How To Mix Single Coils and Humbuckers
Combining Single Coil and Humbucker pickups in a guitar brings some challenges, often overlooked by guitar players looking for different sounds. Guitars like H.S.S. Strats, Telecasters, and others with mixed pickups present a puzzle that requires careful consideration. Let’s look at some simple solutions for musicians seeking diverse tones.
Breaking Down The Challenge:
Think of Single Coil Pickups (like Vintage Hot or Stock Telecaster) and Humbuckers (such as Pure P.A.F. or Standard) as two different characters in the world of guitar sounds. A single coil, with about 8-9,000 turns of wire on one bobbin, gives off a bright sound. On the other hand, humbuckers, which are essentially two single coils wired together, have a louder output and a darker tone. Here’s a quick look:
Single Coils:
- Are usually brighter than humbuckers in tone
- Usually need 250K Volume Pots due to their brightness
- Are a lot less output than humbuckers
Humbuckers:
- A lot darker than single coil pickups
- Usually need 500K Pots
- More powerful than single coils
Confused on Pot Values? Check out our Volume and Tone Pots 101 Post.
When balancing these different pickups using just one volume pot, the challenge arises. It’s like a puzzle: do you use a 500K pot for the louder bridge humbucker and risk making the brighter single coils too loud, or vice versa?
Know Your Style
The trick is to understand how you play. Do you mostly play with the Strat neck Pickup and occasionally use the bridge? Or are you someone who rocks out with the bridge humbucker often and rarely plays the single coils? Knowing this helps you pick the right pickups that match your style. Now, let’s look at some simple solutions:
Solution #1: Pick The Right Pickups
This is our most recommended solution. Choose the most compatible pickup outputs and tone.
Choosing pickups that work well together is the best solution. Selecting the proper combination might mean using a brighter humbucker with your single coils or getting darker single coils to match the humbucker. Examples include using Blues Specials or High Output Single Coils with a Pure P.A.F. bridge. You can also explore humbucker-sized pickups like Sunbucker, Big Single (42 Gauge), and Twangmaster – all bright and snappy, and they use 250K pots.
Split Blades Give you a lot of options here. For instance, Blues and Super High Output Split Blades sound best with 500K pots, making them perfect for HSS guitars and Telecasters. You can use a 500K Pot on the whole guitar, and your pickups won’t be too overly bright.
Solution #2: Embrace the 300K Pot
When the standard 250K and 500K options don’t quite fit, a 300K pot can be a middle-ground solution. It’s brighter than 250K and darker than 500K, helping balance the tones of your humbucker and single coils.
Solution #3: Try The “Bright Switch” Push Pull Mod.
Imagine you have a Telecaster with a dark-neck humbucker and a bright bridge pickup. The Bright Switch mod can help remove the dark tone from the neck pickup, brightening it up. It’s like flipping a switch to change the sound.
Solution #4: Use a Resistor.
Adding a resistor to your pickup can change how it “sees” the volume pot. For example, in a Telecaster with a P90 in the neck and a Single Coil bridge, using a 500K pot with a resistor can help balance the tones. Here’s how to wire it up in a Stratocaster:
You can see two 500K Resistors in this diagram – on the Neck and Middle terminals of the switch, and the other legs are to ground. This fakes out the Single Coils so they see 250K, and the Humbucker sees 500K.
Each solution has pros and cons, so think about what works best. Whether trying a 250K/500K Concentric Volume Pot or using two volume pots, there are different ways to solve this puzzle and find the ones that suit your playing style.
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I have a telecaster thine line i have a fender neck humbucker in neck 8.7 ohms A dual rail 13.7 ohms int the bridge. What size pots and cap should I use. I want a 500k tone and 250 voume with .o47uf cap for tone. Good Idea? Tom
Hey Tom, on a Telecaster, I’d recommend using 500K poots for the VOLUME, not the Tone. The Volume makes the most difference, tonally speaking.
I just read all I could about HS Telecasters. Still, help me please. I have a fender performer tele. It works kind of uniquely. It only uses half of one coil on the humbucker from what I understand. What I want is a kind of hot single and a more mellow ( alnico 2) humbucker AND be able to split the humbucker for traditional both single middle position. I believe you covered that ground. So if I decide to purchase I am thinking You could put it all together with any mods I may need?
Hi Tyler,
I recently bought a Fender Shawn Mendes Foundation Musicmaster. It’s an inexpensive guitar if tremendous beauty and quality, and I absolutely loved it. The pickups sound good, but there is room for improvement. I do find them a little too bright and lacking some nuances. I’m hoping I’d find a good set of h/s pickups from Fralin. Would you please give some pointers on this subject?
My ultimate aim is to find a combo that retains the single-coil-like clarity in all positions of this guitar while getting a bit more punch for the neck humbucker. This guitar has a coil split on the humbucker and sounds very good without significant volume loss. This is a feature that I’d very much like to retain.
