feeling out my neck pickup

bonemachine78 · April 18th, 2007, 08:48 PM

hey all. i've hesitated to post this because it makes me sound ridiculously ignorant about hardware after playing guitar for 11 years, but i'm tired of not knowing. i've got a humbucker on the pickup on my tele. it's a stock pickup, and i'm just kind of curious how certain pickups sound vs. others. for example, my humbucker is one of those rectangular chrome pickups. there are screws in the section of the pick that is closest to the fret board. it's got a lot of drive and i really like it, but does this type of pickup sound different from other humbuckers?

i kind of had a punk rock ethic about playing the guitar for years, even though my style of playing actually varies. but i've always just gone with "plug in and turn everything up and start playing." now that's i've finally decided to learn more about the nuances of guitars, i'm sort of behind in that aspect.

any thoughts are appreciated.

superlightweigh · April 19th, 2007, 09:09 AM

I've found that stock pickups are usually pretty even-tempered and smooth sounding from top to bottom. If you like how yours sounds, that's great.

It sounds like you could get some different sounds out of it by changing the hights of the different screws a little bit- if you raise one or two of them up a little you will probably notice a difference right away in the loudness of those particular strings. That may be good for soloing but bad for rhythm playing if the sound becomes too unbalanced....

With all the Humbuckers on the market, there are a lot of things you could try if you are looking for a different sound. If you thought yours was too hot, you could look for something with more of a vintage sound. If you wanted something even hotter, I'm sure you could find a high-output model, too.

Check out some of the websites from the pickup manufacturers, most of them have sound samples you can listen to.

PS I've been playing since before you were born and I am still learning things every day- so don't be afraid to axe questions
HTH

bonemachine78 · April 19th, 2007, 08:17 PM

you've helped quite a bit. i never thought of adjusting the screws to get different sounds. i actually just started experimenting with the tone levels to get different sounds and that's actually made quite a difference. have a good day.

April 18th, 2007, 08:48 PM	#1 (permalink)
bonemachine78 Tele-Meister Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: stow, ohio Age: 26 Posts: 132	feeling out my neck pickup hey all. i've hesitated to post this because it makes me sound ridiculously ignorant about hardware after playing guitar for 11 years, but i'm tired of not knowing. i've got a humbucker on the pickup on my tele. it's a stock pickup, and i'm just kind of curious how certain pickups sound vs. others. for example, my humbucker is one of those rectangular chrome pickups. there are screws in the section of the pick that is closest to the fret board. it's got a lot of drive and i really like it, but does this type of pickup sound different from other humbuckers? i kind of had a punk rock ethic about playing the guitar for years, even though my style of playing actually varies. but i've always just gone with "plug in and turn everything up and start playing." now that's i've finally decided to learn more about the nuances of guitars, i'm sort of behind in that aspect. any thoughts are appreciated.

April 19th, 2007, 08:17 PM	#3 (permalink)
bonemachine78 Tele-Meister Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: stow, ohio Age: 26 Posts: 132	thanks you've helped quite a bit. i never thought of adjusting the screws to get different sounds. i actually just started experimenting with the tone levels to get different sounds and that's actually made quite a difference. have a good day.

April 19th, 2007, 09:09 AM	#2 (permalink)
superlightweigh Tele-Meister Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Schenectady, NY Age: 43 Posts: 356	I've found that stock pickups are usually pretty even-tempered and smooth sounding from top to bottom. If you like how yours sounds, that's great. It sounds like you could get some different sounds out of it by changing the hights of the different screws a little bit- if you raise one or two of them up a little you will probably notice a difference right away in the loudness of those particular strings. That may be good for soloing but bad for rhythm playing if the sound becomes too unbalanced.... With all the Humbuckers on the market, there are a lot of things you could try if you are looking for a different sound. If you thought yours was too hot, you could look for something with more of a vintage sound. If you wanted something even hotter, I'm sure you could find a high-output model, too. Check out some of the websites from the pickup manufacturers, most of them have sound samples you can listen to. PS I've been playing since before you were born and I am still learning things every day- so don't be afraid to axe questions HTH