Help! Single Coils are gonna kill my sound guy...

[peterd79]

So i've got an Silo Special in Mint green and this is my baby... my numero uno, number one, aint going no where guitar... that being said when i got it i had the neck and middle single coils stock and the previous owner put in a mismatched hot rails... tone wise just didn't work for me. BUT i knew this going into it...

I had a set of pickups made for this guitar and they sound ok... wouldn't say overly impressed but they're getting it done. My sound guy is always talking about the hum and they come to me every SINGLE time...

I've shielded the cavity and even shielded the back of the pick guard but i'm still in the 60 cycle hum.

With the silent circuit it should cut out a good deal (if not all) of the noise if i'm not mistaken when working properly.

If i'm looking at biting the bullet again for pickups what should i be looking at wind wise... and i don't want to go Emg or the traditional active pickups...

should the middle be reverse wound or should it be standard...
should i expect there to be some noise
can i tell if my silent circuit is working properly?

this is not a complaint or quality concern - this was purchased used and want to be kind to my sound guys... so no beef with EBMM at all just trying to figure out what's going to work for me, my guitar and my engineer.

thanks...

 

[DrKev]

The silent circuit works by adding reverse noise to what the pickup gets, but it's not in the same position as any of the pickups and not the same shape as any of the pickups so it can't completely eliminate all types of noise. So yes, you should expect some noise. As you may already know, there is trim pot on the top of the silent circuit module that allows you to adjust it. In doing that you can hear clearly what frequencies it removes and what it's limitations are.

Middle pickup should be RWRP so that you have hum-cancelling in the 2 and 4 positions and that will be almost as quiet as a humbucker (the silent circuit needs to be defeated in those positions or it will add noise to the quiet).

If you don't you have RWRP middle, you will have a little more noise in the 2 and 4 positions (as the noise from each pickup adds together instead of cancelling). The silent circuit will need to be activated in those positions but that will still be noisier than single coil + silent circuit.

Is all your shielding correctly grounded?

Your Silo Special is SSS, right? Did you ask Customer Service for an SSS wiring diagram?

But honestly, it's not a noisy guitar. Yes, there is noise but it's not intrusive unless I start cranking the OD/distortion. And for 25 years I've been rolling the volume down the second I'm not playing, totally second nature to me now, and it's the most effective noise gate ever made.

If I ever change my stock pickups I would go for noiseless singe coils. Then I'll have humbucker-like silence in all positions do away with the silent circuit altogether.

 

[LawDaddy]

The DiMarzio Area series are great solutions, give them a call, they are happy to work over the phone with you. Probably the best solution for the traditional single coil sound. For a slightly different take, there's Lace Sensors. I gigged for awhile with the 'Rainbow' set in my Al SSS, probably my favorite noiseless solution.

 

[beej]

What Kev said.

If you go noiseless, there are lots of great options. Like LawDaddy mentioned, the Areas are great. I'm a fan of the Bill Lawrence stuff- I currently have L200s (equivalent to the Areas) in one of my ALs and L45s (rails) in my Morse. I also have a set of the "Microcoils" in an AL- they are amazing. They're actually true single coils, but wound with a tiny coil. Very little noise, less than any other single I've ever heard. With the Silent Circuit added they're basically dead quiet even with tons of gain. YMMV.

 

[LawDaddy]

The single-coil diehards over at TDPRI are big Lawrence fans. Never tried any, always been meaning to.

For the Areas, I ended up with 61(b)/67(m)/67.

All good options for the OP.

 

[kimonostereo]

I guess it really comes down to whether or not you want a single coil sound vs. a humbucker type sound. Many people love silent single coils and others say that there is "something missing." after owning a set. I think the thing that's missing is the hum, but I could be wrong. LOL!

I've had Kinmans, Lace, EMG and even Suhr singles with their backplate. All of them sound different and all of them get in the ballpark of the single coil sound. It just depends on what kind of single coil sound you're going for.

That said, I just tried a set of Fishman Fluence single width, single coil pickups. They sounded really good and had a dual sound using the push/pull knob and wired right in. I ended up taking them out since I wanted to use a stacked humbucker in the neck and bridge instead. If anyone is interested in picking these up, let me know as I'll probably throw them on craigslist.

I'll need to take a look at the Bill Lawrence and Areas next...

 

[sanderhermans]

I only had 1 noiseless sc experience. A set of seymour duncan tele stacks. They where fine and verry useable at higher gain but they lacked something when played clean. Normal single coils sound better to me clean. It all depends on what you need but the silent circuit is a perfect compromise imo.

 

[peterd79]

I have a buddy who has turned me onto Benson Custom pickups and have talked to him about a set very similar to john mayers big dippers that I like. But will be looking into all the options

I'm using my signature amp ( a cross between a dr z maz junior and a matchless spitfire) and use a Wampler paisley drive and a klon (klone) so not a big drive section. Everything is isolated on my amp, pedalboard and wireless unit. So I went back to the pickups and that's the single point of noise. I've maxed out the silent circuit and think I have some bum pickups
I'll check out the suggestions for sure. The sad part is I have the stock neck and middle pickups -
Anyone got a bridge pickup laying around by chance LOL

 

[Samoht]

Zexcoil pickups. Best of both worlds (tone/no hum).

 

[luiscesaripad]

Go zex coil pickups. They are amazing and noise free!!!