Rock out with a single neck pickup?

mellowgerman

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I've found you can get a great chunky rock sound from a solo'd neck pickup. Of course you won't get the same sizzle that a bridge pickup offers, but especially when the neck pickup is a lively single coil or mini-bucker, you can still get plenty of spank from it for melodies and lead parts too.
With electric guitar, I'm one of the guys that hardly ever uses the bridge pickup. Sometimes I might blend it in for a little bit of extra edge, but I never solo a bridge pickup; just not a sound I'm a fan of. So much so, that I've even put together a custom strat with a single minibucker in the neck position. That said, I really only play my original music on guitar and I'm not a shredder by any means. Most of my material is built around simple melodies and (what I consider to be) pretty chords, so a nice warm and balanced clean sound with a bit of reverb is ideal. Different strokes for different folks!
 

Quantum Strummer

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The short scale amp-in-case Dano-made Silvertones are single pickup guitars with the pickup in the "middle" position. They sound great: warm on the bottom strings, snappy on the trebles. Gibson's ES-225 has the same config…P90s also sound really good in the midpoint spot.

-Dave-
 

walrus

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I had a '66 Epiphone Casino, single pick up in the middle. Sounded great actually, but ergonomically I couldn't get used to the pick up in the middle - I would hit it with my pick if I wasn't careful.

walrus
 
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