Noiseless vs. Traditional Single Coil Blind Test! How Big is the Difference? 

In our practice space there’s some kind of electrical interference. Really quite severe. I’ve tried killing the breaker and using a headphone amp but it’s still there. It shows up on humbuckers and single coils alike. I happened to find a great deal on a player plus start with its noiseless pickups and, totally amazingly, the noise is completely filtered out on them. Total blissful silence! Even when only one pickup is in use. So there are some REAL advantages here other than just 60 cycle hum. That said, the pickups have a certain compression to them. That means each string seems to have the same volume and all can be heard very uniformly. It also means the dynamic range is crushed and there’s not as much dynamics available, especially if you’re playing fingerstyle with lots of dynamics. As with everything in life, it’s a trade off.

Love the blind test. Would definitely be down for full pickup comparison videos.

So you don't waste your time, the demonstration starts at 5:45

Noice less pick ups and vintage noice less pick ups ser stacked Humbuckers With much higher out put than the old PAF Humbuckers. Sorry to say but physics does not allow a stacked Humbucker to sound like a single coil even if you want it. Fender does a good job hiding the fact that Noice less and Vintage Noiseless pick ups are Humbuckers. They do exactly the same as side by side humbuckers do. They put 2 coils stacked upon each other and by putting one coile to one side and one coil to the other side they cancel each other out just like a side by side Humbucker. They Work the exact same way. The only reason they use stacked Humbuckers in Fender guitars is because it would look awful to have them side by side. So when you have 3 vintage noice less pick ups in a Stratocaster you have in effect a HHH confoguration. But there are so mant things Fender does not say in public but looking in their Research and devolopment papers from 1985 you can see that because of the active system rum by a batteri in the Clapton signature Stratocaster when the boost button is off it still has 12 DB mid boost ( More than a Gibson Humbucker that has 11 DB mid boost at its highest). Then youtube can go up to an incredible 25 DB mid boost. At 25 DB mid boost the Clapton Stratocaster is abot 20 to 25 times More powerful than a Gibson Les Paul Humbucker wise. Even With the boost off the Clapton signature Stratocaster is a lot More powerful than a Gibson Les Paul Humbucker wise. Clapton according to his auto biography only played a Stratocaster for 8 to 11 years. He started Recording With a Stratocsster in 1974 ( all earlier solo Records and Derek and the Dominos were recorded with a Gibson Les Paul by Clapton, see page 179 in his auto biography) by 1982 he was fed up Withbthe Stratocaster and signed with Strings and Things. A guitar company making excellent Humbucker guitars. A year or 2 later Fender offers Clapton the biggest amount of money ever to sign With Fender. Clapton responds ” If you can make me the absolute most powerful Humbucker guitar in the world I sign With Fender ”. Fender succeds in building the absolut most powerful Humbucker guitar the world has ever seen. Even today nothing gets Close. And Clapton signs With Fender. Thats the guitar Clapton has used Sinclair early 1986 and became the Clapton signature Stratocaster in 1988. Clapton only used a Stratocaster between 1974 and December 1985 but deducted Without the time he was under contract With Strings and Things and played their Guitars Clapton concludes he only used a Stratocaster for 8 to 11 years in his auto biography. The Reason the Clapton signature Stratocaster is between 25 to 30 times more powerful than a Gibson Les Paul at 25 DB mid boost Humbucker wise is because Humbucker power doubles every 3 DB mid boost. At maximum the Gibson Les Paul has 11 DB mid boost. At 14 DB mid boost the Humbucker power doubles. At 17 DB mid boost its 4 times more powerful Humbucker wise. At 20 DB mid boost its 8 times more powerful Humbucker wise. At 23 its 16 times more powerful Humbucker wise. Had the Clapton signature Stratocaster had 26 DB mid boost instead of 25 DB mid boost it would have bern 32 times Moe powerful than A Gibson Les Paul. Now at 25 DB mid boost its about 25 to 30 times more powerful than a Gibson Les Paul Humbucker wise. Off course the Clapton signature Stratocaster is not a Stratocaster even Clapton says it in his auto biography. A Stratocaster is a single coil guitar. The Clapton signature Stratocaster is easily the most powerful Humbucker Guitar in the world. If you fint have a very powerful amp it Will brake.

Yea, very small difference thru headphones. No difference in a noisy bar or stadium ! No reason to run in shame with either.

the attack is missing on the noiseless.. makes sense since attack is mostly top end...

