The most pick-up configurations

[Slothkill]

OK sounds dumb and maybe a bit excessive but I once built a Strat with 27 different pickup configurations. Granted one could probably never use that many in a live situation but studio work would be cool.....
I only use two myself and I use my voloume control more than some....my guitar does sound cool on 2...........
So here's the question.. how many different setting on your guitar do you actually use? Do you use your volume and tone controls at all? If you use your tone is it modified?
Silly post but it beats talking about the humidity!

[MeYatch]

I don't think thats a silly post at all

I use about 4 configurations on my jazz bass

both pickups full on

neck pickup backed off to about 3/4

bridge pickup backed off to about 3/4

neck pickup solo


I don't really use the bridge pickup solo

[witchhunt]

There is only one. W.F.O.

[brokenstrings]

On my strat I use the bridge single coil for rhythm type stuff. I use the neck and middle pickups together for clean stuff and the neck single coil for that great overdriven strat lead tone.

The SG I generally use the bridge pickup with tone and volume wide open, clean stuff I use both bridge and neck humbuckers together.

On my Ibanez RG, I only use the bridge humbucker. It’s tuned down to dropped C# so it basically has no decent tone at that low of a tuning anyway.

[bassist_25]

My bass has two J pickups. I love the sound of J's but I hate the 60-cycle hum that comes along with soloing them. I almost always run both pickups, though there are times where I'll solo the neck pickup. Harmonics ring out better with my pickups soloed; there's one tune we do that I play some artificial harmonics on, so I'll solo the neck pickup if the 60-cycle hum isn't too bad - some stages have cleaner power than others.

My bass is odd though beause it's the NECK PICKUP that has the signature growly Jaco tone, not the bridge pickup. The bridge pickup is actually very transparent and "woody" sounding, almost like a piezo. If I had my choice, I would have liked a Musicman style soapbar in the rear with a coil spliter.

My bass has a very bright natural timbre to it. I suppose that's due to its alder body and maple/koa neck. It does have an ebony fretboard which darkens the timbre a little. I generally leave the bass flat; the mids flat unless I'm in a real difficult room; and cut the highs a hair. I find that while just enough 2k brings out the presence of the bass, too much results in a lot of finger/fret noise. I'll generally leave the highs flat to bring out more attack when picking/slapping.

I really hate that "ultra-boosted 32hz, scooped 500hz, no 2k at all, what's even the point of having a set of roundwounds on my bass" sound that a lot of players and engineers go for. I guess I'm like that because I came up with guys like Geddy Lee, Stanley Clarke, and Gary Willis who always had real rich tones the whole way across the spectrum. I like a clean tone too. I was driving to Johnstown last week, and Funk #48 by the James Gang came on. That's the lesser known Funk song by the JG, not Funk #49. Anyways, there's a section where the bass player trades twos, and his solos have that overdriven, clipping SVT sound. God, I was reminded of how much I utterly hate that sound. No offense to any cats who dig that sound, but it was never my thing.

[Slothkill]

To me thats the thing changing the volume and your attack on the guitar can give you more "SHAPE" or control of your tone than any stomp box or pickup....... Am I right?
I always play a Ernie Ball... Just for kicks I used my lil sisters Affinity Strat...... Granted I suck as a guitar player, TOTALLY...... I STILL SOUNDED LIKE ME..... I love the fact that "TONE" truly comes from one's soul first then to your strings and so forth and so on.
AIN"T IT COOL WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR WOOD AND TWO HANDS!

[MeYatch]

is the 60 cycle hum really bad enough that you notice it when the whole band is playing?
mine is so quiet the only way for me to notice it is to play with the volume knobs and compare the way it sounds both pickups even and one louder than the other.

I also hate that scooped sound, I'm all about the low mids

[bassist_25]

is the 60 cycle hum really bad enough that you notice it when the whole band is playing?
mine is so quiet the only way for me to notice it is to play with the volume knobs and compare the way it sounds both pickups even and one louder than the other.

Generally no it doesn't. But I'm quite anal about any type of excessive noise coming through my rig or the front of house. Plus too much hum can blow horns. Also, there are some stages where the hum is bad enough that I won't solo the pickups. For example, the power cabling that goes over top the stage at City Limit's is notorious for causing all kinds of noise to go through pickups. My bass is surprisingly quiet there, but once I solo the pickups, it sounds like I popped open my control cavity and ripped out all the shielding. Even old sKool gets a little hum on that stage, and he runs a Rocktron Hush gate. He can crank his gain to 11, and you normally wouldn't hear his rig if you were standing next to it.

I also hate that scooped sound, I'm all about the low mids

That's how you cut through a mix. I've watched cats think that the way to get heard is to turn that pot that says "Volume" to the right, when the pot they really need to be turning says "Mids". I'm famous for bitching about this, but if there's one thing I can't stand is a guitarist with scooped mids. It sounds so muddy, and I've watched many fine players fire off solos that can't even be heard because they have their mids scooped.

