Single coil in an SG?

[Robert Randolph]

I'd like to get a single coil in the neck position on my SG... what's a good way to do this and make it look decent?

[seaneldon]

Seymour Duncan "PhatCat" is a humbucker sized P90 that sounds great. I actually prefer SG's with P90s for the extra bite/edge they get with light drive sounds. My SG was stock with P90s and is a very fun guitar to play.

[Robert Randolph]

Originally Posted by seaneldon

Seymour Duncan "PhatCat" is a humbucker sized P90 that sounds great. I actually prefer SG's with P90s for the extra bite/edge they get with light drive sounds. My SG was stock with P90s and is a very fun guitar to play.

I was actually hoping for something with less output than a p90 or p90-alike.

I played an SG special with the lipstick-style pickups and the neck pickup on that was awesome. I'd like to get something close to that without making the guitar look awfully goofy

[tomdarude]

how about mounting a single-coil of your choice....and another old/broken/without magnet one next to it?? looks like a HB, sounds like a SC

[popvulture]

Well, a P-90's probably your best fit body-wise... I've always thought of them being dead in the middle between a single coil and a humbucker (even though I guess a P90 technically IS a humbucker - stacked), so I wonder what would happen if you bought an underwound one from somebody like Lindy Fralin.

I'd email him.

[popvulture]

Actually, the post right before mine is probably a better idea.

[Robert Randolph]

Originally Posted by tomdarude

how about mounting a single-coil of your choice....and another old/broken/without magnet one next to it?? looks like a HB, sounds like a SC

Because it wouldn't fit without ripping wood out of my guitar?

[popvulture]

I wouldn't think you'd have to do any routing in that scenario. What he basically means is to have a humbucker with the slug coil turned off.

[Robert Randolph]

Originally Posted by popvulture

I wouldn't think you'd have to do any routing in that scenario. What he basically means is to have a humbucker with the slug coil turned off.

That sounds interesting.

An underwound p90 from Lindy Fralin sounds like an awesome idea though. I may buy a few pickups in fact. I have an explorer I want to get some overwound p90-alikes in as well.

[seaneldon]

Why not roll back the volume on the guitar? Unless I'm going for balls-out-distortion from my P90 SG, I keep the volume on 6-7. If I feel like I've lost any top in the tone, I reach for a treble or presence knob on the amplifier. But for the most part the tone does not suffer, it only gets quieter.

I've never played a guitar with an underwound P90. Perhaps that's the answer here.

[Robert Randolph]

Originally Posted by seaneldon

Why not roll back the volume on the guitar? Unless I'm going for balls-out-distortion from my P90 SG, I keep the volume on 6-7. If I feel like I've lost any top in the tone, I reach for a treble or presence knob on the amplifier. But for the most part the tone does not suffer, it only gets quieter.

I've never played a guitar with an underwound P90. Perhaps that's the answer here.

I've tried that and it is a workable solution, but no ideal. I feel like it could use a lot more upper/upper-midrange on it when I start to turn it down. I generally run the bridge on 7 or so and that works great, but the neck is far too dark when I bring it back.

I generally just prefer the sound of my telecaster, but much prefer the body/neck of the SG... I think I'm just trying to get a little bit of telecaster into my SG

[popvulture]

Here's one more random idea... is the routed hole for the neck humbucker in an sg wide enough to fit a tele pickup? If so, you could order an unpunched pickguard (or maybe a bridge pickup only pickguard - I'm sure you could special order) and cut a new hole to fit the size of the tele neck pickup.

That, of course, would only work if you had an SG with the larger style pickguard.

I really would check out underwinding before you do any of that kind of thing though... seriously just call Lindy Fralin and tell him what you want. I think he's a real hands on kind of guy and couple probably make you exactly what you're looking for.

[Robert Randolph]

I thought about the pickguard idea... I certainly have the tools to do it (or re-route the guitar for that matter), but I can be fickle so I try to avoid mods like that.

I'm going to call Lindy Fralin for sure.

At this point I'm thinking of just buying another SG to throw some 10-15% underwound p90's in and do a mod I've been wanting to do to an SG for a while. (built in ds-1 with true-bypass. I have a strat setup this way and it's lots of fun)

[popvulture]

I have a 90s SG that I got for nothing, so I actually had a friend of mine in Brooklyn do the Jimmy Page mod on it. It's pretty cool - all 4 knobs push/pull for coil splitting, phase, series/parallel, etc. Super fun.

[Yuri Kogan]

One of our engineers has installed a Gibson P94 (a humbacker size P90) in the neck position. Big improvement.

