Pickups, individually or together

[spellcaster]

One of the interesting discoveries I've made about the pickups on the DuoSonic. I'm finding that neither of them sounds great on it's own, but together in parallel they sound outstanding. One of those weird instances where the total is greater than the sum of the parts that make it. I've sometimes encountered this with bridge pickups on Strats - I like some of the combinations of the bridge with other pickups, but wouldn't use a bridge pickup on it's own. The DuoSonic's the first one where the middle position is the only really outstanding thing. Anybody else run into this before?

[die Bullen]

This really depends on the guitar. My most of my guitars sound best to me in neck position. My Jazzmaster has a few very good settings, including both. My tele in the "both" position is somewhere switch settings 2 and 3- let's call it 2 5/8- I rarely use that although it does sound neat sometimes

[anfontan]

I have been a big fan of the 2 pickup sound for 30+ years and it has always worked well for me.

On my Gibson style guitars with 2 pickups with individual volume and tone I set the neck p'up to about 3 to 4 on the volume and tone and the bridge volume at about 10 and the tone on about 9. This gives be a classic Les Paul/SG tone and I control it with a volume pedal for lead breaks and back it off for rhythm. Those settings for me give a nice 'sweet spot' to the humbucker's sound.

The Tele's middle position is my favorite as well and the neck p'up gives new life to my usual lead licks. I have taken to using the bridge pickup by itself sparingly-it is rather excessively bright for most applications!

[spellcaster]

What I'm finding surprising is the fact that two fairly average sounding pickups can produce something so good when they're combined. In all fairness to the pickups, if they're height-adjusted for optimal position to play singly, they're a bit better than height-adjusted to play as a pair, but either way, they shine more playing together than separately. I've never encountered anything quite like this.

It creates a bit of a quandry, too. I'd have no qualms about changing and upgrading pickups on this guitar....It's about all that's keft to do, actually. The thing is, I wonder if I'll lose that superb middle position sound that I've got right now. Without having any real science to back it up, I have a theory that the physical position of the pickups has as much to do with it as the specific pickups. I'd just hate to buy pickups and find out it cost me the magic tone I'm getting now from the middle position.

[Fussel62]

I found such a combo with the black Tele I put The SD's in. As I am a fan of clean sounds the combination of the Li'l '59 (in SC mode) with the Alnico II Pro in parallel is my favourite.
The very clear heights of the bridge pup plus quite an amount of bottom end from the neck pup. I love it.

[zontar]

Normally I just use one pickup at a time (Although if I had a Strat I'd use the middle & bridge together)
However on my Mustang--which is similar to the Duo Sonic, it sounds best with both pickups at the same time.
I can set them in or out of phase depending on the song.
I rarely use only one pickup on the Mustang, and rarely use both together on my other electrics.

[YeahDoIt]

Sometimes I use pickups together, other times individually. I'm not sure I do the same thing every time that I play the same song.

My favorite tone might be with the neck pickup alone on Telecaster.

[monwobobbo]

i rarely use the 2 and 4 positions on my strats. can't say i really use the middle position on my humbucker guitar either. i tend to like the individual positions myself.

[die Bullen]

i rarely use the 2 and 4 positions on my strats. can't say i really use the middle position on my humbucker guitar either. i tend to like the individual positions myself.

I agree with that- there's something I really don't like about positions 2 and 4 on a strat

EDIT- actually I should say position 2 is sort of okay, but 4 has a really odd sound that I don't like- I guess that is the strat quack?

[Teleblooz]

Oddly enough, positions 2 and 4 were always the ones I liked the best on my Strats. To me, those are what makes the Strat sound distinctive.

[itsallintheblues]

I always use one pickup for my tele.. it's 90% on the bridge pickup, 8% in the middle, and 2% on the neck...

but on a strat.. I'm always on 2 for rhythm, and 4 for solos when I'm in the mood for a clean tone... but overdriven, it's always the neck and the middle.. for punky sounding driven tones, I use the bridge..

[zontar]

Oddly enough, positions 2 and 4 were always the ones I liked the best on my Strats. To me, those are what makes the Strat sound distinctive.

I think that's why I like them...

[die Bullen]

remember I'm not really a "Strat guy" though. Maybe in time I'd learn to use and like it but for now I'd always gravitate to single PU settings on the strat

[zontar]

No problem--we all can be different with guitar--if we all played the same it would be boring.

[gary mitchell]

I use a Prestige from Canada Heritage Standard LP, a Les Paul type guitar. I loaded it with original TV Jone classic humbuckers. My favorite sound is both pickups good reverb,and very clean on my Fender Blues Deluxe are anyother amp. Most of the time when I play blues, I use the neck pickup.

[etechstan]

I've been spending a lot of time on the neck pup but too often get carried away when shuffling and hit the switch and end up somewhere else.

[Fussel62]

It so much depends on the sound you need for a song. Just following the "taste of my ears" it's the parallel combo of the two SDs in my black Tele (HB split).
With my red one it's the neck pup alone (that underrated Squier ceramic pup)

[macrocket]

I usually like positions 2&4 on a Strat and sometimes the neck pickup by its self and on a humbucker I generally like one or the other, but rarely both together.

[Teleblooz]

My default position on my #1 Tele is neck pickup alone, with the other three being used for emphasis (obviously I have a 4-position switch). Oddly enough, I use the both-in-parallel position the least. The series position gives me a nice Les Paul-ish growl, and the bridge alone... well, you know what the bridge pup on a Tele does.

On my #2 Tele, I just replaced the stock neck pickup with an old EMG Select passive humbucker that's just knocking my socks off. Years ago I had this thing installed in an old HSS Squier as the bridge pup & pulled it out 'cause it sounded so wimpy. I found it in a box last week and on a whim, I ohmed it out on the bench. I measured a whopping 4.2k ohms. This struck me as kind of odd for a 'bucker, so I did a little research on the net. Turns out I had the bloody thing wired wrong all these years! It has an odd 3-wire setup (1 red, 1 white, and the shield). The way I had it wired essentially put it into single-coil mode. I configured it properly and it showed a much more respectable 8.3k. Not huge, but perfect in the neck position balancing out a single-coil bridge pup. This guitar is also wired with a 4-way, but it sounds best with either pickup selected by itself. The series position is almost overkill, and the parallel position is characteristically meh.

[edandis]

In a strat I favor positions 2 & 4 because, hey, to me this is what makes a strat a strat.

In a tele I like the bridge pickup by itself. I may just have to Esquire mine now that I think about it.

In the PRS SE with the SD triple shots, I favor them all parallel, serial. Split to single coils either the screw or slug coils, they're all good.

[spellcaster]

When I first moved over to the dark side and got into Strats, I was a major position-four fanatic. Over the last few months, I've discovered that the middle pickup alone ( on any of my Strats except the one with the Tele bridge pickup in the middle ) has a special quality that I think of as quintessential Strat. I'm currently in love with the Lindy Fralin neck pickup on my Bigsby Strat....the first time I've really appreciated a Strat neck pickup alone.....and now, I find my appreciation of Strat quack is declining.