Neck pickup position, Snake Oil or Truth?

maltingsaudio

Following on from @SquireJapan thread on 21 or 22 fret necks , do you actually notice that the neck pickup is in the “wrong” position ie not on the harmonic or is just because you know the theory your brain says it must be

thegummy

maltingsaudio said:

Following on from @SquireJapan thread on 21 or 22 fret necks , do you actually notice that the neck pickup is in the “wrong” position ie not on the harmonic or is just because you know the theory your brain says it must be

On Fender necks the pickup position doesn't change whether it's 21 or 22 frets.

It's on 24 fret guitars vs 22 fret - the neck pickup is in a different place.

It has nothing to do with harmonic nodes or anything like that, it simply sounds different because it's closer to the bridge - just like a middle pickup sounds different to a neck pickup.

I'm unlike many people in that I don't just think I hear something then believe it's there, I'm very mistrusting of initial impressions. But there was a time where I was either going to keep a 24 fret guitar that I liked every other aspect of or spend a good bit of money on a 22 fret guitar. So I really wanted to be sure there was a significant difference. I recorded loads of samples and blind tested between them to see if I could consistently hear the difference between the two and I could.

It's a big thing for me because that very deep neck humbucker sound is one of my favourite guitar tones and it just can't be done with a 24 fret guitar. I even tried all sorts of EQing to see if I could get away with keeping the 24 fret and save money, I was quite obsessed with it for a few weeks.

So I'm absolutely confident they sound different but, again, it's nothing to do with silly theories about harmonic nodes, it's just that moving a pickup to the middle position sounds different - no one would ever think otherwise - so moving it to half way between the neck and middle position of course makes it sound different for the same reason.

ICBM

What thegummy said.

p90fool

ICBM said:

What thegummy said.

Yep. It might not be that obvious with warmer tones, but if you play the neck pickup on an SG and turn the treble on the amp up you'll hear that kind of "fruity" tone that's not dissimilar to the combined neck/middle position on a Strat.

The difference between that and a more conventionally placed neck pickup is not subtle.