Neck Pickup Paranoia?

[j2379]

I've always found the best way to cover up shitty playing is with a bit of delay. Covers it nicely...

I don't listen closely enough nor do I really care what pickup you use. If you suck, you suck...

+1 nothing like some delay , maybe some chorus or flange & a huge amount of gain to help hide bad playing. i suck so.....i should know

[Alvin_Wilson]

Dave Murray uses the neck pickup when he plays a solo. He is a great player and I love that tone he gets from the neck pickup.

[Snoogans]

I used to be in a band with a guy that thought he was the shit, every solo the same thing happened:

flip to neck pick up, tremelo pick and flap the fingers over all the strings between the 12th and 15th fret, end with a couple of out of tune bends and perhaps a whammy shake/dive.

Hey, that bastard stole my technique!
Oh, hang on, where was this band you were in from...?

[imaguy2]

I personally love the tone of a good neck pickup lead. I do think that it can be used to hide sloppy playing sometimes, but a worse culprit is huge amounts of gain.

[Endrik]

yep, lotsa gain hides mistakes, I'd like to see many of those so called master shredders play with Larry Carlton's rig for example... to see what kind of masters they really are

[sonicsamurai]

most of my favest solos are bridge pickup. my favest neck pickup solos tend to be blues ones...gasry moore etc. but the pickup sound doesn't make a good solo by itself!!

[horns666]

I play with LOTS of gain, delay, and my neck pickup..because I'm a gay guitarist!

I'm not a gay person..I'm just gay with a guitar..

[Norton]

Alright, I'm not too sure if this is the right forum to be posting this in, but I'll give it a shot.


I guess I'll start this out as a question. Is anyone else bothered by sloppy players that cover up their sloppiness with the neck pick up? I notice this happens to be the case a ton of times when kids from all over try to play something way too fast, something way too difficult for them, or something that's just straight up obnoxious. A lot of my friends know me to be a firm believer in the bridge pick up when playing Arpeggios, Speed Runs, weird picking patterns, etc.. I view the bridge pick up as displaying exactly what you're playing, and (in most cases) it doesn't cover up your mistakes. I'm not saying that the neck pick up is always a cover up for sloppiness, because a lot of great clean tones and nice clean melodies should be played really smooth, via Neck pick up. But I for one cannot stand the neck pick up while playing on distortion, to me, it's just a cover up (in a lot of cases), and it's just a pet peeve of mine whenever I hear anyone trying to play some song that heavily relies on sweeping, and you just hear the toggle switch flip up, and the rest is just string noise. But hell, it's smooth string noise. I don't know if it's me being paranoid, or some players just not giving a shit how sloppy they are.

My rant has many counter-points, because there are a lot of amazing players that rape the neck pick up, example : Yngwie Malmsteen or George Bellas. Great players, and they prefer the neck pick up. Those guys are also great players though, they use the neck pick up for a different sound, not to cover up their sloppiness.

My personal view is that if you can master something on the hardest of difficulties, the most unforgiving settings, you can really make shit scream with easier scenarios. If you can make something sound great with a terrible guitar, the bridge pick up, and a terrible amp , imagine what you could do with an amazing guitar, the neck pick up, and an amazing amp.

I guess everyone has different ways of viewing the case, and maybe some other players really don't give a fuck if they're sloppy or not..But hell... When people try to cover up their sloppiness with the neck pickup... It makes my piss boil.

Anyone else agree?

My thoughts ,exactly. I agree with you %100.

[åron]

+1 on the delay, chorus, reverb, distortion tactic. When I'm having an off night my pedals are lit up like a christmas tree, but when I'm on I often go through whole songs completely forgetting about effects.

But changing volume and pickup selection gives better tone. I guess that makes me sound better too; isn't that what we are doing in search of tone? I know that if anything makes the song better, I will do it.

This guitar as competitive gymnastics thing is utter bs. The list of amazing shredders playing crap tunes is long so I guess that evens things out.

[Gartron]

Hey, that bastard stole my technique!
Oh, hang on, where was this band you were in from...?

:ROTF:

[GryphonGuitar]

I don't think the problem is in the neck pickup per se... I love the sound of my neck pickup, it gives me that rich, full, warm sound that I grew up loving when listening to stuff like Parisienne Walkways and all that - it's just a sound like any other sound.

Anything can be used to cover sloppy playing - Wah, anyone? Or a delay, a nice '80s "I can play guitar" chorus, overuse of the whammy bar, nonsense tapping licks because You can't pick worth anything, profuse amounts of distortion... all of that.

But every single thing on that list can also be used tastefully. Wahs, delays, choruses, Floyd Roses, tapping and huge distortion are all tools. It's whether You're an artist or a caveman that matters. I won't apologize to anyone for using the neck pickup when I solo.

When it comes to pressure, and how well the notes sound - follow this very simple advice. Practise without effects or distortion. You would be surprised how sloppy and bad even the best guitarists sound when You take the reverb and delay off - but if You can't hear it You can't better it. When You can play a really fast ascending scale with a dry clean sound, it's going to sound SUPER clean when played with a compressed distortion.

My $.02.

[sevser]

I play/record most of my solos in the neck position...and I use delay...Live I usually play in the bridge position, just because I can't get to the switch fast enough...or I just forget.

I like the tone and feel...Not too concerned if anyone thinks it is to hide sloppy playing...If you have a decent ear...you know when someone is sloppy, no matter what their tone so...it comes back to...You can't hide sloppy playing from other players.

[NextInLine]

Jacksons Shred, don't get me wrong I'm not critisizing you but there's something I see is wrong. Never mind how the other players play, it can be sloppy or not, it's music. if it's good music it may not be performed in the best way but if it does the job it's ok imo!

I agree with you about how a neck pup affects the sound but if someone is making what he plays sound better by using the neck pup it's a good thing, not bad since the final product will be something better & you'll be hearing something better. That's the way I look at it.

Yesterday I was watching Alex Skolnick videos on youtube, and saw a comment like this "Alex made a mistake at 1:03" there are zillions of these comments but nobody comments about a note choice at x:xx

There's a friend of mine who can't play solos that clear and he's a bit sloppy, but he can write great things, and he's a very good guitar player to me, better than most of those rock solid players. Yeah when someone better at guitar plays his stuff it just sounds perfect but who cares, it's still him writing that piece of music

Think about it in terms of classic music, most of the great composers' stuff is being played by orchestras yet they still get the credit they deserve because people look at it in terms of composing and that should be the way imo!

[Outlander]

I've always found the best way to cover up shitty playing is with a bit of delay. Covers it nicely...

I don't listen closely enough nor do I really care what pickup you use. If you suck, you suck...

[VitaminG]

this thread is proving to be a goldmine of tips to make me sound better! Keep the great ideas coming