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I have two archtops with bridge pickups. On my Epi ES175 the switch has been in the neck position so long the bridge position no longer works. I've thought, in passing, of changing or fixing the switch, but it isn't worth the effort to me. I don't need a bridge pickup, and wouldn't have one if I had a choice. But the 175 and my Benedetto Bambino came with one, so I live with it, but I don't use it. I've played around with the bridge pickup on my tele, but I don't really like it. I detest the quack when both pickups are selected, simply detest it, and I refuse to use them. Like Danny, I sometimes use the bridge pickup as a mute. I keep the volume and tone at zero, and I can just flip the selector switch and get immediate total silence, sometimes useful.
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01-22-2018 10:38 PM
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Pretty much agree. With the exception of Gretsch, but them are not really fully hollow anyway.
Originally Posted by guido5
I stopped using archtop for anything but old school jazz low volume gigs, so it's just one sound guitar for me.
For the rest I use my tele, and in this case I positively use bridge pickup a lot, and would never ever thought of one without it. Like, tele without the bridge pickup is a sad sight IMO.
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I have a neglected project that will convert my chambered Tele to a single PU guitar. Maybe this thread will get me back to this project. Originally Posted by lammie200
This makes me feel better about building a Tele partscaster with only a "normal" pick up.
It's all I really wanted anyway. 
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My thoughts exactly! Originally Posted by lammie200
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Seldom, but if the room acoustics are so dire then a mix of the two pickups can make the best of a bad job.
But I don't really like using both because you can't easily adjust just the volume with a quick turn of a single knob. You have to adjust both volumes, or else the pickup mix changes, affecting the overall tone too much. (Although I realise that even a single volume knob affects tone as well)
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Depends on the guitar, and purpose. For the jazz practice I do at home, most often, neck p/u only. The exception is my 50s Silvertone 1427. The P13 pickups in this one are dark at lower volumes, so I most often use the middle position for jazz stuff. (That guitar changes personality with as volume goes up ... for blues and roots, neck p/u only can get wild and quite rude at higher volumes.)
MD
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Get some proper audio taper pots, wire them the way Benedetto does, and the tone does not change as the volume is rolled off. The tone can be linear taper, but the volume definitely needs to be audio taper. Both my Bambino and Bambino Deluxe go from 10 down to 1 with the tone the same. There are a number of ways to wire guitar pots, and Benedetto has the right way. There are threads somewhere with the Benedetto schematic, but I'm too lazy to search right now. I haven't finished my first cup of coffee yet.
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As the repertoire I play is pretty eclectic, having a two-pickup guitar is really a must.
Then, if I have put out a figure, I'd go with about 40% of the time; I use it to comp behind the lead singer or instrument and to support voices in general, for arpeggio-work and in several songs for leading melodies in octaves, a la Wes.
Does this help?Last edited by LtKojak; 01-23-2018 at 07:40 PM.
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On a related note to the OP, when you use 2 pickups, a good way to get set up is to dial in your amp with the pickup you use the most (usually the neck pickup) and then use knobs on guitar (and adjust height of bridge pickup as needed) to dial in the bridge pickup. In my experience, it is easier to get a good bridge pickup sound under this method. If you do the opposite and dial the amp to the bridge pickup, it can be much harder to get a good neck pickup sound.
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That's why I am going to rewire my Jazzmaster to have a master volume. Originally Posted by bleakanddivine
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Never
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I have two, no three, full hollow archtops. On two of them I have no choice, only a neck pickup. The third is acoustic, so no pickup. My X-170 has a small center block, so it's not really a full archtop, but also not the same as those that have a solid center block. I use only the neck P/U.
Brad
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I've often wondered why the standard isn't a three pot system. Originally Posted by lammie200
1. Master volume
2. Blend pot
3. Master tone
I guess separate tone knobs would be a step up from this too. But seriously, blend pots work great one a dual pickup bass, why not guitar?
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i hate blend pots. I'd prefer master vol, master tone. I set the blend with the pickup height and then adjust the tone control. I do this whether I'm playing rock or fusion or straight ahead jazz
Originally Posted by OzMando
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hear, hear. When I play, it's usually an eclectic repertoire of jazz, funk, fusion, even some rock oriented stuff. I can't imagine being limited to a single neck pickup. Additionally, for me, the neck-pickup-only guitars feed back too easily.
Originally Posted by LtKojak
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Generally on two pickup guitars I mostly prefer to have both pickups on and then mix my sound with the respective volume controls (I'll never understand why some companies only supply a master volume and rob the player of a myriad of tonal shades...).
Also - since there is a bit of phase cancellation involved the overall sound is a bit more transparent to my ears.
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Dang..... Scotty Moore got it wrong, he should have ripped out the bridge pickup
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Never. I won't even consider owning a two pickup archtop if it has a solid carved top. The thought of a bridge pu and two more pots that I will never use hanging on the top bothers me.
Also, when the music requires the tone of some bridge pu then I feel I am holding the wrong guitar for it and reach for my 335.
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