Stevie K said: I only like playing handwound pickups.
But maybe I'm a tool.
I've honestly never played any handwound humbuckers. I'm really into motown music and stevie wonder right now so I need that extra slap and pop you can only get from single coils.
As far as my handwound experience I've used Duncan Antiquities I and IIs, Lollar, Fralin, and Van Zandts. Machine wound I've used the JB jr, Hotrails, Fender texas specials and tex-mex, and then the stock duncans that came on my japanese strat.
I personally like the Antiquity IIs and Van Zandt Blues best for my strats.
As far as tone goes I'd have to agree with Bandit. If I played a strat long enough I feel like I could tell whether or not it was handwound if I got to play up and down the neck for a minute; it's got something to do with how they respond to the dynamics in your hands. They seem to let more of the tone of the wood through. Sort of a "woodier" more acoustic like tone. I also notice that most handwounds I play are lower in output and have a mellowed high-end and a slight dip in the mid-range.
It's not that they sound better per se, but for what I'm doing right now they seem to work best for the expression and clarity I need. I've also noticed that all the handwound singles I've played sound great with drive, even though they're lower output, but I use pretty transparent sounding drives and clean boosts, not any high-gain stuff.
