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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Surf Musician »

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For those on two pickup axes, do you spend more time on the neck or brisge pickup?

Asking for a friend.

I love both PUs on in parallel, (Jaguar player here). I don't favor one PU or the other. Having both pick ups on gives me the most variety of tones that can be captured simply by adjusting my picking position. Not to mention it's humbucking.

Massive overgeneralization; I've noticed that fast players tend to prefer the more focused and aggressive tone of the bridge PU. While slower, more lyrical passages often benefit from the lushness of using the neck pick up.

In most cases, both pickups. It depends on tne guitar. If I’m playing Sirf on a Gretsch, the bridge pickup, alone, has enough heft to give me the right sound. Likewise if I’m looking for a twangy Country sound. For just about anything else, I usually play on both pickups.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Jaguar - bridge
Jazzmaster - both
Gretsch - bridge

Waikiki Makaki surf-rock band from Ukraine

New Single is out!

https://waikikimakaki.bandcamp.com/album/rhino-blues-full-contact-surf-single

Waikiki Makaki

https://linktr.ee/waikikimakaki

Lost Diver

https://lostdiver.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/vitaly-yakushin

For rhythm I usually use the neck pickup, sometimes the bridge.
For lead I use either both or the bridge.

I have a Jazzmaster. I prefer the sound of both pickups when playing on my own.

When playing with a band I use the bridge pick up as it cuts through the rest of the band more than both pickups.

http://thewaterboarders.bandcamp.com/

da-ron wrote:

I have a Jazzmaster. I prefer the sound of both pickups when playing on my own.

When playing with a band I use the bridge pick up as it cuts through the rest of the band more than both pickups.

That’s a good point; a lot of it has to do with the setting. I played in a quartet, with a rhythm guitarist, and used single-coil guitars and (usually) a treble sound. When the rhythm guitarist moved away, I started playing a Gretsch, with Filtertrons, because it filled-out the sound better in a trio.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

da-ron wrote:

I have a Jazzmaster. I prefer the sound of both pickups when playing on my own.

When playing with a band I use the bridge pick up as it cuts through the rest of the band more than both pickups.

yep, when I record I use Jazzmaster, both, for rhythm and Jaguar, bridge, for lead mostly. It sound a little as two different guitar players)

Waikiki Makaki surf-rock band from Ukraine

New Single is out!

https://waikikimakaki.bandcamp.com/album/rhino-blues-full-contact-surf-single

Waikiki Makaki

https://linktr.ee/waikikimakaki

Lost Diver

https://lostdiver.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/vitaly-yakushin

Mostly on the bridge, no matter the guitar. I've modded my favorite Strats to have two pickups rather than three, and even on those, mostly the bridge Smile

--
Project: MAYHEM by Hypersonic Secret now available!

1 - When I saw the title of this thread, I first thought it was another porn spam post.

2 - Which pickup or combo totally depends on the type of music I'm playing, and I can't say I necessarily play one more than the other. But for some different genres, here's what I often use:

Bridge: Link Wray, 60s garage/pyschedelic, Johnny Cash lead
Bridge + Neck: Surf, Cramps tunes, folk type stuff
Neck: Blues, bluesy noise/punk (e.g., Jon Spencer), old country

edwardsand wrote:

1 - When I saw the title of this thread, I first thought it was another porn spam post.

2 - Which pickup or combo totally depends on the type of music I'm playing, and I can't say I necessarily play one more than the other. But for some different genres, here's what I often use:

Bridge: Link Wray, 60s garage/pyschedelic, Johnny Cash lead
Bridge + Neck: Surf, Cramps tunes, folk type stuff
Neck: Blues, bluesy noise/punk (e.g., Jon Spencer), old country

That was my first reaction, as well. I’m a moderator at the Gretsch-Talk forum, so my eye is always peeled for spam posts. My first reaction to the title of this thread was that this was some weird new porn description. Smile

Interestingly, as I’m getting to know my new Squier Jaguar, I am finding that the pickup use varies greatly, depending upon the amp. I have a Winfield Typhoon, which is basically a Vox AC 15 preamp going into a 5 watt, single ended EL 84 power amp. On that amp, both pickups together sounds drippy, Surfy, and is just about perfect. On the bridge alone, the sound is very bright, almost into icepick territory, but it’s usable for a handful of things.

If I plug the same guitar into my Winfield Tremor, which is basically a 6G2 Princeton circuit, both pickups together are too warm for Surf, and I have to use the bridge pickup alone. It’s a great sound, but it definitely shifts the guitar into warmer territory, even though the tone control was set fairly high.

Both amps provided a useful sound, but the guitar had to be configured differently in order to obtain it.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

I know there are guitar players who only use one pickup, regardless of the guitar, amp, and playing situation. I am not one of them. I use whatever pickup and/or pickup combination that sounds best, to me, for the playing situation at hand. I listen, and then decide.

And sure - it depends on a lot of factors. The music, the guitar, the amp, the effects, what other people are playing, and probably other things as well. If there's another guitar player, it is often useful to use a different part of the sonic landscape to create some distinction. I fairly often change pickup(s) in the middle of a song.

I believe I am devoid of one-pickup electric guitars at this point. I traded away my last one last weekend. I love Les Paul Juniors, Fender Esquires, and so on. They can be great, but there is always a point in any gig where I want a different pickup. I have two guitars that started life as an Esquire, but they are now Telecasters. One came to me that way, the other I changed myself. The latter was routed that way, it was a simple matter to add the neck pickup.

The notable exception for me is pedal steel. Good luck finding a pedal steel with more than one pickup. I may well rout out a piece of the neck on one to give me a second pickup. I think one of the things that has furiously typecast pedal steel is that they, mostly, sound the same. There are some exceptions, mostly on older pedal steels. But most modern pedal steels have a strikingly similar sound, played by the same person through the same equipment.

The Delverados - surf, punk, trash, twang - Facebook
Chicken Tractor Deluxe - hardcore Americana - Facebook and Website
The Telegrassers - semi-electric bluegrass/Americana - Facebook

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