Bridge and Neck pickup same?

[Dusty Chalk]

I know most bridge pickups are wired to have a greater sensitivity (provide more signal for the same string vibration), but I was looking at my PS Sc At, and it appears the bridge pickup is much closer to the strings than the neck pickup -- are the 58/15s the same pickup, and they're just positioned to provide similar signal in their respective positions? Can this be done with any pickup?

The reason I ask is that I have a very unique pickup (Benedetto B-7) that only comes in one flavour -- it's intended to be installed on a single pickup 7-string archtop, but I've installed one in one of my PRS 24/7s, and it came out great. I was wondering if I could get two different flavors of the B-7 by installing a second one in the other position.

 

[John Beef]

I can't answer your question about the 58/15s but one easy way to find out would be to measure the resistance in ohms. Just plug in a patch cable, make sure the volume and tone are at 10, then measure from the tip to the ring, and switch the pickup selector.

Back in the 50s they didn't have neck and bridge pickups. They just made pickups, and they put them in the guitar, and adjusted them up or down until they matched output. Nowadays, the bridge pickup tends to have more turns of wire for greater output. It's physics - the string physically moves further back and forth over the neck pickup than it does over the bridge pickup. Less movement over the pickup creates less of a disturbance in the magnetic field which creates less current which translates to less output. So beefing up the windings on the bridge pickup or setting it to be significantly closer to the strings are the only two options you have for getting the outputs to match. But really, the bridge pickup only needs to be so much beefier than the neck, and it's only relative to each other pickup in that guitar, so there's no right or wrong.

In your 7 string, you could definitely install 2 of those pickups. The bridge pickup would just need to be higher. They won't sound the same because of the physical movement of the string over each pickup will be different.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Sweet, thanks for the informative response. I suspected some of it, and appreciate all of it.

 

[greiswig]

Pickup makers also sometimes use different techniques in the neck versus bridge pickups that DC resistance won't reveal. For example, some prefer A2 magnets in the bridge, versus A4 or other in the neck. Also, the coils are sometimes balanced differently according to position, to fine-tune the tone of the pickup.

So you might get lucky, but you might not. Then again you'll never know at all unless you try!

 

[The Fight]

Some people install the same bridge EMG in the neck. I think it could work, and I really don't think they will sound exactly the same, the neck just might sound more focused.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Thanks again for all y'all's input -- very helpful and reassuring. I suspect even a small difference in amplitude would be alright, might be nice for a subtle dynamic shift. So I will try it.