sizCan’t find the best single-coil pickups for metal? Well, it’s a challenging task because most professional musicians don’t consider single coils the right choice for metal tones.
Single coil pickups are not ideal for metal because they cannot cancel the buzz and hum when combined with saturated distortion.
Single coil pickups sound spanky, bright, and piercing. Fender Stratocaster and Fender Telecaster, the iconic guitars, get their twangy and thin tones with this sounding. That is why players familiar with light-sounding genres such as rock, blues, jazz, country, pop, etc., use single-coil pickups.
However, metal is famous for sounding aggressive and heavy with guitar tones loaded with lots of saturation and distortion, and this is a case where single-coil pickups are not up to the mark. And that’s the reason why most metal players use humbuckers instead of single coils.
What should you do if you can’t or don’t want to use humbuckers? Well, you can get all from both worlds if you use a humbucker that fits a single-coil slot of your guitar.
We found three great single coil-sized humbuckers you can use for playing metal + one true single-coil pickup – not the best, in our opinion, but pretty decent for metal tones. So without further ado, let’s look at our list of the best single-coil-sized humbuckers for metal.
Best Single Coil Sized Pickups for Metal
| Image | Model | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Seymour Duncan SHR-1b Hot Rails Pickup (Top Pick) | Check Price |
 | Seymour Duncan SL591B Little 59 Pickup (Close Runner-Up) | Check Price |
 | Seymour Duncan SJBJ1 JB Jr. Pickup | Check Price |
 | EMG SA Single-Coil Pickup | Check Price |
1. Seymour Duncan SHR-1b Hot Rails Pickup (Editor’s Choice)
SHR-1b Hot Rails are among the highest output pickups made by Seymour Duncan. It is a humbucker that easily fits into a single-coil slot and offers a noise-canceling effect. You need not cut a hole in a guitar. Powerful coil windings, two thin blades offer great fat and sustain, full sound that every rock music player l In addition, es. SHR-1b pickup responds to the slightest finger movements.
Your quest for finding the right pickup end with the SHR-1b hot rails pickups. This single coil-sized humbucker uses overwound coils and a strong ceramic magnet to deliver balanced, big humbucker tones for metal and rock.
SHR-1b offers clean, warm, and fat tones. Solos have a fluid and thick feel, and with dual blade construction, this pickup gives excellent string coverage.
The SHR-1b Hot Rails bridge model humbucker offers high output, aggressive crunch, and loads of midrange harmonics. These exclusive features make it a good pickup for rock and metal. Full and powerful chords, single notes jump out with fantastic sizzle make this pickup a popular choice. This pickup in the bridge position will completely transform your guitar into a fantastic instrument.
Pros
- Great for playing metal
- Expressive sustain and a fat
- Perfect for heavy tones
- Responds to the softest finger movements
Cons
- None
2. Seymour Duncan SL591B Little 59 Pickup (Close Runner-Up)
Seymour Duncan Little 59 is a perfect brute-designed pickup that is made to offer a smooth and warm tone. It is a direct replacement humbucker that is single-coil sized.
It has a dynamic and even response, and guitarists can fine-tune the string balance with its adjustable pole pieces, and they can easily dial in the required amount of punch.
The pickup has more upper mids and less output. Little 59 coil rails are made for people who need punchier, louder, and fatter single-coil sound. It comes with a four-conductor hookup cable. It is excellent for jazz, country, funk, blues, heavy rock, and classic rock.
This pickup has strong treble emphasis with added articulation as compared to traditional PAF. Little 59 single coil-sized humbucker has a balanced and nice PAF-like response for full, big chords and punchy fat solos. You get access to split and parallel wiring options for more versatility with a four-conductor lead wire.
If you want the sound of Les Pail in your Stratocaster, then the Little 59 bridge model is a perfect choice. The scooped mids and medium output will add depth to the bridge position. It is a drop-in for any single coil pickup route. For squeal-free operation, these pickups are wax potted.
Pros
- It fits any single coil spot
- Smooth and drives amp easily
- Very useable
- Noise sounding
Cons
- None
3. Seymour Duncan SJBJ1 JB Jr. Pickup
It is a twin coil design pickup made by Seymour Duncan to give you the feel and performance of the JB model humbucker. This humbucker features a single-coil size, and the adjustable pole pieces closely resemble the magnetic field of a humbucker.
