Anyone use different Pickups Bridge n Neck? A question?

[Hotshot6120]

Hi all,

 

Just wondering what the word of the street is with running 2 different kind of pickups

 

i have P94s in my LP and they sound pretty good to me. The clean Neck pickup sounds nice and the Bridge sounds super dirty and bight.

 

Would i notice a huge difference if I say put a Seymour Slash alnico in the bridge over the 94?

 

Never messed with pickups before. Used to Filtertrons on my Gretsch.

 

Do different pickups "play nice " with one another?

 

 

I got this guitar for a 1/2 step down tuned rock machine. So I can play my GNR / STP type straight up 70-90s grit n shred.

[Rabs]

Hmm well I guess it depends on what you like to hear...

 

I once had a Gibson LP BFG which had a P90 in the neck and a Burstbucker in the bridge... Each one sounds as you think it would separately but when you put it in the middle position man the noise it made.. How can I put it... It sort of sounded like the pickups were fighting each other, but in a good way :) One of the most unique Gibsons I ever owned.. The only reason I never got along with it was because it had quite a fat neck and im a slim neck player so I sold it on.....

 

So yeah.. Id say give it a go

[merciful-evans]

I would have thought the outputs should be reasonably even to avoid volume disparity (if nothing else).

[Twang Gang]

Well Gibson has made several models over the years with different pups in the neck and bridge. But they were always paired to sound good together when played in the middle position. 57 Classic in the neck and 57 Classic+ in the bridge or Burstbucker 1 in bridge and Burstbucker 2 in neck etc.

 

What you are suggesting are two pups with quite different characteristics so while you could get very different sound when each is played, not sure what the result might be when/if they are blended? But to answer your question pickups can, but don't always play nice together.

 

I am not familiar with the size of the Seymour Duncan pup you are talking about, but if it is larger than a P94 you would have to route out the top of your guitar to fit it, and then it's permanent no matter how it sounds. Personally I don't think I'd risk it.

[Rabs]

If you know how to solder good and wire a guitar very good, then why not try it? You aren't going to damage the pickups by blending them. I wouldn't route out the body more to fit a pickup though. That's too big a risk for something that may sound like garbage. Overall, be able to undo your experiment as if you never tried it given it turns out a failure.

Well the OP says he has P94s which are Humbucker sized P90s... So the hole is hummer sized so easy to fit something very different that will fit.

 

If it were normal P90 sized pickups then it wouldn't be worth it... (id say).

[Golden]

"Would i notice a huge difference if I say put a Seymour Slash alnico in the bridge over the 94?"

 

 

 

Apples and oranges really but both work, a good idea of the difference would be the P-Rails and both bridge humbucker and P-90 sound good. As far as which pick-ups match is another story. So it becomes not so much if a Alnico II SD or a P-90 humbucker sound good, but which you prefer and how it blends with the neck. Some pick-ups are just horrible together and others work quite well.

 

 

I think with various guitars and pick-up switching options there's a wide variety of combinations of humbuckers and single coil so in a real sense you could play a few. Play a P-Rail equipped LP and you'll get a good idea of the interaction with the P-90 and Humbucker. But again as all these guys are saying they are intentionally calibrated and matched.

 

 

Btw its not that you cant also do this yourself, you could, for example Gibson as standard practice used a Alnico II with a bridge Alnico V 490/498 and these are often switched to a matching II or V etc. Or with PRS Ceramic with Alnico bridge-neck.

 

 

A lot of it is trial and error and its not like even manufacturers have a great grasp on this as Rabs was saying with the P-90 BB mixture. Same with for example the HSH set-ups or HH split. I bought a DiMarzio set unheard for example with 2- PAF Anniversary and a Area 58 in the middle HSH wired for a Strat. So even while say on a schematic with like matching pick-ups its not assured the results will be exactly as desired. So trial and error is in play for sure

 

 

The humbuckers sound great. So does the 58 but not together. In fact the area 58 imho doesnt match well with anything but other like area Dimarzios after playing with it a few different ways and with all single coils SD and Fender. Sounds decent enough on its own or stand alone in the switching but mixed for sure is a negative.

 

On the other hand Ive thrown in a BB-Pro neck with a 498 both Alnico V and less volume drop off neck to bridge worked great.

 

 

Theres just a lot a room for further exploration imho.

 

 

But a P-90 switching in just the bridge for example with a P-Rail yields good compatible tone in either forms of P-90, Rail or Humbucker. To me in the bridge position alone you can use a wide array of tones. Or mixing a neck Humbucker with a hot single coil bridge has been around forever and so forth.

 

 

But I've wired up a few different set ups and fixed a few others which had wiring issues like with the P-Rails in a LP-copy. Or 3- humbuckers or HSH. Im playing a stock HH LP Trad Pro. Depends what you want to do. In fact with the P-Rails I finally called SD since I wasnt using their ring switching system but all push-pull pots with a 3-way. So it becomes not what you can do but what do you want to do? Using 3-humbuckers 4-conductor think of the possible switching options with 5-way switching.

 

I thought Gibson did a great job with the Captain Kurt SG Custom switching with a blend. To people that play both single coil and Humbucker I cant imagine the experimenting stopping though.