To me thats the thing changing the volume and your attack on the guitar can give you more "SHAPE" or control of your tone than any stomp box or pickup....... Am I right?
I always play a Ernie Ball... Just for kicks I used my lil sisters Affinity Strat...... Granted I suck as a guitar player, TOTALLY...... I STILL SOUNDED LIKE ME..... I love the fact that "TONE" truly comes from one's soul first then to your strings and so forth and so on.
AIN"T IT COOL WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR WOOD AND TWO HANDS!

Word.

[songsmith]

On the Peavey T-15, just one setting: both p-ups on, volume backed off slightly for clean, full-on for dirt, tone wide open.
On Strat, mostly bridge/middle, tone on 7 or 8, occasionally the middle position on the 5-way switch, tone full open.
On the Takamine, I bump the lows a bit, and add some presence, depending on the PA and monitor sound. The volume is hinky... at 5 1/2 it sounds thin, at 6 it's chunky, at 7 it's boomy. It's the old-style Tak preamp, though, and that's a good thing to have, so I deal with it.--->JMS

[BDR]

If the battery in my mic gets low, I put a new one in.

r:>)

[Killjingle]

Generally no it doesn't. But I'm quite anal about any type of excessive noise coming through my rig or the front of house. Plus too much hum can blow horns. Also, there are some stages where the hum is bad enough that I won't solo the pickups. For example, the power cabling that goes over top the stage at City Limit's is notorious for causing all kinds of noise to go through pickups. My bass is surprisingly quiet there, but once I solo the pickups, it sounds like I popped open my control cavity and ripped out all the shielding. Even old sKool gets a little hum on that stage, and he runs a Rocktron Hush gate. He can crank his gain to 11, and you normally wouldn't hear his rig if you were standing next to it.

I just picked one of these up, because of some power issues we were having at a practice house, and I was very impressed. Big ticket price, but big results. My tone or volume never dipped or cracked once.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=182654

[lonewolf]

My PRS Custom 24 has stock HFS + Vintage pickups with 3-way toggle and tone-pull switch to tap both p/u's single coils. In full humbucker mode, I use all 3 positions a lot and it is a tone monster for any music style.

In single-coil mode, I usually only use the middle (both pickups) position because it's still bucks hum and has a bit of twangy strat-quack. By themselves, the single coils are kinda weak and noisy versions of the full humbuckers, so why bother?

The Gibson Flying V-90 Double has a single-coil in the neck which I replaced with a Dimarzio Pro-Track. I replaced the bridge humbucker with a custom Dimarzio Multi-bucker that consists of a hot Pro-Track near the bridge and a hot Cruiser toward the neck. This pickup has a 3-way mini-toggle that allows 1. Pro-Track, 2. both in series (like a Megadrive in tone and output, but no unwanted distortion, like a Barden), and 3. Cruiser. There is a full-sized 3-way toggle to switch the pickups.

With both Pro-Tracks, it sounds like a vintage Heritage V in all 3 positions. The neck Pro-Track sings and the bridge screams on solos. When switched to Cruiser on the bridge, it sounds more like a Strat than a V. That sounds cool by itself or with the neck P/U. When switched to both on the bridge, it has as much output for metal and soloing as any passive guitar on the market--doesn't work well with the neck p/u, though.

The Fender Starcaster? Two big phat phender humbuckers designed by Seth Lover in the early 70s that weigh in at 18K on the ohmmeter! This guitar just smokes and with the 2 f-holes, 2 volume, 2 tone + master volume, you can get just about any tone you want plus Ted Nugent "kill a charging rhino at 50 paces" sustain. All 3 toggle positions sound great for just about any style. Will work for metal if you can keep it from harmonically feeding back.

[bassist_25]

I just ordered a set of Bartolini's for my Jazz Bass copy. The feel of the bass is amazing, and I've always wanted a real nice old school bass, so in with a set of Barts. I was going to go with a set of DiMarzios, but that would have required some routing, something I don't want to do.

[Gallowglass]

I pretty much just use the neck pick-ups on my Gibsons, I set my gain for "stun" & control the tone w/ my volume knob & my touch on the strings. I rarely use the tone knobs, although on my main Les Paul I had Slothkill install some kind of pots that used to be used in missle guidance technology (The pots are great, but in the back of my mind I have this fear that I'm going to be fiddling w/ my knobs & bring something down on my position).

On the Strat I vary a little bit more regarding pick-up positions, but I still rely mostly on my fingers to get the sounds I want. I just find that way works best for me.

[rickw]

Yep, the whole pick to strings thing is one way I urge tone from an amp, but I keep the settings on my strat wide open most of the time. I do spend a considerable amount of time setting the amp up though. The strat has been barkingly and lovingly modified many times by Slothkill so he knows I always wind everything to 10. Now, the cool thing is I can use the tone controls if I want to (and I do in certain songs) courtesy of his mods. Jules knows the way I play and the sounds I want and bingo a mod later, there they are! And by the way Slothkill I think I want to lose that Demerezio pickup and go back to hot noiseless, whaddaya think?