While I don’t use its bridge pickup much, mainly using it in middle position to blend in more flavors, I do wish to upgrade the bridge to a beefier sounding option similar to one in a vintage Tele, if possible. (This guitar has a Tex/Mex Strat single oil for bridge and a Player series humbucker for neck)
Sincerely,
Gary
Will a neck single coil in parallel with a bridge humbucker be hum-cancelling if the polarities differ? I was under the impression they wouldnt because the bridge humbucker cancels the phase in itself, only to go in parallel with a single coil that still carries 60 cycle hum.
Surprised I didn’t find one single comment asking about HSH pickup mix & match. I have a cheap custom HSH from a small company that uses Chinese parts. Planning on replacing the pickups very soon. It’s been a daunting task doing all of this research.
I know I want the Fralin Pure P.A.F. in the Neck position. I was initially thinking of getting a mid output Bridge, something like 10-12k (thinking the Suhr SSV or SSV+) and a Classic Stack Plus Strat from SD in the Middle.
My Goal is to be able to get nice bright lead tones with some twang and fullness from the single coil that I choose, and a hard biting rock & roll sound from my bridge pickup. Translating that to pickup variables, not sure if I should get a lower output single coil (~6k) or a bit higher output, and if I should bother getting modern Humbucker in the bridge or get another PAF.
Also open to the idea of installing mods-ie 7 way switch, changing pots, etc.
Any help would be BEYOND appreciated!!
Hello Tyler. I have a Fender Strat Elite with 2 single coil pups and one Shawbucker. I got this guitar new about three years ago. Full disclosure … I have not played this guitar much live … opting for my #1 … an early 70s Les Paul. I’ve reached the point where I prefer not to use the LP for live gigs … and want to give the Strat a chance. This guitar came with their whisper(?) Single coils which are lacking power … and the Shawbucker is not working for me. I’m not opposed to changing out the pups. My cover band plays rock (nothing too heavy … Santana is about as heavy as we get), pop, Motown, country, and reggae. I do like the warmth of a Les Paul in clean mode– neck pickup. Before I decided to explore new pickups I recently discovered a Telecaster (70s) that has 2 humbuckers. To my ear this Tele sounds great! Any recommended approach via pickups to get the Strat in a similar place as that Tele? Related … not a techie here so I’ll have to have the new pups installed … assuming I go that way. Suggestions? Many thanks.
Hello Tyler, I want to say your web page is great and very educational for us guitarrists.
I have a Thinline 72′ Telecaster with 2 Wide Range Humbuckers Reissue (not Cunife), and changed the original 250K volumen and tone pots for 500K volume and tone, and also made the split coil with push/pull mod. The problem is when I split I have single coils with 500K volume pot (too trebley and harsh). So the question is: It is possible make your SOLUTION # 4 (470K resistor) on this topic to kick in for both Bridge and Neck just when split to single coils with the push/pull pot?
This way when using widerange humbukers will see 500K volume pot, and when split the single coils will see 242K volume pot right? Making the 500k vol and tone pots clear up some of the muddiness of the reissue WRHB and making the single coils sound less shirll and ice-picky.
Not sure about this one. Although, I’m thinking that the Partial Tap Resistor will do the trick. Instead of splitting the humbucker 50 / 50, it’s more like 70 / 30 and provides you with a warmer single-coil tone. Otherwise, use 300K pots instead of 500K. Our Wide Range Humbuckers sound great on 300K.
I recently installed a CTS push pull pot for coil split into my HS charvel. the pot is 500 k and i have a seymour duncan pegasus wired for coil split and a seymour duncan ssl5 in the neck. i could t find any wiring on this exact setup and after wiring it to the best of my ability i managed to get the pickups and push pull working but there’s a strong hiss that gets louder under overdrive. any help?
Will this work? I have a ’72 Thinline with 2 PAF HB’s and I want to add a Strat neck single coil as a 3rd pickup in the middle on a S-1 Switch to be able to add the 3rd pup to either of the 3 pickup switch positions. How do I wire the S-1 to do this – or can I ?
So I have a 2012 American Standard Telecaster. I installed a Dimarzio Chopper T in the bridge position and a Dimarzio Area T hum free single coil in the neck. It has some good meaty low end but has lost it’s ability to cut through a mix a bit. I was considering installing a 500k tone pot to pair with the 250k Volume. I think this will give me a larger tonal range including a boost to the upper end? However, would this also cause volume bleed through? What suggestions would you have for this pickup configuration.
Hello, this is also a question like Mike’s above. I have a mini humbucker for the neck position that I wanted to to put in my Tele. But I’m going to keep the standard wiring setup and was curious if I should try the 300K pot for the typical volume/tone/3-way or if I should leave the 250K or possibly even consider swapping for a 500K volume pot? Thanks for any feedback! This has been a very informative bit of info!
Hey Brandon,
It’s really hard to tell – you can definitely experiment. Luckily, the pots are cheap!
Keep playing,
Tyler
Hi – on Telecaster – going to use a Mini humbucker neck, and standard fralin tele bridge single coil. Don’t usually use a tone control, so was thinking going with 2 volume controls.
Should I use a 500 pot for mini hum and a 250 for the single, and in elect middle position – do I get the dark muddy tone as described above if adding a 500k resister…? Many thanks!!
