One pickup or two?

[radacsi]

I'm a blues player who's starting to have an interest in jazz guitar and I've noticed that some guitarists prefer to play a hollow body guitar with only one pickup. What are some of the pros and cons of a single pup versus two?

[mr. beaumont]

Jazz guitar players gravitate towards neck pickups...fatter sound, darker, etc.

Some have no need for a bridge pickup really, so why over complicate things.

There's also the concept on archtops, that a second pickup dampens the top more...which is desirable for some, actually...others might prefer more acoustic tone from their guitar, so they want one pickup...or no routed pickups and a floating pickup...

[docbop]

On hollow body guitars with everything screwed to the body lots of things can develop rattles. So another reason for one pickup less potential noise maker. I rarely use the bridge pickup they are usually too bright.

Also every time you cut into the top of the guitar you are reducing the acoustic properties of the top of the guitar. So one PUP more acoustic-ness of the guitar.

[Guido_59]

I play a blues like you and here I rarely use bridge pick up
For jazz I owned an Ibanez AF151 that has only neck, because for jazz bridge pick up is too bright as other just say

[Herbie]

Only one pickup in a guitar is a message for listeners: this player knows what to do, she/he does not need anything but one pickup and his limitless musical imagination and ideas for taking You to the musical adventure of this evening.

It has message for the player her/himself too: with one pu You have to be more honest and more brave beacause You don't have anything else for Your solos. You can't fool listeners with messing with different pickup combinations. You have to make them 'wow' only with Your skills.

Of course there is also a scientifical point of view:

[oldane]

Of course there is also a scientifical point of view:

I'll be darned! Phil X use to be a pet hate object of mine, but in this clip he actually has a point here and there.

[Longways to Go]

I used to be all about the neck pickup, but I've modified my view.

A couple of points in favor of 2 pickups:

Sometimes there are good sounds to be found using neck + bridge.

Rockers like the variety, so the resale market it bigger for 2 pickup guitars.

[lawson-stone]

It can actually be fun to work with both pickups. Together, balanced right, they can create a kind of reedy sound with a sharp attack. In the right hands, that sound can be really interesting.

[lawson-stone]

Only one pickup in a guitar is a message for listeners: this player knows what to do, she/he does not need anything but one pickup and his limitless musical imagination and ideas for taking You to the musical adventure of this evening.

It has message for the player her/himself too: with one pu You have to be more honest and more brave beacause You don't have anything else for Your solos. You can't fool listeners with messing with different pickup combinations. You have to make them 'wow' only with Your skills.

Of course there is also a scientifical point of view:

(video deleted)

I disagree. I don't like terms like "honest" and "brave" when it comes to tone. Tone, timbre, is as much a part of honest creative music as note choice or anything else. I have never heard anyone say "Dude, he's just got one pickup; he must be a really honest, brave musician!" Pat Metheny doesn't seem to be regarded as un-brave or dis-honest, for example, nor does John Scofield.

It isn't "fooling" listeners to change a pickup setting, any more than it's "fooling" listeners to pick up a different guitar. Maybe the listeners like to see a musician who wants to use a richer palette of tones and timbres.

Ideology is not music, and calling the one-pickup situation a message about honesty or bravery seems to me to be ideology not music. Just my opinion, of course, and worth what you have had to pay for it!

[Marty Grass]

The video is interesting and fun.

Considering the amplified signal is the culmination of a lot of processing, it seems a bit silly to focus on the effect of a weak magnetic field on the native string frequencies. I could have just as easily claimed that all tone controls, amp and guitar, are dishonest and cowardly.

Some of my guitars have rosewood and ebony saddles. Wood definitely affects the frequency spectrum and vibration duration, more than a second pickup I'm sure.

These same discussions occurred since the 1950s and will never come to an agreed conclusion. But there are some points we can agree on.

1. The more wiring in the body, the more chance for buzzing. That can be addressed. In fact I was doing that early this morning and was cursing the wire harness.

