The Science of a Single Pickup Guitar

[littlebadboy]

Thought of sharing this, if you are interested in the science of a single pickup guitar.



What say you?

[Partscaster]

He makes good points. Slight difference without other pups interfering. Seems effecting ones own attention to make the most with less is big. Thats a good takeaway for me. I tend toward neck pups. I dont like shrill tones. I want my bridge to be rich, maybe even warm,...like my neck. Thanks for this.

[uwmcscott]

The only reason I need to own any guitar is because I want it, regardless of how many pickups it has

[BatUtilityBelt]

All my single pickup guitars are acoustics

Tonally, I think most bridge pickups alone are a bit ice-picky for my tastes. I tend to play most of my parts with a blend of 2 pickups.

[mickey]

Why would anyone want a guitar with a single pickup in the bridge position???

[tobijohn]

Why would anyone want a guitar with a single pickup in the bridge position???

[Razzle]

That’s all use is single PU guitars.

I set my selector switch to full bridge, no matter HOW many PU’s the guitar has!

[Mossman]

I understand the principle of why a single-pickup guitar sounds different, but different doesn't equate to desirable for me. I never use the bridge pickup by itself. I live in the middle position most of the time, and sometimes I solo the neck pickup, but the bridge pickup (any bridge pickup) by itself is always too harsh and bright for my ears. I don't believe anybody was thinking about the unique tonal qualities of a single-pickup guitar when they were originally designed and built. These were the "student" and "budget" models of their day. And Leo Fender had hearing loss in the high frequency range, so he thought the Esquire sounded just fine with one pickup at the bridge. In fact, he fought with Don Randall about making a two-pickup model.

[uwmcscott]

Why would anyone want a guitar with a single pickup in the bridge position???

I know of a couple of guys who do OK minus a neck pickup

[bleys21]

This is me too. Unless its high gain, I don't like the bridge pickup that much. Middle is sometimes ok, depending on amp, and I love the sound of the neck pickup...

He makes good points. Slight difference without other pups interfering. Seems effecting ones own attention to make the most with less is big. Thats a good takeaway for me. I tend toward neck pups. I dont like shrill tones. I want my bridge to be rich, maybe even warm,...like my neck. Thanks for this.

[UrenragK]

One for you @Ouimbeard bearing in mind your current project.

Make sure you take pictures and build a thread in the projects forum

[mark_morton]

It's metal that's why.

[Milkman]

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/11 ... -jumbo.jpg

[nomadh]

Wow, I thought I was the only one who was mostly on the neck pickup.

[Chocol8]

Neck and middle far more than bridge for me too. On a 5 way Strat, bridge only would come in last place.

[nomadh]

Same here. Most always neck, except teles. I love the tele twang, however the neck pup on those can also be very nice and critical when not playing in the foreground.
I have 1 singe pup guitar, my gibson lp cm. Decent guitar but it sorely misses the neck pup. And adjusting the tone doesn't really come close to sounding as rich. I think it's a decent pup too, the gibson 61. I'm pretty sure it would be great in the neck position.

[glasshand]

How did I miss this thread before? I have a couple single-pickup guitars, one an LP Jr doublecutaway style with P90, the other a single-humbucker superstrat type. I'm not against multiple pickups, but for me there's something pleasingly minimalist about a single pickup. You just have to worry about that much less. Even with my other guitars with multiple pickups, I'm often on the bridge pickup only. (That said, I rarely play singlecoil instruments.) And if it's too harsh or bright...well, that's why God gave us volume and tone knobs.