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Someone with electric guitar knowledge mind explaining pickup placement to me? (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 days ago by Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world to c/guitars@lemmy.world
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Working on an unholy abomination of a diy instrument and I'm planning on using the hardware from an electric guitar I got for free at a yard sale. I already took a deep dive into pickup construction and wiring, but the explanation for where they put them on the guitar mostly in guitar player jargon and I'm not sure if that translates to this.

Basic questions, why are there 3 pickups? Why is one behind where you strum and the other two up front? Is there an ideal placement for different sounds?

Any help would be appreciated, I'm not much of a musician, and this is really just a silly project just to see if I can do it but anything worth doing is worth overdoing and I like the chance to learn.

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[–] CHOPSTEEQ@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

On top of what others have said, I don’t think there’s an objective “place where you strum” like on my bass, I use a pick and play resting on the bridge, so all my picking is just in front of the bridge. It gives a lot more bite that I like in my sound.

On my telecaster, I do the same, for that twinkly twang. On my 7 string, I play closer to what would be considered “the place” but still leave my pickup selection at the bridge, again, to help get me out of the muddy range.

I imagine that the convention just became placing 2-3 evenly spaced between the neck and bridge, because with a switch and blend pot, a single model could accommodate any kind of player.

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That does make sense, in all the videos I've seen since, guitar players can be all over the area and even up the neck. My assumption had been that the open space between the 2nd and 3rd pickup, or second and hum bucker on some models, was to give a designated area so your paying doesn't directly affect the pickup but it looks like in practice that's neither here nor there.

[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 days ago

People with bad technique may have problems with a pickup being near where they play. This is a player problem, of course because depending on the response you want, you need to play on various parts of the string.

There's no real connection with pickup placement. It's purely the desired frequency response. Just like the playing position.

On a bass, players sometimes use a pickup to anchor their thumb, so having a convenient spot can be handy. Some even attach a bridge across the top to have a shelf for any spot.