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Two pickups cost more and deaden the top some. But they do open a broader palate of tones.
Some of us need to stray into some blues territory at times.
I initially thought the three pups on my thinline Super 400 were just plain overkill and gaudy. Once I succumbed to buying it, I found that I do use all of the pickups.
There is no real conclusion to end this topic.
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02-18-2017 11:03 AM
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It's amazing what is possible when we use a little imagination.
Originally Posted by R Neil
Here is Ted N. talking about and demonstrating the Byrdland:
George Thorogood with an ES-125:
And GregsGuitars playing the blues with an L5:
The more I see videos like these the more I believe that it's the player that makes a guitar sound good, not the other way around. That isn't diminishing the quality of a good archtop, but give any guitar to a great guitarist of any genre and they can probably make it work well.
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I use the bridge pickup part of the time on my only 2 pickup ax, which is a semihollow. Not sure of the percentage. But, I only use it when I have flicked the selector switch by accident. If it was easy to do, I'd jumper it so that I got the neck pickup in all positions of the switch.
In fact, on the guitar I usually play, I removed the bridge pickup entirely and left a hole which I covered with black electrical tape. That was a temporary solution (I think it was humming while disconnected and I couldn't figure out why -- sounds like a hallucination as I write this, but something was going on). Anyway, it has been months and the tape is still there. I still flick the switch by accident occasionally, but now, instead of getting bad tone and being confused by it, I get dead silence and I know to flick the switch back. Next time I open the thing, I'll jumper it so that I also get the neck pu in that switch position.
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the original rockin archtop! Originally Posted by Hammertone
i know i've seen old gibsons and epiphones with bridge and bridge only pickups before, but i'm pretty sure most of those were aftermarket hack jobs.
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It all started with the bridge pickup.
This next one is not an archtop, but it's a couple years older than those ones above:
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I tried two Eastman's - AR503's and chose the two p/up version for the tone over the other one, a single p/up version (which was a lot prettier) - as yet I have never used the bridge pickup on it, ever. The one pickup version had a bit of a brittle edge to me. These are solid tops and laminate bodies so I imagine the extra pickup tames the top a bit , but its a silkier richer sound overall IMO too.
Last edited by gator811; 08-03-2017 at 07:11 PM.
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Hmmm... that's an interesting point I hadn't considered in the one/two pup issue. Originally Posted by gator811
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If you set the neck pup volume high and the bridge pup volume low, you can solo using the neck pup, then for comping just switch to middle position and you get an instant drop in volume without having to fiddle with the controls.
Having the bridge pup low doesn't affect the blended tone that much but it reduces the overall volume quite significantly.
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for the longest time I only used the neck pickup but maybe 15 yrs ago I changed.
playing rhythm on some tunes just using the neck pickup can sound boomy or bass heavy so I'll frequently use both, especially on R&B tunes.
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Also, more metal and plastic plugging up the top makes the guitar more feedback resistant. Originally Posted by Bluedawg
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Some time ago, I removed the bridge pickup from my main guitar and covered the opening with black tape.
For some reason, I was getting noise from the pickup, even after I disconnected it. That makes no sense, but that's the way I remember it.
An advantage is that the pickup selector is now an on-off switch for the guitar.
Another advantage is that I can't move the selector by mistake and then not realize why I hate my tone -- and keep adjusting other elements of the signal chain.
Eventually, I'll put it back in and leave it disconnected so the guitar doesn't look as stupid.
This is a Strat type with a humbucker in the neck position. I left in the middle pickup, a single coil, thinking that I'd occasionally use it for music calling for a thinner sound. I keep trying it, but it rarely sounds good.
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You may never use 'em, but c'mon...you gotta admit the ES-5 Switchmaster is a badass looking beastie....
This '57 has triple PAF goodness...
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Why do you have any pickup on an archtop? Surely taking your query to the ultimate you should simply play it acoustically or bung a mike in front of it. I puzzle over all the fuss of hand carved tops and tone woods then a pickup is fitted often with a tone control. Why? The pickup becomes the sound generator ,or two or three so the wood and build quality by a luthier or monks who dedicate their lives to tapping and shaving are somewhat pointless. Glued laminate would do fine.Possibly doesn't even need to be wood so long as the pickups generate the pukka jazz sound.????
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I've always felt for a warm and a fuller tone, the neck pickup is the way to go.
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Yes. It's the same as you only need the bridge pickup on a Rock guitar. The only time you need 2 pickups is on a Jazz-Rock guitar, so you can play in the middle position.
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Three pickups is three times better than one pickup.
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Leo Fender called the bridge, middle, and neck pickups "Lead", "Normal", and "Rhythm". However, in actual use, the "Lead" bridge pickup has been mostly used for rhythm, the "Rhythm" neck pickup mostly for lead, and the "Normal" middle pickup has been mostly considered to not sound very good and so pretty much has been unused.
Gibson labels the Les Paul's toggle position for the neck pickup "Rhythm" and the bridge pickup "Treble"; but here also, popular use is to play leads through the "rhythm" labeled neck pickup and rhythm through the "Treble" labeled bridge pickup.
