Pickup EQ question

M

Mike5226

Member
I have a guitar with only a humbucker in the bridge position. Is it possible to get a good neck pickup tone using an EQ block? Has anyone tried this?
I've had less than desirable results trying to figure it out on my own.
 
It's worth trying at least. I'd use the parametric EQ block with an insane mid scoop in the low mids, 200 - 500 Hz-ish, boosting the lows to the point where the pickup sounds flubby, then add a peak between 5 and 7 kHz if you want to mimic a single coil, or 1 to 2 kHz if you want to mimic a neck humbucker. Reduce the overall level of the block by ear. I think you could get damn close, but you might just have to do a lot of patient tweaking. Good luck!
 
Was there a guitar that you could move the pickup back and forth or am I imagining that? It may have been a bass.
 
State of Epicicity said:
It's worth trying at least. I'd use the parametric EQ block with an insane mid scoop in the low mids, 200 - 500 Hz-ish, boosting the lows to the point where the pickup sounds flubby, then add a peak between 5 and 7 kHz if you want to mimic a single coil, or 1 to 2 kHz if you want to mimic a neck humbucker. Reduce the overall level of the block by ear. I think you could get damn close, but you might just have to do a lot of patient tweaking. Good luck!
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I'll give that a try! Thanks!
 
Here's what I have so far, tweaking the settings provided by State of Epicicity (thank you again). I auditioned it through the Brit JM45 amp model through a 4x12 greenback IR and a little bit of the Bender Fuzz. It could still use some tweaking, but my ears are getting tired, lol!
 

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  • Neck pickup sim_20231023_192329.blk
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Dude! Very cool! This so has to do with your guitar specifically, it might not translate well to another, but I like where you were headed. Now, what I gave you for frequencies was totally just off the top of my head, and the Q is really really really really really important here, so those need playing with. I started tweaking on my own, but tweaking for my bridge won't sound like yours and will only help so much.

Here, I don't know if you're looking for a Strat, P90, or Humbucker in the neck, but I did a tone match of my JB bridge to my noiseless Strat neck (Artec Giovanni GCS-LN). This could sound like garbage on your guitar, but it's something. It sounded good on my guitar with this preset, convincing enough where a PEQ after would seal the deal. I've uploaded both the esported IR as well as the tone match block itself, where you can see the actual frequencies that were cut and boosted. With the tone match block, when matching pickups, I've found it can be best to use a fair amount of smoothing too.

If you want, record a short direct dry track of you playing through your bridge pickup and upload the file here. Upload a preset you like too and let me know what kind of neck pickup you're looking for; hell, link to a youtube video of someone playing with a similar tone for reference. If my noiseless single coil will work, I'll tone match it for you and we can see if you can just use that. This is my only functional guitar right now, so if you want a P90 or neck humbucker tone, we may have to ask for some kind soul to lend a hand by providing their own direct dry track copying what you played to tone match. Even if the matches don't work for you, you'll be able to see broadly what kinds of boosts and cuts to make. We'll see if we can make this happen.

Also, if you have a buddy who has a guitar with a neck pickup you like, you can just tonematch that yourself on the spot. I set the config page of the tone match block a particular way, which you can see in my block library file here. Just put it right after the Input 1 block.
 

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  • Bridge Hum to Neck SC Simulatio.syx
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  • JB to GCS-LN Match_20231023_210555.blk
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Thanks for the help. The guitar I'm using it for is a 2004 Squier Bullet Strat with a single bridge humbucker. I picked it up as a cheap backup guitar for gigging. I put locking tuners, a real fender string through replacement bridge and ferrules, and I swapped the pickup for a Duncan P-Rails. My main guitar for gigging is an Ibanez Jem Jr.
Even though I don't have a lot of time over the next couple days due to work, I will try the patch and the tone match in a couple days and let you know how I make out.
Thanks again!
 
Mike5226 said:
Thanks for the help. The guitar I'm using it for is a 2004 Squier Bullet Strat with a single bridge humbucker. I picked it up as a cheap backup guitar for gigging. I put locking tuners, a real fender string through replacement bridge and ferrules, and I swapped the pickup for a Duncan P-Rails. My main guitar for gigging is an Ibanez Jem Jr.
Even though I don't have a lot of time over the next couple days due to work, I will try the patch and the tone match in a couple days and let you know how I make out.
Thanks again!
Click to expand...

I’m a P-rails fan, good choice. How are you handling the switching for the pickup? You could put a neck pickup in that guitar if you wanted to. I put a P-rail in my Strat and used 2 S1 switches to change modes.
 
skolacki said:
I’m a P-rails fan, good choice. How are you handling the switching for the pickup? You could put a neck pickup in that guitar if you wanted to. I put a P-rail in my Strat and used 2 S1 switches to change modes.
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I got the triple shot pickup bezel that has the two little dip switches on the upper side for the switching. I did consider buying another pick guard and putting different pickup configuration, but decided to leave as close to stock as possible.
 
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