Hey Mike,
I would actually experiment with a 300K volume pot, a slightly darker Tele Bridge, and a slightly brighter Mini Humbucker. For instance, you could get away with a Stock Neck with Alnico 5 and a Blues Special Tele Bridge. You’d get a pretty even tone out of both pickups and be able to forego the customization.
Tyler
Gday guys brad from Australia I have a squire 72 vintage modified custom Tele with the 2 wide ranging humbuckers and would like to replace the neck humbucker with a strat single coil and I m after one which would give me something close to a david gilmour type sound .Can you give me some recommendations on the right single coil to use and the best way to wire it cheers Brad.
so i have a strat body and i want to install a humbucker for the neck, a humbucker for the bridge and a middle single coil lipstick pickup inbetween the two. what would be the best way to go about that exactly
Christian,
Really, the only way you can make this happen is to go with the 500K pot on your guitar and have a nice and chimey middle position. You can also use a 500K resistor from the Middle Pickup Lug on your 5-Way Switch to Ground, and your Lipstick Tube will see a 250K Volume!
Tyler
For HSS. Use 250k vol and tone. Don’t use any tonepot connected to the humbucker. Normally a humbucker sees 250k in the end anyway having 2x 500k for volume and tone. Correct me if I’m wrong.
i have a standard squier strat sss & i’ve bought a Belcat bhs-94a hotrail pickup 12.5k in order to replace the single coil at bridge position. All my pot are 250k.
* Can i keep the 250k pots & install the hotrail
* Or should i use a 500k volume pot with 470k resistor.
Please, can you advise
You can without any problem.
I think you should try it first as is. If you find the humbucker too dull/damp then try this:
A humbucker sounds best having 250k (vol 500k + tone 500k = 250k)
When u have 250k pots you could cutoff the tonepot (1x250k = also 250k)
You should see how the 5 way switch is connected. My suggestion is to cut the tonepot off the lug for the humbucker.
Its still a tradeoff since a tonepot still smooths out a little even if its on 10.
Thank for your help,
My idea was to change the 250k volume pot into 500k and keep the tone pots as is. Then i insert a 510k resistor between the 2 single pickup inputs at the switch and the ground in order for the single pickups to see the 500k pot as 250k. After that i can insert a treble bleed between the 2 lugs of the volume pot to retain the volume when it’s turned down. All this is to be done taking into consideration that am choosing an hss auto-split mode.
If this can be done, could you send me a wiring diagram for such solution.
if not please advise.
Note that i’ve read reviews about the hot rail I’ve mentioned earlier saying that it certainly needs a 500k volume pot to get its full sound.
Good idea, i think that will work!
Not too sure about the combination with the autosplit since then all pots and pickups are connected on 1 side of the 5way switch.
I have a similar problem and i think ill just add a little toggle switch instead.
This is what I do, and works great with low output humbuckers.
I have a G&L Bluesboy. Loved how it played and felt, but the neck HB did not sound good on its own. It was too muddy due to the guitar having 250 k pots that only matched well with the bridge single coil. I spoke to Lindy and he told me to research his 3 Humbuckers that are designed to work with 250 pots. Well, I ended up researching just about all of his pickups. I ended up deciding to keep my neck HB with hopes that 500k pots would fix the issue. I swapped the bridge out with a Fralin split steel pole Tele. What a marvelous combo- the neck HB now sounds great, the bridge is phenomenal, the middle is perfect. Bonus- all positions are dead quiet and work with 500 k pots. I think I was able to preserve the essence of the guitar’s design without any compromises. It’s hard to put this guitar down now. Thanks for providing so many options to handle any pickup situation.
I did it using underwound pickups and 1Meg pots, like Fender did in late 60s and 70s. In that period Fender changed specs to save moneys and sold pickups with underwound pickups.
I bought a Fralin Pure P.A.F. neck humbucker with 7.6k DC Resistance and a Fralin Broadcaster bridge pickup with 6.0k.
Starting from those pickups I wired a circuit with 1Meg Aud pots as volume and tone. In more, like Fender did in that period, I put a ceramic cap, in order to cut frequency (PIO caps would be a mess in this situation). This did the trick. The guitar sounds awesome and I’m really really happy. The base (the pickups) is great, but in this way they can shine!
One other idea: I’ve wired a similar guitar with a 1M volume pot and a second 1M bleeder potentiometer wired in parallel that acts like the “resistor to ground” approach but allows you to vary the resistance. By using two 1M pots I believe it looks like a single 500k pot when the bleeder all the way up (if my math’s correct). I’ve found this works great, though it is an extra thing to manage, and I’ve thought about moving it to a 5-way switch that had 5 different resistance settings to make it easier to manage.
500k volume, 250k tone with the single coil, 500k tone with the humbucker… different caps for each. Did this with five way switching in a Tele with a neck HB. Killed it. Parallel instead if splitting coils so it’s still noise cancelling and single coil tone and output. I get it all. Burned my brain to get it working….LOL
Joey Quiggins,
Interested in how you did this wiring; do you have a pic or illustration of the circuit that worked for you? Trying to set up something similar…
Thanks,
Steve
Good article and honest opinions. Hit all the right stuff