Neck pup in bridge position

axisus

I assume there's no reason to not do it? I was thinking of getting a hotter pup for the bridge of my strat, and I've seen a few neck ones, probably more output than I currently have.

swlabr

Funny I was going to ask the same question but concerning a bridge 7.5 humbucker which I would have thought more adequate for the neck position.

Like you I think there shouldn't be any problem.

Chalky

No problem at all. For example, I find a SD Jazz neck in the Bridge sounds great!

meltedbuzzbox

if its a Gibson P90 my understanding is that there is no difference between the bridge and the neck pup.

I am not 100% on that though

thomasw88

wont make any difference, except that people tend to shorten the wires, and generally people have hotter pickups in the bridge rather than neck/middle.

Elwood

thomasw88 said:

wont make any difference, except that people tend to shorten the wires, and generally people have hotter pickups in the bridge rather than neck/middle.

Why is that?

I'm very tempted to try something hot in the neck and something lower output in the bridge. Like an Evo neck & Paf Pro bridge.

guitarfishbay

Ionian said:

thomasw88 said:

wont make any difference, except that people tend to shorten the wires, and generally people have hotter pickups in the bridge rather than neck/middle.

Why is that?

I'm very tempted to try something hot in the neck and something lower output in the bridge. Like an Evo neck & Paf Pro bridge.

The neck pickup position is generally louder.  If you have two pickups of exactly equal power you'd need to have the neck one lower and the bridge one higher to balance the output.

The neck pickup position is also more bass heavy.  If you were to pick a bridge pickup that was bass heavy in the bridge position it would be even more bassy in the neck position.

Saying that I've had moderate success with a Dimarzio Fred in the neck position.  It is quite fat but not too bassy.

Having a neck pickup that is hotter than the bridge pickup isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if you like to solo on the neck pickup.  But it wouldn't work for my preferences.

MattFGBI

Pickups do tend to be voiced for a position but I find you can apply the same logic as you would to a microphone - no such thing as a bad one, you just need to find the right one for the job. If a neck pickup does what you're looking for in the bridge position that's great. 

Some Fender sets, like the 57/62 for Strat, are all the same pickup for each position. 

carlos

There's more string vibration around the neck pickup position, rather than at the bridge which has very little vibration. Hence the need to balance out the pickups. Having said that, distance between pickups and strings can balance these out too.