Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

man-in-moon

man-in-moon

New member
I am thinking about removing my neck pickup. I only use them if they are single coils. I always liked the way juniors sounded as well as the g&l rampages. I figure a lot of their sound come from having less stuff in the signal path. I could be wrong though.
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

I like a 4 wire humbucker in my les paul but just wore the bottom slug coil so it sounds like a single coil.

Another cool trick if its a humbucker remove a single row of the screws or the slugs. It sounds like a humbucking P-90 its cool

You can either uncrew all of the screw poles or flip the pickup over and you can push the slugs out from the bottom.
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

Ack. If my guitar didn't have a neck pickup, I'd rather play tuba.
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

I mostly use the bridge pickup, but I do use the neck quite a bit.

You just need a brighter neck pickup. Or a humbucker size P-90.


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Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

I think that Special bridge pickups sound just the same as Junior pickups (even though one is soap bar and one is dog ear), and that Esquire pickups sound just the same as Tele bridge pickups. "Less in the signal path" doesn't really make much sense technically, understanding the wiring diagram. The additional "string pull" theory is something I don't buy either, based on many guitars played and owned over the years, and even some that I've had set up alternately as Teles and Esquires with the same bridge pickup. Even on guitars on which I rarely use the neck pickup, I don't ever bother removing it or disconnecting it.
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

Not my thing since I actually have a neck only Tele but some people make it work.

671c3784958632629ae23b28de5ed99a.jpg
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

Well, not using them is an option. That's like if you have a four seat car, but is just you, you don't take out the rear seat.

I have an Ace freely model. Does that count?
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

Not my thing since I actually have a neck only Tele but some people make it work.
Click to expand...

I was going to mention Malcolm.... Another guy who sometimes removes his neck pickup is Phil X.
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

Go for it. You'll figure out really quickly whether you need it back or not.
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

There is not much to nothing different in the signal path that would make for the single pickup guitar Jr sound different. Such that removing a pickup and the 2 pots would be an utter waste of time from a practical point of view.
There is much folklore surrounding the magnetic pull of the neck pickup, which may or may not have relevance. Another aspect which could hold some weight is the lack of pickup rout. As this interacts with the neck tenon for a lot of Jr and Specials I would not discount this.
 
Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

ICTGoober said:
I was going to mention Malcolm.... Another guy who sometimes removes his neck pickup is Phil X.
Click to expand...

Is he the one that puts a little action figure in the hole instead of the pickup?
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

If you throw the switch to the bridge pickup, you have removed the neck pickup from the circuit.

The only difference with removing the neck pickup completely would be the reduction in weight of the overall guitar by that small amount. If the pickups are mounted to the body, it might make some slight difference, I would’t know how to quantify how much as I haven’t bothered.

I do know that my single pickup-only guitars do sound slightly different and I get more range of sound when I move my picking hand toward the neck and back than when I do the same trick with a 2-pickup guitar. Haven’t bothered to research why that might be so.
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

When I used a 2 hb guitar for neck only I wired it just volume and tone and then took the mag out of the bridge pickup.
 
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Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

The ONLY thing you would accomplish by doing that is to make your guitar look UGLY!!! It won't make any difference electrically. It won't noticeably change the weight of your guitar. It won't change the tone of your guitar. It won't affect the tone or output of the bridge pup.

If you want to decrease any potential string pull that the magnet may have, just lower the neck pup.
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

Or if you want a dramatic affect, go to Louisiana and have a voodoo spell put on your guitar.
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

Blille said:
Not my thing since I actually have a neck only Tele but some people make it work.

671c3784958632629ae23b28de5ed99a.jpg
Click to expand...

That one picture just about unravels all the arguments and theories about tone woods and break angles and stud depth and stop bar material and pickup mounting and pot wiring and switch types. I officially give up.

Maybe Les Paul had the right idea with The Log. You can put anything you want on the sides of it and even put a telephone microphone it, just anchor the strings at both ends and you’re good.
 
Re: Does anyone unhook or completely remove their neck pickup?

4 Bridge Only.jpg

I know 3 guys from the So-Cal neighborhoods ( Actually 4 / Het too < even though I haven't spoke to Him in 40 yrs. ~ cant say for Scotti ) who would Never rather play tuba than an Ax without a Neck Pickup ~ fairly certain ( We do have the other regular guitars as well .

.

I really just cant believe some of the guitarded statements I read here ~ it's all about Styles of music and Sets performed , is it Not ?
 
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