If you could only have one pickup, would you choose bridge or neck?

Lebarque · April 2019

Neck for me.

Love the simplicity of a Junior and think they're achingly cool, but I just don't think I could survive without a neck pup. Years on my strat's neck pickup have moulded me.

After watching Tom Morello's rig rundown recently, I was intrigued that he only uses the neck pickup.

So what about you? Neck or bridge if you could only have one?

guitars4you · April 2019

Lebarque said:

Neck for me.

Love the simplicity of a Junior and think they're achingly cool, but I just don't think I could survive without a neck pup. Years on my strat's neck pickup have moulded me.

After watching Tom Morello's rig rundown recently, I was intrigued that he only uses the neck pickup.

So what about you? Neck or bridge if you could only have one?

I'd probably tend to agree with you, or should I say would have agreed with you - However I've always wanted a 59 LP Special as I was born in 59 - At a guitar show a couple of years ago I saw a nice Feline Lion DC - Had all the mojo I wanted and played great - But I hesitated over the choice of to buy or not, as it was a Junior and not a Special - Sod I said and purchased it - Bottom line is I've learnt to play the bridge p/up - It ain't a chilled out neck pick-up for jazz, but I've learnt how to make it smooth and melodic as well as ballsy and the ability to rip it up when required

It is not my main day to day instrument - But I've learnt to make it work for me

merlin · April 2019

Feck, I would only have the neck.

Funkfingers · April 2019

Neither.

I would have middle position, two coils, one under each pair of strings.

terada · April 2019

Neck on a strat, Bridge on a les paul

HAL9000 · April 2019

Neck for me too. Much prefer the more mellow and warmer sounds to the bridge which on S types can sound a bit thin and brittle.

Calum13 · April 2019

Neck PAF. It’d have to be a good one though, I like the strat neck pickup better than the epi probucker in my sheraton. I’m considering upgrading it to something less mid heavy.

meltedbuzzbox · April 2019

Neck

JezWynd · April 2019

One in the middle is very appealing...

Image: https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--gelir0mf--/a_exif,c_limit,e_unsharp_mask:80,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_620,q_90,w_620/v1363631095/uu4az6cb6dsltjv7njhb.jpg

JezWynd · April 2019

But if I had to choose; neck every time.

fretmeister · April 2019

Bridge.

Seymour Pearly Gates.

TonyR · April 2019

If I had to choose then I’d give up playing the electric guitar... I don’t like single pickup guitars - they just look unbalanced and wrong

guitarfishbay · April 2019

Bridge

DB1 · April 2019

Neck - bridge is a rare excursion for me. I'm having a look at a 165 Herb Ellis next week with a single Lollar Charlie Christian pickup next week, and am curiously excited about it.

munckee · April 2019

Neck for a strat, bridge on a tele either on humbucker/filtertrons

underdog · April 2019

Bridge definitely, I only switch to neck if I want something really smooth with a bit of muffle, but usually I prefer something with a bit of a stabby sound to it, so bridge and tone control work just fine.