On a Gibson Les Paul the neck pick up says "rhythm" and the bridge says "treble," now I understand when Gibsons were made most rhythms were cleaner sounds that distorted by "turning up." That being said, I can't think of many players now that play rhythm on the beck pick up unless it's a cleaner or a jazzy sound. Most players I know of play rhythm on the bridge and lead on the neck for that trebly sound. Why is the Les Paul pickup selector labeled as this?
Les Paul Pick Up Selector
- Thread starter Omar
- Start date
Depends on the tone you want. Traditionally speaking rhythm guitars are thicker and warmer, and leads are trebly and biting to cut through the rest of the band. For a lot of styles of music I prefer the neck pickup for rhythm, gives a weightier and fuller sound - some guitars, like Strats, I almost never use the bridge pickup because they just get way too harsh. This often applies even to metal - I can get a huge sound of my neck pickup that works great for that "wall of sound" sort of tone (i.e. Primordial), but this doesn't work at all on the bridge, you tend to lose a lot of low end and richness. Of course, if all you play is djent/tech death/etc. then the greater attack and articulation on the bridge will be much more suited to you.
