or PAF, and that was was that. Grab one from a bin and put it here, grab another and put it there.

 

[loopfinding]

After all these years, I am still trying to grasp why an over-wound is wanted for a bridge pickup.
Back in the 50's companies made a Filtertron or PAF, and that was was that. Grab one from a bin and put it here, grab another and put it there.

you can really slam the front end of an amp if you use them straight in. but that seems kind of unnecessary in the era of high quality low noise clean boosts.

 

[Wallaby]

Among other effects the number of windings affect the tone of the pickup, with reducing windings generally increasing perceived treble, and vice versa.

IME there is such a thing as too much treble, especially with a bridge pickup. Or a bridge pickup that is too thin-sounding on a particular guitar.

I am still trying to grasp why an over-wound is wanted for a bridge pickup.

 

[badscrew_projects]

Removing bad treble is easier than adding good treble

 

[old wrench]

Any day of the week - I''ll take a lower-wind vintage-type humbucker over a "hot" over-wound humbucker

With a lower wind, I can get that natural sparkle and chime and note clarity

With a "hot" wind, I just can't get that ^^^ tone by simply turning the volume down

But - if I do want that extra push that an over-wound humbucker provides, I can get it easily enough, even with my low-wind humbucker, by employing a boost or over-drive pedal

.

 

[Swirling Snow]

They can't add what isn't there.

People use overwound humbuckers for cases of extreme distortion. Pickups that roll off the highs smoothly let the amp's harmonic distortion provide the overtones. More importantly, overwound pickups do the "mutant chunk" much better than underdamped single coils do. Seymour's "Jazz Bridge" works better with an 800 than a Plexi, so if you're running Fenders, you're probably wondering what all the fuss is about.

 

[NoTeleBob]

I can think of a reason not to want overwound: You want to sound more like BB King than Angus Young.

If they're not so overdriven that you can still back them down to 8 and get nice clean tones, I'm OK with them. But if they're always dirty, that's not for me. YMMV.