Hum de dum

I understand that there are several ways to reduce hum in guitars with single coil pickups and I am left wondering, if that is the case, why would any guitar come with hum-vulnerable pickups (keeping the cost down maybe??). So anyway, I have a few questions.[br] [br]Do Strats (player level or above) come standard with hum canceling pickups? Does the hum canceling require using two coils at once (e.g., neck and middle) and if so, do you then lose the distinctive Strat sound. I’ve never heard anyone say that you do lose that sound intuitively, based on my tech-naïve understanding, using two single coils w/one RWRP is just re-creating a humbucker but with the 2 coils a bit further apart…so why wouldn’t you get more of a humbucker sound than a single coil sound?[br] [br]Maybe stacked coils the best way to go. Is the bottom coil of such a system basically inactive w/regards to picking up the string signal, so that it doesn’t have the tonal qualities of a humbucker since the signal is only coming through one coil? Maybe the problem is best addressed by a noise gate rather than some fancy pickup technology? I guess I’m just a bit lost in the various means to eliminate hum and am wondering which methods best preserve the single coil sound.

Thanks,

Dave

Hi there,

As a long-time strat player, I can tell you that strats in the SSS style (three single coils) will have some hum. The hum is cancelled in positions 2 and 4 like you said, with the neck and middle, or bridge and middle.

I would not say that you lose any type of distinctive Strat sound, that's all up to you. I do prefer the sound most when I'm only using the neck pickup, it's a very warm, iconic Strat sound there. But if you put it into the 4th position or 2nd position, the guitar still sounds good and it still has that Strat quack/glassy tone.

Some strats, as you may know, come with an HSS setup (humbucker, single, single) and that might be something you're interested in. I've seen some models with two humbuckers as well.

If you want a single coil sound you can always try the "noiseless" pickups that Fender makes, and other pickup companies make them too. I have heard of stacked single coils but have no experience with them. Also! If you try and clean up your wiring and improve the shielding, it may help with the humming a little as well.

I hope that helps!