80's shredders certainly popularized it, EVH coming principally to mind.

Honestly, though, I think I hear 5x as many solos done on the bridge pickup as on the neck pickup. :shrug:

 

I don't think in the 80s Eddie even had a neck pup did he? Wasn't it like the early 90s when he had his EBMM and it was the first of his models with dual humbuckers?

 

I don't think it specifically switched to the neck pickup, I think it's just about getting something distinctly different to the rhythm sound. In metal you don't use the neck pickup for rhythm, plain and simple.

 

You might have a point there. I'm not sure, then, who it was in the 80's abusing their neck pickups.

FWIW, I think James is right, and it's more driven by the fact that the bridge pickup became dominant for rhythms to maintain clarity and power while grinding out distorted and thick rhythm tones. Then maybe people realized that legato automatically sounds 1000x better when on the neck pickup and went for it. :lol:

 

Best lead tone. Evar.

 

Best lead tone. Evar.

:agreed: Anyone know what pickups Muhammed from Necrophagist uses?

 

How funny. It was a Necrophagist song I was listening to on Pandora One that made me think of this subject.

 

Of course it was, what else would make you think it? :lol:

 

I never thought either should be pigeonholed a "rhythm" or "lead" pickup. They're just different tonalities.

 

Sure. And Telecasters can be used to play extreme metal if you want. But probably less than 0.01% of extreme metal guitarists play Telecasters. It's just a different guitar style, after all, but unsurprisingly there is a great degree of comformity amongst metal musicians. It seems to be true whether we're talking about guitar types or pickup selection.

 

So, no one other than Wintersun then? :lol:

 

You don't need a neck pickup

:metal:

 

I assume metal lead was heavily influenced by hard rock lead. And in the 1970s, a ton of hard rock bands played lead guitar with the neck pickup.

But Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page is a good example of a guitarist who played lead and rhythm guitar in both bridge and neck positions, depending on what kind of sound he wanted. And there are tons of other sounds like that.

The whole "rhythm" label on the Les Paul comes from the "playing jazz guitar clean" idea. And, really... when playing jazz rhythm guitar clean, the neck pickup probably is the best choice.

 

Hendrix is the first one I can think of who used the neck pickup extensively for leads. Of course, distorted leads don't go back much further than Hendrix, so that may have something to do with it. :lol:

 

Best lead tone. Evar.

:agreed: Anyone know what pickups Muhammed from Necrophagist uses?

I know that Christian recorded that Seven solo, not Muhammed. If I remember correctly, Christian said he had PAF pros in the guitar he used.

 

Alright, Thanks :yesway:

 

Personally, I don't like leads on the neck pickup, just takes away all bite and aggressiveness in my opinion. Any time I ever hear the switch over it just sounds like the tone became a blanketed shadow of its former self.

 

That's exactly why I don't use the bridge pickup for solos as often as the neck. I usually don't want my solos to sound aggressive or biting. I personally love to have really smooth solos (neck) on top of really aggressive and biting rhythm guitar (bridge).

I'd say for the solos I play in my band's songs, it's about 70% neck pickup and 30% bridge pickup.

 

I only play lead on neck when I can't play a solo properly - hides some of the missounds. :rofl:

 

I like switching between both pup's (sometimes the middle one as well) in a solo...makes it sound more expressive...

 

I realised that I like bridge leads so much more. A fat bridge tone is unbeatable imo (think Timmons or Akerfeldt leads). The problem is that you need a pretty bright neck pickup if you go with this approach so it doesn't sound mushy when you switch.

Nowadays I only use the neck pickups for cleans and bluesy stuff. All my leads and rythm come from the bridge pickup. It hides less mistakes and to me is more expressive.

 

I think i've always used the neck pickup for soloing since i started 22 years ago...nobody really told me to use a particular one, i just like the sound of it more.

 

I use the neck pickup when I want a more flowing, legato sound, and the bridge when I want a more percussive, biting sound. Sometimes I use the neck when I am up high on the fretboard too, so that some of the shrillness of that register is effectively EQ'ed out.

 

I'm the opposite, if I want a smooth tone, I use legato, if I want it to bite, I pick. Changing the pickups halfway through a solo can get in the way of what I'm trying to play, and also means I have to plan my solo partly around when I can fit in the logistics of changing it, I'd rather it be purely based around what I want to play.

 

My impression is that the neck pickup is usually used for leads higher up the neck, and the bridge pickup is usually used for leads played closer to the nut. Perhaps this is mainly a function of the music I listen to (Vai, Petrucci, etc.), but I find this smoothes out the high notes and makes the low notes clearer.

 

I switch pickups based on the tonality I want, for the passage I'm playing. :yesway: This is why I prefer guitars with the switch located in a place I can easily get to from playing position, without having to reach over controls. :lol: