Pickups - Less is Ok?
Author: guitartrends // Category: pickupsAccording to legend, when Leo Fender was refining the Fender Stratocaster prototype, he decided that the Fender Stratocaster had better have 3 pickups, to be more competitive.
It’s no secret that nobody uses the bridge pickup on a Stratocaster. Maybe the middle pickup and bridge pickup combined, but not the bridge pickup alone. The bridge pickup on a Strat seems to have that ice pick in your ear quality that nobody likes much.
Gibson and Gretsch have only ocassionally gone into 3 pickup territory. The ecent Epiphone Limited Edition Riviera P-94, with its 3 pickups seems to be getting alot of attention. But for many electric guitar models, 2 pickups have been the norm for a long time. One notable exception is jazz electric guitars, which have been using one (neck) pickup since the 1930’s.
Today, it is okay for a guitar manufactuer to make a guitar that features just one pickup. Everybody is doing it. Fender makes more Esquire guitars today than they ever did. And Gibson has reissued several variants of their single pickup Les Paul Junior, SG Junior, and Melody Maker electrics. Grestch has their Malcolm Young signature, ESP has their M1, and so on.
I can understand that the manufacturers want to keep their costs down and are happy to use fewer components, but what is motivating the guitar player?
I suppose there is a bit of weight saving, if you only need one volume control and one pickup and no pickup switching. But I think what is really motivating players to buy single pickups electric guitars is that they use one pickup 98% of the time. Also, it is more common for a guitarist to own more than one guitar. If you think you need another sound from another guitar, makes plans to get buy one.
What do you think about this trend towards offering single pickup guitars?
June 15th, 2009 at 22:58
I own a Gibson Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior. It has only one pickup, one volume and one tone control. What is does, it does very well. I have other guitars, for other duties.
September 14th, 2009 at 07:53
I own a Squier Stratocaster Standard series, it is very sensitive i mean the smaller change in your tone controls will make a world of change.
The bridge pickup can be used if your roll back the tone control until you feel you´ve filtered those painful brilliant sounds (yeah, that “ice pick in your ear quality”). If you still want high overtones, they can be produced by distortion: if you set your volume control starting very low, and the amps volume loud and a bit of gain (5), you will hear you can use the volume on the guitar also like a kind of filter to let only the cool tones to go out. It is also related to your attack on the strings, and the strenght of your strumming: if you hit harder, more distortion will come out.
Check out some reggae like Bob Marley and The Wailers for that funky strumming.
Use your guitar controls to filter out unwanted output, and combined with your amp and your attack, as a distortion control.
In response to the thread, i would say you can use three pickups if you know how to.
September 14th, 2009 at 09:12
Taigo: Your approach will work, only if your Stratocaster was made after 1986. Otherwise, there is no tone control for the bridge pickup. You can read more here.