One pickup guitar - best to go bridge, neck or middle?

axisus

I'm trying an unusual pickup in a guitar, it basically goes under the scratchplate and is p90-ish in tone.

Best to go bridge, neck or middle for position?

TTBZ

One bridge pickup is all you need

stimpsonslostson

TTBZ said:

One bridge pickup is all you need

This. 
https://i.imgur.com/dlVdk2Q.jpg

Although someone on here has a neck pickup only Esquire that looks great. 

AlexC

Most people will say bridge, which is great for Overdriven rock, but I think you get more subtlety from neck or middle. Depends what you want to play.

Johnnyseven

Lenny Kaye plays a strat with only a middle pickup, I wouldn't though - bridge for me.

Winny_Pooh

if you play clean, neck, if you play dirty then the bridge, not much into to go on TBH.
If its stealth then why not use it in the neck with a visible bridge pickup.

axisus

Winny_Pooh said:

if you play clean, neck, if you play dirty then the bridge, not much into to go on TBH.
If its stealth then why not use it in the neck with a visible bridge pickup.

I fancy a clean top with no visible pickups.

I have to admit that I am more of a distortion/cranked sound sort of player, but having said that, I'm trying this primarily as something to use with synth software, and maybe a Boss SY-300.

Winny_Pooh

I'd just make sure that if you are using it into an amp that the necks sits relatively low in the pocket (low string height relative to body) so that you get enough output.

axisus

Winny_Pooh said:

I'd just make sure that if you are using it into an amp that the necks sits relatively low in the pocket (low string height relative to body) so that you get enough output.

Yeah, I'm building the neck/body myself, it will be real low! I've used the pickup before though and it worked fine.

guitarfishbay

Whichever you’d use most.

I’d be happy with just a bridge pickup myself.

carlos

Bridge for almost all uses, neck for jazz. The Godin Kingpin has a p90 in the neck only, but otherwise humbucker seems to be the choice for neck only guitars. So bridge and make sure you have a tone pot so you can bring it down a bit, too.

Sarge

Neck, you can make a neck sound like a bridge but less easy t'other way round.

Sporky

Middle. Middle always sounds best.

octatonic

For me it is like those people who hop or skip a marathon rather than run it.
Why make it harder?

WezV

Bridge, but not too close.

For me it’s about magnetic dampening from the pickup.  A single bridge pickup is about as little as you can get.  If you are having a neck pickup, even on its own, you lose that benefit so may as well add another pickup 

flying_pie

If you're building it yourself then why not rout it for all the positions and see what works best

grungebob

I’ve had a musicmaster in the past that sounded sublime for mild crunch to clean and really made me play in a different style to how I normally would but.... I’ve got a musicman Sub 1 guitar one of the USA range they did back in 2007 with only a single humbucker in the bridge wired to 250k pots for vol and tone and it’s the perfect all rounder.  Plays great and sounds great for high gain and a little roll of on  volume and setting the tone around 5 and it gets pretty damn close to a great warm neck tone. It basically is my Swiss Army knife guitar and I don’t really think when I play it, I just move my picking hand closer to the neck and touch and touch the two controls subliminally. 

Danielsguitars

I built a dc junior with a a mojo dual foil with  spilt coil which I really like and adds a bit more versatility

Mike Bradley on you tube did a demo of it for me if you're interested in the sound, it is different to the normal dogear p90

Funkfingers

Why not borrow an idea from the Gibson Grabber, Washburn Rail or Wilkes "The Answer" bass guitars. Movable pickup(s).

prowla

Get a Strat.

Play it one week with the bridge pickup only, then one week with the middle one, then one with the neck one.

Have a think about which you prefer.

stickyfiddle

Somewhere between middle and bridge. I'm basing this entirely on the Epiphone Century I played last summer. It were reet good.