I was surprised at how close the two sets of pickups sounded; however, as I only play for my own pleasure,not gigging, I would opt for the slightly more chimey non- noiseless pickups.

Such a subtle difference I don’t think anyone in an audience would know or care.

I think it would be interesting to compare the tone of noiseless pickups against single coils using a noise gate or other noise prevention measures.

Very close. But there’s a compression relationship that’s audible…singles sound more open and less compressed, hence the perceived tonal difference (with the high end especially).

How is 60Hz "high end"??? Any circuit that's designed to take out 60Hz and has ANY effect on high frequencies needs to go straight in the trash.

Eric Clapton use the noiseless pickup to almost all on his guitar today.

I think the real decider is to take your non noiseless to a dive bar somewhere with crappy wiring and try and play vs using the noiseless. Its a no brainer. If you are a play at home bedroom guy then by all means. As a working musician it has to work and it has to be quiet.

Greg Koch is right regarding employability. If you have a noisy guitar it won't help you get the gig. Guitarists have a bad reputation for being noisy, so if you want the gig, besides playing ability you need a quiet, controllable rig, and noiseless pickups are a part of this. I recall two of my guitar teachers in the mid 80s who both had EMGs. They were both session players and they quite teaching because of all the gigs they were getting. They told me why they had actives and showed me how they worked. At the time I was playing a standard strat and I couldn't belove how much quieter their EMG set were. So I popped some into my strat and played them for years.

Noise gates don’t work like that, as far as I know.

O g yes the single coils ring the humbucked counter theirselves as if bouncing around in a room that deadens the tone on echo.

I’m here in defense of LACE SENSORS!

. . also how well shielded are the cavities in the guitar body . .

Ultra noiseless tele pickups sound superb and they are noiseless 😜

You two should start a band named Grandiose Richards

I just swapped my EPI sg 400 pro with gold hardware, set neck, honey burst, with not a mark on it FOR Technically a parts caster. A Mexican fender Strat neck with fender locking tuners. hey fender loaded pick guard with noiseless pick ups, on a mighty mite Strat body/sunburst.. this is my sixth Stratocaster over the decades. It is the first one I am excited about because of the tone. this loaded pick guard made by fender. Does something special to the middle pick up when the switch is in the middle position. Very bright, it is the dominant pick up now. Usually on all my stretch that I’ve had before, I never used just the middle pick up. Now I will be using just the middle pick up most of.the time.. The pick ups have marking on them that says they are N3 pick ups. I looked on the Internet, and it turns out they have a combination of different strength, L Nikko magnets for the first three strings, from the last three magnets in the same pick up. there is also a difference in the last tone knob. When you turn it to the 10 setting, there is a detent click that adds boost to. I think it’s the bridge pick up… The guy I got the guitar from was in his 70s, he was not a guitar junkie like myself. He got it in a swap from the guy that built the guitar. i’m not saying he was wrong, but the guitar was not set up, that’s why the guy I just swapped my SG,for it didn’t like it. The bridge was all wrong, it is bolted solid to the body by those six screws, the bridge does not float at all, the intonation was out, and the strings were too close to the neck, so when I was playing above.the 7th fret, My striking, the strings with my pic, made the strings contact the last fret on the fretboard.. The guitar does not have a mark on it. I got the hard shell case with it. I took the guitar strings off, the neck did not need cleaned, but I cleaned it anyway and oiled the neck fretboard, I also used a string to put a tiny bit of oil on each slot in the nut, and where the strings contact the saddles. I set the radius by adjusting each saddle so that the strings were a prescribed distance from the 17th fret.. it’s a completely different guitar now, I played it for four hours when I was done setting it up a couple days ago, I don’t think I had four hours total playing time on my SG since I bought it.. that’s why I traded it, it just sat in the case for years.. this mighty mite Body with the fender, Mexican Strat neck, and this fender loaded pick guard with the noiseless N3 pick ups , I can’t put it into words how much better I like it then my previous five Stratocaster‘s. I tried to fall in love with my first five Stratocaster’s, I just never bonded with any of them. I actually like the Yamaha Pacifica better than I like any of those fender Stratocaster‘s I had before. now I realize the tone is a personal preference. So far, I really like these N3 Noiseless pick ups

I sold my Strat American Deluxe with N3s. Still got my Tele Deluxe with N3s. My other Tele has factory SD humbuckers. To be honest, I never take any notice of any hum on any of the guitars I've had over the years. Popping some noiseless ultras in my tele just for the lols.

