single coil neck/bridge pickup,which is more useful

[hide]

what do ya'll think? which one do ya'll use more? the neck or bridge?

[TheDarxide]

neck. I prefer humbuckers for my bridges, singles are a little too thin there, but they sound good at the neck.

[dewees]

You mean with a Strat-type guitar? Neck.

With P-90s, the bridge is very useful.

[_pete_]

I'm finding that more and more the sound I like is a bridge humbucker with a single coil neck (split neck HB) slightly mixed in to warm up the tone slightly.

[Dougy]

you need a humbucker on the bridge. How are you gonna play thrash metal without a bridge humbucker?

m/ m/

[hide]

Originally posted by dewees You mean with a Strat-type guitar? Neck. With P-90s, the bridge is very useful.

 

 

how is a p90 bridge very useful?

[Twangzilla]

On a strat, I like the neck alot, on a Tele I like the bridge. I think the Tele bridge pickup (mounted in a correct vintage style tele bridge) might be the most usefull pickup ever.

Kyle G

[dewees]

Originally posted by hide how is a p90 bridge very useful?

 

 

I'm not sure I understand your question.

 

A P-90 bridge pickup does not lack anything in relation to a humbucking pickup and is just as useful as a P-90 neck pickup.

 

I think the original post is referring to the thin, low output of Strat type bridge pickups. A lot of people want humbucking bridge pickups in their three-pickup Strats. Personally, I hear this as a huge mismatch of tones - But I mainly play clean.

[OREO Speedwagon]

You want more powerful pups at the bridge, becuase they need to be able to pick up a weaker string vibration. At the neck position, there's a lot more vibration, so you typically use a lower powered pup.

So, a lot of people would put a single coil (if they had to choose) at the neck.

[jerry_picker]

For jazzy, mellow, more acoustic-like tones (Little Wing) a single coil neck is the ticket.

For more rock, in-your-face mids and treble, a bridge is probably better. "Single coils" cover a broad range of pups, and I'd prefer an overwound or P-90 over a vintage-style in the bridge to prevent ice-pickiness or wimpiness.

In reality, balanced P-90s with one RWRP for hum-cancelling, offer many more tonal options than a single pup.

As far as there being "more vibration" at the neck...maybe so insofar as excursion of the "belly" of the string. However, neck pups are often located at a harmonic node. This compensates, and modifies (mellows) the acoustic sound print or string vibration over the neck pickup. This is very true in Teles.

[JoeBoy]

Both. They are there for a reason.

[dewees]

Originally posted by jerry_picker As far as there being "more vibration" at the neck...maybe so insofar as excursion of the "belly" of the string. However, neck pups are often located at a harmonic node. This compensates, and modifies (mellows) the acoustic sound print or string vibration over the neck pickup. This is very true in Teles.

What I don't get about this is that that node has to be constantly changing depending on where you're fretting the strings. I've read this before and I just don't get how this applies to every note on the fingerboard. There is obviously something I'm not getting.

edit - Yes, it looks like I said I didn't get it a total of three times there.

["sasquatch"]

i like single coils everywhere, ala strat and tele.......... bridge single coil can absolutely scream and cut!

[BATCAT]

Originally posted by Twangzilla On a strat, I like the neck alot, on a Tele I like the bridge.

 

 

I'm with him.

 

(Actually I like the middle position on Teles, but if I'm only using one pickup...)