mtm105
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And did you know that he only had one eyeball??
Answer me this. If Leo Fender were so smart, why did he not utilize Humbuckers??
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StrummerJoe
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Because some folks actually love the sound of single coils. Set his guitars apart from his main competitor.
Leo used humbuckers in later endevours with Music Man and G&L.
Fender didn't start using humbuckers as a regular thing until way after Leo had departed, so it's not all on him.
I prefer my FENDER strats and teles with single coils. I want my Fender guitars to sound like a Fender guitar. If I want something else I go somewhere else.
YMMV
🍻
Leo used humbuckers in later endevours with Music Man and G&L.
Fender didn't start using humbuckers as a regular thing until way after Leo had departed, so it's not all on him.
I prefer my FENDER strats and teles with single coils. I want my Fender guitars to sound like a Fender guitar. If I want something else I go somewhere else.
YMMV
🍻
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mtm105
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I have Seymour Duncan vintage(s) in a Warmoth. I've considered swapping for a ZVEX bridge over & over. I NEVER NEVER NEVER enjoyed singles. Until maybe now...
StrummerJoe
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Singles aren't for everyone. They don't work so well for gained up apications for most people, but there are exceptions.
I like P90s in LPs. They can get dirty in a good way.
ricksdisconnected
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nothing left to say after this. i agree 100%Because some folks actually love the sound of single coils. Set his guitars apart from his main competitor.
Leo used humbuckers in later endevours with Music Man and G&L.
Fender didn't start using humbuckers as a regular thing until way after Leo had departed, so it's not all on him.
I prefer my FENDER strats and teles with single coils. I want my Fender guitars to sound like a Fender guitar. If what want something else I go somewhere else.
YMMV
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cooljuk
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Humbuckers had basically the opposite sound that Leo was after. He was into Western and Hawaiian music and, if you look a the trend of the sound of his amps and guitar, his creations were getting brighter and cleaner, with more headroom.
Leo did indeed work with humbucker designs, you can see prototypes in photos of his bench in books and in his office, which remains at G&L. He just didn't use them until he had come up with a design which he felt maintained (or progressed) the sound he wanted. You can see what came of those humbucker designs in Music Man and G&L guitars.
Leo did indeed work with humbucker designs, you can see prototypes in photos of his bench in books and in his office, which remains at G&L. He just didn't use them until he had come up with a design which he felt maintained (or progressed) the sound he wanted. You can see what came of those humbucker designs in Music Man and G&L guitars.
TheLoudness!!
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I'm a humbucker type of person myself. With that said, single coils offer a different tonality. A different tool for a different application.
are you saying that single coils are "not so smart"?
Jethro Rocker
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That's what I wondered. While single coils have more noise, they are different tonally from HB as we all know. Different use.
I think it is safe to say he was so smart. No "If" there.
aikiguy
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I’m certainly no expert, and I think it depends on the historian you’re speaking with to a certain extent but my understanding has always been like this:
We know that moving the string through a magnetic field produces sound, so they wound the pickup (in a single coil fashion) to produce that sound to an amp.
My understanding is that these single coil pickups would act as a transformer of sorts that would cause them to react with other electro-magnetic fields like flourescent lighting, etc which would cause them to produce hum.
My further understanding is that some clever guy somewhere came up with the idea of adding a second winding (I’ve always understood it to be in the opposite direction, but am not sure about that) to help reduce the hum, or ”buck” the hum. (Electrical guys here would be familiar with boosting and bucking wiring of transformers)
It’s always been my opinion that humbuckers are simply a part of the evolution of pickups, I don’ think it’s a case of Leo being stupid or anything, I’m more inclined to think he simply hadn’t “gotten there yet”.
I also never really knew anything about him, not even that he only had one eye! Lol. You would think at this stage of my guitar life that I would have known that!
FWIW
We know that moving the string through a magnetic field produces sound, so they wound the pickup (in a single coil fashion) to produce that sound to an amp.
My understanding is that these single coil pickups would act as a transformer of sorts that would cause them to react with other electro-magnetic fields like flourescent lighting, etc which would cause them to produce hum.
