Direct-mounted pickups vs ring mounted?

[LEOKV2]

I heard along the way, that direct-mounted pickups produce a better tone, more "woody" and organic compared to that of a ring mounted pup. I have owned mostly ring-mounted pickups on my guitars except for an Ibanez RG1527 7 string. I remember putting SD Invaders on that one. Thing is, I couldn't notice a "big" difference, in fact, the pickups were way to far away from the strings and even after raising them they never did get that close, until the guitar tech did something to them and it was fine.

My guess is, if you add foam or plastic or whatever under a direct-mounted pickup, wouldn't that let the whole "woody" theory down? Like, the pickups are no longer in "direct" contact with the wood?

Is there something else to these besides maybe a "cool look" ?

[akoch]

I do prefer direct mounted pickups, but by all means don't expect any real difference in tone. Just a slight tiny bit. So in a way it is overstated, and I'm sure there are people who prefer one or another.

What I do like is that the guitar looks cleaner without the pickup rings, it is a good advantage in itself. But the guitar nees to be originally routed for the direct mounint of pickups. If you just remove the rings and fix the pickups, it will look not very nice to say the least.

[37fiat]

Personally I like the look of ring mounted pickups.
The direct mounted ones such as on some Ibanez guitars look odd, kinda naked.
I'm no expert in how pickups work, but it would seem that there wouldn't be a noticeable difference between the two soundwise.

Is it possible that the factories are just trying to save a few bucks by eliminating the pickup rings?

[texasfury]

Never take sonic advice from someone who touts how "natural" his artificially and electronically amplified guitar sounds.

[Sunbane]

Is there something else to these besides maybe a "cool look" ?

I think yes, but the difference is probably so small that it's irrelevant.

These are my personal thoughts and opinions in the matter:

Guitar pickups are electromagnetic. The movement of metal strings through their magnetic fields creates a current through the coils, which gives you a signal. This is fact, and it is how guitar pickups work.

The wood type in a solid body guitar influences the tone by its resonance. The strings makes the body resonate, which in turn influences the string movement - sort of a "feedback" mechanism. Hence why different woods affect different frequencies, as well as giving slightly different attack/sustain characteristics. The points in this paragraph may be debatable, but I think the majority of guitar techies agree on something along these lines.

The only way you would get any difference in tone from the way the pickup is mounted, is if the pickup mount A) affects the overall resonance of the guitar ...AND/OR... B) if it makes the pickup move in relation to the strings.

Now, for mounting methods - you have direct mount (with the pickup screwed all the way down to the wood), and the pup-ring mount, with springs. The big question here, is which method makes the pickup vibrate more or less (creating movement in relation to the strings). Theorietically, a pickup that is perfectly still would create a sound that is more "pure". Which one that is, I do not know - and I don't know how you would go about measuring it either.

I believe that the different mounting methods may make a difference to the sound - but that this difference probably is so small that it is inaudible and thus, redundant.

[delt]

Personally, direct-mounted == more sustain & resonance. Not a whole lot, but still noticeable. Especially with a hardtail or a (properly) blocked trem.

[Bengal65]

I have both and I can't hear the difference. Some may, but this has long been a debatable topic. I would think if you played anything other than crystal clean out of your amp, you would never know the difference.

[dg]

Great post, Sunbane. I feel exactly the same way. If there's a difference, it would almost have to come from either some kind of microphonic effect directly on the pickup, or be an effect of the pickup vibrating in relation to the strings. Like I said in the other thread, I'd like to see an experiment done using one guitar & pickup with both kinds of mount. Record it both ways with identical settings & analyze for everything like sustain & frequency response. Someone (I think either Chad or Lance) was planning on doing this a while back. It would be cool to see the results.