Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

[howeguy]

There was a period in my life where I used nothing but the neck pickup to play loud music with other people. I would use my GE-7 to boost the high mids and treble in order to get the bassy pickup to cut through. I did this because I wanted to play without having to face the feedback that my Tele creates when I switch it to the bridge pickup.

Does anyone else play heavy styles of music with the neck pickup, as opposed to the typical bridge pickup?

 

[Kac]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

nope, if the bridge pickup caused an issue, I would have swapped it out.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

nope, if the bridge pickup caused an issue, I would have swapped it out.

+1. Why have a 2-PU guitar and not use both PU's? That's crazy. If there's a problem with one of them, fix it. Likewise, if you only use the bridge PU because the neck is too dark, fix that. This forum is full of ways to do both, lots of smart guys here.

 

[Adieu]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

+1. Why have a 2-PU guitar and not use both PU's? That's crazy. If there's a problem with one of them, fix it. Likewise, if you only use the bridge PU because the neck is too dark, fix that. This forum is full of ways to do both, lots of smart guys here.

Physically disconnecting and, most importantly, REMOVING an extra pickup, especially a big humbucker with a mean mag from the neck position, does in fact make sense for magnetic reasons (bit more bite & sustain)

 

[blueman335]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

Physically disconnecting and, most importantly, REMOVING an extra pickup, especially a big humbucker with a mean mag from the neck position, does in fact make sense for magnetic reasons (bit more bite & sustain)

There's other ways to accomplish that that don't involve giving up the tonal variety you get from a 2nd PU. In the OP's case, and many others where the guitarist pretty much only uses one PU, is due to him not liking the tones of the second one, and that's almost always EQ/tone-related. They get their amp EQ dialed in for one PU, and the other one is way off. They have no idea about using replacement magnets, pots, and resistors to modify EQ's, or usually even the impact of changing the PU and pole piece heights have.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

Does anyone else play heavy styles of music with the neck pickup, as opposed to the typical bridge pickup?

Ritchie Blackmore.

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

^
The title had 'ONLY' in it. Blackmore used both the bridge and neck pickups. A lot of metal players use the neck pickup for soloing. I use the neck pickup for rhythm playing with a lot of distortion - but when I do so I really don't go for 'Metal'. Would work good for alternative music, Neil Young, Hendrix, etc...

Playing any type of music is not only about the gear - it's also about the right choice of notes, groove, what the rest of the band plays... so with the right adjustments you can get away with anything and maybe even get your own, signature tone.

In summary: replace the pickup.

 

[howeguy]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

Well, I don't mean like screamo heavy...just old school heavy metal and hard rock, from like the 70s.

I'm very tempted to buy a Gibson es-175 with just a neck pickup actually, if Gibson will still be making them by the time I'm able to afford one. Although I do play a lot of hard rock, I am also kind of influenced by jazzy tones and clean guitar. It's very interesting, actually.

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

I did when I got my first HH guitars. It had the Gibson style ring around the toggle switch and when it said rhythm I thought that meant that the neck pickup was for rhythm playing only. I used that pickup for a while, until my uncle said "You know you can get a better bite from your guitar with the bridge pickup." I switched it to the bridge and that crunch was amazing. Now the neck pup is only for cleans and the bridge gets all my distortion.

 

[Progbusters]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

Yeah neck pickup and fuzz works well.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

^
The title had 'ONLY' in it. Blackmore used both the bridge and neck pickups. A lot of metal players use the neck pickup for soloing.

Well for the sake of the argument I assumed that very few heavy rock players spend 100s of hours playing on the neck pickup because the bridge pickup is broken and would take 30 minutes to fix.

The significance of Blackmore here is that he played riff like the opening of "Man on the Silver Mountain" on the neck pickup.

 

[MacBradley]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

Does anyone else play heavy styles of music with the neck pickup, as opposed to the typical bridge pickup?

I don't play metal, but I do use hi gain fairly often (Mesa Tremoverb hi gain channel) and use the neck pickup for almost everything on any guitar. I like the wider frequency response and dynamic range available on neck pickups. I'm probably in the large minority of guitar players though. I like bridge pickups a lot for doubling over a guitar part on top of the neck pickup though. That can sound HUGE. Need to record or have a flexible 2nd guitar

 

[mrpinter]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

I can dig using only the neck pickup for some things. I just completed a Warmoth build with a single BRIDGE pickup in the neck position, and it's wonderful! (Screamin' Demon - jazzy with an attitude) Here it is:

 

[skyydogg01]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

Tom Morello used the neck pickups in his tele and strat almost exclusively.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

Didnt Josh Homme only use thr neck pickup for a long, long time?

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

I can dig using only the neck pickup for some things. I just completed a Warmoth build with a single BRIDGE pickup in the neck position, and it's wonderful! (Screamin' Demon - jazzy with an attitude) Here it is:

That's the coolest and funniest shred stick I've ever seen. hahahaha..neck pickup only!

The first thing that came to mind as the most useful neck pickup is the Jazz Bridge Model. That's a humbucker that can do anything in any position.

 

[mrpinter]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

That's the coolest and funniest shred stick I've ever seen. hahahaha..neck pickup only!

I don't think of it as a shredstick, but as a lightweight, ergonomic guitar with a great sounding pickup. I pretty much got the idea from this rare bird I used to own. I sold it because I couldn't get on with the neck - too skinny - but it sounded really good and didn't seem to need a bridge pickup.

 

[thespricket]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

Not exactly heavy, but Derek Trucks uses the neck pup on his SGs pretty much all the time. He also EQs his amps very bright which I guess compensates.


Guitar->pedals->amp

 

[blueman335]

Re: Using ONLY neck pickup for heavy rock

Not exactly heavy, but Derek Trucks uses the neck pup on his SGs pretty much all the time. He also EQs his amps very bright which I guess compensates.

That's just it, when he switches to the bridge PU, he may not be thrilled with the tone. If you have a two PU guitar, both PU's should have tones you really like. It just makes sense. Whether you notrice or not, it makes it more interesting for the listener when you have more variety in your tones.