Pepsi vs Coke....Floyd Rose vs anything else....Noiseless vs any other single Coil....Hahaha....They certainly have their Pro and Con camps don't they? Some swear by them, some swear at them.

First time around , liked the single coil , 2nd & 3rd time around listening....preferred the noiseless.

Well if you want to nitpick about differences then at least get prime noiseless pickup sets like kinman sets and not the standard fender noiseless ones.....there are better sets out there for true single coils and noiseless pickups alike, so for guitars that cost thousands at least go for the upper echelon of electronics too.....also noiseless work better with specific pot values and are most height sensitive than the regular singles....

Yes, you can hear the difference. And I even if you cannot tell the difference, on a subliminal level you will be able to appreciate the less compressed, more defined, twangy, smacking and lively tone of actual single coils. And if you cannot tell the difference, then you won't be able to identify many other nuances. 12:39 That's simply not true. That's not how a noisegate works. A noisegate will kill all your input signal as long as the signal's strength does not meet a specific threshold. Once you're loud enough everything will be let through. It is binary and will not selectively affect specific frequencies.

No sé Rick 😅

Noiseless seems more clean sounding

I understand that the Fender Noiseless Pickups are experiencing failures, are you finding this?

This is like watching two sommeliers trying to see if they can taste the difference between the pinot noir grown on the west bank of the Russian River vs. that grown on the east bank. Ridiculous. 50/50 shot at getting it right, which, of course, Chris did. What would have been the point had he not? The same: there's no real discernable difference between the two pick-ups.

What about a Noiseless Gen5 or Gen 4 against Seymour Duncan Hot Chicken Tele pickups?

Humdebugger sounds like a humbucker suitable for a Stratomacaster. Great vid!

Hey Chris, don't play with Cooper, er, I mean Jesus. He'll vanguish you to Purgatory 🤣👍

I will have to say, for my ears i heard a noticeable difference. Noiseless definitely pulled a lot of that high end. The regular pickups (from my setup) was thinner and high, whereas the noiseless had a slightly warmer sound lower tone. Just my opinion.

I can tell the difference and prefer the 60 cycle hum sound and feel, noiseless pickups sound lifeless to me and don't like the way they react.

I thought it would be easy because the traditional pups will have hum haha

You guys are the best !!! How can you all be so cool and not covered in tattoos :)

humdebugger lol!

People who make noise about this are full of it... it's pure snobbery... are there better noise pups than the noiseless 5s... for sure.

top notch noodling

I love my Fender player plus nashville tele, which has Noiseless pickups. That is the only guitar I have that never sees its case. Amazing guitar!

Grandiosity is the hallmark of a happenin' beard.

There's more charm in the traditionals.

If Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Brent Mason, Reggie Young , Dave Gilmore, Vince Gill, Mark Knopfler, Danny Gatton Hank Marvin have used noise cancelling pickups during their careers ( Fender, EMG, Kinman , Barden) maybe it’s good enough for some of us.

I'm surprised you mentioned the Ultra Luxe noiseless was generating hum....I have both an Ultra Luxe Tele and a Pro II Tele with Gen 4 Noiseless pickups. They generate zero noise. Also, just curious, when you guys compare single coil guitars, especially cheap vs. expensive, I never hear any 60hz hum. How do you, or any guitar promoter, filter that out of your video? Thanks :)

I’m not a big fan of noiseless pickups.

Stifflers cousin?

Personally, I thought the difference was fairly significant. To my ear, the noiseless pickups noticeably rolled off the high-end, less chime-y. I listened blind as well, BTW. As I am not a gigging musician, I have less concern about feedback. If it becomes more of a problem for me, I will try other ways to mitigate, as Chris mentioned up front.

I got a Reissue Strat long ago, and the hum with the original pickups made the guitar almost unusable. I replaced them with Kinman pickups, and that solved the noise/hum issues. They don't sound tonally exactly like noisy hum producing Single Coils, but two sets of the same make and model pickups don't sound identical either. If you want noiseless/stacked humbuckers to sound brighter, and janglier, nothing is stopping anyone from turning down the bass, turning up the treble and/or presence, using EQ, or using Tone Matching software. Also, what can be done using modern Modelers almost makes pickup types moot.

More like this please! Keep up the great videos

I love these blind tests! I really thought the noiseless would be fuller with less high end, but m, I agree, there wasn’t much difference. Timely video fir me as I’ m gassing fire a tele, and looking at options. Player Plus and swap out the pick ups to CS Texas Specials? Puts me in Yosemite territory. Which isn’t too far from V-mods. I’ll contact you guys when the time comes. Thanks for doing all of this for us.

