The P90 thread got me thinking about Humbuckers

[CASD57]

I played electric for years...with tube amps Switched to Acoustic and loved they natural harmonic tone without tube amps....
All my electric's have P90's in them and I fight them to have a good full harmonic rhythm sound.. It's like maybe they are too articulate(note separation) and its hard to have a full tone between chords...where they continue from one chord to the next.."Full Tone" Not sure how to describe it lol
Are humbuckers better for rhythm playing as you sing?

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by CASD57

...All my electrics have P-90's in them and I fight them to have a good full harmonic rhythm sound.. It's like maybe they are too articulate (note separation) and it's hard to have a full tone between chords...where they continue from one chord to the next...

Try a thinner/softer pick (I use .60 Dunlop Nylon), run your guitar volume full-on (roll down your amp if necessary), and use a more-focused jazz players' stroke (more from the thumb and wrist than the forearm) - works for me, and it's one of my favorite rhythm tones...

[CASD57]

Thanks Steve! I'll give it a shot tonight

[FrankHudson]

Tying to describe sound in words is inexact, so I may not be understanding your goals. My first guess at a response would be are you using two pickups or just one for your chordal playing?

Using two pickups combines more varied "samples" of the strings' vibration which to me often gives me a more "acoustic" effect when playing electric.

As Steve points out you can do a lot with picks and even just amp settings too.

Other than often having a bit "hotter" output as they hit the front end of the amp, the other reason humbucker are sometimes described as "fuller" is that there are two coils sensing string vibration, but even two narrow single coil pickup guitars can exceed the width of a single humbucker in that regard if you play them both together. That's my Telecaster think acoustic play electric default setting.

BTW, I love P90s. Yes, I have narrow single coil pickup guitars and guitars with humbuckers, but I often think they're the most versitile design.

[CASD57]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

Tying to describe sound in words is inexact, so I may not be understanding your goals. My first guess at a response would be are you using two pickups or just one for your chordal playing?

Using two pickups combines more varied "samples" of the strings' vibration which to me often gives me a more "acoustic" effect when playing electric.

As Steve points out you can do a lot with picks and even just amp settings too.

Other than often having a bit "hotter" output as they hit the front end of the amp, the other reason humbucker are sometimes described as "fuller" is that there are two coils sensing string vibration, but even two narrow single coil pickup guitars can exceed the width of a single humbucker in that regard if you play them both together. That's my Telecaster think acoustic play electric default setting.

BTW, I love P90s. Yes, I have narrow single coil pickup guitars and guitars with humbuckers, but I often think they're the most versitile design.

Another thing I'll do, try both P/U at the sametime I usually only use the front p/u for rhythm and bridge for lead
Thanks for the idea's

[Glennwillow]

I think P90 pickups work really well for strumming on an electric guitar.

When I use my ES-335, which of course has humbucking pickups, I often use the coil splitter switch to switch the pickups into single coil mode to remove some of the bass. The only way I can strum the ES-335 using full humbucker mode and like the result is to use only the bridge pickup, which adds more brightness.

- Glenn

[CASD57]

My picking style really leads itself to acoustic more, I'm thinking of bagging the idea of using my ES339 on a gig, I can do everything on my acoustic that I can do on the ES339 and better.
I guess acoustic was my calling

[rmp]

Originally Posted by CASD57

My picking style really leads itself to acoustic more, I'm thinking of bagging the idea of using my ES339 on a gig, I can do everything on my acoustic that I can do on the ES339 and better.
I guess acoustic was my calling

P90s are cool but they're not for everyone. I like them, but they are very different than humbuckers

If your 339 has 'buckers, I'd bring it along, and try it sometime.

What's the harm other than carrying another case.

I brought my ES-135 one time to do some solo chord melody pieces, for what's normally an acoustic solo gig

It worked out nicely and I realized I probably could have used it for a few more vocal arrangements. Just have to get the EQ right on it.

[J Patrick]

I can’t say I’ve found an advantage to using humbuckers over single coils for solo playing with vocals…..probably the opposite most of the time but if I was playing some jazz standards with a traditional chording style humbuckers might have an edge in achieving the tone I was after…maybe….but amplification and eq likely have more impact…