CatStrangler
PRS Enthusiast
For a quick reference to quack, I would refer someone to Sultans of Swing, at least it sounds to me like Mark mostly uses 2 and 4.
Single Coils
- Thread starter Lister
- Start date
For a quick reference to quack, I would refer someone to Sultans of Swing, at least it sounds to me like Mark mostly uses 2 and 4.
I just can’t seem to ever get too far away from the presence, dynamic control, and clarity single coils give. When I was younger I played humbucker equipped pointy guitars and super Strats mostly because of Ed and the 80s, but then along came SRV and EJ and my dream tone evolved.
I read somewhere that the middle third of ZZ Top’s “Rio Grande Mud” album was the pink Strat Jimi gave him, with the 3-way jimmied into a makeshift position 2. The Rev goes from mellow clucking along in “Chevrolet” to just the filthiest, raunchiest slide tone you could ever hope for on “Apologies to Pearly.”
Ed King said in a few interviews that he played most of his classic (and pretty “quacky” sounding to me anyway) Skynyrd riffs in position 4. That first rip he takes on “Working For MCA” sure has a bit of quack to it!
I read somewhere that the middle third of ZZ Top’s “Rio Grande Mud” album was the pink Strat Jimi gave him, with the 3-way jimmied into a makeshift position 2. The Rev goes from mellow clucking along in “Chevrolet” to just the filthiest, raunchiest slide tone you could ever hope for on “Apologies to Pearly.”
Ed King said in a few interviews that he played most of his classic (and pretty “quacky” sounding to me anyway) Skynyrd riffs in position 4. That first rip he takes on “Working For MCA” sure has a bit of quack to it!
Tone-y
New Member
thanks for the help. I still can't hear the Quack, but maybe I just don't know what quality of the sound everyone else is referring to. Most of Stevie Ray Vaughan's Lenny is played in position 2 (neck and middle) and I still don't get 'Quack'. To me the mixed positions are just softer sounds than the single coils by themselves. I just don't know how softer equates to Quack.
It’s an out-of-phase sound caused by the different locations of the middle pickup and whichever other pickup is selected. The phasiness acts like a formant filter for certain frequencies (describing a formant filter is too tedious for me, Google it) giving the notes overtones that remind folks of clucky or quacky mouth sounds.
It’s difficult to describe sound with words, isn’t it? If you can hear that positions 2 and 4 sound different from the other positions, that’s probably enough.
Back to the actual topic for a moment...
Although there is a tiny amount of phase cancellation between the double pickups in a humbucker, I don’t think they’re necessarily less clear than single coil pickups, but the impression of single coil clarity is certainly enhanced by the fact that there’s less lower-midrange in many single coil pickups (remember, P-90s are single coils that have plenty of low mids!).
Pull back the lower mids on any pickup, and you’re going to get less wooliness, a brighter upper midrange, and therefore the impression of greater clarity. This is caused by two things:
First, the amp is less driven in the lower midrange, so it will distort less and operate more efficiently; and second, there’s a psychoacoustic phenomenon known as masking where certain loud frequencies can predominate over softer frequencies and therefore mask the softer frequencies. In this case, the highs are the softer frequencies in terms of volume. And the thicker lower midrange masks the high frequencies a little bit with a humbucker, especially into a tube amplifier, where the lows tend to predominate as tubes go into saturation anyway.
Last week I posted a comparison between various tones using a couple of EQ pedals that I think effectively demonstrates that cutting back lows and lower mids on a humbucker pickup mimics single coils pretty effectively. All of the segments in the clip were cut with a stock 594 into a clean Mesa Lone Star (with a tiny bit of grit from an OD pedal).
Even merely goosing the high end seems to increase clarity because the masking is reduced. Check it out, and be sure to read the descriptions of what I did:
http://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/eq-or-pickup-swap-a-quick-eq-demo.32372/
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Dirty_Boogie
Still got the ol' tagger on it
Quack - to me it's a "hollow" sound, where key frequencies have been removed (due to cancellation from the frequencies picked up by the adjacent pups) resulting in something that is a specific tone in itself.
The one thing I've always found curious is that if you wire a Strat to have both neck and bridge pups on, the result is far less unique than in positions 2 and 4.
The one thing I've always found curious is that if you wire a Strat to have both neck and bridge pups on, the result is far less unique than in positions 2 and 4.
bodia
Authorities said.....best leave it.....unsolved
Feed me some mushrooms, and I'll do it.
bodia
Authorities said.....best leave it.....unsolved
I don't grow tired of single coil sounds. I could listen to single coil music all day! However, I hate the way I make single coils sound! As far as playing goes, I'm a humbucker guy.
Tucson Thump
Mint Heavy Relic
I can't imagine a spaghetti western soundtrack with a Les Paul and a Mesa Boogie but I suppose if you used a Fender Twin it would sound fine.