To get the noiseless to have more pop, I just adjust EQ on my Classic 30 amp. Works for me.

I heard a custom shop ‘52 Tele with the Twisted Tele Relic neck pickup and the Broadcaster Relic bridge pickup. Unsure what amp/pedal set up but it was the best sound that I have heard. I’m a beginner player but an old pro listener and it was fantastic. Great video guys and along eith all the other comments, keep’m coming!!🤘🏽

Great episode. More like that please

great video!! ... I got a Nashville Tele 2022 MIM, 3 noiseless pickups..... they have a pretty good sound when using medium and high gain... BUT i just cannot enjoyed...im more like a rythim guitar player... noiseless doesn not have a very dynamic sound... a traditional single coil is very resonnant, very vibrant.... Noiseless on my experience sound like VERY COMPRESED... I tried them like 6 months and the sound did not inspired or excited me when playing.... finally I change the bridge and midle for Tex Mex pickups... and the Telecaster Nashville sounded like a dream... singing wide open ... of course thisi s my personal experience and taste.... I felt like noiseless SC sound near to a humbucker Split coiled....

Disappointing that the noiseless pickups didn’t filter out the sound of the squeaky stool!

Nice video, guys. I like the comparison. Maybe keep us in the dark, too, until the reveal?

What a great guitar player! The noiseless sounded damn good. Traditional did have more highs but unless they're played back to back it would be very hard to notice the noiseless being less bright.

I think the real interesting general question is how to reduce noise. Here, you tackle one answer, which is noiseless pick ups. But there are others, e.g. good cables and good power supplies for the pedal board. I would appreciate some more hints and comments in this regard.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have the ultra available off the shelf with either noiseless or high end true single coils as an option! It’s the only thing keeping me on the fence because otherwise I love everything about the feel of the ultra strat.

i got noiseless on my tele, I was pleasantly surprised at how warm they are for a tele.

This is why I play a Les Paul🤣

I love noiseless pickups! I love Teles, I hate 60 cycle hum, especially in the studio!

been using Bill Lawrence Wilde pups for over a decade in all my builds, repairs and upgrades. Yup thry're stacked hb's but they have that single coil sound. Bill originally designed Fender's SCN and noiseless pups. He was a genius that many copied.

I'm sure that somewhere out there with the millions of single coil variants, there's one out there that sounds identical to the noiseless.

Great video. I would be interested in a comparison of traditional vs. hum cancellings Jaguar pickups.

It sounded like a pretty significant difference listening with headphones. The traditional pickups had more high end “sparkle” you could say. It even sounded like you played it better. I think on your next test you should record just the 60 cycle hum and play it in the background while both guitars are being tested to make it more of a true blind test.

I have a few Warmoth Strats and Tele’s and I just put a set of noiseless Gen 4’s in one of them along with a nice harness and I can honestly say it sounds fantastic. I don’t know why they catch so much negativity. Maybe the earlier ones weren’t too good, I’ve never tried those however the later ones certainly sound great IMO.

I want a Tele to sound like a Tele, so if noiseless pickups achieve this, that's great. I've read that Fender's early ones sound "compressed", being ok at low volumes but not so good when gigging. Not sure how true this is.

Perfect timing! I’ve been thinking of replacing the noiseless pickups in my surf green Telecaster Ultra Luxe that I bought from you a couple months ago ! They seem a little lifeless/ lacking personality to me. I don’t play out at venues, I play at home or occasionally jam with friends, so I don’t need the noiseless per se (although no hum is nice, maybe not at the “cost” of losing great time? ) I’ve also not heard the best reviews on the V-Mods vs. Custom shop Nocaster 51’s, Twisted Tele’s or even the Pure Vintage 65’s. Anyone with experience have any opinions on these pickups or even non Fender brand Tele Pickups?

Yes there is a difference but I take the noiseless. Less splatty with gain and when playing gigs with dirty wiring less noise. I use both but there are gigs where I cannot use my vintage spec pickups with lots of gain and/or effects.

An interesting and useful comparison video, although I would have preferred to have been a blind listener too, without being told in advance which pickups were Noiseless. Even so, it was very obvious to me that the Noiseless pickups did not sound as bright, strong, and traditional Tele-sounding as the Single Coil pickups, which I prefer on a Telecaster.

Your thumbnails look amazing on the recent videos!

