neck pick up too bassy or opposite

[Soulgolem]

hi, i own a Japanese '52 reissue Tele, I love to how the pickup sounds, except two little things because i'm very picky, whenever i switch from neck pick up to bridge pick up, i see myself raising the bass knob and the opposite aswell, so i'm thinking i should replace my bridge pickup with something a little more bassy so it's "closer" in terms of amount of bass to the neck pick up so i don't need to touch the bass knob of my amp.

 

Also, my bridge pick up sounds really good for funky stuff, i used to play a lot of red hot chili peppers with my band and it just suited very well, tho' when i play more mellow stuff and hit high notes, the highs are kinda ear piercing at some points.

 

So i was think maybe the solution to both of my issues would be to replace the bridge pick up with a humbucker, tho i'm wondering if i'll still be able to get a good funk sound with this. And if it would really even out the tone of both pick ups. Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

[Johnny Sunshine]

well, I wouldn't go about replacing pickups just yet, especially putting a humbucker in the bridge, as this is a completely different animal will significantly change your sound. It seems to me that you like how the pickups sound, but wish the levels were a little different.

 

To fix the problem of the neck pickup being too bassy, i would simply lower the bass side of the pickup a quarter turn at a time until its at a level that you like.

 

You could do the same for the treble side of your bridge pickup, or simply set the tone knob on 3/4 or 1/2 when you're playing mellower stuff. A humbucker in the bridge won't really give you more bass per say, just more midrange and more output. So you may find a problem with volume when switching from the bridge to the neck pickup.

 

If you were to replace the pickups, i've heard that the broadcaster pickups from fender are supposed to be bassier with less "ice-pick" highs.

[fishfartz]

if there is no tone control for the bridge pickup you can try lowering the volume a little. on a strat just rolling back a hair kills the high-treble in the tone, taming it a bit.

 

i know it sounds like a huge leap going from neck to bridge (bass-heavy to treble) when playing alone but in a band setting or even for recording those differences shine through and make for alot of variation

[tlbonehead]

Originally posted by Soulgolem hi, i own a Japanese '52 reissue Tele, I love to how the pickup sounds, except two little things because i'm very picky, whenever i switch from neck pick up to bridge pick up, i see myself raising the bass knob and the opposite aswell, so i'm thinking i should replace my bridge pickup with something a little more bassy so it's "closer" in terms of amount of bass to the neck pick up so i don't need to touch the bass knob of my amp. Also, my bridge pick up sounds really good for funky stuff, i used to play a lot of red hot chili peppers with my band and it just suited very well, tho' when i play more mellow stuff and hit high notes, the highs are kinda ear piercing at some points. So i was think maybe the solution to both of my issues would be to replace the bridge pick up with a humbucker, tho i'm wondering if i'll still be able to get a good funk sound with this. And if it would really even out the tone of both pick ups. Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

Can we assume you've already tried to remedy the prob by adjusting pickup heights?

[Soulgolem]

Hi, thanks for the answers, I didn't know adjusting the height of the pick ups could affect the tone frequencies it's sound, I'm gonna try that tomorrow for sure, but how much of a difference will it make ?

 

About controlling the volume and tone knobs, that works ok, it's just not convenient live, I get to switch pickups in the middle of songs sometimes while pressing a pedal and turning off the delay, lol, it's just too much at once sometimes, I was looking for an easy solution.

 

About that Fender pickup, that seems to be an interesting solution, too bad you can't just instantly swap pickups to really compare the sounds, is it a quality pickup ? I mean, do you think i'll be as happy overally that i am now with it ?

[Europa760]

just leave your tone at 7 all the time.

 

youre gonna be good to go. seriously.

[Soulgolem]

Keeping my tone knob at 7 hmm, not sure how this solves the problem...

 

I checked out pickup reviews on harmony-central, SD pickups (not seymour duncan) got a good reviews, they have a broadcaster style pickup, think it's better than the fender one or the Duncan one ?

 

Thanks.