How To Simulate An Humbucker With A Single Coil With Pod Hd500x

[ycarion]

Good afternoon everybody,

I want to simulate an humbucker with my Fender guitar.  I know it seems funny.  But I have only one guitar for playing on stage.

I see in the soft HD500X they simulate an acoustic guitar.  Therfore they use 4 or 5 EQ to rectify some frequencies.

Is there someone who knows which frequencies must I rectify to get an humbucker sound?

Or do you know another way to do this?

 

Thanks a lot for your help

[TheRealZap]

this is inaccurate.. there is no acoustic emulation in the 500 or 500x, and no direct humbucker simulation either...

 

 see in the soft HD500X they simulate an acoustic guitar. 

Thanks a lot for your help

[Luigo69]

I Believe there is no way of changing the characteristics of the guitar connected to the HD500X other than Playing with the Amp controls and EQs, Your single coils will always sound like single coils, that's what they are.

 

The only way I know, is Using a VARIAX guitar, This way you can select and create almost any Electric Guitar Pickup Simulation there are and also, Acoustic Guitar simulations.

 

So, when you see a post of someone talking about acoustic sounds or pickup Simulation they probably have a VARIAX guitar.

[ycarion]

Excuse me for my bad English.

I'm going to try to explain my problem clearer.

I know there is no emulation for acoustic guitar like in the GT100 from Boss.

But I'm sure i've seen in the presets one "simulation" which is made with different EQ.

And it's sounding like an acoustic guitar.

I'm going to attach a print screen when I'll get my HD500X back.  It'll be clearer.

With some EQ it's probably possible to change different frequencies so that my single coil sounds nearly like an humbucker.

But which frequencies must I change?

[pfsmith0]

Check out the Seymour Duncan comparison guide at http://www.seymourduncan.com/comparetones. You'll see lots of variation among the single coils and lots of variation between the humbuckers. For the sake of an example, though, many single coils have peaks around 9kHz, so you'll want to dial in an EQ to cut that some. You'll also see many humbuckers have peaks around 6kHz, so you'll want to use the EQ to amplify that somewhat.

 

Then there's output amplitude. Humbuckers are louder than single coils, so you'll want to add a little gain, maybe 3-6dB? Not sure about that...

 

Then there's alnico II vs alnico V magnetics, but you'll these in both pickups. However, humbucker's have more windings (which is why their output is louder and their resonant peak is lower) so they distort the magnetics more than single coil. So you'll need to dial in some mild distortion, but I don't think any of the FX in the HD500 will do a very good job of that, but you could try.

 

All-in-all, you won't have very good success. But if you're requirements are lo-fi and you're willing to try something, maybe some of these points will provide some guidance.

[spaceatl]

My opinion is fix the root cause...Pick out a decent stacked humbucker (hot rails or something) and put that in your guitar...Simulating a humbucker with a single coil is akin to simulating a woman's specific body part with your hand...jus' sayin'  ;)

[ozbadman]

There's an excellent article here about guitar pickups: http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/lemme/

 

Basically, a Humbucker has a lower resonant frequency than a single-coil. So, cut the high frequencies, and boost one of the lower frequencies as the first stage in your signal chain. My guess would be boost around 3KHz, and cut everything above that, but I don't have my equipment with me to try it. Good Luck.

[DeanDinosaur]

Single coils in general are hollow in the mid frequencies so you need to boost your mids.

Using POD HD insert the Parametric EQ , turn the Q all the way down to the left (to get the widest curve possible). Boost the gain to 2 to 4DB. Now to find the frequency that will give the best desired result, simply  start from the middle (default position) and move the frequwncy slider leftward, I'm thinking between 20% to 50% you will find what you're looking for.

 

If you want to get closer by modifying your guitar the cheapest way and least intrusive possible: buy a PUSH PULL for Volume. go to Dimarzio website and download the wiring for series wiring using PUSH pull. When you pull,you will add two sounds in position 1 and 5 I that will combine the neck and middle in series also bridge and middle in series. Since the middle is reversed wound hopefully, you will get no hum and also a  major boost very similar to humbuckers.

[ycarion]

Hello,

Thanks a lot for your answers.

I'll try your solutions this WE.

If somebody have other ideas it's welcome!

[davidb7170]

I have both the JTV 59 & 69S and use them both out gigging -- I swap at the break between sets.. I use the JTVs' physical pickups probably 90% of the time. I bought the 69S last fall after having my 59 for over a year. I like the fat sound of the 59's humbuckers, but also the more cutting sound of the single coils on the 69S. I've been a Fender guy forever, but the thing that always bugged me about the Strat's sound (besides the single coil hum) was the bridge PU is not normally in the tone knob's control. On the 69S, it is in the tone control circuit.

 

I've had to set up 2 set lists on my HD500 -- both with the same amps and patches, but one adjusted for the levels and tones of the 59 and one for the 69S. I also replaced my 69S's single coils with DiMarzio noiseless single coils, as I have been spoiled by the quieter HB's... Anyway, on my 69S I typically roll back my tone knob on the guitar to about 50% and I use it with good results on songs that need a HB more than the thinner sound of the single-coils. I had the same results with the original 69S pickups, just wanted to get rid of the SC hum, so I swapped them out.

 

On my Strat, I bought a prewired face plate with the bridge PU in the tone circuit from Carvin. I've kept my original faceplate & pickups and can swap 'em back in if I want. I've been thinking about doing another face plate with the bridge PU in the tone circuit for my Strat, but with the DiMarzio's I used in the 69S -- I like them that much.

 

There is a mod that someone noted in the forums not too long ago to wire the Strat tone controls to include the bridge pickup -- you might look into that to take the edge off the trebly sound of that PU.

 

Anyway, my 2 cents on the subject,

 

Dave