Yury

[baikonour]

Originally Posted by popvulture

Well, a P-90's probably your best fit body-wise... I've always thought of them being dead in the middle between a single coil and a humbucker (even though I guess a P90 technically IS a humbucker - stacked), so I wonder what would happen if you bought an underwound one from somebody like Lindy Fralin.

I'd email him.

just to correct that a P90 is not technically a humbucker stacked or otherwise...Just a large true single coil.
Designed in 1946!

[baikonour]

Something else you might consider is a Gretsch singe coil HiLoTron. Nice sound... and it will fit in an humbucker slot .You will still need to have a pickguard made to fit.

[skiltrip]

I have a PhatCat in my bridge position, because I wanted it closer to my tele than it would be with humbuckers.

It's a very different sounding guitar now though. In can get very aggressive without being metally. Very controlled gain coming out of that pickup, I love it.

It's not quite a single coil sound, but definitely not a humbucker sound. It's somewhere completely in between.

[Robert Randolph]

Originally Posted by skiltrip

I have a PhatCat in my bridge position, because I wanted it closer to my tele than it would be with humbuckers.

It's a very different sounding guitar now though. In can get very aggressive without being metally. Very controlled gain coming out of that pickup, I love it.

It's not quite a single coil sound, but definitely not a humbucker sound. It's somewhere completely in between.

Why a different pickguard?

[djdayson]

Check out Duncan's P-Rails if your SG has Humbuckers, P90, Fenderish Single Coil, and a couple of Humbucking options in a humbucker sized package.

I'm not sure how you'd switch it all if standard DPDT Push-Pull Pots won't fit in an SG?

Originally Posted by Robert Randolph

I've tried that and it is a workable solution, but no ideal. I feel like it could use a lot more upper/upper-midrange on it when I start to turn it down. I generally run the bridge on 7 or so and that works great, but the neck is far too dark when I bring it back.

I generally just prefer the sound of my telecaster, but much prefer the body/neck of the SG... I think I'm just trying to get a little bit of telecaster into my SG

[theGeek]

+1 on the P90s

[FFTT]

Pete Townshend managed to get a pretty good tone outta them P-90's
on an SG :-)

I'm thinking about trying either one or a pair of Lindy Fralin P-92s
in my Ibanez AF105NT.

If I go for just one, it will go in the neck position leaving the HB for
bridge OD tones.

In the neck position, the P-90's I've heard seem to clean up the bottom end
over HB's that can get pretty muddy.

I also like the added quack of the P-90's

[Unclenny]

Finally broke down and ordered a Z-90 (tortoise shell, no less) to replace the bridge humbucker in my custom Strat.

Don't want to touch my old SG but I just don't feel complete without a P-90.

[FFTT]

Are you modding "the blonde"?

That's a nice guitar.

The only HB size P-90 I'm remotely familiar with is the Lindy Fralin P-92.

[Unclenny]

I am. The Blonde is getting a P-90 (Z-90) in the bridge position.

Gotta go with the tortoise shell, don't you think?

[FFTT]

I'm kind of in that, if it works don't fix it position on my AF-105NT even though
I'm sure I could improve the sound with better Pickups and better electronics.

The full hollow Ibanez body does already feed back rather easily, so I'd have to be very careful not to get P-90's that are too hot.

Since it's such a PITA to get to the electronics through the f holes, I'd don't want to
make the wrong decision.



The Blonde is really nice understated the way it is., dunno if I'd go tortoise
or not.

[PER80]

popvulture,

a P90 is single coil. The P100 is double coil.

[PER80]

FETT,

you might find that the P90 SG shape was actually a Les Paul. It was called SG after Les Paul said he didn't like it, and they put humbuckers in it, so I read somewhere. Originals with Les Paul on the headstock and P90's are quite valuable today.

[djdayson]

If you just need brightness, use a Treble Bleed circuit, and/or 50's wiring (and run the volume down a bit).

Originally Posted by Robert Randolph

I've tried that and it is a workable solution, but no ideal. I feel like it could use a lot more upper/upper-midrange on it when I start to turn it down. I generally run the bridge on 7 or so and that works great, but the neck is far too dark when I bring it back.

I generally just prefer the sound of my telecaster, but much prefer the body/neck of the SG... I think I'm just trying to get a little bit of telecaster into my SG

[Robert Randolph]

Originally Posted by djdayson

If you just need brightness, use a Treble Bleed circuit, and/or 50's wiring (and run the volume down a bit).

I was under the impression that a treble bleed circuit would not help much running humbuckers? I have a treble bleed on my strat which works OK, but I didn't think of it as any potential sort of solution for an SG with humbuckers...