What is a chewy pickup ?

[GuitarStv]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

Good sizzle in the highs when it's really cooking . . .

[Aceman]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

I use the term chewy. To me, as best I can describe it:

Chewy is a thicker tone. It is not skinny/or bright-brittle in any way. Almost like a fat doubled sound. It has a sort of non-immediacy to it, as in you bite down, but you sink into the tone. Similar to a power amp sag about it. So it has body and the tone emerges from it. It may have a nice high end, or not. A PG neck is a chewy pickup. Bright, yet thick and bloomy.

That is chewy tone to me. As someone mentioned, I think more about the amp - but see this is some pickups. A2P's and CC's. These are chewy pups. A 59 or a Distortion are not.

[GuitarStv]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

I use 'chewy' to describe some phasers. :P

[ItsaBass]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

Warm, midrangey, vocal, aggressive, but not muddy, just breaking up into distortion/OD when you hit the strings hard.

A lot of it is style, technique, and tonal settings, as opposed to just being the pickup.

Listen to The Rolling Stones in the Keith-only period (Beggars Banquet and Let it Bleed) or the very early Mick Taylor period (Sticky Fingers). That's my definition of "chewy" guitar.

Mick Taylor's ES-345 neck pickup solo and outro riffs on "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is, to me, a prime example of a "chewy" tone...not to mention most of the other guitar on the track (and the album).

If you want to skip to it, go to 4:40.

[ItsaBass]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

And here's some classic Keith chewiness using a weird Australian guitar called a Maton EG240 Supreme.

Keith with the guitar (the neck of which literally fell off at the end of one of the tracks, which is supposedly audible on the final mix):



It was more about musical choices than the guitars/pickups used. Stones in that period used a lot of "chewy" guitar tones, because that was a production decision. Didn't matter what axes they were playing to get it.

That said, tones like that are exceedingly easy to get with vintage style Gibsons and other guitars of a similar scale with pickups of the era. Strat and Tele neck pickups also do them with ease...and hollowbodies and semi-hollowbodies get there real easy, because they are so good at living on that area right between clean and dirty – very sensitive to picking dynamics.

[vinnie1971]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

When I’ve found a way to eat food through my ears or listen with my mouth I may then understand what “chewy” means in reference to a pickup.


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[GuitarStv]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

All the pickups I've tried have been chewy and hard on the teeth. It's almost like they weren't made for eating . . .

[Masta' C]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

I find the old butyrate bobbin pickups warmed slightly are rather chewy, as well. Taste rather bland, unfortunately, but good mouthfeel and easy on the palate.

[Jacew]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

Isn't "chewy" opposite of "dry", but with emphasis on lower frequencies than "juicy"?

[JB6464]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

The UOA5-modded '59b resulting inherent tone-footprint is the quintessential definition of "chewy", if you ask me./Peter

Can you explain exactly what you hear in differences between the OEM A5 and UOA5 , more mids ?

[Clint 55]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

I think only hums can be chewy also. Not scs, p90s, minis, or jazzmasters.

[Gtrjunior]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

I think only hums can be chewy also. Not scs, p90s, minis, or jazzmasters.

I have p90’s in my LP Special and I’d call them chewy.
Someone earlier made the comment about the amp having a big affect on the chewy factor.....the degree of sag. I’d absolutely agree with that having a huge affect on the chewy.

[chadd]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

I've never been a fan of really vague descriptors like "chewy" and prefer more intuitive phrasing. I always read it as not being tight in the low end while being thick in the mids. The comments on "sag" are also where my mind goes on it as well.

[ItsaBass]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?

This Seth Lover must have been pretty chewy. At least Junior thought so.

[Aceman]

Re: What is a chewy pickup ?



I see that as having more of a 'biting' tone...