Best spot for a single pickup?

[woodfab]

If a make a single pickup guitar, what is the most popular spot for it?

Neck, center, or bridge?

[Bizman62]

"Popular", huh?

That depends on what type of sound you want to achieve. You most likely already know that the neck position produces a mellower, warmer sound than the bridge pickup.

There's actually some math and physics involved in the positioning of pickups. The bridge pickup is usually exactly at 3/4 spot of the scale length which is also a node where you can pluck a perfect fourth harmonic. Similarly the bridge pickup is at such a node. If I've understood right the node will cut certain harmonies which is why the position is important. Standing waves and such... This study tells it all, maybe... And this is a bit more down-to-earth.

You may think that a fingered note will move the node off from above the pickup - and you're right! But if you compare the open string compared to the fingered fifth fret you'll notice the similarity in size of the wave patterns of especially the higher harmonics. On the neck pickup there's a node cutting one harmonic off while on the bridge pickup even the highest pitched harmonics are present.

[soapbarstrat]

I guess a bar, if he/she’s looking to hook up 

[curtisa]

11 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

The bridge pickup is usually exactly at 3/4 spot of the scale length which is also a node where you can pluck a perfect fourth harmonic.

Think you mean neck pickup?

11 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

And this is a bit more down-to-earth.

The concept that pickups were deliberately positioned by Fender, Gibson etc based on a particular harmonic relationship is unsubstantiated. Articles like that provide no references to back up their claims.

As builders all we really need to be aware of is that moving the pickup further away from the bridge makes the resulting tone warmer, and whatever aesthetic decisions about the look of the guitar are satisfied.

[woodfab]

Thanks for the great info. 

[Bizman62]

10 hours ago, curtisa said:

21 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

The bridge pickup is usually exactly at 3/4 spot of the scale length which is also a node where you can pluck a perfect fourth harmonic.

Think you mean neck pickup?

Thanks for correcting! I seem to mix them all the time. Old age???

10 hours ago, curtisa said:

The concept that pickups were deliberately positioned by Fender, Gibson etc based on a particular harmonic relationship is unsubstantiated.

It may well be coincidental but for some odd reason the common locations seem have a harmonic relationship. Could it be something similar to locating frets? Before the "18 rule" they used movable frets tied around the neck and used the trial and error method to move them into the right places. And they used the 18 quite a long time until calculators made the usage of the 12th root of 2 easy enough. Thats some 500 years of fretting history. Compared to that a magnetic pickup still is a child trying to learn what they're capable of.

[curtisa]

43 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

It may well be coincidental but for some odd reason the common locations seem have a harmonic relationship.

I would think it is more to do with both tradition and aesthetics. I'm willing to bet the neck position was chosen largely because it looked good, added symmetry to the instrument and provided a good tonal contrast to the bridge and/or middle pickups where applicable.. If you moved the neck pickup closer to the bridge leaving a large gap at the end of the neck while leaving the bridge pickup close to the bridge, I think most people would view it as being 'lopsided'. That the neck pickup traditionally ends up at or near the implied 24th fret position on a 21/22 fret guitar, in the absence of confirmation from the manufacturer that the intention was to somehow capture one particular harmonic, in my view is coincidence.

Positioning a pickup to capture a specific harmonic node/peak is an impossibility on a fretted instrument. Positioning a pickup to satisfy an overall tonal characteristic, however, is entirely valid.

[woodfab]

Thanks for the feedback.

I see that harmonic placement should be considered but, doesn't that all change when playing bar cords? 

Years ago when I was in a band I always just used the bridge pickup.

[ADFinlayson]

If you're making something to play jazz, I would put the pickup in the neck position, if you're making something to rock, then bridge position. 

[curtisa]

1 hour ago, woodfab said:

I see that harmonic placement should be considered but, doesn't that all change when playing bar cords? 

Correct. Harmonic placement is irrelevant, as the position of any harmonic is never constant due to the way the instrument is played. If you took a 24 fret guitar and had your neck pickup somewhere around the implied 26th fret position, it wouldn't automatically sound warmer if you fretted at the 2nd fret, thereby realigning the string vibrations/pickup position with the 2nd harmonic.

If your sonic (and visual?) preference is for the neck pickup to be as close to the neck as possible, then on a 22 fret guitar it will invariably end up somewhere around the 24th fret position. But that doesn't automatically mean there's something about the harmonic correlation of that pickup position - it just happens to fall that way.

[Bizman62]

3 hours ago, woodfab said:

I see that harmonic placement should be considered but, doesn't that all change when playing bar cords? 

It does but not as much as you might think. For what I've understood the lower pitched harmonics have the biggest influence into the overall sound - a harmonic that's four octaves higher is still well within our hearing range but it's not "musical" unless you like to listen to mosquitos on steroids. I mean, if you can sing the note it's more "musical" than the one that's twice as high, don't you think? Or three or four times.

I had to test it with a capo just to make sure. What I found out is that although the 1/4 spot moves towards the bridge with every fingered fret, a) the distance it moves is only 1/4 of the distance from the nut to the fretted note and b) when the 5th fret (1/4) harmonic is going out of the pickup's magnetic field, the 7th fret (1/3) harmonic will be right above the pickup and c) after the 7th fret harmonic the 12th (1/2) fret harmonic is within the range. Thus there'll always be a singable harmonic close enough of the neck pickup.

[ScottR]

On 2/19/2023 at 3:20 PM, curtisa said:

As builders all we really need to be aware of is that moving the pickup further away from the bridge makes the resulting tone warmer, and whatever aesthetic decisions about the look of the guitar are satisfied.

This is about as true as it gets.

I typically place my bridge pickup a little further away than most because I like a warmer tone. If I were going with one only, I'd likely move it a little further away still.....based on my tastes.

SR

[Crusader]

To answer the OP's question. As ADFinlayson pointed out, Jazz guitars with one pickup have it at the Neck and Rock guitars have it at the Bridge. I think there are more Rock guitars out there than Jazz guitars so I would say Bridge is most popular