Les Paul pickup switch

[spycam]

I wanted to ask you, when the switch is on RHYTHM position, which pickup is actually being used?

Do you really switch picups from RHYTHM, when you play rhythm guitars to TREBLE, when you play solos or melodies?

I noticed, that with some distortions/gains, shredding with RHYTHM pickup sounds somehow muddy, not sharp, but i think it will be solved as soon as i get my ESP Eclipse

 

[~BURNY~]

Rythm=Neck
Treble=Bridge

Do you really switch picups from RHYTHM, when you play rhythm guitars to TREBLE, when you play solos or melodies?

No. Maybe it made sense in 1952 but certainly not today.

 

[spycam]

But do you use rhythm position for playing rhythms (muddy shredding) or treble one?

 

[punkrockacademyfightsong]

everyone with a bit of common sense plays ryhthm on the trebble position (bridge pickup)

 

[TheStoryteller]

Yes, don't ever ever get fooled by the naming of the switch positions. Would you trust this guy to know which pickup to use for metal rhythms?

(yes, that's Les Paul himself)

 

[xmarcelx]

I use bridge (treble) position 97%! I sometimes switch to neck when I let power chords
ring and the other gitarist is doing some lead...
The neck pos is cool if you want "fluid" sound on the high strings while doing lead...

 

[kaomao]

Would you trust this guy to know which pickup to use for metal rhythms?

Why not he's a big fan of meshuggah ahahhahah

 

[Sweetnothing]

I don't use the neck pickup, I have it disconnected, play with a emg85 at the bridge, and thinking of having the neck hole refilled

 

[billcraftmetal15]

To be fair, if you're playing jazz or anything clean, i generally stick to the names on the positions, neck for a good clean tone for chords, treble for and lead as you get that extra punch when playing clean

but on that note, complete it's pretty much opposite for any distorted stuff.

 

[JBroll]

Yeah, for Les' stuff the neck could stand down a bit, hence the 'rhythm' name, and then when he had to cut through the treble pickup was there.

Personally I go for a hollow kind of neck pickup sound for smoothness when I'm doing real out there stuff, and of course the bridge pickup is my rhythm pickup (although sometimes the coil-tapping on my Schecter can lead to some fun single-coil sounds that fill out mixes rather well), so it is basically opposite what the switch would say.

Jeff

 

[spycam]

thanks for all the replies!