HOTTING UP
You usually find higher-output pickups in the bridge position, so a reader asks why has PRS used pickups with the same output?
QI’m currently reading Dave Burrluck’s PRS McCarty review in issue 459 and something struck me about this guitar that led to this question. One of the features Dave mentions is that both pickups have the same output. I’m in the early stages of making a guitar from scratch and pickup choice is obviously important. My question is, if PRS uses pickups with the same output, why do the majority of guitar makers use lower-output pickups for the neck position? And why has this become the ‘norm’? Thanks for keeping us sane during lockdown!
Dave Leask, via email
Agreat question! First, to set the record straight, the 58/15 LT, where both pickups are effectively neck humbuckers, is a bit of a first for PRS. The majority of its other humbucking sets invariably have a slightly hotter wind in the bridge position hence their specific Treble (bridge) and Bass (neck) labels.
The reason most modern companies use a hotter bridge pickup is, in simple terms, because the string vibrates less by the bridge than it does over the neck pickup and therefore has less energy. Back in the day, the Gibson humbucker wasn’t wound for
“The earliest I saw the ‘set with hotter bridge pickup’ concept was 1972” Tim Shaw
position, neither were Fender’s single coils. However, guitar companies (and players) were certainly aware of this bridge/neck ‘problem’ and in certain cases would select the hotter pickup for the bridge position. So a 1976 Guild S-90 that has untouched pickups and controls offers us a measured DCR of 7.05kohms (bridge) and 6.95k (neck), a variance of under two per cent, which would probably have been under the factory spec. It might be coincidence, of course. Plenty of old Les Pauls and even Strats have it the other way around, and this is one reason why neck pickups are very often screwed much further away from the strings than those at the bridge.
Exactly who the first company or indeed pickup maker was to offer ‘hotter’ bridge pickups, thus creating a so-called matched set, I’m afraid I can’t answer. I’ll hazard a guess, though, and suggest it was the advent of classic-to-heavier rock styles that heralded the change developed by the early aftermarket pickup makers such as DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan, and pioneers like Bill Lawrence.
I checked in with Fender’s pickup guru Tim Shaw, who had some confirmation: “The earliest I know of the ‘set with hotter bridge pickup’ concept on guitars is the Super Humbucking set Bill Lawrence designed for the Gibson SGs with the big Schaller tune-o-matics. I saw these in our repair shop in late 1972; I don’t remember exactly when they came out. They were the potted ones with ceramic magnets.
“In this case, the bridge pickup had as much wire as a standard humbucker and the neck pickup had less,” Tim adds. “Bill used the ‘increasing output’ concept on the
Gibson S-1 guitars and Grabber basses as well, though on these I recall they got hotter magnets rather than more wire. Going back further, the bridge pickup on a Jazz bass is hotter than the ‘neck’ pickup. They have the same number of turns, but because the magnets are spaced further apart to allow for string spacing, the effect is a longer coil and a hotter bridge pickup. That’s all I can think of right now – hope it helps.”
Chatting to Tim earlier in the year this topic came up in regard to the new Cunife Fender Wide Range pickups that clone the 70s originals. Back then, he reminded me that they were never wound for bridge or neck positions – a change that will be rectified when they become available as aftermarket parts later this year.
Becoming a guitar nut during this period meant the hotter bridge concept was a musthave, but I must say that today, especially if you’re chasing more vintage-y and often cleaner tones, the one size fits all set – such as PRS’s 58/15LTs – is rather appealing.
That should give you something to think about till our next issue.
In the meantime, if you have any modding questions, or suggestions, drop us a line - The Mod Squad.