Scott Henderson Discussion

[countandduke]

So anytime I play my single coil guitar with s good amount of gain, I can hear what I can only describe as "white noise" underneath the sound. It's not what I would call "feedback" but it's something that is bending my ear and not in a good way... I don't think it goes away if I turn the volume down and I have a sneaking suspicion that it's either the QUALITY of the pickups (G&L Indonesian model guitar) AND/OR the fact that they are NOT hum-cancelling...

The G&L guitars have weird tone controls where each tone knob affects a particular frequency. I believe the middle knob controls bass and the lower knob controls treble... It's an interesting idea but I'm used to the typical Fender tone controls but this is what Leo did AFTER Fender so maybe he was onto something?

I'm debating adding a Humbucker to my guitar but that would require a new Pickguard so more than likely I'll be getting a single coil replacement so of course I have THAT issue to deal with now. I'm leaning towards a Seymour Duncan JB, or lil 59, something along those lines but then the tone on Scott's Live album is GREAT and I think those are Dimarzio Virtual Vintage pups so I don't know... 😃😃😃

Thoughts???

FWIW, I play AIC, STP, Rage Against the Machine but then we also do improv fusiony-jazzy shit too so it's gotta be pretty flexible to cover different styles...

Best,
Chris

[Scott Henderson]

My first response was going to be turn your guitar volume down from 10 to 9 because there's a huge difference in tone, but if you say that's not helping, it has to be bad pickups or the fact that you're trying to use high gain with pickups that hum. These days, that's almost impossible if you live in a city.

Borrow a guitar with noiseless pickups or hum canceling system and if that solves the problem, you'll know what you need. If it doesn't, maybe it's an amp or pedal issue.

I love the Suhr SSC system, but DiMarzio and Kinman noiseless pickups sound pretty good too - much better than the combination of high gain with any humming single coil pickup.

[countandduke]

Thanks Scott, I keep going between a single coil pickup (noiseless) or s single pickup that is really a Humbucker in a single coil size. My current job (work with autistic teens) doesn't pay Jack so I'm trying to find a cheapest possible solution. I remember having a set of Joe Barden single coil pups and they were like single coils on steroids! Dead quiet though... They still had some of the single coil "spank" to it where you could almost hear what I refer to as "The windings", it's that part of the note with some overdrive that the note almost sounds "scratchy" and a bit hairy. It's hard to describe what one hears huh?

Best,
Chris