strat and tele bridge pickup angles

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

If it was that simple, then when you played above the 15th fret the neck pickup would sound like a bridge pickup and if you play such that the wave peak was right over the bridge pickup, the bridge pickup would then sound like a neck pickup. I actually find I can distinguish between pickup positions MORE in the upper positions. Do some high neck Tin Pan Alley (SRV) sorts of things - the neck pickup will sound distinctly throaty while the bridge will have lots of edge and attack. And yes, those sorts of licks sound different when the neck pickup is moved away from the 3rd harmonic node. You can make the two pickups sound more alike in open position licks by changing right hand (if you're playing right handed) technique.

[jason lollar]

no man- youll never be able to play high enough for the antinode of the fundamental to be centered over the bridge pickup- thats silly.

" I never implied that the harmonic itself impacted the tonality of the pickup"
Alot of people do believe that though!
Like RT I have always been concerned with the fact that as soon as you fret the string your node location changes- besides why would you want a node over the pickup? Doesnt make any sense

[Mark Hammer]

Until you play way up the neck. Mag pickups divide the string by a constantly changing ratio depending on where the player is fretting notes. Guitar players have learned to take advantage of the constantly changing harmonic recipe so if they are playing a lead on the neck pickup, they may start off in first position with that neck pickup in the mellow range of the string division ratio, and then they will go higher up the neck and the tone will literally change. There will be a spot where the fundamental antinode is right about over the neck pickup...the sound will be fat...and then as they go higher, the neck pickup will start emphasizing higher harmonics as it becomes closer to the fretted end of the string than the bridge pickup. The neck pickup shows the greatest harmonic recipe change, and can be exploited for that.

I'm gonna say yes and no to that, since not all instruments implement the conditions that permit that to be as true as it might be.

On guitars with very long necks and shortish scales, like the SG and Epi Wilshire/Coronet/Crestwood, there isn't a helluva lot of room between the neck and the bridge. Equally important, those guitars join the body waaaaayyyyyyy up high so that the neck pickup can't be snuggled right up against the neck, lest the glue joint be too weak. I find in those cases there is generally only very modest tonal difference between the "neck" and "bridge" pickups.

I many respects, though, this is the exception that supports your rule. It is precisely because they do not show the same sort of change, relative to the "end" of the string as you move up the fretboard, that this occurs.

Finally, it's also fair to note that not only does the neck pickup's position change, relative to where the various harmonics occur on the string, but that the likelihood of generating those harmonics changes as well. The higher up the string you go, the stiffer it gets (on the vibrating side), and the less prolonged harmonic content there is. That's one of the reasons why octave-down effects almost always work "better" above the 7th fret; less harmonic content to misdirect the fundamental detection.

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

I don't want the node to be over the pickup. Unless you're doing pinch harmonics or trying to play Portrait of Tracy, it isn't all that meaningful. I was just using that as a reference point. If you measure from the bridge on a les paul or a strat to the neck pickup you'll get different measurements, but what they have in common is their location in relation to the 3rd harmonic node. The node itself is meaningless. It makes much more sense to me to talk about pickup positions as a variable in relation to scale length instead of discrete measurements unless we agree that we will only discuss one scale length.

I agree with you Jason... I think it is silly to consider that the relations to nodes is what made the neck pickup position meaningless once you leave open strings. I was making an intellectual experiment that if you played in certain points the changing positions of the nodes wouldn't be nearly enough to make one pickup position sound like a different pickup position. The fundamental always remains on the whole string length. Obviously you couldn't physically put the first, second or third harmonic anti-node above the bridge pickup, but by that theory the farther up the neck you are, the more a bridge pickup should sound like a neck pickup... which doesn't happen. If you have an "if you approach n" theory, it helps to know what n is... in this case it would be having the fundamental antinode above the bridge pickup.

Although, you COULD do it with a slide as an experiment... The neck pickup is under the 3rd harmonic node, one quarter of the way from either end of the vibrating length. Figure your distance from the bridge to the bridge pickup, quadruple it, go that much of a distance from the bridge to your slide and see if it sounds like a neck pickup.

Play at the 7th fret, the neck pickup is under the second harmonic node, 12th fret it is under the first harmonic node... that all is pretty meaningless. I'd venture to guess that differences heard in different positions of the neck are probably more likely attributed to the hot spots and dead spots of the neck or other acoustic properties; not to mention that intonation will behave much better in those frets (assuming a new set of strings) which would enhance the "sweetness". My classical guitar behaves much in the same way. The middle frets, 4-8 or so, tend to have the most volume for single note work.