That allows to fine-tune the balance of strings. With this pickup, you can expect fantastic high-end and great harmonics. The output is less with more treble response as compared to Seymour Duncan Hot Rails. It comes with a four-conductor hookup cable.
Seymour Duncan offers high-quality pickups, and the brand has spent long years developing the art of creating the best pickups for guitar. It is dedicated to getting the fantastic tone from the pickup ranging from a faithful reproduction of gems from old-time to modern metal ghosts.
Pros
- Looks authentic
- Good quality
- Sounds great
Cons
- None
4. EMG SA Single-Coil Pickup (Best True Single Coil Pickup for Metal)
It’s the only “true” single-coil pickup on our list. If you, for some reason, hate single coil-sized humbuckers but still want to play metal, this model is for you.
An active single-coil pickup offered by EMG features an Alnico V bar magnet with quality strat sound, which is airy, bright, and has a rich bottom end. It is a noiseless pickup with a true single-coil tone due to low impedance preamp and internal shielding. The Alnico V bar magnet makes the output balanced during big string bends making the beautiful, articulate tone.
The mid-range creamy warmth creates clear, expressive, and strong sublime bluestones. That is the reason that experienced players all across the globe rely on EMG single-coil pickups on stage and in the studio. These are simple to install and feature a quick-connect header and mating cable for making and installation process easy.
Each pickup has tone controls, pre-wired volume, output jack, battery clip, and diagrams. The models are made for direct replacement into instruments. However, sometimes direct replacement is not possible, and thus minimum work is required for the same.
EMG SA is perfect for a high gain amp, and if you are into rock, metal, and other aggressive style playing, you will like this pickup for sure. It offers aggressive and high gain yet with a controllable tone. It is easy to install and offers an excellent tone.
You will make a wise decision for choosing this pickup for thrash metal. It is affordable and meets your requirement. Upgrade your instrument with this pickup and get ready to rock the world in no time.
Pros
- Noiseless
- Easy to install
- Sounds great
Cons
- None
Are Single-Coil Pickups Good for Metal?
Single coils are bright and thin, perfect for mild crunch, shimmering cleans, and warm overdrive with a definition. However, the thin and bright tone does not work well when single coils are overloaded with a heap of distortion. The tone is brittle, thin, and notably harsh to hear when the guitar is overloaded with single coils with distortion and gain. In addition, single-coil pickups increase the high frequencies and do not carry enough bass compared to a humbucker.
Single coils with distortion are fine when playing single-note solos, riffs, and lead playing. However, the problem lies with the open chords or chunky power chords. Single coil pickups cannot attain the chunky and fat bottom-end tones that every metal player wants. They do not over pronounce the treble and provide enough low frequencies (=bass) for metal.
Issues with Single Coils: Hum and Feedback
There are hum, noise, and feedback issues when single-coil pickups are chosen for playing metal. The name suggests that single-coil pickups have a single-coil opposite the humbucker with a double coil design.
The double coil design of humbuckers perfectly cancels 60 cycle hum, feedback, and buzz rather than single coils. As a result, a guitar generates unwanted noise and is likely to feedback when adding a ton of distortion to a single-coil pickup. However, it is not a problem when practicing indoors. But when you don’t play for a concert, the single-coil guitar will not sound professional because of feedback.
Ways to Overcome Noise and Feedback
A shielded pickup and high-quality cables can tame the noise. In addition, you can stop feedback by adopting a noise gate pedal within your live rig or standing away from the guitar during the performance. However, a pickup that cannot cancel interference and its noise is not a good fit for a guitar used for saturated and heavy tone soaked in gain.
The traditional single-coil can work for classic metal styles, but metal players who want something more versatile than single-coil humbuckers are the best bet. Humbuckers are perfect for the 80s and modern metal tones.
So, The Best Single Coil (-Sized) Pickup for Metal Is…
We have shown you everything about the single-coil pickups and single-coil-sized humbuckers for metal and hope that it will clear all your doubts regarding this topic. Now you can take your time to find the right ones based on your requirement and budget.
The pickup models we have listed in this article are by far the best, and our favorite from the list is Seymour Duncan SHR-1b Hot Rails Pickup. While this is our opinion, you can choose any of them as all are good. Pickup swapping may sound risky and challenging however it is simple and make a massive difference in guitar tone. Good Luck!