How do you choose the right pickup?

[14drz]

I got my first electric guitar and I’m using the pickups randomly lol is there a way to learn how to use them correctly or is it just a lot of practice? Any tips?

 

[Dayn]

You mean, how to choose which one to use that you already have installed in your guitar? Because if you're new there's no point changing pickups at this point. As a very brief, very simple guide...

To demonstrate the difference that pickup position makes, make sure your guitar is unplugged. Pick the D string very close to the bridge and hear how bright it sounds. Then pick the D string right over the 12th fret and hear how smooth it sounds. That's because the string has more noticeable higher-frequency overtones nearer to the bridge, and when it's near the neck those higher frequencies are less pronounced but the lower ones are more prominent.

So a bridge pickup will be brighter, and a neck pickup will be smoother/rounder, because it picks up the sound of the string at those points. Use the bridge for brighter sounds to cut through, use the neck for smoother sounds. But that's just a very general guide, depends on the pickup, and you can use whatever for anything, and the results may not be as noticeable if you have a beginner setup.

 

[Leviathus]

Just have fun with it.

 

[CanserDYI]

Metal is like 99% bridge humbucker. Jazz is like 99% neck humbucker.

 

[RevDrucifer]

What guitarists are you into? What songs are you learning? If you give some examples we can point out when they’re switching pickups (in most cases) to give you a better example of why it’s done.

For distorted rhythms I‘m 100% on the bridge pickup. I only do neck pickup rhythm stuff on a Strat with a clean tone. For leads I switch between the bridge and neck, sometimes in the same solo. Vai/Petrucci are great to watch for how they incorporate both pickups into their playing.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

There's definitely no exact science to this. It's a matter of doing what works for you, for the tone you're trying to achieve.

My general rule for relatively high-gain / distorted metal is to use the bridge pickup for rhythm (the added brightness provides more cut / bite / aggression) and the neck pickup for leads (solos on the higher frets sound sweeter / less harsh with the neck pickup).

For clean tones, you may well want to use your pickups the opposite way around. This is how the switch is labelled on a Gibson LP - "Rhythm" (neck) & "Treble" (bridge).

For doom metal, I use the neck pickup for both leads & rhythm. I'm not sure whether this is what doom guitarists (e.g. Tony Iommi, Matt Pike etc.) routinely do, but it works for me. It's possible my bridge pickups aren't well suited to doom (mine are relatively bright) or that I need to be more extreme with my EQ settings.

 

[14drz]

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What guitarists are you into? What songs are you learning? If you give some examples we can point out when they’re switching pickups (in most cases) to give you a better example of why it’s done.

For distorted rhythms I‘m 100% on the bridge pickup. I only do neck pickup rhythm stuff on a Strat with a clean tone. For leads I switch between the bridge and neck, sometimes in the same solo. Vai/Petrucci are great to watch for how they incorporate both pickups into their playing.

i’m very much into arctic monkeys so I play a lot of that

 

[gamybeaver]

You mean, how to choose which one to use that you already have installed in your guitar? Because if you're new there's no point changing pickups at this point. As a very brief, very simple guide...

To demonstrate the difference that pickup position makes, make sure your guitar is unplugged. Pick the D string very close to the bridge and hear how bright it sounds. Then pick the D string right over the 12th fret and hear how smooth it sounds. That's because the string has more noticeable higher-frequency overtones nearer to the bridge, and when it's near the neck those higher frequencies are less pronounced but the lower ones are more prominent.
soccer random
So a bridge pickup will be brighter, and a neck pickup will be smoother/rounder, because it picks up the sound of the string at those points. Use the bridge for brighter sounds to cut through, use the neck for smoother sounds. But that's just a very general guide, depends on the pickup, and you can use whatever for anything, and the results may not be as noticeable if you have a beginner setup.

Really useful for beginners to learn how to use guitar

 

[will_shred]

Metal is like 99% bridge humbucker. Jazz is like 99% neck humbucker.

*The ghost of Alan Holdsworth has entered the chat*

 

[teamSKDM]

most simply put if youre a metal guitarist playing through distortion, use your bridge pickup for rhythm , use your neck pickup for leads / solos , and use them in the middle for cleans. thats generally what everyone does and uses them for.

 

[gh0styboi]

Honestly, mess around with the switch and your settings until you find something you like... There's no real manual that details what's for what, cause there's no real correct answer - it's all preference. Probably not the answer you wanted, but it's true. There are somewhat typical things for different genres - like stated above, bridge for metal, neck for leads, etc. But that's not a hard and fast rule. The majority of the time I'm playing prog metal on my Tele these days, and I've done blues on a Schecter 7 string with an EMG 81. With time and practice (and patience...) you'll learn your gear. When you've learned your gear, you can get something you like out of almost anything.

 

[Un1corn]

Actually while lots of people saying that usually neck pickup is for solo in metal, there are tons of bands using bridge pickup to solo as well now. For example, It's Only Smiles by Periphery, the solo is recorded with bridge pickup, even coil splitted. So as you can see, there isn't a rule of how to use pickups, just have fun and see what sounds best to you.

 

[Wiltonauer]

Yngwie Malmsteen seems to use the neck pickup for smooth tones while soloing and the bridge pickup for grinding rhythms. That’s on a Strat with hum-cancelling stacked single-coils all around.

 

[gh0styboi]

Actually while lots of people saying that usually neck pickup is for solo in metal, there are tons of bands using bridge pickup to solo as well now. For example, It's Only Smiles by Periphery, the solo is recorded with bridge pickup, even coil splitted. So as you can see, there isn't a rule of how to use pickups, just have fun and see what sounds best to you.

Most times, I'm using the bridge pickup for everything, unless I'm playing on my Tele. I'm a big fan of a single pickup/single volume guitar as well. If that pickup has a pot push/pull for split, even better.

 

[Yul Brynner]

A Duncan distortion in the bridge is all you need.

 

[Drew]

I got my first electric guitar and I’m using the pickups randomly lol is there a way to learn how to use them correctly or is it just a lot of practice? Any tips?

Like, which position on the pickup selector do you want?

For distorted rhythm playing, there's a strong consensus around the bridge pickup, particularly a bridge humbucker.

For everything else, it gets pretty subjective. I'd say, experiment. Play stuff, listen to how it sounds, and try to decide what you like. You can also switch positions a lot - Angel Vivaldi did a short video about this I saw once where he was talking about how sometimes he'd switch from the neck pickup, for a fast run, to the bridge pickup for just the last note, if it was going to be a sustained/bent/vibrato'd sort of thing, to really help make the note "scream." I think Stevie Ray Vaughan switches positions a little more often than is widely recognized, too, but that's just a hunch.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

A Duncan distortion in the bridge is all you need.

If the alternative is a Duncan Distortion in the neck, then yes.