Neck pickup in bridge position

[Michael Britton]

Hey all, Mike Britton here. I'm a newbie to the forums, building a "Frankintar".

Maple neck, Indian Rosewood fretboard. Paulowina body, single H/B in the bridge position. 251/2" scale. Strat style top loader hardtail  Might want to install a Bigsby later.

I'm researching options on different pickup ideas. 

 One is to find a good H/B and then split it with the tone button. Another is to drill and install a 2 way switch like a Les Paul (the body is a double cut away Les Paul Jr. copy.) to split the H/B.

I've been looking at the Seymore Duncan "Pearly Gates" pickup. Nice and fat, Billy Gibbons's favorite pickup.

What about putting a neck pickup in the bridge position? Is there any advantage?

  As you can tell maybe, I'm looking for a fat. clear bluesy sound out of this single pickup guitar.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Michael Britton

[badpenguin]

There's no advantage persay, unless you want a bit of lower output. Neck p/u's are generally lower output than bridge p/us. Disadvantage is the string spacing on the pole pieces. Bridge p/u's are a wider spacing, allowing the strings to be over the pole pieces. 

And if the pickup is 4 conductor, use the series/single/parallel diagram shown here.

1 Humbucker/1 Volume/1 Tone/Series-North-Parallel (guitarelectronics.com)

[Michael Britton]

Thanks, badpenguin! Never even considered the fact that the strings spread  as they move toward the bridge! Duh!!

I looked at the diagrams, all of them use a push-pull. So that means my idea of having a 2 way switch like Gibson uses to move back and forth from one H/B to the next is out?

 I noticed that the bridge pickups have less resistance. I've been told they have more bottom, less briteness. Zat so?

My first guitar was a Tiesco ? single P/U in the bridge position. It would overwhelm my pitiful little Airline amp!

[badpenguin]

Gibson has a 3 way switch. Neck/both/bridge. The diagram I highlighted, uses a mini three way switch on/on/on. And any push/pull pot that has a diagram you may be interested in, can use a single mini switch. It's the same on/on switch.

 

Resistance really has nothing to do with a pickups sound. Bridge pickups are higher output, due to the fact of less string movement at the bridge.  While I am thinking about it, magnet play a more important role in tone. A ceramic mag, is generally higher output, and brighter. An A2, lower output, warmer sounding. (To my ears at least YMMV.) Then the standard A5 magnet, an A8 that is perfect in a Tele, the list is endless.

Edited January 31, 2023 by badpenguin

[Michael Britton]

Duhh! Now I understand! A 2 way switch!  One side is humbucker, the other side is single pole! I'm okay, really....

[daddymack]

On 1/29/2023 at 5:37 PM, badpenguin said:

Gibson has a 3 way switch. Neck/both/bridge. The diagram I highlighted, uses a mini three way switch on/on/on. And any push/pull pot that has a diagram you may be interested in, can use a single mini switch. It's the same on/on switch.

 

Resistance really has nothing to do with a pickups sound. Bridge pickups are higher output, due to the fact of less string movement at the bridge.  While I am thinking about it, magnet play a more important role in tone. A ceramic mag, is generally higher output, and brighter. An A2, lower output, warmer sounding. (To my ears at least YMMV.) Then the standard A5 magnet, an A8 that is perfect in a Tele, the list is endless.

I actually have to butt in on one thing here...I think that resistance [number of windings] + magnet strength does have an effect on the pick-up tone; in my experience, the lower the resistance, the 'darker'/less bright the tone, as well as the difference in output signal strength.  I definitely agree that magnet strength is a major factor, but 'over wound' [higher resistance...over 750k Ohm] p-ups tend to be 'hotter', but also noticeably brighter.

[Lutz Richter]

On 1/29/2023 at 6:31 PM, Michael Britton said:

Hey all, Mike Britton here. I'm a newbie to the forums, building a "Frankintar".

Maple neck, Indian Rosewood fretboard. Paulowina body, single H/B in the bridge position. 251/2" scale. Strat style top loader hardtail  Might want to install a Bigsby later.

I'm researching options on different pickup ideas. 

 One is to find a good H/B and then split it with the tone button. Another is to drill and install a 2 way switch like a Les Paul (the body is a double cut away Les Paul Jr. copy.) to split the H/B.

I've been looking at the Seymore Duncan "Pearly Gates" pickup. Nice and fat, Billy Gibbons's favorite pickup.

What about putting a neck pickup in the bridge position? Is there any advantage?

  As you can tell maybe, I'm looking for a fat. clear bluesy sound out of this single pickup guitar.

If you have a vision of the sounds you want, I suggest to just try any pickup in any position and test how it works. For example I like the sound of the EMG 85 in the bridge position and the EMG 81 in the neck position - the opposite of what is typically used. There's already a significant sound difference just by the pickup position. Then you can manipulate how much you want that difference by using either the same pickups, or making the difference even bigger (which is typically done), or making the difference a bit smaller.