Does anyone use a bridge pickup in the neck position?

[GIBBYADDICTION]

Your not a pickup winder .
your a pickup connoisseur..
You get results from a meter .
not from HUMAN EARS .
http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/product-news/pickup-comparison-chart and compare the DC resistance of the humbuckers, you can see how the neck and bridge pickups fall in line, and how the "aggressive" sets tend to have more winds than the "vintage" sets.

Installing a hot pickup with a split or parallel toggle switch is a common way of having your cake and eating it to. Cut the power to play chords, and run the pickup in series to play hot lead lines.

your a pickup ************ connoisseur..
You get results from a meter .
not from HUMAN EARS .

 

[Benjammin]

Thanks again for the info, I guess I give it a shot and see how it goes. I do use the neck for leads more exclusively on this guitar. When I had the Fred years ago in an Epiphone V, I remember liking it and wishing I had a similar pickup for the neck. Ultimately I put stock pickup back in because I thought the 2 went better together

 

[freefrog]

I've read online of people using bridge pickups in the neck position (specifically Super Ds, JBs and a FRED), I'm curious about the pros and cons of this kind of configuration from people who use or have used them.

I have a short scale guitar with 24 frets, I'm thinking of upgrading the pickups, and because the neck position doesn't sound like a traditional neck (sounds more like the middle position on a Strat) I started thinking about using a bridge style pickup in that slot. I've had a FRED in the past and thought it might be OK in the neck if I had something hotter and chunkier in the bridge (like a Super Distortion or Super 3)

Any opinions would be appreciated (I know it's a cheap guitar, but I like it enough to invest some money into it)

I've not enough time to read the whole topic but to answer your questions, here are my thoughts:

-I've often mounted "bridge" PU's in "neck" position and conversely. My first pickups swap, in 1981, had precisely led me to put a rather hot pickup in the neck slot of a LP replica and it sounded pretty good (not to mention that it was playable once splitted because strong enough ).
In such a case, I'd just typically avoid an inductance above 6H. But even this theory is discussible: one of my friends has designed a neck PU measuring more than 15k and 10H and despite of these specs, it doesn't sound muddy as a neck pickup.

-On the basis of my own experience, I think that it's a good idea to put a bridge PU in the neck slot of a 24 frets guitar, for the reasons that you mention. Among the +/-20 guitars that I've here, only one has 24 frets but I've put a rather strong neck pickup in it ( a Bill & Becky L500, the 6H model).
As I said above, such strong humbuckers have the advantage to offer enough strenght and "body" once splitted or wired in parallel. It's an interesting side effect, IMHO and IME.
BTW, don't rely on DCR: the Lawrence L500 that I mention above reads less than 12k but still has a stronger inductance than a DiMarzio DLX reading more than 17k.

-I find risky to rely exclusively on theoretical specs, anyway... take a same 8k P.A.F. replica and mount it in the neck position of various guitars: it might sound muddy in some instruments and not in others. All is always a question of matching between transducers and guitars IMHO/IME. This matching might require a bridge PU in neck position regardless of their LRC specs.

Good luck in your experiments!

 

[frankfalbo]

Ok, I'll try my hand at explaining it too.

Some pickup models have a neck and bridge model with no additional consideration for the two positions other than some more turns of wire on the bridge vs. fewer turns on the neck, in an effort to balance the output between the two, and/or fatten the bridge sound while thinning the neck sound. In these cases, crossing the positions will still have gone against the pickup designers' intended usage, but it's user's choice at that point.

The Screamin Demon for example has been sold as a bridge pickup for decades. Personally, as a player (not a product developer) I don't like the sound of it in the bridge, and with 50 different guitars, and very few with pickup duplicates, I have zero Screamin Demons in the bridge. I can't use it. However, it's a great neck pickup, especially with a high output bridge HB. So that's a "user's choice" to go against the product's intended usage.

Other pickup makers have pickups that they market as being a "great bridge pickup when used with _____ in the neck" and simultaneously "a great neck pickup when used with ______". In this case the pickup maker possibly has not done anything specific within the design that has caused them to favor one position or the other, if they're sanctioning use in both positions. The Super Distortion came stock in both positions on some guitars, and therefore is a coveted neck sound for some people, enough for Dean to mimic it as a Dimebag branded neck pickup.

But there are boutique winders and factory pickups alike that have special tweaks made that the designer feels make the pickup more suitable for one position or the other. Maybe they slightly degauss a magnet, etc. All the little details cooljuk mentions and more, blended together and chosen to achieve something the designer specifically envisions for that position. These are things that can produce undesirable results in the other position, according to the designer. The user can still choose to deviate, but to suggest that if it's "just a few DCR increments away" from another model means that a pickup's voice is distilled down to just resonant peak is a gross oversimplification.

Take the Alnico II Pro bridge model, reading 8.3k, vs the Slash Alnico II Pro neck model, reading 8.4k. They're not the same pickup. Not at all. They don't even use the same wire type. To suggest that if you like the A2Pro bridge model, you would also like the A2Pro Slash neck model used in the bridge position would be an ignorant statement. But some people are predisposed to distilling differences down to macro indicators. I've been a pickup addict since my first (now vintage) JB pickup swap at the age of 13, so I prefer the granularity.

 

[Jock]

I have turned a neck Seth 180 degrees and feel that the sound works better for me. Trying to find that illusive sound will be a never ending journey.

 

[Blue Blood]

I put a pearly gates full sized bridge humbucker in the neck position of my telecaster. When I played bar chords, it sounded like Keef (as best as I can with my fingers).
I wouldn't put some crazy ceramic bridge bucker in the neck slot though.

 

[61LPSG]

Home Forums > Music Gear > Tonefreaks > Pickups >
Does anyone use a bridge pickup in the neck position?
Yes.

 

[Frosty Branch]

I've read online of people using bridge pickups in the neck position (specifically Super Ds, JBs and a FRED), I'm curious about the pros and cons of this kind of configuration from people who use or have used them.

I have a short scale guitar with 24 frets, I'm thinking of upgrading the pickups, and because the neck position doesn't sound like a traditional neck (sounds more like the middle position on a Strat) I started thinking about using a bridge style pickup in that slot. I've had a FRED in the past and thought it might be OK in the neck if I had something hotter and chunkier in the bridge (like a Super Distortion or Super 3)

Any opinions would be appreciated (I know it's a cheap guitar, but I like it enough to invest some money into it)

I have a Dimarzio PAF Pro in both the bridge and neck positions . I get a lot of compliments of how it cuts through the mix , and the way they sound . Their in a Classic Premium Plus