


In some cases, you’ll have to turn the tone knob just a little bit down if you want to lose some of the excessive trebles in clean tones. In addition, the bridge pickups are usually played with the tone kob all the way up, using their maximum potential. While we’re at it, the tone of the bridge pickup really cuts through the mix on distortion or overdrive.Ī vast majority of those chunky heavy riffs that you hear in most of the hard rock and heavy metal songs is played using a bridge pickup, usually a humbucker.Īs opposed to the neck tone, the bridge pickup is a bit heavier on the treble side. Now, as stated above, both bridge pickup and neck pickup have their own roles in songs.

The differences are pretty obvious and can be heard right away, giving you more options to play around with and have more tones. It usually allows you to cut through the mix when playing with a band, giving you a tighter and more defined tone. The bridge position produces that “spanky” tone when played with no distortion, kind of what you would get if you played very close to the bridge on an acoustic guitar. The bridge pickups pick up the signal from the string vibration closer to the bridge, making the tone “tighter” and “punchier.” The bridge pickup has a sharper tone – more defined and with a bit more high-end frequencies in it.Ī vast majority of those distorted heavy riffs you’ve heard are played through a bridge pickup, most likely a humbucker. The first and the most obvious difference, aside from their position, is in the tone. Of course, there are different variations involved here, depending on whether the guitar has single coils or humbuckers or a combination of these two.Įither way, I’ll shed some light on this topic and, hopefully, you’ll be familiar with some basic differences by the end of this article.
