Anyone know the best way to boost single coils at gigs?

[gibson175]

using a compressor to make your single coil tones have a similar volume to your humbucking tones will mean you lose a lot of the dynamics that make ss tones really good (that is unless you are going for a nashville country sound - and im guessing not).
I tend to agree with an earlier post that having a few sounds that are less powerful is a good option in a live setting, but i can understand where you are coming from tho.
The posts about using compressors in the studio to match volumes is not strictly speaking true either...the compressors are usually used to smooth of excessive dynamic leaps. The art of mixing is the recording engineers way of making things level (especially in this modern age of automation) via the use of the faders.
Okay so how do we give you everything you are after in a live setting without installing higher outpout ss pickups in your guitar? The first answer lies in your pedal board. With a regular analog pedal style rig then you may need to have a booster dedicated to just doing exactly what you are after. The MI audio boost and buff is a good unit and its inbuilt buffer goes a long way to recovering your signal loss from using a bunch of pedals. At its higher levels it turns more into a treble boost like circuit, but i think you are onky after a mild level increase without losing your ss character right? Other units like the mxr micro amp or the EH lpb will work well also. Of course there is the sd pickup booster too which is really good.
Or go with a totally different approach....and this may suit you cos it seems you are the kind of player who wants a lot of sounds all set up and ready with the flick of a switch....get hold of something like a TC nova system and have all your tones and levels pre programmed. One smallish box with all the sounds most ppl need and very few cables. Analog drive sounds. Beautiful reverbs etc and no crappy modelling emulations mean you can make the most of your nice axe and amp tones. Also if you are still hell bent on using a compressor the option is there, but you are not limited to squashing up your entire sound juts for the sake of keeping levels matched..you can use it as a tewtural effect or a bit of seasoning which is what compressors do best anyway. Definitely check one out.

[papersoul]

Gibson175, thanks!....I agree with you and decided to skip the compressor..

My Kalamazoo OD pedal works as a clean boost and can easily boost the signal to get my signals up to humbucker volume....but I will cross that bridge when I need to.

My dilemma is this. Lets say we are playing an original song which is all out hard rock, then we do a Led Zep cover...then I grab the strat or switch to the out of phase single coil tones on my PRS (which sound killer by the way) to play a Hendrix song like Crosstown Traffic. I totally get that having a less powerful sound for some songs is great...but not if it causes you to drop out of the mix? Maybe I could crank the mids on the amp, LOL. Worst case scenario, I can always use my OD as a clean boost because I'd only be using single coil like tones for clean or noderate crunch...think Hendrix, The Police, etc. So, I'd have some headroom available to hit it with the OD as a clean boost.

For now I might let it go.

A lot of this started when I was trying to decide what to do with my PRS and the 5 way rotary switch. The out of phase single coil like tones are quieter....but for our clean songs they still cut because we aren't playing as hard....the whole band plays down a touch usinf band dynamics, LOL. It's not so much an issue on clean tunes, more so on rocking Hendrix tyle stuff.

For the PRS, I was thinking of switching the 5 way to a thre way toggle and coil splitter and would only use the split tones in the middle positoin.

Your thoughts on a compressor make me think I need oe now for leads to smooth things out! Ha......I was trying to not go down that road. I am not sure I want to go back to programming pedals, effects systems, etc. I have been there and really appreciate analog and digital pedals.
I do notice volume loss with my pedalboard but not really dynamics? Hard to say.

Do you think I could use something like the MXR Line Driver or MI Audio boost?

This is my board.

Guitar > Cantrell Wah > Boss tuner(I use this as my buffer too) > MXR 1974 reissue phaser(soon to be true bypass) > ISP desimator > Bogner 20th EL34 Shiva - in the buffered serial loop at instrument level I have a T-Rex Twister > T-Rex Replica > Neunaber Wet Reverb > back to amp loop.

A friend of mine for live work uses an RC booster at the end of my chain and leave it always on for single coil guitars and always off for buckers.

[papersoul]

using a compressor to make your single coil tones have a similar volume to your humbucking tones will mean you lose a lot of the dynamics that make ss tones really good (that is unless you are going for a nashville country sound - and im guessing not).
I tend to agree with an earlier post that having a few sounds that are less powerful is a good option in a live setting, but i can understand where you are coming from tho.
The posts about using compressors in the studio to match volumes is not strictly speaking true either...the compressors are usually used to smooth of excessive dynamic leaps. The art of mixing is the recording engineers way of making things level (especially in this modern age of automation) via the use of the faders.
Okay so how do we give you everything you are after in a live setting without installing higher outpout ss pickups in your guitar? The first answer lies in your pedal board. With a regular analog pedal style rig then you may need to have a booster dedicated to just doing exactly what you are after. The MI audio boost and buff is a good unit and its inbuilt buffer goes a long way to recovering your signal loss from using a bunch of pedals. At its higher levels it turns more into a treble boost like circuit, but i think you are onky after a mild level increase without losing your ss character right? Other units like the mxr micro amp or the EH lpb will work well also. Of course there is the sd pickup booster too which is really good.
Or go with a totally different approach....and this may suit you cos it seems you are the kind of player who wants a lot of sounds all set up and ready with the flick of a switch....get hold of something like a TC nova system and have all your tones and levels pre programmed. One smallish box with all the sounds most ppl need and very few cables. Analog drive sounds. Beautiful reverbs etc and no crappy modelling emulations mean you can make the most of your nice axe and amp tones. Also if you are still hell bent on using a compressor the option is there, but you are not limited to squashing up your entire sound juts for the sake of keeping levels matched..you can use it as a tewtural effect or a bit of seasoning which is what compressors do best anyway. Definitely check one out.

Keep in mind this would be for clean tones. I can also use my Kalamazoo OD pedal as a volume boost. When I use my Kalamazoo for Hendrix tones into the clean channel of my amp....I was going to use a comp to boost for leads but I can easily use my T-Rex Replica in the loop as a volume boost since it has a level/boost knob.

[papersoul]

I also need to be able to do this but I have no more room on my pedalboard. I have a Pedalpower II and all 8 power outs are used. I could squeeze on one more small clean boost if it is really small but then I would have to daisy chain in another pedal or run it off a battery....but then I have one more cable and pedal to send my signal through. Any other options?
My OD pedal is a Sonic Edge J&J OD so for now I use that as my volume boost but when I get my Mesa ElectraDyne I am going to use the J&J OD for additional gain so I will still need a way to boost single coil volume.
I guess it means now I will have 9 pedals. Yikes!

[MetalManiac]

[Kramer Guy]

Both of my guitars, a 60th anniversary Fender MIA Strat and a Modified Squier Standard, are fitted with Fender Custom Shop 57/62 pickups. While they're not exactly the loudest ones around, they are some of the best sounding that I've ever heard and suit me well for what I play, which is Clasic Rock & Blues. I play both through a Crate GX-65 combo and recently I swapped a Digitech RP-70 at Guitar Center for a Zoom G1N which IMO, is quite the little beast. This lil' pedal really boosts the signal of my pups right through my amp without sacrificng my tone with the presets I've picked.

[papersoul]

I think the Sonic Edge Tumbleweed and J&J Overdrive are the best I have found!

[Phantasmagoria]

I have this thing in my H-S-S Dinky boosting the single coils..with an EMG 85 in the bridge. It sounds great. Does an amazing job for less than $35.00 if I remember correctly.. and you can bypass it completely with a turn of the knob...back to passive.

Artec QTB 4 step onboard booster