"hot" bridge pups

[lankybass]

Is there a bridge pickup that isn't "hot?" I've always understood that the bridge position on a strat/tele is meant for leads. Which makes sense because they're always ridiculously loud and they cut through with janky tones and.. I can't stand it at all. I NEVER (and I do mean never) use my bridge pickup. Not even with the middle pickup on too. The tone just does not suit my playing styles in the least.. In fact I just all-around hate how it sounds in general.

Would putting a "Neck" or "Middle" pickup in the Bridge position fix this? OR is it just the wiring of pots and what not? I just want something that varies tonally from the typical strat/tele bridge pup. I absolutely hate it even after three different sets of single coils in my strat and the two different tele's I've played (nash dx (with a Seymour Duncan SHR-1 Hotrail in the bridge) and a stock 52avri).

typically through a Peavey classic 30/112 or Fender HR Deluxe... if any of that helps at all...

Maybe i'm just not a bridge pup guy. I really digg the warmth I get from the neck and middle positions. I always use one of the two if not both.

Suggestions? Opinions? Am I an idiot? I'd like to know

[goodhonk]

[phillygtr]

Scott Henderson uses the same pickup for all three positions. He varies the pickup heights for volume matching (bridge p/u closer to strings, neck further away). I like this approach.

[guitarz1972]

I usually have to adjust the tone knob to take some edge off my bridge pickup - sometimes as low as 5-6. If your bridge is wired that way, you might try some different tone-knob settings.

[lankybass]

ha it took me a sec to get the joke up there, very nice

I've messed with the volume and tone knobs and I do have my pickup heights adjusted appropriately; and it's all just entirely unpleasant to my ears. Maybe I'm just not good enough to make the bridge pup sound good! Who knows. I'll figure something out. Maybe I can find a humbucker to squeeze in there somehow or something.. I just have to keep messing around.

Heck maybe I'll just buy a new guitar altogether!

[phillygtr]

Just to reiterate what I said earlier -- you can certainly use the same pickup for the bridge as you do for the neck. You just have to raise / lower them to get volume balance. It's a totally legit approach if you don't like the super hot / "my bridge p/u sounds like a different guitar than my neck p/u" vibe.

Originally Posted by lankybass

ha it took me a sec to get the joke up there, very nice

I've messed with the volume and tone knobs and I do have my pickup heights adjusted appropriately; and it's all just entirely unpleasant to my ears. Maybe I'm just not good enough to make the bridge pup sound good! Who knows. I'll figure something out. Maybe I can find a humbucker to squeeze in there somehow or something.. I just have to keep messing around.

Heck maybe I'll just buy a new guitar altogether!

[americananalog]

Originally Posted by lankybass

I can't stand it at all. I NEVER (and I do mean never) use my bridge pickup. The tone just does not suit my playing styles in the least.. In fact I just all-around hate how it sounds in general.

Ha ha. The bridge pickup is about ALL i use.
Keith Urban too.

[bigben55]

Agree to a point. Rarely use my strat bridge pickup, and i got a good one. But, if you don't like the tele bridge pickup at all in general, you just don't like tele's. That IS the sound of a tele.

[phillygtr]

Idiot me didn't see that you have a tele. Oops. Yeah it's hard to have the same pickups for that!

[champion ruby]

I never used my strat bridge till I started trying the ssl-5/ssl-6. Yes they are hot but you don't get that awful "janky" sound you are describing and I like the way they clean up. I had 57/62's before the switch and couldn't stand the bridge pickup.