A thought about single coils...

[delt]

Why don't they make single-coil pickups that have a second identical coil without the magnets/pole pieces, and connected in reverse to the first one? You'd get the exact same sound - well, theoretically, since no string signal comes from the second coil - except it wouldn't be noisy as f±¢k when you're boosting the gain.

In any case, a humbucker connected in parallel comes close enough to sounding like a single-coil, at least for me =)

[Bert]

Isn't that basically what a stacked humbucker is, like the Jackson J200's?

[Rich#6]

There are lots of noiseless single coils out there now. fender, seymour duncan , and Dimarzio all have them. They have a smaller second coil.