LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

[JammerMatt]

I've got an LP setup Customb/A2PHn, but there have been other combos. Anyway, I either use the bridge for rawkin, and the neck for jazzin or bluesin, or strummin. I can never seem to get a nice tone using both pickups at once. It usually sounds, I don't know, scooped or something.

So, do any of you use the middle switch position? What do you have and what do you use it for?

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

PG set. I use the mid position all the time when playing clean for more snap and a more open sound. I usually use mostly the bridge pickup and blend a bit of the neck pickup into it. I do the same thing with my epi Sheraton that has a Phat Cat at the bridge and a Seth in the neck.

 

[Fret]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

I have an A2Pro and a CC. The middle position is my main sound for lighter rock stuff. If I want a thicker/jazzier tone I go for the neck and if I want more edge or heavier stuff I use the bridge.

 

[dr space]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

I love the middle tone of my les paul. I have a Custom Custom in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck, and the middle is heaven. I use it for cleaner parts and if I ever wanna get jangly, sounds kinda cool with some overdrive as well.

 

[Guitarist]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

For my clean, it's almost a sworn law. I coil split the bridge and then activate the two pups for a great clean.

 

[mongrollo]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

In my experience the best results are obtained when both pickups are about the same DC resistance. So, like Guitarrist said, you can obtain good results by spliting one bridge coil, then both pickups will be about 7. K.

Anyway, for me, nothing can be compared with the midle position of a mached set. It is a third new sound not a version of any of the other two.

 

[Wattage]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

Yeah I do. Great Nugent sounds, Ted was big on both pups. Real heavy gain it doesn't sound as good but with more of a Rock tone as opposed to Metal it works well. For cleaner and bluesier sounds it definitely works for me.

The Greeny mod makes it a real useful middle sound if you dig playing blues stuff too.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

I have a set of double cream Tom Holmes humbuckers in my Les Paul...it's a 59 RI.

And a set of Duncan Seth Lover & Custom Custom pickups in my Hamer Monoco.

I use the middle setting alot...mostly for rythym but for soloing too.

You can do alot, using your two volume controls, to blend the two pickups together for differant tones.

The "Honky Tonk" tone Lonnie Mack got by combining his two paf's on his '58 Flying V is a great example of two paf's combined.

Lew

 

[Young Angus]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

I love the middle position for the clean chord stuff (more rock and blues stuff, use the neck for the jazzy stuff) and with a little bit of drive for a bit of bluesy slightly quacky stuff.

The middle position is great!

 

[JammerMatt]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

Good input guys. Next question, how do you have your volume pots wired?

With the standard Gibson wiring, if you are playing middle position, either volume knob will roll the total volume off... in other words, you can't just roll one off and not the other, they roll together... it's like two master volume knobs.

I've wired mine before where you can roll either off, so you could have one full up, the other halway, etc. Let's call this Modified Gibson wiring. I had it for awhile, and you could tweak for days, but for some reason, it seemed that there was always some bleed over from the other pup even if it was totally rolled off... hard to explain.

Test your setup out. Roll either one or the other to zero, and see if the total volume falls off, I bet you might be surprised. Anyway, how do you have yours rigged?

In the meanwhile, I'm restringing my Gibbie and checking out that middle setting since I've never used it.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

I did the 50's wiring on mine. It sounds very nice indeed.

 

[papersoul]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

With my stock LP with Burstbucker Pros, I get some amazing clean tones and lead tones fro mthe middle. The pups have to be adjusted to find the sweet spot of each and then balanced with each other.

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

I use the mid pos for "moderate" rock stuff,nothing too over the top.
I call it a "Redneck Rhythm" tone.

 

[Guitarist]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

Good input guys. Next question, how do you have your volume pots wired?

With the standard Gibson wiring, if you are playing middle position, either volume knob will roll the total volume off... in other words, you can't just roll one off and not the other, they roll together... it's like two master volume knobs.

I've wired mine before where you can roll either off, so you could have one full up, the other halway, etc. Let's call this Modified Gibson wiring. I had it for awhile, and you could tweak for days, but for some reason, it seemed that there was always some bleed over from the other pup even if it was totally rolled off... hard to explain.

Test your setup out. Roll either one or the other to zero, and see if the total volume falls off, I bet you might be surprised. Anyway, how do you have yours rigged?

In the meanwhile, I'm restringing my Gibbie and checking out that middle setting since I've never used it.

Got the "Modified Gibson Wiring" myself and I love it. It does seem like there is a minute amount of bleed over from the other pup even when rolled off, but hell if you wanted that then you could just flip that selector!

You're right though, you can tweak it for days w/ the most descriptive tone in mind.

 

[Xeromus]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

I find the '59 and JB to sound very good when combined, very usable tone.

 

[Mattt]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

This question can be asked of most guitars...

I rarely use the centre position on any of my guitars, except my tele-esque guitar, and then it is only to cancel the hum.

 

[jeremy]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

i use the middle quite a bit (antiquity set) cleans, slightly dirty rhythms and overdriven slide

 

[Artie]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

If you don't mind my taking a little liberty with your question, and expanding it to all dual-humbucker equiped guitars, then the middle position is my favorite sound on all my HB guitars. It just seems to be the "richest" sound.

In fact, my two favorite positions, (relative to guitars, that is), is the neck and neck/bridge. I don't really use bridge by itself very often.

 

[kaknight]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

Listen to Rock n Roll by Zep. that's mid position LP if I ever heard it!

 

[theboatcandream]

Re: LP Owners... do you ever use both pups at once?

I hate the middle position. I only use it to replicate early jawbreaker, and even then I'm setting my pickups out of phase and coil tapping them.