SamthePlant wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:28 pm
Thanks for this insight! I didn't realize that single coils had an innate scoop to their sonic delivery.
Well, they don't
really have one.
The thing to understand is how inductance affects tone. Inductance (measured in Henries, H) can basically be conceptualized as a pickup's ability to convert movement of the string into electrical output. In the case of passive pickups, you can simplify this to "high inductance = high output, low inductance = low output," though there are extra factors I'll ignore for the purpose of this post.
Low inductance pickups like vintage Fender single coils have a massive and narrow peak ("high Q") at their resonant frequency, which usually lands in the 3-5 kHz ("icepick") range. As you wind a pickup hotter (raising its inductance), the resonant frequency drops and the resonant peak flattens out ("low Q").
Here's a good conceptual diagram:
Here, we can see that winding strat pickup hotter raises overall output, drops the resonant frequency down toward vintage PAF territory and similarly starts flattening out that peak (lowering the Q). Lowering the wind of a PAF raises its resonant frequency and sharpens its peak. It's just that the vintage strat pickup was in the 2-3H range and a vintage PAF was in the 4-5H range. You can keep adding or removing winds from these designs and get them to swap places in terms of a single coil with higher inductance and lower resonant frequency and Q, and a humbucker with lower inductance, and higher frequency and Q.
Now look at these pickups:
So, you can see that a DiMarzio PAF Pro has a similar-looking, high-Q resonant peak at a similar frequency as a vintage strat pickup. Why? Because it's a really
low-inductance humbucker.
So, when you adjust your pedals/amps to achieve similar gain or volume from a low-inductance pickup (like the JMJM) compared to a high-inductance pickup (like your Les Paul), the level-matched tone has much more energy in the upper mids and much less in the lower mids.
Our hearing is nonlinear, and the human ear is most sensitive to frequencies from 2-5kHz. Many people use the term "midrange" to describe 500 Hz-2 kHz. So, a low-inductance pickup with the majority of its output concentrated right in the peak sensitivity range of our hearing will often be described as having a "midrange scoop," when in fact you can see that it has a "high-midrange boost" and no scoops at all.
It's just that high-inductance pickups put their resonant frequency right in that 500 Hz-2 kHz range, so low-inductance only sound "scooped" by comparison. It's more a matter of high-inductance pickups having a
midrange boost vs low-inductance pickups having a
high-midrange boost. If you use a low-capacitance cable and a very low-inductance pickup, you can actually push the resonant peak up out of the midrange frequencies entirely, into the treble range that guitar speakers don't even reproduce much, which gives the impression of a super-flat yet "sparkly"-sounding pickup, which is what the original lipstick tubes and Burns tri-sonics did.
Take a look at the response curve of a Celestion Greenback to see what I mean. It falls off a cliff beyond 5 kHz, which coupled with common guitar amp circuits and our less-sensitive hearing above that point gives the impression of having no boost at the resonant peak at all.
So, really, none of the classic passive pickups typically have a "scoop" anywhere that's tonally relevant at all, which would mean a dip in its response at a specific frequency range compared to the ranges on either side. The general frequency response of any passive pickup is to be roughly flat from bass through somewhere in the midrange, rise near its resonant frequency, then steadily drop as you move beyond the resonant frequency. There are often some dips in the bass range, but these are typically lower than is relevant to the tuning of a guitar and the response of speakers used in guitar amps, which don't do much below 100 Hz. You can induce higher frequency dips by adding on additional passive circuits, but they aren't inherent properties of traditional high-impedance passive pickups.
Now, add in the drummer's perspective - you've got kick, toms, snare, and cymbals right in their face. The cymbals in particular are at or near ear height, and wash out a
lot of frequencies since they're hit so often and have such a long decay compared to the snare (hit often, quick decay) and toms (hit less often, slower decay). Take a look at this chart:
A guitar tone that is heavy in the lower mids and mids fits into the traditional tonal hole between the snare and cymbals. The upper mids compete with all that cymbal wash. A low inductance pickup puts a lot of information up there unless you boost those mids and low-mids.
In essence, you're having to learn how to be an audio engineer and balance a live mix and the drummer is giving you feedback that he can't hear you in his monitor (even if that monitor is just his ears in a practice room). That's why you hear people say over and over that the key to cutting through live with your guitar tone is midrange. Boosting those lower mids through pedal and amp settings, and/or taming the upper mids with a tone knob gets you more into the traditional hole in a mix where a guitar wants to live.