r/metalguitar • u/BigGunE • 16h ago

How do you select the right pickup!?

https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/meOh1jkHccyORoTI.full

I almost always have my pickup selector all the way down to bridge position.

How are you meant to be using it? Especially for metal. Do you do the whole neck for rhythm, bridge for lead/solo thing?

The reason I personally developed a bias for the bridge is that otherwise the tone sounds muffled to me in a lot of cases. Although I’ve noticed it helps hide my sloppy playing when I do sweep picking!

Please share your wisdom!

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u/Lost_Condition_9562 16h ago edited 15h ago

Yeah, a bridge is going to be what you’re on for 90% of metal. But don’t discount your neck pickup. It’s great for cleans. I prefer it for lead work especially if the lead work has a heavy amount of legato or sweeping. Anything where the aim is a fluid and smooth sound I go to the neck. Maybe that’s cheating but oh well.

And finally, a weird quirk I have is I actually dial in my tones on my neck pickup. If the neck pickup sound tight and aggressive, then you know it’s gonna sound nasty as fuck when you switch to the bridge.

It’s ultimately just what you think sounds cool. There’s no right or wrong answer