Seymour Duncan Bridge Pickup

[shakyhands]

my brother has a tele clone guitar with an unknown neck pickup. It has a good neck and looks good and he was given a seymour duncan bridge pickup. He installed it and it sounds great but when he switches to neck pickup, it really dies in volume. Would that be because the duncan pickup has a higher output than the generic neck pickup?

[Black Mariah]

The bridge pickup will almost always be louder than the neck, but it shouldn't be such a drop that you have to turn up your amp to hear the neck pup or anything like that. You might want to double check the wiring and make sure it's hooked up correctly.

[shakyhands]

Just found out from my brother that a couple of days after he wired it up. He was playing at a club and some moron fell on the stage knocking his axe over. The pickguard broke and the next morining one of the guys in his band wired things back up as some of the wiring got damaged. Apparently this guy hasnt done much soldering or wiring, so its possible there may be a dry joint or whatevr. So I'll get to the axe and check wiring.

[Black Mariah]

*SHUDDER*

You know why I started repairing my own gear? Situations JUST LIKE THAT. "Nah, don't take it to some loo-theer that'll charge you $10... let me fix it!" Yeah right, Bubba. Thanks but no thanks. I'd rather dip my nether regions in boiling cold sulfuric acid than let you loose with a hot poker near my guitar.

[westhemann]

The bridge pickup will almost always be louder than the neck, but it shouldn't be such a drop that you have to turn up your amp to hear the neck pup or anything like that. You might want to double check the wiring and make sure it's hooked up correctly.

depends on the type of neck pickup really...if you use 2 identical pickups(emg 81s for example) the neck pickup will be somewhat louder...because the amplitude of the string is greater at the neck position

most properly matched sets of pickup though use a slightly lower output at the neck to account for that..so in actuality they have the same actual volume(after amplifying)

but single coils are rarely as loud as a bridge humbucker..and as that is what a tele has...then you could probably experiment with some higher output single coils...duncan makes some good ones

and of course if the bridge is high output and the neck is too much lower..then you get what you got

[shakyhands]

thanks for the replies. I am aware that there is a little bit of difference in volume level between neck and bridge pickups and problem with this guitar probably more severe due to it getting knocked over and possibly poor rewiring, but I do believe pickups need to be somewhat matched and go along with westhemann re matched sets and compensating for differences with amplification at neck and bridge. and also his comments about high output in one pickup and possibly much lower output in the other. I suppose its a bit like building a v8 engine with factory manufactured pistons on one side and on the other I've got my homemade wooden pistons.

Thanks guys.