It is not only the jazz guitarists who have gone against the manufacturers' intended suggestions in the pursuit of sounding "horn-like".
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What is it with the guitar world? We also go up the neck when moving our hands further away from head, play the highest pitches on a string situated below all the others, access vibrato via a guitar's tremolo arm and add tremolo via the vibrato knob on our amps... Originally Posted by pauln
Leo Fender called the bridge, middle, and neck pickups "Lead", "Normal", and "Rhythm". However, in actual use, the "Lead" bridge pickup has been mostly used for rhythm, the "Rhythm" neck pickup mostly for lead, and the "Normal" middle pickup has been mostly considered to not sound very good and so pretty much has been unused.
Gibson labels the Les Paul's toggle position for the neck pickup "Rhythm" and the bridge pickup "Treble"; but here also, popular use is to play leads through the "rhythm" labeled neck pickup and rhythm through the "Treble" labeled bridge pickup.
It is not only the jazz guitarists who have gone against the manufacturers' intended suggestions in the pursuit of sounding "horn-like".
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This question is important (and would get even more attention if it was posted in the Gear-section).
A common misconception is that the neck-pickup is always "warmer" than the mid-position. Intuition tells us that by blending in the brighter bridge PU the resulting tone must be brighter than the single neck PU. However that's not necessarily the case.
What happens in mid position depends on the wiring, settings of volume and tone knobs and PU-adjustment. This is not as obvious and straightforward as it may seem. For example; 50's wiring responds differently than modern wiring, 500k volume pots respond differently than 300k pots. The specs of the PU's (magnets and coils etc) are obviously also part of the equation (i.e the neck PU could have a different spec than the bridge PU).
A pair of humbuckers in mid position have a strong hum-cancelling effect. (The very feature, that once upon a time was considered a major advantage). Therefore a single PU is always more edgy, textured and not as smooth.
"Warm" is maybe not so much a matter of bass and treble, but more about mids; the balance of lower mids vs higher mids. For example; when you add bass, then by natural law mids are reduced. Instead of warm, you may get muddy.
When I play Jazz on a dual humbucker guitar, I spend most time in the mid-position where I get the smoothest tones with the warmest mids. I use all four controls to dial in the mix.
But I also like the sound of a single neck P90. It sounds "organic" and constitutes a pinnacle of vintage vibe. Very strong mids with a lot of texture (much more than the average neck humbucker).
I love archtops with a single neck PU. You don't need a bridge PU and I see several advantages by minimizing routing, drilling, cables, components and weight.
In conclusion; for Jazz, I prefer a pair of full size humbuckers, or a single neck P90 or similar. My ultimate archtop has a single neck PU (a P90, a mini-hum or similar).
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I virtually never use the bridge pickup on a two HB guitar.
Well, not never. Occasionally, I flip the switch by accident. To avoid getting confused I leave the volume down on the bridge pickup.
That way, if I accidentally flip the switch without realizing it, I don't end up adjusting every knob I own before I realize that I'm on the wrong pickup.
On my Strat copy, the bridge pickup died and I left it that way. I have a Lil 59 in the neck position which is what I usually use. I have a single coil in the middle position which I use for single coil sounds, usually funk rhythm.
Maybe another way of answering it is this. Wes had arguably the best tone ever, and he didn't need a second pickup to get it.
That said, most of the jazz gigs I play occasionally call for a sound that Wes didn't make. A rock influenced tune. A funk tune. A blues tune. Something where a different sound is appropriate and a bridge pickup may be helpful. But, I never use the bridge pu for that.Last edited by rpjazzguitar; 03-31-2019 at 10:46 PM.
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I like the middle position on a two pickup guitar. There is a bit of frequency cancellation (pickups wired in parallel) that can make the sound more "acoustic" sounding and there's a lot of tonal shades in there by mixing the volumes.
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I have a ES175D...............but
I prefer this.
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Technically you need Bridge pickup on a Jazz guitar. Many Jazz songs have a bridge section, that's when you supposed to switch to Bridge position. Many people forget that's why the Bridge pickup was added by manufacturers in the first place, but it never caught up with Jazz guitarists. The popularity of jazz was declining since then. A coincidence? Originally Posted by mississippi
Also having a cutaway on your Jazz guitar is important if you want to sound more horn-like. Guitars with two cutaways are the most horn-like . Two cutaways and a Bridge pickup will set you up for the best Jazz sound.
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You do need a bridge pickup occasionally. But personally I think I've spent 95% of my guitar playing time on neck pickups, no matter the instrument..
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Amongst my fellow guitar players I was Always ashamed to admit it..... fearing their judment and dissaproval. But the signs have always been there... even on my Strat and Telecasters I always prefered the neck pickup and played that mostly. Oh yes, I experimented with middle pickups and even bridge pickups, but it never felt quite right for some reason. And some years ago I could no longer hide my true nature... I fell in love with this ES-125 and finally came out of the closet: I LOVE SINGLE PICKUP GUITARS!
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