Pickup question

I need to know, are bridge and neck pickups built differently? The reason I need to know is because I've taken the neck humbucker out of one of my guitars and plan to use it in the bridge position on a guitar I'm building. Will it sound any different? And if it doesn't, could I get away without having a pickup selector switch?

not at all, i was trying to figure that our a while ago too... some pickups are better suited for other positions, but most of the time theyre interchangeable. its because the postion of them. the bridge is closer to the bridge and higher up and the neck is lower down and closer to the neck so more and wider string vibrations...

Not entirely so EMB.... most of the time the bridge pickup is wound with a higher resistance so it has a greater output. An excellent example would be a Tele. The "twang" from the bridge is due to higher output/resistance and metal plating in the pickup.

Without knowing more details on the pickup, I could not say whether or not you will have a different sound. Also due to the position, your frequencies of the note will be different. So if you want one specific sound or the pickups to be in-phase then no you do not need a switch, otherwise yes you will need a switch.

As for your question on the selector switch, you will not get the same sound out of the same pickup if you put it in the bridge or in the neck. The location of a pickup is a science and is very important

ik, im saying most are switchable, but some are made for their position.

yeah the selector switch switches which pickup is used. without a selection switch you are just hard-wired to whichever pickups you've connected. so if you connect the bridge and neck in series, then you will always be using both pickups there is no way to isolate one. basically you are limiting your tone choices.

what kind of guitar? i did some research on ibanez before buying my artcore, their website is very informative as for what parts are used in their guitars. if you look up a specific guitar model it will list the serial numbers of all the parts used. bridge, pickups, everything. other guitar makes may be a little more clandestine about the specifics of the parts used, but it wouldn't be difficult to find out with a little research on the web