Pickup positions

[hobbes]

Whats the difference between switching to a bridge pickup vs neck pickup or middle pickup?

 

[Praetorian]

Neck pickups are warmer, or should that be "bassier". pfft.

Bridge are brighter.

http://users.chariot.net.au/~gmarts/pick-pos.htm

This should help. Some quick excerpts...

The sound of identical pickups vary in different positions on the guitar because the sound of the string changes along its length. There are variations in tone (the ratio of higher harmonics compared to low), the timbre (the relative strength of different harmonics caused by the position of the nodes of each harmonic) and in the overall level.

The closer the pickup is to the bridge, the sharper the tone (stronger higher harmonics), and the overall level is lower (because there is less string vibration closer to the bridge). The timbre is simply different, and depends upon all the things mentioned in the previous topics.

 

[Ionized]

OK I'm a noob and I've got some stupid questions here.

Why do we need all the different pickup positions?

Which positions are the rythm pickup and lead pickup? Neck and bridge respectively? What's the middle one for then? (Did I just answer my first question? :roll: )

 

[hofner]

3 different pickups for different tones.....for example , u play your favourite song and the guitar being played is very bassy and warm , you want to copy the tone by switiching to the neck pickup and not the bridge right?

middle pickup...how to explain...trying to copy the strat sound. Nice twang tone with lotsa heavy ends. Perhaps my explanation wasn't very clear,

 

[Praetorian]

Why do we need all the different pickup positions?

http://users.chariot.net.au/~gmarts/pick-pos.htm

Rythm = Neck

Lead = Bridge

Middle = Well... Middle. Lol.

 

[Newbie]

I dunno but i like to play lead stuffs with bridge position. And neck for... riffs. liek short stuffs in between the songs. sounds more.. "filling" to the song.

 

[Vaiyen]

Lead = Bridge

Well, for me at least, I use the pickups the other way round. Love the warm solo tone.

 

[Praetorian]

Yeah somehow I prefer "rhythm-ing" on my bridge pickup.

But thats probably cause it sounds so fantastic and the invader sounds kinda crappy in the neck, even though it is the neck version.

 

[pooo]

I don't think anyone could specifically say which pickup is for lead, rhythm etc. It just goes with, what sorta tone and sound you want for those situations. For me i'm on the neck for solos most of the time, but on the bridge if i need a punchier sound, rhythm on the bridge. But thats not set in stone, i still switch around to see which position suits best in which song

 

[guitarnub]

^^yep

just play around with the switch to your liking, there's no specific pickup position for leads, rythms etc. Just what ever sounds nice to your ears