Poll: What's your favorite Neck pickup type? (hum, split hum, single coil, etc)

[TheGreatGreen]

Simple question, really. What's your preference?

Most of us here (including me) are high gain guys who probably spend the majority of the time on the bridge pickup. But every now and then, we'll swap over to the other end of the guitar and get down that way. Based on the kinds of guitars most often being made for high gain, it might be assumed that most of us generally go for humbucker tones when we switch away from the bridge, but I'm not so sure.

Personally I've never really gotten along with neck humbuckers. They've always seemed too dark and low-end heavy to really get articulate with the kinds of sounds I think of when I think "neck tones." My #1 guitar has a neck humbucker, but most of the time I just leave the neck split switch toggled on. In a perfect world I think my ideal high gain neck tone would be a stacked single coil though. You'd still get a lot of the stringy, articulate thing going on but the stacked hum would cut the noise.

Anyway, it just kind of hit me that I never really see this kind of thing talked about much, so I thought I'd throw a poll up and ask what you guys think.

 

[NowYou'rePlayingWithPower]

I'm pretty open to try whatever neck pickup as long as it's been swapped into the bridge position.
But, I suppose if it had to stay put, a P90, maybe?

 

[braintheory]

If done right a traditional style ‘50’s or early ‘60’s strat neck pickup with a boost is my favorite for a lead tone that is not only sweet and liquidy, but also with nuances in the attack, grease and other good stuff around the notes that humbuckers aren’t capable of. Can show more expressive playing with them. ‘60’s Jaguar pickups (used in a strat or humbucker guitar) are also incredible and not as known

I often feel the same way as you with many humbuckers in the neck positron, but my favorites for that are ‘60’s Gretsch Supertrons and ‘60’s Gibson/Epiphone mini-humbuckers. Both IME have the needed clarity and attack, while still being able to also be liquidy for leadwork. These also happen to be some of all time favorite bridge pickups as well

For stacked single coils the vintage Bill Lawrence’s can be awesome as well as their actual vintage 500L’s for the same reasons as the others: clarity, definition and attack, while still being very fat/full and liquid

Most other neck pickups don’t do it for me besides actual ‘50’s Gibson P90’s and PAF’s that are stupid money now

 

[VonBonfire]

Simple question, really. What's your preference?

Most of us here (including me) are high gain guys who probably spend the majority of the time on the bridge pickup. But every now and then, we'll swap over to the other end of the guitar and get down that way. Based on the kinds of guitars most often being made for high gain, it might be assumed that most of us generally go for humbucker tones when we switch away from the bridge, but I'm not so sure.

Personally I've never really gotten along with neck humbuckers. They've always seemed too dark and low-end heavy to really get articulate with the kinds of tones I think of when I think of neck tones. My #1 guitar has a neck humbucker, but most of the time I just leave the neck split switch toggled on. In a perfect world I think my ideal high gain neck tone would be a stacked single coil though. You'd still get a lot of the stringy, articulate thing going on but the stacked hum would cut the noise.

Anyway, it just kind of hit me that I never really see this kind of thing talked about much, so I thought I'd throw a poll up and ask what you guys think.

I don't do the chug and don't use a lot of gain on my rig so I'm probably on the neck about 85% of the night. So far nothing has beaten out the '57 classic for me though truthfully I haven't done a ton of swaps hunting for something better. Smooth, creamy high end with enough articulation.

Before you chuck a neck humbucker into the guitar stuff box for lack of clarity I'd lower it way down in the ring and raise the pole pieces up to taste. You might be surprised what you discover.

 

[tallcoolone]

Traditional single coil neck pickup on a good Strat sounds great out of pretty much any rig. It’s like a cheat code

 

[thegame]

I must be a weirdo because I prefer neck humbucker tones on 24 fret guitars, since that places it closer to the bridge and naturally de-muddies it.

 

[tallcoolone]

I must be a weirdo since I prefer neck humbucker tones on 24 fret guitars, since that places it closer to the bridge and naturally de-muddies it.

I’ve never owned a 24 fret guitar so you very well could be correct

 

[TheGreatGreen]

I must be a weirdo because I prefer neck humbucker tones on 24 fret guitars, since that places it closer to the bridge and naturally de-muddies it.

This is a great point. Neck humbuckers on a 24-fret guitar make way more sense. Like your said, their placement being necessarily closer to the bridge means they sound brighter and less boomy.

Here’s a direct comparison video Warmoth made where they built a test guitar with overlapping slots for a humbucker to be mounted back and fourth between the standard “2nd octave harmonic” position and the adjusted 24-fret position.



If I ever build a 24-fret shred machine, I’ll probably put a neck humbucker in it. Otherwise it’ll likely be single coil sized pickups.

 

[braintheory]

I must be a weirdo because I prefer neck humbucker tones on 24 fret guitars, since that places it closer to the bridge and naturally de-muddies it.

