Guitar pickup position help

hey all, got a question for anyone that can help. i am a rythem guitarist, and i am trying figure out what position works for me on my pickups.. my axe is a les paul baritone guitar tuned to an A with two humbuckers and a three position switch and one tone knob (and obviously a volume knob). i never really focused on humbucker position before and i was wondering if anyone can give me an explination to what pickup does what, and why.. and also the differences of all three switch positions. and what difference does the tone knob make in these positions.

if this is a lot of questions im sorry, im just a lil frusterated and could use some outside help ya know?

thanks

Alex

The bridge pickup will be more trebley while the neck pickup will be more bassy. The 3 way switch will go Bridge>both>neck. If you want to know the differences between them , why don't you change the settings around while you jam. :rolleyes:

thanks for your reply. i know this is one of those "try things until something sonds good enough to your taste" things but i just wanted to hear some outside opinions..see other peoples takes on positions etc.
.. so hey thanks for the reply.. =)

No problem.

I use the bridge pickup for rythm and lead and the neck for some lead. When I want to get a nice bluesy vibe or Yngwie kinda thing, I always flip over to the neck pickup. I never touch my tone knob, and the only time I use my volume knob is when I'm jamming and I want a cleaner sound.

It really all depends on your tastes of music and tone, If you want a good metal tone, use the bridge, if its blues or jazz or Hendrix type stuff, use the neck.


Oh yea, Welcome to GT by the way.

I play an SG, so pretty similar. I use the bridge pickup the most; especially for leads and for brighter distorted rhythm..typical metal and rock. I use the neck for some darker blues lead and rhythm, but more especially for clean tones; strumming, open chords, melodic leads, that sort of thing. I tend to use the middle position (both) the least, if ever actually. As far as the tone knobs go, I roll it off more often on the neck pup than the bridge...cuz if I'm using the bridge I'm looking for a brighter tone anyway, and almost always leave it maxed. But yeah, you should experiment.

Also, don't forget to use the volume knob as well. Like if you have a really overdriven tone when at 10, rolling it down to 2-3 can give you a nice cleaner tone that can be swelled or increased at will.

As a matter of fact, for an example of both these uses at the same time click my "tunes" in my signature below and listen to just the first 30-45 seconds of the track "Late October". Only the lead is me, but I start with a somewhat clean tone, then when the riff kicks in, full distortion (and should you hear the end of the track, it fades clean again). But they're both the exact same amp/distortion setting...the 1st clean one is on the neck pup with volume rolled down to 3 and a little rolled off on the tone knob, then I kicked it down to the bridge with both volume and tone knobs at 10.

I know you said you only had one knob of each, as mine has separate knobs for each pup (4 in all)...but you could still use them to the same effect.

Originally Posted by: atroahey all, got a question for anyone that can help. i am a rythem guitarist, and i am trying figure out what position works for me on my pickups.. my axe is a les paul baritone guitar tuned to an A with two humbuckers and a three position switch and one tone knob (and obviously a volume knob). i never really focused on humbucker position before and i was wondering if anyone can give me an explination to what pickup does what, and why.. and also the differences of all three switch positions. and what difference does the tone knob make in these positions.

if this is a lot of questions im sorry, im just a lil frusterated and could use some outside help ya know?

thanks

Alex

Ok, what do the pickups do? Simply they are magnets that give off a magnetic field. As the string vibrates it oscilates the field and the signal is sent down the cable to the amp as an electrical impulse. The amp processes the signal and sends that out to the speaker which vibrates to give the sound.

As for the pickup positions. These are reletive to the strings. The bridge pick up being placed close to where the strings meet the bridge mean that the vibration from the string will be faster at that point giving a brighter more brittle sound.

The neck pickup being further away from that point will feel a greater degree of string oscilation meaning the string travels further through the magnetic field which in turn gives the field a greater intensity and a fuller tone.

Using the tone control is much like a car muffler. It adds a greater resistance to the signal when in the full on position thus muting the signal and muting the sound. you'll notice there is a slight volume drop off when tone is used to a great degree.
By using the central switch position you will get a fuller sound to your rhythm playing for most styles of music. So the ideal solution would be to use that setting and play around with the tone control to find sound that suits you.

I know this is technical but i hope this explains how the pickups work and how to get the best of them.

erm... >clicky<.

Originally Posted by: Lordathestringserm... >clicky<.

Read digested understood. But i rekon my theory is easier to understand. Might not be 100 percent accurate but i got the gist??? Magnets vibration etc.

I must admit yours was very detailed and covered everything but i'm sure what i wrote has som basis of merit. Basic electronics and all that. Resistance over electical signal and magnetic fields generated by the magnets. I did get my info form a guitar maker at the london guitar show. So i rekon both our theories are accurate yours more so i grant you.

I hope i wasn't misleading in any way. But experimantation with my guitar gave me the biggest clue. But i bow to your expertise honoured sir.. Rekon i need to got back to electronics classes and read up on resistors cpacitors and the like again.

Thanks for the clicky my friend. Very imformative. We live and learn.