Parralax view
New Member
For the longest, I disliked the 2 and 4 positions on any strat. The Quack was not my thing. Then, one day I decided that no matter how I disliked the sound, I would use it and find it's purpose. After all that, I do like it and sometimes leave it in the 4 for quite a while. The 2 is too dark and bassy for me, even though the effect is basically the same. I'm still a Neck guy for that crystal sound. Same with my Hummer guitars, McCarty included, the bridge has always been just too tinny for me, but add in the proper mix on an amp and it gets pretty ragey pretty quick.
Antmax
New Member
I love the crisp clarity and distinct sound of the single coils but the hum is definitely frustrating. Having to sit facing an odd direction when playing my strat in the study is frustrating. Especially when it's facing a wall and you can't see much around you lol.
RaySachs
New Member
I've been a single coil guy all my life, strat specifically. Since I started playing a lot again over the past couple of years, I've also come to like humbuckers, which I never really have before. I came to like them so much with an Ibanez semi-hollow I had last year that I never played my strat and I thought I might be over single coils. Then I went all-in, got a 594 and sold my strat (and the Ibanez). And as much as I loved the 594 (and I LOVED the 594), after only a couple of months I decided to get a second electric for a change of pace. After playing a few different guitars I realized I really missed the strat sound and I got another strat. And I fell straight back in love with it. And I also fell in love (for the first time) with P90s. So now I have three electrics, one with humbuckers, one strat, one with P90s (which are also single coils but really different ones). I'm pretty sure I'll have a strat the rest of my life. That sound is in my blood. I love the clarity of the humbuckers (I seem to play the humbuckers clean about 95% of the time - I've never found OD sounds I like as much with humbuckers as with the strat or P90s) and I love the growl of the P90s, but if I ever have to go back to one electric, it'll be the strat. I like a variety - I'm LOVING having these options and I've never wanted options before (found 'em too confusing honestly), but the single coil sound, and the strat sound specifically (not just the 2 and 4 either, I also love the 5 and like the 3) is just evidently part of my DNA at this point. I briefly got tired of it once for a few months, but turned out it was just a fling. I'm married to the strat sound.
-Ray
-Ray
SCs are awesome. I used a strat with a vintage style single coil, no baseplate, in the bridge to play sludge metal for a long time. They get really dirty, and nasty, with saturation. It literally sounds like you're rowing through the ocean chasing a whale with a harpoon. No bottom end articulation at all though
Dusty Chalk
alberngruppenführer
And yet there are people like me who strive to get a single-coil-like tone out of humbuckers.
I'd say, option 4, get your hearing checked.
I'd say, option 4, get your hearing checked.
garrett
...
Yeah man, Billy G got some great Strat tones! Love that album.
Don't forget "Sweet Home Alabama".
We need to get the whole "out of phase" thing out of the picture. The pickups are in phase, in parallel. Their position causes some frequency cancellation, but it is different than being out of phase, even when you control the phase reversal with caps and resistors. I guess there's a magical middle ground distance somewhere in there. A humbucker in parallel doesn't quack, and a coil at the neck and one at the bridge doesn't quack. The inside coils on a CU24 has a decent quack, whereas I don't the middle coils of a CU22 quack at all.
dcm_guitar
New Member
When I FINALLY get my 24-08 I'll set both PUs to single coil and see if I can get a quack. FWIW, I can get my Vela to quack in the middle position (single neck, bridge humbucker), but not as much as my strat.
Also, I hear quack in position 2 and 4 on strat, but more obviously with the middle and bridge combo. Also, for me, it needs to be a clean tone. A little bit of dirt and grit, and the quack mostly goes away. It's definitely an EQ effect and not a phase issue (even though it's almost universally referred to as the out of phase sound). The quack I hear with strats sounds like somebody just SLIGHTLY goosing a wah pedal.
Lister
Playing guitar badly since the 70's...
And maybe this is what I'm experiencing as well. I dont mind others playing them, some of the best rock and blues ever made was with single coils, but I sound like crap when playing them-at least to my ears.
garrett
...
It depends on your definition of quack. Single coil neck w/ humbucker bridge is the closest thing I get to what I'd call quack on my PRS guitars and it sounds really good, but then when I grab a Strat and put it in position 2 or 4, I think "Now THAT'S quack!"
Man, you guys are going to talk me into getting a CU24 yet...
Feed me some mushrooms, and I’ll do anything.
But it’s been a long, long time since I’ve had Mushroom Encounters of the Third Kind!
Parralax view
New Member
I have two very nice strats. The 95 amstd I have has Van Zandt Vintage blues in all three holes and sounds really nice. My 07 MiM is completely stock electronic wise and those ceramics are hated by many, but man, they break up nicely and give a growl. I don't really know which I like better, but in the end, the Neck on the MiM is a much better player than the MiA.
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