they generally get mushy and arent tight enough for rhythm especially the emg 60 ive had a lot of experience with that pickup
That depends wildly on the guitar! Gibsons have the neck pickup placed directly under the point where the vibrating string has its "knot" point. This point is like a massive phase cancellation and therfore there is greatly reduced harmonic content induced to the pickups windings.
i agree that neck pickups can sound tight enough for rhythm but your science is a little bit out. although its a common misconception that the neck pickup should be under a harmonic node (the 24th fret one) it doesnt actually make much sense in real terms
firstly, the harmonic node where the string is moving less
would produce a reduced signal like you suggest.... but its a very narrow focal point of the string. humbuckers are wide and even single coils wide enough so that they will see enough of the string for the node to be a non issue as far as phase cancellation is concerned. In fact a pickup is always louderin the neck position than it would be in the bridge position because, overall, the string moves a lot more in this position
secondly, that node may be in just the right place on open strings if you have a pickup under the 24th fret location
but as soon as you fret a note it moves. If you fret the first fret the equivelent harmonic node will be two octaves higher, or at the theortical 25th fret position etc..
now i will be the first to say that i prefer guitars with pickups under the 24th fret location, but its not because the node is there, its because its furthest away from the bridge pickup so gives greater tonal variation
