Neck Humbucker Pickup
Does the combo of humbucker in neck position and single-coil in the bridge work well in a guitar?
I own a Mexican Standard Fender Telecaster and I love it with all my heart and soul, but I've recently realized that I only really use the famously excellent single-coil in the bridge while the neck-position pickup goes to waste. I've decided I might try and fix this and max out the performance I can get from it, but I'm not sure if it's OK to put a nice big, high-quality humbucker in the neck as I planned. I've just never really heard of it done that way round before.
Has anyone done this modification or heard of it done before, and will it actually help me to get the best possible output from it?
Ummm... a humbucker in the neck position will make it sound pretty dark. If that's what you're going for then by all means! I personally think it tends to sound lifeless (imo, humbuckers are best in the bridge position, as they balance out the sound nicely... but awful in the neck position because it's just low end crossed with too even/muddy frequency response).
Um, but yeah... having a humbucker in the neck position is quite popular, especially for soloing/lead stuff (thick sound). However, you'd have to modify your guitar to fit an actual humbucker in there (like, actually cut away part of the guitar body... just a tiny bit, of course, but still very invasive)... not sure it's worth it if you're not 100% sure of how it's gonna sound/what you want. A better option would be a single spaced humbucker... actually Lace makes a few good ones... http://www.lacemusic.com/electric_pickups/lace_sensor/lace_sensor_specs.php Blue (smooth, warm humbucker) and Red (hot, high output humbucker) are both quite good. But even better than humbuckers are P90s. The Purple on that page is like one in a standard single coil space (though regular P90s are single coil, but humbucker size)... sounds way better than a humbucker. Very thick/warm sound, but way more dynamic range and definition than a humbucker. Perfect for the neck position. Also, the Hot Golds are nice... http://www.lacemusic.com/electric_pickups/hot_gold/hot_gold_specs.php
Anyway... yeah, if you're going for an actual humbucker then enjoy... lots of modification needs to be done, though. But the above are an easier (and cheaper) alternative and really sound just as good (actually better, imo).
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