Single Coil vs Humbucker Pickup Tone Comparison 

Some people may get antsy and just want you to get to the 'comparison'... but I am so glad you go through the 'why's' and 'how's' of what you are comparing. You really are a wealth of information ...especially for those of us who haven't learned it all yet. Thanks

If you play rock or metal, humbuckers are the way to go. If you play jazz, funk or if you are John Frusciante single coils are the way to go. If you play punk it doesn't even matter just bash those chords as hard as you can.

I find that CLEAN the single coil has so much more character to is whereas the humbucker is muddy and flat. In a high gain setting however i find the humbucker can soar above the single coil

Probably the most straight forward and clear video about musical equipment I've seen on the internet.

Comparision starts at 8:52...

If you play guitar for any length of time, you will own them all! I've owned two Teles, three Strats, one Les Paul, and one SG over the years. They're all great but they have different tones. It depends on what kind of music you want to play and how you want to sound. On the other hand, you can play any style of music on any guitar you choose to play.

A lot of shootout vids set the amp to sound great with one guitar and play all the guitars without adjusting. The amp in this vid is no exception. It sounds great for the strat and the Les Paul suffers. If you set up so the les Paul sounds good, the strat would sound like an ice pick to the ear. Set the amp to match each guitar just like you would if you weren’t doing a shootout.

You have effectively armed people with what they need to look for to get the sound they want. Adding in how the pickups work differently was perfect and the tone comparison was spot on. This is by far the BEST video on this subject I have ever seen. Subscribed!

I am a newbe who started out as a drummer and I found this video very informative. Playing with various guitarists made me like various tones and I never knew the reasons for their having multiple guitars till now. This helped me in my search for the right one foe me.

I'm building a super squire strat right now with humbuckers and I'm super excited to play it.

Very very very informative/educational video about this awesome topic! Thank you for this! I now finally understand the difference! Thanks! 😊👌

Humbuckers sound like you've put a carpet on a speaker, if you get the idea.

that's strange, when hearing them side by side with headphones on humbuckers sound as if i plug my ears or somthing

I mostly play blues, so I find that gritty humbucker sound quite useful. Of all my guitars, my Gretsch is the most used, but I do have an American Fender HSS Strat, which has two single pick-ups and one dual pick-up. I can switch between single or dual, but even with my Stratocaster, I find that I use mostly use the dual pick-up setting. In the end, if you're running it all through a pedalboard, then I don't think any of this matters too much. If you find the sound you like, then more power to you! It's all subjective anyway.

Single coil = Light Crystal sound. Humbucker Heavy muddy sound.

This is the first time I've heard an explanation between the two that actually made sense. Thank you.

Thank you for this video. Straight to important points, no BS, just spot on. I learned a lot

Quite possibly the best informational video on RU-vid ever. Thank you.

Thank you! This was the perfect tutorial on pickups for a knucklehead like me. Really well done.

Chris you really do a great job with comparing guitars in detail. I love to watch you do Acoustic comparison. You just have a way of explaining the differences on guitars. Keep up the great work.

Cant say one is bettter then the other , the single coils sound a bit more clear while the humbuckers are really great when playing chords and such. It just depends a little on what you are playing and what kind of mood you try to create. Im thinking about to change one of my guitars to humbucker style , bought a new single coil pick up guitar a while ago and did some mods to it and now I really like that one. The old one needs some work to shine , I have the humbucker pickups already so all I need to do is some soldering and cleaning up....its nice to have both styles of guitars I think.

Mate, this is the first time someone puts it clear. Thank you. Your explanation is fire!

Did not do the humbucker justice by leaving out it on a distortion and high gain setting. As a fender telecaster player, i often feel the thin and crisp sound not as fitting as the humbuck player in my band. But i love both :) nice comparison

Super specific: Anyone with the SponsorBlock extension on your browser and just skipped to the highlight, I encourage you to watch the whole video (even at least an increased speed since I would too). It's one thing to just hear the difference (which, you can hear at the highlight point) but it's another to _understand_ the sound for what genre you're going for.

I love hearing single coils on recordings and videos. But when I'm playing them no. Humbuckers for life :)

You are so dedicated. Thank you so much 🌟

180 flat-earthers clicked dislike when they got to the bit where he said "earths magnetism"

I like the single coil sound better

What about guitars with HSS configuration?

Thanks for the comparison. A brief educational experience.

Very informative. Good explanations of how it works and why it's important.

This video had a lot useful information for me before buying my first guitar Thank you very much!

Wow! Great video! I really had this romantic impression that humbuckers would make me sound "better".

It should be noted most modern gibsons actually use 300k linear taper pots. Now some use 500k audio taper which were correct for almost any old Gibson. The thing about tapping a single coil has to do with power too. Lets say a nice vintage wind humbucker is 8k or 9k ohms. Vintage Single coils are usually 6k to 7k. Now if you tap the humbucker in half, you're likely to get a much weaker tone than a single coil being that the tapped coil is now at 4k to 4.5k ohms (half of the humbucker 8k or 9k) which is much less than the single coil. so the weaker resistance and higher pot value usually makes a very bright and unconvincing sound to my ears. the single coil in its entirety sounds sweeter than a tapped "vintage" humbucker. Now if you have a 13k or 14k humbucker split it will have a similar ohm value to the single coil, but there are other factors such as resonant frequency and overall construction of the coils that make it sound different. The best lead sounds I've heard are from old PAT no. Humbuckers or slightly overwound single coils. (Particularly the bridge pickup wired to the tone control instead of the middle pickup, and tone rolled off a little ala Eric Johnson. It can have clear, very resonant, and liquid like tones with warmth if done right).