That makes it a different story and would choose a humbucker there, although I'd think a good '50's P90 could be great and interesting too. I'd also lean more toward a sweeter, rounder humbucker like a vintage Schaller Hex Neck vs Bill Lawrence's for highoutput and paf if lower. I actually tried some Strat pickups for the fun of it in some 24 fret metal oriented guitars. Not my favorite, but not bad either

 

[DanTravis62]

My ideal neck pickup is the A2 humbucker Scott made that's in my Carlino

I absolutely hate most neck humbuckers, almost all of my favorite neck pickup tones are (true) single coils - yngwie, Kai Hansen, Weiki, etc

But god damn man, the noise is ridiculous, and getting the right neck single coil with the right tone is some sort of wizardry I am not proficient in

Ive experimented with phat cats, stacks, and all sorts of other shit, and the super bright A2 humbucker Scott made is exactly what the doctor ordered. Especially for that guitar, which is dark and boomy on its best days.

 

[Speeddemon]

My ideal neck pickup is the A2 humbucker Scott made that's in my Carlino

I absolutely hate most neck humbuckers, almost all of my favorite neck pickup tones are (true) single coils - yngwie, Kai Hansen, Weiki, etc

But god damn man, the noise is ridiculous, and getting the right neck single coil with the right tone is some sort of wizardry I am not proficient in

Ive experimented with phat cats, stacks, and all sorts of other shit, and the super bright A2 humbucker Scott made is exactly what the doctor ordered. Especially for that guitar, which is dark and boomy on its best days.

Try a Duncan Screamin' Demon in the neck, full humbucker or split. I like those tones you described too, including John Norum and Warren DeMartini.
And otherwise, DiMarzio Chopper (single sized rail humbucker) or a split Air Norton. Those give lovely tones.

I don't care for muddy humbuckers either. The Duncan A2Pro was too smooth and muddy in my Les Paul Custom; I settled on a Pearly Gates neck there.

 

[PDC]

I’ve had great results with the Duncan Lil’ 59 in the neck position of guitars with single coil routes.

Very hard to describe. Enough punch to keep up with the bridge Humbucker, where some true singles and even ‘stacked’ versions have a noticeable drop in output. But those lil humbuckers with their ceramic magnets retain a really focused sound with firm lows - they have kind of a single coil on steroids vibe to them.

 

[cobrahead1030]

I prefer humbuckers for dirty and single coils for clean sounds 90% of the time. But if I absolutely had to choose, it's a strat style single coil for the neck position.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

I’ve had great results with the Duncan Lil’ 59 in the neck position of guitars with single coil routes.

Very hard to describe. Enough punch to keep up with the bridge Humbucker, we’re some true singles and even ‘stacked’ versions have a noticeable drop in output. But those lil humbuckers with their ceramic magnets retain a really focused sound with firm lows - they have kind of a single coil on steroids vibe to them.

This is interesting to me because personally I love the sound of imbalanced pickups.

Everybody seems to insist that their neck and bridge pickups need to have identical output levels, but I love a weaker neck pickup. It instantly gains the rig down a bit when you switch to it, which helps with clarity and dynamics, and even the “stringy” element of my favorite neck tones.

Then again I usually play pretty distorted amps so maybe pickups with a matched output level are more important when used with low gain rigs.

 

[gruggmanny]

Doesn't include the option "None" but yeah that one.

 

[Smashedguitaris⸸]

It is kind of like designing a sex robot, but making it talk.

 

[Smashedguitaris⸸]

This is interesting to me because personally I love the sound of imbalanced pickups.

Everybody seems to insist that their neck and bridge pickups need to have identical output levels, but I love a weaker neck pickup. It instantly gains the rig down a bit when you switch to it, which helps with clarity and dynamics, and even the “stringy” element of my favorite neck tones.

Then again I usually play pretty distorted amps so maybe pickups with a matched output level are more important when used with low gain rigs.

volume roll does a lot of similar shit for me.

 

[rsm]

I like versatility, then again I have either humbucker guitars or single coil guitars with the same type for the neck, either HH or SSS, don't have any guitars that combine them: HSS, HSH.

Most of my HH guitars I play set in the middle position, both pickups on, and dial in my rig for that sound; then use bridge or neck only for variations.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

volume roll does a lot of similar shit for me.

I hear you but I find myself only ever playing guitars with a single master volume, and the extra step of rolling volume for the neck can get fiddly and require precision and thought that just flipping a switch doesn't.

 

[Smashedguitaris⸸]

I hear you but I find myself only ever playing guitars with a single master volume, and the extra step of rolling volume for the neck can get fiddly and require precision and thought that just flipping a switch doesn't.

I just meant the bridge. I dont use necks. They sound muddy as shit. I play high gain amps (single channel).
I have one humbucker one volume, and volume manipulation can get me "crunch" and "clean"