Green Day Guitar Question?

Question

I know the Billie Joe plays an old Strat style guitar he's named Blue. Originally it had the standard 3 single coil pickups but he replaced the bridge pickup I believe with a Seymour Duncan humbucker. He also has the humbucker slanted at an angle as opposed to being parallel with the other pickups. Please correct me if I'm wrong but the humbucker should make it sound like a les paul when you play it on the bridge position? Also I'm wondering what it woul sound like if you select both the single coil and the humbucker at the same time. The last question I have is what difference it makes having the humbucker slanted like he does.

Answer 1

No, the humbucker in bridge position will definitely not make a Stratocaster sound like a Les Paul. The Les Paul have a totally different wood combination, pickup placement, neck scale, etc. All in all, it's a different kind of guitar.



A humbucker on a Stratocaster is only going to sound louder - a humbucker equipped strat. With the music style and way of playing Green Day has, I seriously doubt it will matter much at all what type of guitar they use.



The angling of the humbucker can have several explanations. One is to get the pole pieces to align better. Another is because of simplicity in mounting the pickup. A third would be because it could be seen as a weird gimmick.



Since the mumbucker is a more powerful pickup than the original single coil (plus, it's a twin coil pickup), you will not get the typical in-between sound of a standard strat. It's just a different flavor; go to a store and try out any HSS equipped start yourself.



And for sure, you're using way too much energy trying to figure out something mundane and unimportant detail like this.

Answer 2

Any of the sound differences (bucker+single or slanted bucker) aren't going to matter to anybody in the audience, especially after being colored (to put it lightly) by a roaring marshall. Tye slant was likely either out of simplicity (using the original screw holes), or as a joke (this mod was done in the eighties, back when shredder guitars like Kramers and Charvels with slanted buckers stock were popular with the sorts of folk a person like Billie Joe would be likely to label as a dork).

Answer 3

I can't understand why someone would spend this much time dissecting Billie Joes guitar setup. You do realize that he is a terrible musician and that the majority of green days songs sound exactly the same, right? I recommend you expand your musical knowledge and start listening to bands that don't suck huge, hairy balls.

Answer 4

Yes Green Day sucks

Answer 5

watch him play live it helped figure out his guitar ways