What a fantastic video!! Exactly the description I was looking for!! Thanks SO much for sharing your knowledge with us.

I came here looking for basic humbucker info....now I'm a Pick ups connoisseur...I will also start my new job at guitar center tomorrow. They were impressed.

That strato tone... jesus! :D

Or buy a guitar with both, HSS... problem solved xD

Thanks for the clarification. I love the look of open coil humbuckers, but previously didn't know how to describe what those were. My next guitar will have this style.

It really took a lot to get to the test, but every bit of information you passed was useful and interesting, amazing video.

Excellent review. Excellent delivery too thanks man

I prefer the the sound of both it just depends on what your playing.

You just made physics cool

This is super helpful! Is the demo at 9:48 from a longer song/piece?

I love Both for different kind of music. They are completly different that's the beauty in it.

i'll take the single pick ups every day and twice on sunday.

Pretty cool that google links you to this video. Good job!

Great informational video! I subbed because of how informative this was! This answered almost all of the questions I had on this topic!

Hmm...learnt surprisingly lot in 12 mins...maybe cause English is not my first language, but it never hit me why a humbucker is called a humbucker.... Now I was like “duuuh....hum-bucker” :D Good vid!

Singles for rock and metal, they give ya that hot aggressive sharp sound and humbuckers for everything else- nothing quite like that warm, rolled off humbucker sound

Very interesting and all of this is basic electro acoustics. Studying the auditory system and how all of these “sounds” get interpreted will blow your mind. Thanks you!

The only video you need to understand this. Nicely explained.

Thanks for explaining that, that was really educational for me.

That was very educational for me since I’m new at playing guitar 🎸 thanks

I enjoyed your guitar playing so much, I forgot what I was listening for. lol

Hi Chris, thanks for this great comparison! I consider buying a new guitar since I revived playing guitar again recently (at age of 58 I still got my Morris "Fender telecaster" replica with humbuckers, made in Japan, which I bought when I was 16 -only used to "playing" along with the Sex Pistols for a few months - and recently unpacked again after 42 years in storage, still sounding....punk ;-). Might opt for single coil after watching your YT video!

Thank you for this great video!

2:09 He’s calling out Darrell Braun Guitars haha

They don’t pickup the vibrations in the strings. Pickups work by the string vibration changing the magnetic field that surrounds the pickup. The change in the magnetic field is converted to an electrical current. It is not microphonic.

Just hearing that beautiful strum of a les Paul instantly brings me to led zeppelin. Edit: humbuckers sound even better on an old style tube amp.

Ive used strats for 45 years , i love the sound of a les paul when some one else plays it, but when i play it i just dont feel it, i cant connect with those guitars, so strats with single coils for me.

I'd love to see neodymium magnets used in building a custom guitar

It looks like you engaged the coil tap for the Les Paul. That kind of defeats the purpose of a comparison of tones between single coil and humbucker.

Now I know what to buy. Thank you so much..! I'll definitely try towards humbuckers

I saw an American Strat (Performer) set up with Humbucking pickups. Sort of a bright Les Paul sound.

They buck the hum. Of course now it makes so much sense!

Excellent explanation. Made me suscribe.

Incredible comparison and amazing playing.

I have both a strat, a Les Paul and an archtop. I like all of them the way they are.

Great explanation! Keep up the work!

I've checked out many videos on youtube about this topic and this is the first video that very clearly demonstrated the difference both theoretically and practically and where I could really tell a difference. Can I ask what amp you were using ?

Thank you for the comparison! I remembered my strat sound. :)

In what style would you typically want a humbucker les paul as opposed to a single coil guitar? Are les pauls better suited for high gain? Like rock, blues metal??

That's a pretty good explanatory video. Thanks. I will try to understand the electromagnetism

what a fantastic explanation of strings vibration property as if a science professor, so beautifully presented , really enjoyed it

very informative, thank you

We all know Les Paul and Strat Teli SMOKE in there way. Love that

Excellent teaching points and very simplified - thank you!

Thanks a lot, a very complete explanation . Excellent video

Thank God I picked up a Strat as my first electric guitar.

Excellent explanation!

I'm a broadtron humbucker (gretsch guitar) pickup fun. Love it in clean, gain, distortion mood

Damn dude you can you know your stuff

So helpful

Great clear, interesting video giving good info. Thank you.

He plays the two different coils at 8:54

Very well explained - thank you 🙏

The Humbucker pickups sound better in my opinion.

Interesting comparison between the types of pickups

That was very informative! thank you!!

I am glad you went into detail man, i am trying to get into learning to play guitar and i have been searching for a video that can explain to me the basic general type of pickups and u helped me a lot. i like the sound for a humbucker so i might get that type of pick up on guitar. This video is old but i am still going to ask this, do you recommend a brand for beginners since u say it matters how a guitar is built or does brand not really matter that much?

Thanks for the info on the difference between the two

In short Single: Water Humbucker: Beer

option 3, who wouldn't buy both? *wink*

Just what I was looking for 👍

2:44 “how many rats are around the pickup matter.” So true. The more rats, the more chance you’ll have of one of them chewing through your wiring. 🐀

Excellent deep explanation :-)

Man the neck on that Les Paul looks so comfortable to play with. I don't like how the fender has a bevel or a curved neck, I want it to be more like an acoustic neck but still have he length and reach of an electric. But I'm too broke to be that picky unfortunately. An I'm also not skilled enough to talk shit about either one.

I wish I have a same guitar brand like yours

Super helpful. Thanks.