Neck Pickups, What's The Deal ?

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Ben Waylin

Ben Waylin

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I never use 'em. Never have.

Now I want to for certain things I'm playing, but whenever I switch to the neck (or both) it just sounds weak and muddy.

How do you get the neck pickup to not sound like ass ?
 
depends on the sound you're after or like

maybe not the sound you're after or like?

I thought that's why there are guitars with only the bridge pickup?

some jazz boxes only have neck pickups, like my D'Angelico EXL-1:

EXL-1-2.jpg
 
Cleans and slow leads for me. I play neither almost at all, so I'm right there with you.

Personally, what I hate the most in many dual humbucker sets is they use a super hot overwound fat bridge pickup with a puny little PAF-type that rarely ever matches. I fucking hate that. A neck pickup doesn't have to be puny to sound clear.
 
Switch to a good pickup. I have always hated neck pickups like the jazz. Feels strange under the fingers and sounds not so good to me. The Duncan jazz is probably my least favorite pickup of all times actually, I mean, I can’t believe how big of a piece of utter garbage that pickup is; but a lot of people really like it, so I am the odd man out.

I have found that pickups like the black belts have a good neck pickup that’s has more clarity and feels better under the fingertips. Also the steckel set Duncan makes now, a replica of a set of 1960 PAFs out of a 60 burst.

Neck pickups have always been a huge hit or miss for me. The bare knuckle set in my stevens, the models like PAFs, not the rebel yells, also have a great sounding and feeling neck pickup.

Even the dimarzio air Norton is pretty decent.
 
when using my neck pick up in any guitar .... it's set to " woman tone " probably 90% of the time ..... depends which pick up .

I love the Duncan Pearly Gates neck pick up ...... and I really like the DiMarzio Steve Morse Sig Neck pick up .
 
PLX said:
I never use 'em. Never have.

Now I want to for certain things I'm playing, but whenever I switch to the neck (or both) it just sounds weak and muddy.

How do you get the neck pickup to not sound like ass ?
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This is the reason I don’t advertise calibrated sets. Neck pickups are highly sensitive to the guitar type. The neck pickup should match the guitar, not just lazily advertised as a match to a bridge. If I were to match a pickup to a specific bridge model, I would wind differently for a Les Paul than I would a Charvel
 
scottosan said:
This is the reason I don’t advertise calibrated sets. Neck pickups are highly sensitive to the guitar type. The neck pickup should match the guitar, not just lazily advertised as a match to a bridge. If I were to match a pickup to a specific bridge model, I would wind differently for a Les Paul than I would a Charvel
Click to expand...
So, what about a Dean ML, mahogany body w/ maple top, set mahogany neck, Floyd.

Going for Aerosmith, Zeppelin genre of rock
 
PLX said:
So, what about a Dean ML, mahogany body w/ maple top, set mahogany neck, Floyd.

Going for Aerosmith, Zeppelin genre of rock
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I usually ask what’s in it now to get a reference point
 
scottosan said:
I usually ask what’s in it now to get a reference point
Click to expand...
I had a custom wound humbucker put in there long ago.

I can't remember what it is. I'd have put a meter on it and see.

I wonder if it's about being a higher output or a lower output pickup to get rid of that honky, muddy tone ?
 
I’ve got a Seymour Duncan Cool Rails and Jazz in the neck positions of two of my super Strats. I’m in the bridge position 99.9% of the time but it’s a pretty cool tone whenever I switch over to them
 
What? You ain’t got no Strat?

But seriously, I pretty much dislike almost every neck pickup. Strats and Teles have more useful neck pickups but I still prefer the bridge pickups.
 
I play neck pickups more than bridge pickups, but I mainly play strats and teles, and I don't play very heavy stuff anymore. If I do play anything heavy or metal, it's 100% bridge.
 
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PLX said:
I never use 'em. Never have.

Now I want to for certain things I'm playing, but whenever I switch to the neck (or both) it just sounds weak and muddy.

How do you get the neck pickup to not sound like ass ?
Click to expand...
Neck pickup .....you serious bruh ? You need to get some rest and hopefully it will snap you out of these delusions . Neck pickups always sound like ass compared to bridge pickups , that truly unbearable smooth and bassy sound is almost as horrific as a pure clean sound. Stay away
 
PLX said:
I had a custom wound humbucker put in there long ago.

I can't remember what it is. I'd have put a meter on it and see.

I wonder if it's about being a higher output or a lower output pickup to get rid of that honky, muddy tone ?
Click to expand...
I think the mudiness comes from being too strong, but if you’re saying it muddy and weak, that sounds off to me. I’ve dounf
That about 7.6k-7.8k A2, 4 or 5 all play well in that position. I prefer Lowe strength magnet because you can get closer to the strings without detrimental effects. I even like A3, but your indicating it already to weak
 
scottosan said:
I think the mudiness comes from being too strong, but if you’re saying it muddy and weak, that sounds off to me. I’ve dounf
That about 7.6k-7.8k A2, 4 or 5 all play well in that position. I prefer Lowe strength magnet because you can get closer to the strings without detrimental effects. I even like A3, but your indicating it already to weak
Click to expand...
I'll find the specs on it.

I ordered it custom wound, long ago.
 
Try a PRS Dragon II Bass and get a split switch wired up. A4 rocks for neck mud avoidants, and the D2B’s split punches better than most strat necks.
 
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