Humbuckers and Amps

[granite]

Hey all,
I am patiently waiting for my new emando and trying to educate myself in the world of electrics to pass the time. My first purchase, aside from the mandolin of course, will be an amp. I have been looking through a lot of the old threads and came across this one in which the 16th poster implies that you should not expect much overdrive from a humbucker pickup. I like overdrive and crunch, but my mando will have a stacked humbucker. I am misinterpreting this? Is it more a factor of the amp?

Also, I found a Peavey 30 classic on my local craigslist for a nice number. Haven't found too much bad written about these amps. And I liked they way it sounds in this youtube bit. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Todd

[Ed Goist]

Hi Todd;
I too am patiently waiting for a new e-mando. My e-mando will also be equipped with humbuckers (2 stacked humbuckers), so I am very interested in seeing the responses you get here.
My previous e-mando was a JBovier EMC-4 (a very nice instrument). It had two single coil PUPs that acted as a humbucker in the middle pick-up switch position, and in my opinion, it had the best overdrive character in that position.
Also, of the guitars I've owned, the one with the best overdrive character was my Deluxe Fat Strat with a humbucker on the bridge. That girl just growled on that bridge pick-up!
I'd say that pick-up character and output, along with the source of the overdrive, the amp, and the speaker are the keys to good distortion/overdrive tone.
I too really like distortion, overdrive and crunch, and my research over the past few months has led me to the belief that the best strategy for a good overdrive/distortion character may be to find an amp with a really desirable clean tone, and to also find a high quality distortion/overdrive stomp box that you like.
I recently picked-up a really nice distortion pedal, and I find that the distortion character I get (with my Telecaster) using it into my Line 6 solid-state amp is pretty cherry.
Oh, two final things: though I've never played through a Peavey Classic 30, I've only heard good things about them, and to insert a video in a post just click on the button and insert the video link in the dialog box that appears.

[Ed Goist]

...snip...you should not expect much overdrive from a humbucker pickup...snip...

Two of the guys on my overdrive/distortion/crunch Mount Rushmore play through humbuckers...





In fairness, I'll add that the other two guys on my overdrive/distortion/crunch Mount Rushmore (Jimi Hendrix & SRV) are single-coil Fender guys.

[Ed Goist]

Sorry about my third post to the thread already...I'll sit quietly after this, I promise.
I thought this would be a very interesting comparison:
Same player, same song with heavy distortion.
In the first video Dan Auerbach is playing his Harmony Heath TG-46 with single coils through a Marshall stack.
In the second video Auerbach is playing his Ibanez "lawsuit era" SG with super 70s humbuckers through an unidentified amp (maybe one of his vintage Fender combos?).
Also, I know that Auerbach uses a vast array of pedals, including an Electro-Harmonix Sovtek Russian Big Muff that he claims to almost always have engaged.
I'd say the character of the overdrive tone in the two clips is definitely different, but I think both are desirable.

[granite]

Ed,
Good stuff. You always manage to pull out the appropriate youtube video and when it comes to things like this, it is nice the hear/see examples.