I thought I simply didn't like neck humbuckers…

[jeremy]

Neck and bridge in a standard HH setup are parallel with each other. In a HHH setup, stock anyways, the 3-way toggle is neck, middle+bridge, bridge. There isn't a neck+bridge option without modifying the wiring, usually by giving the middle it's own dedicated volume by sacrificing one of the tone controls.

this.

even on a two pup lp or sg or any other factory wired gibson (other than the jp model or other outliers) the pups them selves are wired in series (normal humbucker wiring), when both pups are on the two series wired humbuckers are in parallel, just like on a typically wired fender guitar. the neck/middle or middle/bridge positions are parallel, not series

 

[zionstrat]

From my experience, neck humbuckers are great for practically any style of music but you have to think about why you're using it.

When designing a HH guitar, I start with the bridge... If clean cleans I needed, the bridge I'ts got to be medium at most and often lower output.

As others have mentioned, I don't have a lot of problems with unmatched pickups... as long as there are switching options to balance them but I won't get into that here.

Most of the time, I'm pitching neck pups that are thick and fat... Almost, but not quite woman tone out of the box... If it's completely woman tone it will probably be too muddy for anything else.

It gives you options for big fat leads and if you back off the volume a little bit you can get great warm rhythms...

So the jazz can work perfectly well at the lite end of the spectrum or you can go to very thick fat pups as long as you can thin it out with the right mods.

So that leaves the middle... A lot of folks I work with like the middle for rhythm and that does require balancing the pups if they are not even out of the box. But the good news is there's lots of tweaks once you've found the perfect bridge and neck... It's usually relatively easy to balance the middle.

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[PS412]

I guess. If you don't play Metal. Or Rock. Or Punk. Or Grunge. Or Surf. Or any of the fun genres (J/K).

Or Country.

I love neck pickups.

 

[weepingminotaur]

Neck pickups, for me, are great for jazz, blues rhythm, neo-soul, some funk, and maybe light rock. For everything else -- metal, hard rock, blues lead -- it's bridge pickup all the way.

 

[Artie]

I'm mostly a neck man, or both. I love the Jazz in the neck. Mates well with another Jazz in the bridge. Like peas in a Pod. (Or a MagicStomp, etc.)

 

[donaldr]

I put a set of EMG Retroactive Fat 55 in my Ibanez SZ520 last year. The neck humbucker is a great match to the bridge humbucker and I'm using it more often than the neck humbucker on my Les Paul.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I love neck pickups.

I like EMG neck pickups. I like the Fishman Modern Alnico and KSE Alnico too. I like the DiMarzio PAF 36th Anni and Phat Cat matched with vintage output bridge pickups. I just have a really hard time finding passive neck pickups that match high output passives in the bridge. The hot ones tend to be too dark. It's either that, or the brighter ones tend to be either too wimpy, too scooped, or both.

 

[PS412]

I like EMG neck pickups. I like the Fishman Modern Alnico and KSE Alnico too. I like the DiMarzio PAF 36th Anni and Phat Cat matched with vintage output bridge pickups. I just have a really hard time finding passive neck pickups that match high output passives in the bridge. The hot ones tend to be too dark. It's either that, or the brighter ones tend to be either too wimpy, too scooped, or both.

For myself and my ear, I find it is easier to dial out the bass and dial in the mids/trebs in the neck and still keep the fullness.
I find it harder to get the shrillness out of the bridge and get a good low end.
As far as active pickups, I also play mostly neck. I also don't like them at all for the first 5 or so minutes, then I really quite enjoy them.

 

[Securb]

While we are on the subject of neck humbuckers, my singer bought a 70s MIJ Les Paul copy at a yard sale. I did a setup and some light fretwork to remove a dead spot. I had a 490 sitting around, so I popped it in the bridge for him. Not only did it, of course, blow away the stock pickup, but in the bridge position, I actually like it better than in the neck. The guitar sounds fantastic.

 

[jeremy]

nice. there was a while they were putting the 490r/490t in a few sg models and i always liked the bridge pup better. it wasnt a good pair since the neck sounded so much thicker than the bridge though

 

[Mononoaware]

nice. there was a while they were putting the 490r/490t in a few sg models and i always liked the bridge pup better. it wasnt a good pair since the neck sounded so much thicker than the bridge though

I've never heard anyone really praise the stock 490r, even on its own merits or with something like a 498t. I suppose it must have fans. But I'd wager they're few and far between.

 

[Mincer]

I've never heard anyone really praise the stock 490r, even on its own merits or with something like a 498t. I suppose it must have fans. But I'd wager they're few and far between.

The 490 set is among my 'worst humbuckers' I've tried.

 

[Securb]

nice. there was a while they were putting the 490r/490t in a few sg models and i always liked the bridge pup better. it wasnt a good pair since the neck sounded so much thicker than the bridge though

I am a 490r/498t fan bigtime. I was very surprised the 490r sounded so good in the bridge and had some power behind it.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I dont like the 490R, but to be completely honest, the only time that I really tried it for an extended amount of time was to get really familiar with it was matched with a Black Winter in the bridge of my Les Paul Tribute... and you can imagine how badly mismatched tha pairing is, LOL.

 

[Mincer]

I had the 490 set in a Howard Roberts Fusion III for a few years, and it was pretty anemic- the guitar really came alive with better pickups.