What do you like to use for clean tones? (Guitar/Pickup)

[53Crëw]

Just curious what you guys prefer for clean picked guitar parts... I've most always just used a bridge humbucker, but I'm rethinking that... Do you prefer a neck single coil? Neck humbucker?

Looking for other suggestions/curious what others like...

Cheers.

 

[LowellWolfe]

Middle position on pickup selector.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Passive humbucker in the bridge.

 

[StefTD]

really depends on the sound I am after, for a very clean sound with lots of attack, I like using
a bridge humbucker with the volume rolled back a bit.

For more "classic" clean sounds, I use the neck pickup, at best a single coil, but I really like
the middle position on a humbucker equipped guitar with the bridge pickup volume rolled back
a bit or on a strat the positon between the middle pickup and the neck pickup.

For blues cleans, almost always the neck pickup, digging a humbucker there more and using
single coils for clean leads to cut through.

My favorite clean sound is a telecaster's middle position through a Vox AC30 or a Fender Twin.

Btw. for EMG equipped guitars, neck humbucker always or with EMG SA single coils middle or
neck position, otherwise it's just too "hi-fi" for me.

 

[BLUElightCory]

I like deep, glassy, piano-like cleans, so I'll almost always use a guitar with single coils like a Tele (usually in the neck position as a starting point). Humbuckers usually sound a little choked in comparison to me, though you can get some great tones with them. Like StefTD, I'm partial to Vox and Fender amps for cleans.

 

[egan.]

I really like singles in the neck for cleans.

 

[MrBongo]

middle or neck singlecoil thru my heavily modded fender champ clone (not kidding)

 

[Sethis]

Depends on the sound I'm after. But I really like bridge humbuckers as I prefer gritty cleans.

 

[StefTD]

one of the best clean tones I've ever heard was the 40 year old telecaster my uncle owns
in the middle position through a Vox AC15 and a Fender Bassman clone with quite some reverb.

But I am more into John Mayer cleans for example then the stuff you hear on most metal records.

 

[Alphanumeric]

Neck pickup for more chordy stuff and warmer tones, ambient stuff, and the selector between middle and neck for that strat style neck sound, super glassy, classy.

Bridge pickups cleans generally sound like deth on metal guitars.

 

[B36arin]

I love my SD Jazz humbucker in the neck position of my Bjarnastein guitar. I've yet to hear better cleans come out of a guitar. I also really like single coils in the neck position. I usually strongly prefer the neck position to the bridge position when it comes to cleans.

 

[~BURNY~]

Any position on a Strat, neck position on a Tele, neck position on a Les Paul or ES335 for something more meaty.

 

[greyskull]

Telecaster or Jazzmaster into an Ac30... HEAVEN

 

[GRStudios]

Telecaster, Stratocaster or Gibson Les Paul Deluxe into Vox AC30 or Egnater rebel 30.

 

[botus99]

Strat or Tele (Tele most times)
Neck Pickup usually (with noiseless pickups hopefully!)
LDC on 1x12 combo or cab

 

[Nuno Filipe]

I can say that the bridge pickup on a ibanez for cleans sucks donkey balls. At least in my Ibanez uke: Clean it´s always neck pickup, I think single coils work better than hambuckers.

 

[Mago]

almost always single coil in the neck for my stuff, and if not then humbucker in the neck.
rarely anything with the bridge or both PUs for when I'm playing.

for some stuff the bridge seems to work better, if the sound has to be less glassy and more treble-ish/flater

 

[schwinginbatman]

I like the cleans from the JC120, an easy choice, but a classic. Those Queensryche and Metallica cleans are just great.

 

[Terminus]

I'm using a H-S-H set of SD Blackouts at the moment and the single coil handles cleans well. Lately I've just been EQing the DI and sending it through some light compression, delay and reverb; no amps or cabs at all. It's mainly to save cpu since on my latest project there are only two parts with clean guitars in 8 songs, but it ended up sounding pretty decent so I never messed with any preamps.

 

[53Crëw]

Thanks for the comments, guys. Think I'll experiment more with neck position singlecoils... Would be nice to try for solos, too.