Scott Henderson Discussion

[countandduke]

Hey Scott:

So I'm looking at getting an overdrive/distortion pedal. As much as I LOVE single coils, I still gravitate towards humbuckers either single coil or low output humbuckers and I THINK you recommended the plimsoul over the SD9 when using a Humbucker but couldn't remember... My ear is no where near as good as yours and I still don't quite understand how single coils have more BASS than humbuckers but I need to buy your most recent videos and hope it explains that...

Anyways... If you could quickly do a comparison on SD9 vs Plimsoul that would be AWESOME! Thanks brother!

Chris

[Scott Henderson]

The PlimSoul is much more scooped than the SD-9, giving the impression of a fatter lead tone on the bridge pickup, however it's not a good pedal for the neck pickup because it's too woofy. The SD-9 has more compression and mids, so even though it may not sound quite as fat on the bridge pickup, it rocks the neck pickup and is still my favorite pedal for switching between pickups - that's why it's still on my board after 20 years.

Single coils have more bass because they're more full range, while humbuckers favor the mids and have little to no bass. These days with "modern" engineers ruining albums by drowning everything out with the bass & drums, you better have a humbucker because when you're buried in the mix, you need lots of midrange to poke your tiny little sound out and say hi to the listeners. If you mix records the right way, single coils sound much bigger than humbuckings.

[countandduke]

I've spoken with several different people and most of them have laughed in my face when I tell them that single coils have more "bass" than hum buckers because it just sounds impossible even to my own ears. Humbuckers have typically more output, more "chunk" and certainly no hum. BUT, I've also heard you say that humbuckers have more lower kids and not "bass" but also, admittedly, I have NOT compared the two on a graphic eq type analyzer so I'll have to take your word for it. I can hear that single coils are WAY more "open" than humbuckers but ultimately, it really is all down to what we, the listener can hear and I'm sure you can agree that hindsight is very often 20/20...

Thanks for all your input...

Chris

[Scott Henderson]

Not trying to make a sale here, but in my tone video I compare single coils to humbuckers, and anyone who can't clearly hear that single coils have more bass needs to have their hearing checked - it's not a subtile difference.

[countandduke]

AWESOME!!! I can't wait to get those...

Thanks Scott...

Chris