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I never use the bridge pickup. In fact, I have a strat copy with a bridge pickup that died, so I disconnected it.
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01-01-2021 06:22 AM
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The bridge pickup on my ES175 sounds great for funk; a lot of the funk players used 175’s early on, presumably switching due to feedback issues.
But I don’t use it for jazz.
Theres always a lobby for middle position for jazz, as Phillip Catherine uses middle position in a 175.
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The guitars I want to play now (Ibanez GB10 and Gibson ES 330) do happen to come with 2 pickups. Every once in a while the bridge pickup or the mix come in handy for a brighter tone. When I played my single pickup Eastman it didn't bother me though.
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Re: funk - Jimmy Nolen - 'nuff said.
Originally Posted by christianm77
In a band context, I usually use both pickups in order to get the right mid-range emphasis to be heard, as that varies with the makeup of the group re: instrumentation and room acoustics. And I like to be able to hear what I'm playing, in case I accidentally play something good.
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If you never used it, how did you know it died? :-) Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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Depending on context, the bridge pickup can be the perfect sound.
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You can have anything from a bridge pickup.
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There is the trick of having a separate tone on the bridge PU rolling the treble way down and adding some of that to the neck sound via separate volumes.
There's another trick I have never tried ( but I will ) which has been mentioned by Jack Zucker where the middle PU or the bridge PU is added in series to the Neck via a mini toggle ( have a tech do it ) .
This raises the output and DC resistance and can get really thick and dark in a nice way and you lose nothing.
But a middle PU is a great thing to have because adding a bit of that can give an acoustic guitar like shimmer to a really dark neck PU for fingerpicking etc.
Middle PU's ( medium output Rails or Stack= no hum ) can sound great by themselves too even for a straight Jazzer.
I have heard Jack Z's trick ( he did not invent it it but mentioned it here ) on Strats and it makes it like a Humbucker type fullness BUT I wonder if a Humbucker with a Rails type in middle could make a typical Semihollow sound as dark and thick as a full *Archtop - or even vaguely similar ...
[*without the strings 1 inch off the top of the Guitar =Archtops = harder to fingerpick at a very high level at least for me ].
Edit -if you are coming from a really phatt deep sounding Guitar like a 175 and playing with all fingers - I can see how a tiny bit ( even at low volume ratio ) of bright sparkle would/might really help .
I was, like many , thinking of the reverse ( phattening up a Semi or Solid Body Guitar - but NOT merely rolling off all the treble ).
On a 175 or similar - you can get more treble from the bridge PU ( have a tech switch volume and tone pots, or a parallel switch push pull knob ) but I don't think you would need to :unless you want to get a near acoustic sound .
If the bridge PU is on a bright setting you may only need to have it's volume on 2 or 3 so it doesn't kill the warmth and fullness of the neck PU .Last edited by Robertkoa; 01-31-2021 at 01:03 PM.
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I'm probably not enough of a player to chime in, but a couple of points. While I mostly use the neck PU alone on my ES-175, and am perfectly happy with my three single-PU archtops, I find blending in the bridge PU useful when mostly comping classic swing and trying to achieve a more acoustic, more percussive feeling. With the brighter tone, less volume is needed to cut just through. My experience with P90s is limited to a few gigs on an EPI Casino Coupe; I find that the middle position plus some rolling off of the bridge PU gives a fuller, "fruitier" tone than the neck PU alone.
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A bridge p/u makes playing harmonics a lot clearer. If that isn't your thing then I would go with just the neck p/u.
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I can't imagine a Tele w/o the bridge p/u. I actually have 3 in mine. I do use just neck a lot but also like the neck and bridge position. Originally Posted by Cunamara
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Even with two humbuckers, middle position may have less hum or buzz than the neck or the bridge alone. So, this would help with playing solo guitar with dynamics.
As Robertkoa also mentioned, you can get different EQ blends by adding in the bridge pickup and playing with the tone settings (up or down or middle).
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I have a gibson 335.
I thought you want to crank your amp and never keep the guitar volume above a 5? I'm reading about people cranking there guitar volume all of the way up.
Was I miss informed?
Strictly for jazz
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That's a subjective, personal choice. For me it depends on the guitar and the amp. Mostly I like the amp up and the guitar down, but not always. It's not that difficult to change the volume settings if desired. Where you set yours is up to you. Whatever sounds best to you.
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Archtop guitars are guitars made to play jazz and the jazz tone is mostly on the neck pup. So if some want a neck pup only I get it. I don't mind it myself. What I don't get is 'jazz tele' with only neck pup. The iconic tele bridge sound is one of the wonders of the world, to cut it off is like a statement 'I'm too cool, i am very serious jazz person and have no time for your silly fun'. High nosed attitude. I think neck pup only teles are only made to troll a good folk.
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I havnt had a chance to listen to enough jazz guitarists for sleep full tonal spectrum to really have a good Idea regarding what's what.
I'll say this though, last night I tried turning my bridge pickup on (volume 3, with my neck pickup at volume 5)
Went through a few of my jazz patches (katana mk2) it sounded like it was just as fat but with more bite, the notes seemed to pop more which is nice during fast lines.
The upper octave notes came out a tad clearer. It still had the jazz feel/sound.
I completely changed the style of pick I used to bring out the nuances, but I kinda liked it.
I imagine once I switched to the flatwound Ti's it may work even better!
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A guitar made for metal...
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lol, tell that to Julian Lage Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
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Only neck pup tele ? Never seen him with one... Show me a pic or a video! Originally Posted by jazzloverfat
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He plays neck almost exclusively, though i remember hearing or reading somewhere that at least one of his teles is wired in series. Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
In the interview with Rick Beato he mentioned forcing himself to do a few shows on bride only and after the experiment he was like "never again, i'll stick to neck only"
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When I play a jazz gig on my tele I play the neck pickup exclusively too. That's not the point though. I love the bridge pup on my tele, and all the teles, I would never remove it. There are always times when I use it either for fun at home or playing other types of gigs. That's the beauty of a telecaster. Even if I only played jazz gigs I can't imagine completely ignoring other kinds of music in my life that make me happy. That's why I see an only neck pup tele as a snobbery statement 'I don't care about anything but jazz', playing guitar that's not particularly made for jazz. Originally Posted by jazzloverfat
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Right, I get what you mean now. Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
For me, the only bridge Tele sound I like is Roy Buchanan's and Albert Collins'.
Even for my own playing, I play neck 99% of the time irrespective of the music I play, and very rarely middle position. I feel that the neck can give me any sound I like or want, whereas the bridge is like a soprano with a case of cold, bright, high-pitch and honky/nasally.
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It's possible to set guitars up for different styles which isn't unheard of and doesn't by definition make you a snob. :P
Like when I was playing guitar I would do several things to my solid bodies to optimize them for jazz which would make them unable to double as a regular player.
Heavier strings
Lower pots
In addition to neck pickup only
Sometimes 2 neck pickups. Makes it more fun switching around.
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Albert Collins, my fav! How can you pick up a tele and not be inspired by Albert Collins! That's all bridge pup! Originally Posted by jazzloverfat
Only neck pup tele is like that guy at a party who's always too serious, don't laugh at jokes, not fun to be around.
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Sorry, no. Albert Collins used both pick ups. That’s widely documented. Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
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