2. Two pickups cost more than one.

3. Two pickups alter the soundboard responses.

4. The second pickup increases tonal options quite a bit.

Phil-X may have a real point for his genre of music. He doesn't use the neck pickup anyway. The weak magnetic pull likely enhances amplitude decay and trims off some of his pinch harmonic highs.

[Herbie]

I disagree. I don't like terms like "honest" and "brave" when it comes to tone. Tone, timbre, is as much a part of honest creative music as note choice or anything else. I have never heard anyone say "Dude, he's just got one pickup; he must be a really honest, brave musician!" Pat Metheny doesn't seem to be regarded as un-brave or dis-honest, for example, nor does John Scofield.

It isn't "fooling" listeners to change a pickup setting, any more than it's "fooling" listeners to pick up a different guitar. Maybe the listeners like to see a musician who wants to use a richer palette of tones and timbres.

Ideology is not music, and calling the one-pickup situation a message about honesty or bravery seems to me to be ideology not music. Just my opinion, of course, and worth what you have had to pay for it!

This is just right for me for trying to exaggerate the theoretical aspects of the subject so much that it would sound a bit humorous AND give another perspectives same time – on a foreign language!

I love two pickups but I love one pickup too. Did not want to bash anyone, just tried to find new spiritual dimensions in a sound and gizmo oriented discussion. And encourage players to approve different kind of restrictions that makes Your creativity to bloom.

I agree all the Marty's four points too.

[Jabberwocky]

Make sure that it is a single pickup on a hollowbody in the right location though. NOT like this one:



There is also the thought that the bridge pickup damps the soundboard to give a characteristic electrified archtop sound that is different enough qualitatively from a single neck pickup archtop to stand on its own merits; such as that between a Gibson L-5CES Wes Montogomery and an L-5CES. Some prefer the tone of a twin-humbucker archtop that comes from a damped soundboard even though the bridge pickup is never used.

I learnt a trick from Danny W. who uses his bridge humbucker as essentially a Mute by rolling off its volume to zero, without touching the volume of the neck pickup.

[lawson-stone]

This is just right for me for trying to exaggerate the theoretical aspects of the subject so much that it would sound a bit humorous AND give another perspectives same time – on a foreign language!

I love two pickups but I love one pickup too. Did not want to bash anyone, just tried to find new spiritual dimensions in a sound and gizmo oriented discussion. And encourage players to approve different kind of restrictions that makes Your creativity to bloom.

I agree all the Marty's four points too.

I've been there and done that too. Wrote what I thought was a nice commentary with a little edge of satire, and somebody whose Acme® Irony Detector didn't have fresh batteries in it completely misunderstood… I have changed the batteries in mine, and I'm sorry for missing the note of good-fun in your post. I was entirely too serious in my reply. I have heard people say that stuff in all seriousness, and I was hasty in thinking that was your purpose.

All's well that ends well. Thanks for the reply!

[RyanM]

I like two, because the middle position is a great rhythm guitar sound for r&b/funk/soul.

[palindrome]

As an aside, the guy in the video seems to be saying that he removes neck pickups because they are "in the way" of strings extending from the nut to the bridge pickup.

Going by this logic, neck pickups without bridge ones wouldn't have quite the same effect as bridge pickups without neck ones.

(Sorry if someone mentioned this before...)

[Guido_59]

If it's only a taste problem why most of all Jazz guitar player that I have heard live have only neck PU o rin case of two the switch always in high position that select neck pu and always plays with this ?

However two pickups give some more tonal options can be used in jazz for particular effects.

I don't need bridge pu infact also in my Tele '52 reissue playing blues i rarely use bridge pu and only for high distorted sound or somtimes with slide

[pingu]

It can actually be fun to work with both pickups. Together, balanced right, they can create a kind of reedy sound with a sharp attack. In the right hands, that sound can be really interesting.

It would be interesting to play around
with a three pickup archtop , switchmaster
or similar

I fancy trying neck pu with a bit of middle pu
added in , funky like a strat maybe ?
maybe not ....

anyone here got a switchmaster ?

[pingu]

I learnt a trick from Danny W. who uses his bridge humbucker as essentially a Mute by rolling off its volume to zero, without touching the volume of the neck pickup.

yeah i do dat too