making a neck p/u sound like bridge/neck

finboy · Post by **finboy** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 3:49 am

last weekend i saw the raveonettes live, besides enjoying the show and the fantastic ventures JM that was used for all of it, i was quite surprised at how often the JM neck pickup was used, and how little the bridge was. I know many claim the JM bridge pickup to be a weak spot, but it got some gears turning in my head about a very simple style JM, like a music master.

the downside is the lack of flexibility of a single neck pickup, and it made me wonder if any caps/resistors/etc. could be added on a push/pull tone pot to get a sound closer to the neck and bridge pick up being used at the same time, but without a bridge pickup, and 3 way selector.

thoughts on what could be used to accomplish this? bass bleed? jag-strangle switch?

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 3:51 am

i still cant tell whats what on mine after i gutted it

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 12:54 pm

You could just move it down a little into the centre position. I've heard that the ideal position for the second pickup in two-pickup guitars isn't right up next to the neck but actually kind of inbetween where the neck and middle positions would normally be on, say, a strat. No idea if that's true, but I've heard/seen that opinion from more than one place. That doesn't solve the problem of trying to get bridge pickup sounds out of it, though.

Maybe a piezo bridge? That doesn't really keep with the low-tech idea but keeps the aesthetic of a single pickup guitar, and you could blend the snap of the piezo with the middlyneck pickup.

George · Post by **George** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 1:32 pm

I always thought the Jag strangle switch made the neck sound more like a bridge pickup. You could also just adjust your amp and pedal EQs to give it more cut and chime.

Din of Win · Post by **Din of Win** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 1:44 pm

I LOOOOVE the Raveonettes.

Now, i'm mainly a bassist, so take any guitar stuff i spout with a healthy grain of salt... but, does the fact that Sune uses a bunch of pedals compensate for the 'bridge tone'? My only 'regular' guitar is a Jazzmaster (which i've wanted ever since i first heard Chain Gang of Love), and when i accentuate the highs (my amp, a 70's Kustom has a push pull 'Treble Boost') and have it running through some fuzzes/ODs/Reverb... the neck pup solo'd sounds the most 'musical' and Raveonettes-esque to my ears, so i usually solo it anyways. I also like that, on mine, i get more of that fun, noisy feedback.

I really don't know what i'm talking about here, and I can't tell if it has the bridge/neck tone you're looking for, as my ears aren't that trained to recognize guitar-centric tonal varience. But, i dunno... when in doubt, throw more pedals at it till it sounds good?

In any case, a 'Musicmaster' with a P-90 sounds pretty sweet!

finboy · Post by **finboy** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 1:49 pm

he had 3-4 reverbs, a rat, some mxr fuzz pedal for noise, and a clean boost for lead work, pretty simple set up really.

Din of Win · Post by **Din of Win** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 2:02 pm

finboy wrote:he had 3-4 reverbs, a rat, some mxr fuzz pedal for noise, and a clean boost for lead work, pretty simple set up really.

Yep!

Them and the Jesus and Mary Chain are my big two "i wish i were them" bands, and my pedalboard is pretty much the same...

3 reverbs, 2 fuzzes, 2 OD, 1 Distortion, 1 Delay, 1 Chorus, and a Flanger because why not.

Still, with all that, my solo'd bridge on my jazzmaster still sounds 'the best'.

Addam · Post by **Addam** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 6:59 am

Larger value pots will brighten the sound up.
I have 500k pots in the musicmaster I made, it sounds pretty bright like a bridge pickup, but a turn of the tone knob makes it sound like a normal neck pickup.
I don't know where you would go with on a jazzmaster, as the already have 1M pots, maybe change the cap for a different value?
One thing to bear in mind, it will never sound exactly like a bridge pickup, there's more to it than the bassiness/trebbliness.
A neck pickup will always ring out better, which is a good thing.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 5:35 pm

man, raveonettes were so good live!

i'll have to post some pics i took of that guitar you're talking about.

finboy · Post by **finboy** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 5:43 pm

i suppose another option would be hiding a pickup in the bridge position under the guard and trigger it with a push/pull pot.

as per raveonettes, the drum sounds were what interested me most, interesting set up

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 7:10 pm

finboy wrote:the downside is the lack of flexibility of a single neck pickup

Don't think this is true, with the amp dialed in with another mid and treble you can get all the trebly bridge-esque sounds you need, then by using the volume and tone controls get a lovely darker sound.

I very rarely use a bridge pickup - I really don't like how they sound, I do however use the neck+mid sound a lot though.

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:14 pm

it sounds like you just want a guitar with two pickups?

wouldn't a series of caps or resistors make it more complex than just having another pickup? or do you want a guitar with just a jazzmaster neck pickup for aesthetics? because if that's the case, it still doesn't make much sense to me.

BillClay · Post by **BillClay** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:40 am

portugalwillie wrote:it sounds like you just want a guitar with two pickups?

when some Homeboy wants to do something crazy and seemingly pointless I'm usually the first Homeboy to encourage the othwer original homeboy, but I gots to admit, unless you're just interested in the aesthetic of a neck only JM, what are you trying to accomplish?

P.S. my post is hard to read!

finboy · Post by **finboy** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 2:26 am

BillClay wrote:
portugalwillie wrote:it sounds like you just want a guitar with two pickups?
when some Homeboy wants to do something crazy and seemingly pointless I'm usually the first Homeboy to encourage the othwer original homeboy, but I gots to admit, unless you're just interested in the aesthetic of a neck only JM, what are you trying to accomplish?

P.S. my post is hard to read!

Aesthetics with added flexibility, i have enough guitars that could get the other sound, but i'm just interested to see if it would be possible to get both sounds. someone on offset posted this interested follow up...

i'd wouldn't say it would achieve it. there's not really enough high frequencies there in the first place to achieve the bridge pickup tone and still keep volume and may sound thin(not necessarily bad -its more chimey than twangy though).

I think a variac style rotary switch could give a larger variation than usual tone controls. it does it by changing the capacitor value so you are moving the resonant peak around rather than just attenuating a set frequency. its perhaps not as extreme, but similar things happen if you move around pickup position.. you could have a strangle setting on that too at the same time. .

http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponse/index.html this might be useful. there's a lot of comb filtering going on with pickup position. whilst it may not have the excact attack and harmonics you could probably simulate a similar EQ range.

you could just use a different type of bridge pickup though to solve the original problem. doesn't have to be the weak spot if you have p90s, teles, filtertrons or whichever are made to fit jm covers..

making a neck p/u sound like bridge/neck

making a neck p/u sound like bridge/neck

Re: making a neck p/u sound like bridge/neck