Bridge pickup or no bridge pickup?

[eh6794-2.0]

So, in February or March, I will be able to finalize my specs with Victor Baker and his Model 15 with KAs

Originally I had no need for a bridge pickup, but recently, I thought there may be times when I play at the local church. I wonder if there may be a need for a bridge pickup. I've had strats, teles and Les Pauls, but I have never had an archtop with a bridge pickup. On all of my guitars, I never liked the bridge pickup sound unless I played with distortion, which I never see myself doing today. Although, the bridge and middle pickup combo sound amazing on a strat.

I understand it comes down to what I like, but what are your opinions.

[John A.]

I prefer having just a neck pickup on an archtop. I like the little bit of extra acoustic tone it provides (I play unplugged a lot at home). I have a semi-hollow for situations where I might need a bridge pickup.

[Shay]

I have a VB model 14 with a bridge pickup. And honestly, there are times I'm glad its there.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[kris]

I think that this additional pickup may be useful to you. You will have more sonic possibilities.
Model 15 is not so fat.

[wintermoon]

I only used the neck pickup for yrs, but the last 15 or so I found that blending it w/ the back pickup makes a nice less boomy sound, especially for comping on funk tunes etc...

[dogletnoir]

i'm pretty much 'all neck pickup all the time' for my own stuff, but here's my take on it:
If i don't have a bridge pickup, i don't miss it... but if i do have one, i will find a use for it occasionally.
And if i'm playing a guitar that only has a bridge pickup, i'll find a way to get the sound i want and need out of it, between the guitar's settings and those on the amp (or amp/cab sim nowadays). Then again, i play mostly solidbody electric guitars.

In the case of primarily acoustic archtops, i guess the question would be whether or not the pickups are floating (which would allow for more resonance/vibration of the top), and if not, i could see why you might want only one embedded in the top.

[guavajelly]

I just sold my eastman AR 905 CE – never missed a bridge pickup. Now I have a GB10 and I don't think I ever used the bridge or middle position. But theses are guitars with floating mini humbuckers which are a little brighter and focused anyway.

If you just think you need a little brighter tone sometimes – how about having a split or parallel option for the neck pickup?

[Klatu]

My take is that more options are better than fewer. The only guitars that I would prefer only neck pickups are acoustic archtops with floating pickups.

[eh6794-2.0]

Everybody seems to confirm my current feelings. It looks like VB doesn't charge much extra for a second pickup, so I am probably going to add it.

Thanks you all.

[jim777]

I often find myself setting the bridge pickup volume to 0 and using the three way switch as an 'on/off' switch on my 2 pickup non-solidbody guitars. On a solidbody I use the bridge pickup a lot, but on a hollow body almost never.

I know that doesn't help (sorry!) but it can still be useful in an on/off type way.

[Stringswinger]

Everybody seems to confirm my current feelings. It looks like VB doesn't charge much extra for a second pickup, so I am probably going to add it.

Thanks you all.

Good move. More options is generally the best option. I sometimes blend two pickups for the right tone in certain rooms on a gig.

[GNAPPI]

If you want any of the typical jazz gits like an ES-175. L5 CES, L4, or a host of others I'd say it may not be about the visual like /dislike of the bridge pup, it's about whether a large number of seriously great players have already voted and ignored the bridge pickup on dozens and dozens of models with them.

[GNAPPI]

I don't like the bridge pickup. It gets in the way of my picking hand and I then have actually less tonal choices than with a neck pickup only. With a neck pickup only I can change tone "on the fly" simply by moving my hand either further or closer to the bridge. Even within a phrase. Try doing that with a two-pickup where you have that pesky switch to deal with. Another bad thing about a two-pickup guitar is that the second pickup is almost always much quieter than the neck - so you don't have balance. In short it simply doesn't work.

Yours is the first well thought out and sensible critique of the bridge pup and switch I've read.

[D.G.]

I don't find that a bridge pickup gets in the way if I want to pick closer to the bridge. Also, if your bridge pickup is too quiet, you can either lower the neck pup OR put a hotter bridge pickup in. Or, perhaps the blend of the 2 pickups works best with a quieter bridge. It's all down to user preference.

One thing a bridge pickup can do in an archtop is help control acoustic feedback a bit. This will of course affect the acoustic voice of the instrument, which can again be either a good or bad thing. A bridge pickup by itself can be a lovely voice, especially with a bit of tone rolled off.

[Jimmy blue note]

I too use the tonal possibilities of playing in different positions on the strings but I'm always on some blend of two pickups. I never play the bridge by itself. The use of it is never ever more than a 50% blend but it's always there. I play fingerstyle so maybe that's why it never gets in my way but there are times, like playing some harmonics, when I wouldn't be getting half the colours I do were I on a neck pickup alone.
But it's evolved over time. It's a way to get a certain sound. I have an acoustic guitar with only a floating neck pickup. I respect the sound and transients of the top when I'm playing that one. It's almost like a different instrument. I play it differently.

[GuyBoden]

To my ears, the bridge and neck pickup mix can add a bit more clarity to notes.

[sgosnell]

I have no need for, and don't want, a bridge pickup. But it's perhaps possible that I'm not the only guitar player in the world.

[Spook410]

While I never use the bridge pickup, it doesn't seem to impact anything on electrics. The Gibson guitars in question (ES175, L5 CES, and L5 Studio) are designed to be electric archtops and I don't think the sound is perceptively changed by the extra pickup.

On the other hand, I have one guitar with a single built in humbucker in a Benedetto type build (17in Yunzhi, solid woods, light build, nitro finish). It does have a more acoustic sound and I think the additional pickup would diminish that.

More acoustic Yunzhi versus the electric Gibsons is sort of apples/oranges. Both are good at what they do. So maybe it's a question of how the guitar is constructed in the first place and whether you are leaning to electric or acoustic. I do like both but favor acoustic most of the time.

If I were an opinionated kind of player (ahem), I might say that if I were getting a nicer instrument like a custom VB, I would do everything I could to preserved the sound you get from such a finely crafted instrument and go with a single pickup.

[Hep To The Jive]

I'm ok with only neck pickup on archtops. I have one. But when I see a solidbody guitar, specifically tele, with only neck pickup it's just... silly. It's like, I'm such a snob don't even think I play anything else but jazz, it's beneath me! It's time someone should custom order L5 with only bridge pickup, I'd just love it!