In part iv we have learned about string vibration and some pickup placement rules, in part iv.2 we will learn how to place the pickups in our design.

We must place our pickups between the guitar bridge and neck, the vibration goes really low near the bridge and that means that the pickup volume will be low… so its a good idea to place your bridge pickup not too close to the bridge.

pickup placement - S-S-S and H-H configurations

As you can see in the picture above, the bridge pickups are not too close to the bridge to gain some volume and the neck pickups are really close to the neck to gain more bass. This two pickup configurations are the most common, in the left we can see three single pickups (like in a Stratocaster) and in the right pic we can see two humbucker pickups (just like in most Gibson or PRS guitars). We won’t talk about single and humbucker pickup differences right now, that’s for another post.

H-S-H configuration

The humbucker-single-humbucker configuration is one of the most versatile and complete pickup configurations, it allows you to play a wide range of tones.

HSS and SH pickup configuration

This ones are other pickups configurations that you can try, this ones are really interesting if your searching for new tones and sound.

In the next part we will show you how to place the bridge in your design!

Today we will learn how to place the pickups in our design.
This step is really important cause the pickup position will let us get the sound we are looking for.

As with headstock design, pickup placement has some rules we must keep in mind to get the best from our pickups.

1) Don’t place the pickup magnets under a harmonic node

2) It’s useless to put more than three pickups in a guitar, unless you really want to experiment with your instrument, if you want to build a “normal” guitar just use two or three.

Well… now lets explain what is a harmonic node, if you press a string slightly in some strategic points you’ll play a natural harmonic (we will explain natural and pinch harmonics in future guitar lessons).

Why this happens?

The string vibration is really complex and it doesn’t vibrates just with the main string note… it has a serie of vibrations that double, triple, etc the main vibration. This vibrations are called harmonics.

harmonic nodes

If we play a string and we don’t press any fret we won’t notice this cause the main vibration is too loud and it covers the other vibrations. To get the harmonic we want we just have to play the string in one of the nodes.

We will be talking about pickup placement in the next part… have fun with your guitar!