Count me as one of the nobodys. I use only the neck pickup for a few songs, in a few different bands.

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Throw that piece of firewood where it belongs and get yourself a Rickenbacker!

I always accept that I can be wrong and probably should have said..."not many" instead of "nobody"....I just know that a lot of Gibson and Fender players rely on the bridge pick up a lot more....Certainly I use the middle position and the bass pick up fills in the sound but I wanted just a dirty rock n roll bassy sound I would use an SG.

That's an interesting theory, but... Plenty of Strat players use all three pickups interchangeably; most Tele players aren't afraid to have both pickups on. Gibson players love the tone of the sweet neck pickup in an LP or SG. The same applies to Rics, and probably any other brand. I realize that there are players who always play the treble pickup, but I'd like to have more faith in guitar players as open-minded people; no offense to anyone who doesn't use the neck pickup.

It's pretty much universal among electric guitars, due to the physical nature of string vibration between the nut and bridge, that the electromagnetic pickup closest to the neck is going to have a warmer and perhaps "woodier" sound than the pickup closest to the bridge which will have a more punchy or aggressive character instead. I have never found an instrument that bucks this trend with same/similar electromagnetic pickups.

So just about every time I go into the studio, the guitarist not only goes through two or three guitars to get the right sound, but also variations of pickups. And for a lot of the warmer/cleaner parts, the neck pickup is favored. For leads and effects the bridge pickup often takes over. And so forth.

I usually keep PM's private, but I think I got under Ain'tGotNoPokemon's skin. Here's the text of the PM he sent me:


As far as being rude, old, snobby, and uncouth, well, I did become eligible for AARP membership this year, so I probably resemble that remark. I better finish this post before I laugh so hard that I can't type....

It's always best to keep PM's private, as not to make hard feelings and trouble in threads, unless you know it's something that would not be a problem if shared and/or and that person just wanted you to be first to know about whatever they sent you.

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Throw that piece of firewood where it belongs and get yourself a Rickenbacker!

Rickenbrother, thanks. A word to the wise is sufficient.

When I was first starting out, I thought the only good sound out of my strat-o-copy was the bridge-only. The older I got, the more I began to appreciate neck pickups, and the more I began to notice tons of folks using the neck pickups. Now, when I see a strat or Gibby player who has a tone I love, I check out the switch, and it's almost always on the neck setting. Check out the Allman Bros.'s many guitarists over the years - they have all used the "rhythm," i.e., neck setting to get some amazing lead tones. Similar tones can be found using neck-only strat settings. When I got my first Tele, I thought I'd never use the neck .... until I heard it, and then it became one of my favorite settings. I had the same experience on my 360. In fact, I think on semi-hollows, the neck p'up is even better than on solid bodies. With Ricks, it's even better, because you have more tweakability with it if you use the fifth knob (if you have one). Gigged this past Sat. night and used my 360's neck pickup quite a bit for some really meaty-sounding leads - my favorite moment at a gig is when I have someone come up to me surprised to hear a Rick can do so much.

If the neck pickup isn't being used on a Rick, then it's a well-kept secret right under the player's nose. The rest of us can be glad we were let in on the secret. Makes the guitar so much more versatile than simply being the one-dimensional jangle machine many think is the only identity a Rick can achieve.

And I also meant to add that I believe the HB1 is the same p'up used on both basses and guitars. I know this is true of toasters.