1 pickup guitars are no nonsense. Improved only by fewer knobs. 1 Pickup, Volume knob. Go.

On the flip side of this, I saw an interview with one of the dudes from Los Straightjackets, talking about his DiPinto guitar that he like's 'cause it's got 4 pickups. "I only use the bridge pickup". Just likes the look of a guitar with lots of stuff on it.

Seems like a good theory. I would guess [humanities idiot, disregard] it's some combo of the magnet pull stuff, plus maybe there being one or two fewer routes in the body. If there are one or two other factors that haven't been named in the thread yet, that's well on the way to a theory. A bunch of "unnoticeable" differences can make a noticeable difference cumulatively.

I don't think the routes in the body matter all that much. There are chambered and hollow body guitars. I'd imagine magnets would be a much bigger factor.

I think this is key.

Kniferide wrote: Fri Jun 27, 2025 5:10 pm My thought is that if you only have 1 PU you plug it in and accept that THAT is how that guitar sounds and you just play. More options means more fucking around and less a concrete consensus on if it is "good" or not. It's why I prefer any 2 pu gtr over any 3 pu guitar anyway.

I find with pedals, for example, that the more controls, and the more possibilities there are, the more chance there is that I'm never quite happy with it. Not exclusively, by any means, but more controls tends to mean more tinkering - what's the point of controls if you don't use them? - and more tinkering means the risk of being dissatisfied increases. If it's not quite there, the controls suggest you need to do more. A pedal that does that one thing - you either like it, or want it for that particular song or that band, but you're not going to waste time trying to get it do something it can't. A pedal that can do lots of different things can very easily become associated with endliess adjustment and frustration. Maybe the same goes for single p/up guitars.