Neck - Middle pickup relative position.

[Chordite]

This may be a very old observation but it is new to me.

The neck is the mellow rich pup, right?, picks up the big motion near the middle of the string. Well certainly for cowboy chords. But looking at playing the 18th to 24th territory its actual position on the vibrating string begins to approximate the bridge pup and the Middle pup is closer to the center of the string therfore theoretically richer.

Given my old ears I cant really hear that effect a lot, although it should be there, but maybe you youngsters can.

[Mikeo]

This may be a very old observation but it is new to me.

The neck is the mellow rich pup, right?, picks up the big motion near the middle of the string. Well certainly for cowboy chords. But looking at playing the 18th to 24th territory its actual position on the vibrating string begins to approximate the bridge pup and the Middle pup is closer to the center of the string therfore theoretically richer.

Given my old ears I cant really hear that effect a lot, although it should be there, but maybe you youngsters can.

 

Not on a Les Paul or old Fender Start.

[video=youtube;4O_YMLDvvnw]

 

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[Mikeo]

Don't rule out changing your amp.

[video=youtube;_yWCg5q7MbQ]

[Danocoustic]

This may be a very old observation but it is new to me.

The neck is the mellow rich pup, right?, picks up the big motion near the middle of the string. Well certainly for cowboy chords. But looking at playing the 18th to 24th territory its actual position on the vibrating string begins to approximate the bridge pup and the Middle pup is closer to the center of the string therfore theoretically richer.

Given my old ears I cant really hear that effect a lot, although it should be there, but maybe you youngsters can.

 

Very astute observation. Relevant, I believe. Where I've noticed the same effect is with a Tele I built with lipsticks from an old Danelectro U2 in the neck and middle pickup positions and a standard Tele bridge pickup (5-way switch, push/pull volume pot for 7 choices).

[WRGKMC]

Guitar pickup positions are ideally placed so the string nodes produce maximum vibrations over the pickups and they avoid producing dead spots where the antinodes occur though some of this is unavoidable when playing on certain frets and cert6ain harmonics are produced.

 

The example below shows the fundamental note #1 of the open string and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th harmonics of those open strings.

As you can see the 4th harmonic has a null point above the bridge pickup so that pickup isn't going to have as strong an output as the middle and neck for that harmonic on an open string.

 

Playing a higher fret will of course make the nodes smaller as the pitch goes up and also move them closer to the bridge, so predicting where the nulls/antinodes may appear becomes too complex to predict once you get beyond a certain point. Anyone whose good at using pinch harmonics knows the position on a string where you pick the string to get the pinched harmonic will move as you change frets.

 

 

 

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[DeepEnd]

Sounds reasonable but bear in mind that pickup positions are calculated based on nodes for open strings. The instant you fret the string it all goes out the window. Your best bet is to trust your ears. When I had a Strat the neck pickup was my go to, occasionally neck+middle. A friend who used to be in praise band with me has a HSS Ibanez and uses the middle pickup exclusively. A couple of years ago someone on CraigsList was selling a J-Bass body that had a neck pickup added and wired for three volume controls. I doubt whoever did the work sat down and calculated the perfect position for the third pickup and frankly I doubt it mattered much. YMMV.

[catscurlyear]

yes never thought about it like that ,it might be to do with where you actually strike the string,so if you bar the 20`th fret but actualy pick the string over the 21`st fret the neck pickup might behave like a bridge pickup ,i don`t have an amp setup so i can`t try it out.

[Grant Harding]

Good thinking! Makes sense to me. I'll try it out.

[1001gear]

Guitar pickup positions are ideally placed so the string nodes produce maximum vibrations over the pickups and they avoid producing dead spots where the antinodes occur though some of this is unavoidable when playing on certain frets and cert6ain harmonics are produced.

 

The example below shows the fundamental note #1 of the open string and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th harmonics of those open strings.

As you can see the 4th harmonic has a null point above the bridge pickup so that pickup isn't going to have as strong an output as the middle and neck for that harmonic on an open string.

 

Playing a higher fret will of course make the nodes smaller as the pitch goes up and also move them closer to the bridge, so predicting where the nulls/antinodes may appear becomes too complex to predict once you get beyond a certain point. Anyone whose good at using pinch harmonics knows the position on a string where you pick the string to get the pinched harmonic will move as you change frets.

 

 

 

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Except on a Tele.

[Mikeo]

I have a Rickenbacker 350v63. Does a nice middle neck thing.

[video=youtube;7b_5Q36wLdo]

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I don't like the scale on the 325, it's super small.

[WRGKMC]

The ultimate in tone adjustment.

 

Not sure if that's a locking knob or if its a gear that adjusts the pickup position. A mechanical adjuster would be cool as hell but the open cavity doesn't look to cool. You could probably come up with a collapsible sliding pick guard which would keep the hole covered or use one long pickup cover made of thin plastic and have the pickup move under it like a subway train.

 

I actually made something like this using a rail back in the early 70's. The idea probably wasn't new when I reinvented it any more then this one is but its still a great idea for dialing in tone. Far more flexible then trying to use Pots and EQ's to dial in tone. Moving the pole produces a huge variety of tones. Two slider pickups would be even better.

 

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[DeepEnd]

yes never thought about it like that ' date='it might be to do with where you actually strike the string,so if you bar the 20`th fret but actualy pick the string over the 21`st fret the neck pickup might behave like a bridge pickup ,i don`t have an amp setup so i can`t try it out.[/quote']

Not just where you strike the string--that's why you can get different sounds even on an acoustic. As an aside, I quit using Ernie Ball Earthwoods on my acoustic because the plain strings always sounded like I was picking them at the 12th fret no matter where I was actually picking. We're talking about where the pickup is located with respect to the length of the string. Again, as Chordite has noted, that changes as you move up the neck, or use a capo like some of us poor talentless hacks; the "middle" pickup effectively becomes the neck pickup, so the original placement of the pickups only matters with cowboy chords.

[Freeman Keller]

This got discussed at OLF with respect to 22 vs 24 fret guitars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Emory]

Nice to see someone actually did this (I too had idea but too lazy to make it). Just had wacky thought: have the two single coils that make up the humbucker be able to move apart, even maybe vol control for each segment....? Does the black in silver button act as a lock of sorts or just use friction? Anyway, cool.

[Chordite]

And of course there is the Westone Rail bass.

 

[video=youtube_share;9mOkBocTM5g]

 

HOWEVER My op was subverted by wrgkmc going off on a lengthy irrelevance (what's new ) about open string pup placement, My point was that playing at the top end you have in effect two end bridge position pups with the middle pup now having the richest tone.

[daddymack]

My sadly departed associate, Dan Armstrong, had movable pickups decades ago on basses and guitars...the model 341 guitar, non-lucite....back in the early 70s...nothing new here....

[onelife]

I did see a guy playing a telecaster with what looked like two Lace Sensors on rails. He moved them around a lot during the set.

[DeepEnd]

Emory: I've seen basses that had single humbuckers with dual volume controls but I've never seen a guitar with the same setup. Still, there's probably something like that out there somewhere. It wouldn't surprise me.