Favorite 1 pickup guitars and why?

[alex1fly]

Title says it all. I'm intrigued by this design. Who has 1 pickup guitars and digs them? Whether you've got a classic LP Junior or built your own from parts, I'd love to hear your experiences!

[jeremy]

got two. an esquire i made in 2001 (or around then) with the pup i wound at the first user group day. and a turner model t baritone. old esquire pic and stock photo of the model 1 but mines basically the same with a longer scale length
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[Sirion]

I have two late-eighties Kramer Baretta I models. I somehow don't have photos of either available at present, but they are look like the top guitar here...



...with one being black with a maple fretboard and the other candy apple red with a rosewood fretboard. Both have vintage JBs in the bridge. The last is a new acquisition, but I can see it taking the spot of the black as my favourite guitar. Whilst a neck pickup can be nice, for my purposes I often find that they sound "farty" and are lacking in timbral detail, so I rarely use them anyway. The guitars are simple, but exactly what I need. I do wish that the volume pots were in the same spot as on strats (here they are slightly further away), and if I had to choose I would probably have gone for a straight humbucker rather than a slanted one, but that is nitpicking. I kind of wish that I could say that playing them forces me to be creative to work through artificial limitations, but I can't really say so, since tone knobs and neck pickups don't come natural to me in the first place. Conversely, I never feel like I am missing out on anything whilst playing them.

[ItsaBass]

My main guitars for actual gigging have always been single pickup guitars.

I have the following models:

Fender Esquire style (3 – tan, black, and translucent green)
Les Paul Junior (2 – burst and yellow)
G&L Rampage (black)
Gibson ES-335 Studio (metallic blue)
Yamaha Pacifica 510V (Sonic Blue)

For live gigging, I will often use a Tele, and never take it off of the bridge pickup. But I have my Teles wires like Esquires in positions 1 and 2, and when I play Esquires, I don't often use the 3rd position anyhow. So not much real-world difference between Teles and Esquires when I play live.

[formula73]

Same pic from the Invader thread, a Gibson V90.

Why? 24 fret Gibson V, Floyd, nice appointments.

[beaubrummels]

The only true 1-pickup guitars I have are Melody Makers, and yes I dig them. Single-pickup guitars sound different. I get dramatically different sounds just moving my picking hand around, up over the fretboad and back to right by the bridge (almost don't need a neck pickup), which I don't get quite as wide a difference when the guitar has 2 or more pickups in it and only using the bridge alone.

[ehdwuld]

I like the neck pickup

Wasn't there a Tele with just a neck pickup?

I had a Yamaha version of the Kramer above

I liked it back in the day

[Securb]

I only have one one pickup guitar my MIJ Ibanez Iceman. It now has a 498 in it and it really isn't one pickup seeing the bridge is a Fishman piezo. It is finished off with Spezel tuners and a Tonestyler tone knob.

[Demanic]

Bigsby?

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

[NegativeEase]

There can be only one

[PS412]

I like the ones that are neck only. Like ahhh, ummm.....

[ArtieToo]

got two. an esquire i made in 2001 (or around then) with the pup i wound at the first user group day. and a turner model 1 baritone. old esquire pic and stock photo of the model 1 but mines basically the same with a longer scale length.

Jeremy . . . isn't that a Model T? Isn't the Model 1 what Lindsey Buckingham plays?

[ItsaBass]

Here is a stock photo of the most recent addition to my one-pickup guitar stable. I plan on making a single ply black guard for it.

It comes stock with a high output Duncan P Rail, with a three-way switch that gives you P90, series, or rail. Wilkinson VS50 bridge. Grover locking tuners. 13 3/4" radius. Quite a collection of parts for a $500 retail price. I got mine cheaper, of course...but even at retail price, they're a good bang for the buck.

[Mincer]

Here is a stock photo of the most recent addition to my one-pickup guitar stable. I plan on making a single ply black guard for it.

It comes stock with a high output Duncan P Rail, with a three-way switch that gives you P90, series, or rail. Wilkinson VS50 bridge. Grover locking tuners. 13 3/4" radius. Quite a collection of parts for a $500 retail price. I got mine cheaper, of course...but even at retail price, they're a good bang for the buck.

Wow, I haven't seen this version! What a great idea!

[BeKindRewind]

I used to have one of these, and I miss it. It was a beast. I gigged it without a case for a year and it never let me down. At the time I was not concerned with having a neck pickup whatsoever (and to this day, I rarely use one) and I loved the look of it. Mine had a white invader in the bridge. I'll see if I can find an actual picture of it.