My further understanding is that some clever guy somewhere came up with the idea of adding a second winding (I’ve always understood it to be in the opposite direction, but am not sure about that) to help reduce the hum, or ”buck” the hum. (Electrical guys here would be familiar with boosting and bucking wiring of transformers)
It’s always been my opinion that humbuckers are simply a part of the evolution of pickups, I don’ think it’s a case of Leo being stupid or anything, I’m more inclined to think he simply hadn’t “gotten there yet”.
I also never really knew anything about him, not even that he only had one eye! Lol. You would think at this stage of my guitar life that I would have known that!
FWIW
Kutt
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Answer me this- If he wasn't so smart, then why was Gibson the one playing catch up with him in the 50s?
junk notes
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See?, you've answered your own question.And did you know that he only had one eyeball??
Lack of vision.
Mike_LA
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Strat
Postion 2 & 4
Humbucker
'Nuf said!
Postion 2 & 4
Humbucker
'Nuf said!
RLW59
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Not during Leo's time with the company. All 3 pickups were the same, so no humbucking. RW/RP middle pickups didn't start until the '80s. (Aftermarket companies did it first with replacement pickups, Fender didn't adopt it until the '86 American Standard.)
But in '57, Leo replaced the singlecoil Precision Bass pickup with the humbucking split-coil pickup, and in 1960 he put a RW/RP neck pickup on the (2 pickup)Jazzmaster (so the bridge + neck combo was humbucking).
The split-coil P Bass pickup was a pretty genius way around Gibson's patent protection on the humbucker design. The Jazzmaster a little less genius since it only bucked hum when both pickups were on -- but it took everyone else another 20 years to realize you could do that with a Strat.
cooljuk
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Leo also developed the split coil design used in the Electric XII guitars. Though they weren't manufactured until 1965, they were not a CBS design.
Here's an example from 1966 I repaired several years ago. You can see how this design was only slightly revised in the Z Coil pickups used on the G&L Comanche.
You can also see the early designs had a little trouble with string balance. They have a small iron bar laid across a couple pole pieces, in an attempt to manage that.
Here's an example from 1966 I repaired several years ago. You can see how this design was only slightly revised in the Z Coil pickups used on the G&L Comanche.
You can also see the early designs had a little trouble with string balance. They have a small iron bar laid across a couple pole pieces, in an attempt to manage that.
PelliX
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I think it's the other way around; see, they made humbuckers for people who needed the light on while playing - right? Single coil players work in darkness.
cooljuk
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To be clear, humbucking pickups (two coils with opposite electrical and magnetic polarity picking up the same sound to phase-cancel outside noise) were not an invention that Seth Lover developed for Gibson, nor were they a concept that was developed initially for guitar pickups, at all.
The concept had long been in real-world use before Rickenbacker ever electrified a frying pan with strings on it, even in the commercial audio market.
Below are photos of a 1920s RCA Victor magnetic pickup element from a Victrola (phonograph / record player). It's plainly obvious that the design employs a tiny little magnetic humbucking pickup, which is exactly the same design used in guitars. Hand-wound plain enamel wire coils, as well!
Turns out, neither Bill Lawrence nor Larry DiMarzio invented the double blade pickup or the use of stacked laminations, either!
For size reference, here's one of the coils on one of my winding machines, as I repaired it.
Remember, Leo's background was working on radios. Hum-canceling coils were used here, in phonograph pickups, transformers, etc. Hum canceling is also used in push-pull amplifier design and heater wiring. It was a concept that Leo was well familiar with and used. It just didn't meet his goals for his early guitar pickup designs.
The concept had long been in real-world use before Rickenbacker ever electrified a frying pan with strings on it, even in the commercial audio market.
Below are photos of a 1920s RCA Victor magnetic pickup element from a Victrola (phonograph / record player). It's plainly obvious that the design employs a tiny little magnetic humbucking pickup, which is exactly the same design used in guitars. Hand-wound plain enamel wire coils, as well!
Turns out, neither Bill Lawrence nor Larry DiMarzio invented the double blade pickup or the use of stacked laminations, either!
For size reference, here's one of the coils on one of my winding machines, as I repaired it.
Remember, Leo's background was working on radios. Hum-canceling coils were used here, in phonograph pickups, transformers, etc. Hum canceling is also used in push-pull amplifier design and heater wiring. It was a concept that Leo was well familiar with and used. It just didn't meet his goals for his early guitar pickup designs.
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