[MasterOfAllPuppets]

Ok heres the situation I have played guitar for about a year and a half now and I am getting more serious about playing, so this has led me to wanting a new and beter guitar beacause the one I use now is a squire by fender and I feel it does not suit me anymore. Now the only thing is that before I start looking for a new guitar I cant be a complete guitar noob!! so I have some questions to ask.

1) Whats the difference between single coiled pickups and "humbuckers"?
2)Are there any other types of pickups?
3)Which type of pickup is better for someone who likes to play metal and hard rock?
4)What are active and passives?
5)What is "bolt on", "set thru and "neck thru body" constructions
6)Which tends to be better and why?
7)Whats the difference between a esp and ltd?

And finally can you recomend any guitars around the 1000 price range that are good from your experience ( So far i like ESP).
Thank you very much for your time any replies would be great oh and sorry if I posted this in wrong place.

 

[violation]

1 - Single coils have 1 coil, humbuckers have 2. Humbuckers have a fatter tone, single coils tend to hum unless you get hum cancelling singles (check Dimarzio).

2 - Yeah there's a bunch of others... P90's for example. Just Google 'types of pickups' and I'm sure someone has made a list. There's also passive and active pickups for both single coils and humbuckers.

3 - Metal and hard rock, humbuckers are the way to go.

4 - Active pickups have a built in preamp to ensure maximum output from the pickup at all times. Most also kill hum and noise (preamp would just boost the noise, that's not good). They require a battery and active electronics (EMGs for example, include all this in the box). Actives aren't really as "unique" tone-wise as a passive pickup is though.

Passives on the other hand require no battery or special electronics.

5 - Neck construction is basically how it meets the body. Bolt on, the neck is bolted on. Set-thru is glued. Neck thru body, if I remember right means the guitar is all one piece, lol.

6 - Set neck is the most popular from what I've heard... it's increases sustain and some say they get a warmer tone. There's not real "best" though, it depends on what you want.

7 - As far as I know LTD is ESPs 'lower end' axes. How Epiphone is to Gibson.

 

[adamthemute]

Violation answered your questions, so I thought I'd add something.

With $1000 you could get a good guitar if you buy used, especially being close to Toronto (I think?). I would look for a Gibson SG Standard.

 

[Robert1950]

Once correction - set neck has better sustain IMHO.

 

[violation]

Once correction - set neck has better sustain IMHO.

I've heard that, but I wasn't too sure so I didn't want to just go ahead and say it lol thanks for confirming. I spend most of my time on bolt on necks (my Ibanez RG and my Jackson... I loves 'em).

+1 to adamthemute about the guitar choice... $1000 in the used market can get you something great. Especially if you live near a large city like TO.

 

[Accept2]

Another thing, but its a little advanced for now, active pickups allow you to manipulate different parts of the spectrum, and you can also push the signal at different levels. They are very useful when using things like frequency delays, which will often show the limitations of passive pickups in parts of the spectrum. As for them not sounding "unique," no................
Neckthrus allow easy access to the upper frets, whether you use 21, 22, 36, or whatever, neckthrus allow this. They also have a darker tone than the others. I prefer neckthrus because the neck cant shift under pressure, and the feel nicer........
Single coils wont hum if you use two in conjunction, this is how people in metal play things like Strats and still can have a very heavy sound............
With guitars, try everything. Its all personal taste...........

 

[MasterOfAllPuppets]

thanks for the help =)

 

[Roidster]

i find my neck thru has killer sustain and tone

 

[sartana]

metal

IMHO Heavy Metal can be played by Single Coils,P-90'S or Humbuckers,unless maybe you are into "nu metal":sport-smiley-002:

 

[violation]

Metal on single coils... sounds too thin IMO. Metal should have a chunky fat tone, that would be why most use metal artists use humbuckers.

 

[puscifer]

I have both, a strat and a les paul, and there's no way in hell i'd even consider using my strat to play metal.

 

[I_cant_play]

I know the guy from Motorhead used a strat with single coils for metal but still, it sounds much better with humbuckers (99% of metalheads will agree). In my opinion it sounds even better with higher output humbuckers.

 

[sartana]

Strats and single coil P90's for metal

Well its an old arguement but Ritchie Blackmore,Robin Trower,Jimi Hendrix and the boys from Metallica among many others have made some pretty heavy music using Strats
P-90S are also single coil and Iommi used them on SG'S for the first few albums as well as Pete Townsend on Live at Leeds and Leslie West of Mountain with his LP JR ie Mississippi Queen etc and many others have made some pretty heavy music using single coils.
Humbuckers are just more popular for metal, hell as long as it rocks hard I am down with it:rockon2::rockon:

 

[violation]

Since when is Hendrix heavy music? Lol. Metallica used singles in the neck... not the bridge aka their most popular position. They'd mainly use it for clean tones. And they don't always use singles in the neck... Hammett has 2 different EMG sets.

 

[puscifer]

Well its an old arguement but Ritchie Blackmore,Robin Trower,Jimi Hendrix and the boys from Metallica among many others have made some pretty heavy music using Strats
P-90S are also single coil and Iommi used them on SG'S for the first few albums as well as Pete Townsend on Live at Leeds and Leslie West of Mountain with his LP JR ie Mississippi Queen etc and many others have made some pretty heavy music using single coils.
Humbuckers are just more popular for metal, hell as long as it rocks hard I am down with it:rockon2::rockon:

I think we're talking about different kinds of "heavy", but I wouldn't consider any of those bands except for Metallica to be heavy. And speaking of Metallica, i've only ever seen them using ESPs and Gibson guitars.

For heavy, thick, sustain'y metallica'esque riffs, I would go the humbucker route, but a lot depends on your amp as well.

Since the thread starter's name is a nod to metallica, I would suggest checking out high-gain amps, like mesa-boogie, marshall, diezel, and maybe even bogner and peavey.. even though you weren't asking about amps

 

[sartana]

Since when is Hendrix heavy music? Lol. Metallica used singles in the neck... not the bridge aka their most popular position. They'd mainly use it for clean tones. And they don't always use singles in the neck... Hammett has 2 different EMG sets.

I guess songs like Purple Haze and Voodoo Chile slight return are easy listening

 

[puscifer]

I guess songs like Purple Haze and Voodoo Chile slight return are easy listening

This is basically hard rock in today's music world:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bVl-QMPtwtk

Which puts hendrix somewhere between nickelback and bach.

 

[violation]

I guess songs like Purple Haze and Voodoo Chile slight return are easy listening

Compared to Damageplan, Pantera, Slayer, Metallica and Megadeth... you're damn right it is, :tongue:

 

[Accept2]

Rhoads used a Strat in the studio all the time during his short life because he liked the single coil tone. The guy from Overkill, a THRASH band used a strat with single coils all the time. Single coils can easily be used for heavy distortion, you just need the right ones, and you need to know how to use them. You can pile mountains of gain thru an Evans single coil and it will sound better than most humbuckers fed with the same amount of gain. Id agree on the NuMetal content, most metal guys want a variety of tones, and arent just looking for that drone sounding chugga-chugga like NuMetal. I think you'd be surprised at just how many Strats and single coils are used in the studio by metal and shred guys..............

 

[violation]

Care to link me to where it says Rhoads used a Strat in the studio? If he liked the single coil tone why would he play Les Pauls and V's live... doubtful, but even so he'd double or triple track the guitar part. So singles wouldn't exactly make a very big difference...