Nothing touches the Zexcoil pickups. 100% noiseless, 100% strat tone. It's been out for years but not many pick them up.

I can hear the difference and I like both.

Guitar 1 clearly has more of the traditional SPANK from the traditional Tele pickups.

I prefer the slightly darker humbucker tone anyway. Replaced the singles in my Mustang with DiMarzio hum-cancelling stacked and it just sounds better, irrespective of 60Hz hum.

When I saw this, I was hoping for a newer Clapton Strat vs a standard single coil equipped Strat.

I have an ultra luxe strat as well as an original and , to me, it's a big difference. Im not a fan of the noiseless BUT , i prefered the Gen 4 in the Elites. With a boost pedal that is a great sounding guitar but, it doesn't sound like authentic strat. Just different

The noiseless pickups in my Fender Player Plus Tele just flat sucked. Fralin fixed that. I think gen1 noiseless are stock. Gen1?

Have you heard of the pickup manufacturer „Amber“? If so, how do you like them?

I have an American Ultra Tele with noiseless. I can’t hear a big difference compared to my other Tele but the guitar itself is a Cadillac. Nice demo. Thanks

I love your videos !!! always attractive, fun and very interesting - I just regret I'll probably never visit you, or order from you... as I Iive in France, this might induce unnecessary headaches 😅

I used to obsess over these things a lot. In my estimation, if your situation calls for a single coil sound that is absolutely noiseless then get a set of noiseless pickups and stop worrying if they sound exactly the same as a noisy set. Even two "identical" noisy sets are gonna sound different if you want them to. Obsess instead over technique so that if you play a cigar box guitar, you can make people weep.

Are both guitars shielded, or either?

Fender noiseless sound notched. Kinman in Australia did a pretty good job of noiseless. Fender is genius for putting them in maxultra line. …for just a little more, get in line for the custom shop if you want high end with real pickups.

to be honest this is a fair test but the main difference here is the Vintage Bridge and the Modern Bridge... this change the sound a lot. I would be interested to hear a noiseless pickup in that old vintage bridge.... this would be a very good test.

I have no bias either way but I could tell a slight difference. Whether that difference is good or bad depends on what you want to hear. I like single coils, and I like humbuckers. It's all good.

I bought ultre luxe stra and tele.I was wrough They to heavy and noiseless sounnd ametur . I Need custom 3kilo pure singel. Now I know a bit ekspensise,but i needed a tele and strat. Lee1❤

I appreciate the test - but what about the bridge? Me thinks you need to do a noiseless vs. non, both with a brass bridge.

Is it gen4 noiseless or vintage noiseless?

Great episode as always, fellas!

Fun! Well done guys!

Nice video. The discussion seemed like a flashback to the days of tape hiss and Dolby. It got rid of high end slightly, but the recordings sounded much better. I think as they kept coming out with ever newer versions of Dolby, it got better and better. I’m wondering if you couldn’t just EQ, or use treble boost to get the “spank” you are wanting? I guess it would require an O-scope to see exactly what is happening to those frequencies, rather than a listening test? What if that “spank” turns out to just be microphonic “noise”? Then what? ;-)

Would noiseless pickups help with ground loops??

Change string gauge to see what happens. 8, 9, 10, 11. String size makes a difference as well.

Yeah there's a difference but is one better than the other? They both sound good to me.

I just bought an Ultra Tele, and I play mostly clean through a Princeton Reverb.... think I need to change these bad bears even though they do sound amazing with gain. What do I throw in?? The Pro II sounds incredible.

I have an American performer and just bought an ultra tele. I used to have a pro II. In comparing the performer and ultra side by side for hours I think that the ultra sounds brighter and the performer fuller. I'm not sure it's the pickups though alone. The ultra has a thinner body and neck than most teles which could impact the tone. My performer buddy and neck is much thicker. Also to compare correctly your have to adjust the volume and EQ... because some pickups and guitars inherently are louder, brighter, etc. than others. After changing the volume and EQ I don't think one pickup set sounds better than the other, except for the neck pickup is significantly clearer on my performer... and in overdrive my ultra is significantly fatter... better sounding... maybe because they are really stacked single coils like mentioned in this video...not sure. In any case both sound pretty awesome... I wouldn't hesitate to buy noiseless pickups after owning a guitar with them... again they sound just as good or better in some cases... both have advantages and disadvantages... but I think the advantages of the noiseless pickups outweigh the negatives...

Boils down to personal preference.