Which pickup is your amp set to?

[Closed Eye]

Simple Question:

What pickup is your amp set to?


I'm asking mainly because I've heard guys get heavy rock sounds out of their neck pickup when the bridge pickup is associated more with the "rock sound". Do amp settings/main pickup selection have a lot to do with your tone? Or is your amp balanced out to get favorable tones from both pickups? Or are both pickups are a certain way that the amp settings, whatever they are, get good tones?

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

Psht, it's set up for my bridge pickup, because I play a tad more rythm than lead, for which I use both pickups. I eq it to my bridge pickup, and if it doesn't sound good with the neck pickup, time for a pickup swap!

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

Most of the music we play warrants me to set tone for my bridge pickups...The exceptions are SRV,Blues,and clean rhythm things..

John

 

[Jimbojsr]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

Bridge pickup - lead or rhythm. Neck can be very good for bass-heavy metal riffing tho (see 'Hysteria' by Muse, especially). I set my amp for both pickups - see, i have a V-Amp 2, so I can change sounds and settings very easily indeed!

 

[Breogan]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

I allways try to have pickups with mached eq's. This way i don't have to tweak too much the eq of my amp to have good results from both pickups.

 

[Simon_F]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

I generally EQ my amp so that it's a little brighter than ideal for the bridge pickup. Then I back off the bidge pickup tone knob and often the volume knob too (when I'm playing rhythm). This means the amp is bright enough for the neck pickup to sound clear, and I get a nice fat tone on the bridge pickup with the tone rolled back a bit. If I turn everything up on the bridge pickup I get a great treble boost. Gotta work those guitar knobs!

 

[gordon_39422]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

I use an approach much like Simon's. I definitely use the knobs and switches on my Strat. I used to be a blockhead and play with everything dimed out. Recently I discovered that there is a plethora of tones waiting to be realized by simply turning the knobs!

 

[NecroPolo]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

Bridge, all the way. I use the neck p-up only for solos.

 

[HarrisonDavid]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

Hah That is interesting. I just recently put my 81 in the neck and 85 in the bridge. I eq to the bridge mainly but I find my self playing on the neck almost as much as the bridge! The Clean tone of the 81 gets a bad rap also!! You people need to learn about rolling back on the volume, also my Flex III has a great channel for that. I just stomp on my Floorboard Voila!

BTW fftopic:

My Flex III I seen at Guitar Center yesterday for 389 dollars NEW!! 1-12 75 Watt. That is a steal! I paid twice that almost. Of course the floorboard is probably 200 dollars separate. You don't need it but it makes the amp a versatile monster.

 

[rinse_master]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

I usually set it for both then tweak from there, but it's a PODxt so I can change patches or whatever to get the sound right....

 

[vinterland]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

I set my distortion channel for bridge and my clean channel for the neck. As I don't use much neck distortion unless I'm wanting a more bluesy sound.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

On LP's I EQ for the bridge pickup. Like DeadskinSlayer said, if the neck doesn't sound good like that....time for a new neck pickup.

On strats, I use SRV's technique of EQ'ing for the low E on the neck pickup.
When the neck pickup sounds perfectly EQ'ed and the gain is beefy but clear, I'm done.
And the opposite is true on strats. If I EQ for the neck and the bridge is too bright, time for a new strat bridge pickup!

 

[B2D]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

I generally aim for a fat, aggressive, clear yet smooth tone on the bridge pickup.

I usually use "similar pickup" sets in guitars (ex: JB b/Jazz n) so that when i switch the tonalities remain consistent but the underlying personality changes from snarl -> smooth.

 

[JimiHWannaBe]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

I have my amp set to a clean sound that I like on my humbucking and single coil guitars. My pedals I set up mostly cover both but my Keeley BD-2 is really voiced towards my Agile with the seth and '59. I use this and my TS-9 in conjunction with my strat though and it sounds great but just the BD-2 and the strat doesnt sound that good.

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

i almost only play clean so my amp is mostly tailored to make my neck and middle pickups sound sweet on my strat.

I only have 3 knobs to use-volume, bass and treble w/ a bright switch. Good tone for me is bass 7, treble 4.5, volume 4 (With my new JBL 15 incher, this is band rehearsal volume)

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Which pickup is your amp set to?

On strats, I use SRV's technique of EQ'ing for the low E on the neck pickup.
When the neck pickup sounds perfectly EQ'ed and the gain is beefy but clear, I'm done.
And the opposite is true on strats. If I EQ for the neck and the bridge is too bright, time for a new strat bridge pickup!

how do you know it's "right" by only using the E string?