Why is it that some guitarists play without the neck pickup?

Question

I recently read an article saying that some of the best guitarists keep the neck pickup off while playing. Why is this?

Answer 1

The neck pickup provides more of a fatter lower pitch tone whereas you move closer to the bridge the tone is sharper and higher pitched.  Because of this the bridge pickup is typically used for playing solos and the neck used for rythym guitar playing.  It's not that better guitarists don't use the neck pickup, each has it's own tonal sound.  Actually Jimi Hendrix more commonly used the neck pickup.