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FDP Forum / Fender Guitars: Stratocasters / Strat middle pickup; love it, hate it or ignore it?

Previous 20 Messages

BuckeyeBlues
Contributing Member
****

Columbus, Ohio

Season to taste.
May 28th, 2012 11:52 AM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
I use all of the pickups in a Strat by themselves. I don't use the 4 and 2 positions. I find the middle pup works best for overdriven rhythm playing with the vol rolled back a bit. I also use it clean when playing jump or swing blues. It has a clear ring/chime that sounds great.

otisian

vancouver

One guitar Otis (but it has 10 settings)
May 28th, 2012 01:22 PM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
i use it 90% of the time when playing dirty but in series with (S-1) the bridge pickup...clean for soloing i usually go from bridge to neck (occasionaly stopping at the quack bridge and middle position)...but i DO use the middle alone, clean, when playing chords and singing...beatles and dylan songs etc....open chords and the odd barre...

but it lacks the extreme character of the other 2 pickups...however in series (not parallel), it really fattens things up almost like a humbucker, almost.

Steve Dallman
Contributing Member
*****

Merrill, Wisconsin

Ain't turned 60, but I got my blinker on
May 30th, 2012 03:23 PM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
I love it, hate it and use it...a lot!

telegib

Canada

May 31st, 2012 05:56 AM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
I hardly use it these days. Many years ago I used it most of the time for playing clean country style. Even then I wasn't getting the sound that I had wanted. I was too ignorant to know that it was the Tele I was looking for.

But if you wire up the Strat to get the neck and bridge pups together you can get some great tones similar to that tele mid position.

Clapton always gets great tone with his middle pickup. But Clapton gets great tone from anything.

fendrguitplayr
Contributing Member
*******

Greater Boston

Where suspense is never in short supply.
May 31st, 2012 11:27 AM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
With the dynamics of different venues/rooms, sometimes it's that middle pup that cuts through
and sounds fine, IMO.

archiestone
Contributing Member
********

El Californio

May 31st, 2012 12:46 PM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
Very fond of position 2 but rarely play middle pup on it's own.

Twangmeister
Contributing Member
*****

E NC

Covering it all from A to B
May 31st, 2012 01:16 PM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
Strat middle pickup is my favorite so much so that I have s Strat-style middle one on one of mt Teles.

tiller2
Contributing Member
******

USA

Jun 3rd, 2012 08:22 AM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
I removed the tone control from the middle pickup and added it to the bridge pup. That arrangement allows an easy switch to a clean tone (when wide-open, my middle pup is full and bright, not ice-pick). Having tone control on the bridge pup also gives some good options for experimentation.

jillfen

cuyahoga falls, OH

Jun 3rd, 2012 10:20 AM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
I tend to settle on #2 position and #1, but do use the middle pickup alone. Oddly, I hardly ever used the bridge alone or #5 position.

smurph1

USA

Jun 7th, 2012 09:11 AM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
Use the middle almost exclusively..Lead and Rhythm..

whall

Merry-Land

Another Mamby-Pamby Land Jackwagon
Jun 7th, 2012 07:40 PM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
At my church gigs I almost use the middle pup exclusively. It works for big strumming and palm-muting. I have AlNiCo2 pups and plug straight in to a PRRI. When not the middle, it's the bridge with the tone knob dialed back to 7 or 8.

I found the trick is to get the amp dialed in right. My PRRI needs the bass set to 10 and the treble set to 4-6 and then it sounds 'right'.

jay1vinton

Hawaii, USA

Perfect is the enemy of good enough
Jun 19th, 2012 03:46 PM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
I have found that even if you don't like a setting on the 5 way, use it anyway. The initial dislike gets replaced with curiosity and you eventually find good uses for all 5 positions.

Leaving it on a position, even a disliked one will eventually force you to learn the tone knobs, volume knob and all those little inbetween settings that create interesting tones from all positions.

I use the middle pickup as well as the others in different musical pieces.
(This message was last edited by jay1vinton at 03:47 PM, Jun 19th, 2012)

brawler

USA

Jun 21st, 2012 06:32 AM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
The middle pickup is critical to my best Strat tones!

I have found that I really like the second position on a Strat. My secret sound is to roll off the tone control on the middle pickup and combine it with the bridge.

It's not a "quack" type tone anymore when I do this. It more PAF-like than single coil. But the single coil clarity is still present. Rolling off the tone control makes it lose that phase-y honk that this combo in known to produce. It's such a cool tone.

Tone King
Contributing Member

USA

*** Stop knob noodling and play***
Jun 21st, 2012 02:06 PM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
I live on the middle PU
love it

CheapShoes
Contributing Member
*****

Midwest USA

Ride, shoot straight, speak the truth
Jun 22nd, 2012 06:30 PM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
This thread is freaking me out. I hate the mid pup by itself on any of my Strats. Creates an indistinct muddy tone with out of phase fuzzyness added on top. I love the bridge with tone rolled back and the 2 and 4 positions. What am I doing wrong? Are you diming the treble on the amp or something? Playing clean?

lost56

Netherlands

Peter
Jun 23rd, 2012 02:13 AM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
Love all 5 switch positions on a Strat equally!

Rick Plays The Blues

Austria

May I try that again?
Jun 23rd, 2012 04:25 AM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
Love all 5 switch positions on a Strat equally! +1

And I use all of them always. I could not really tell you percentages. I have some standard positions for beginning of some songs, but I am always switching through the 5 positions and tweaking the volume and tone knobs.
Only thing I need apart from "the standard" is that the bridge pup is also connected to the middle tone knob. And some pickups need a cap+resistor mod on the volume pot (yet not all) to improve tweakability.

Anyway, this changed through the years. In the past, I always had a clear plan, when to use which pickup and so on. I could calculate exact percentages because everything was absolutely planned. And I had my favourites on the 5-way, which changed however over the years.

But it seems I am currently in phase where I start to care less and less about many details of the equipment. And I am inverting the "use what works" to "whatever you use, make it work for you".

Anyway, I'd be irritated if a Strat had no middle pickup position ...

otisian

vancouver

One guitar Otis (but it has 10 settings)
Jun 23rd, 2012 01:18 PM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
Ritchie blackmore certainly had no use for it...lol.

ecfan

New Jersey USA

I-IV-V
Jun 23rd, 2012 06:15 PM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
"My secret sound is to roll off the tone control on the middle pickup and combine it with the bridge."

Tried this today for the very first time. Yes, it IS cool. I always kept my tone controls on ten, and loved the quack, but this roll off thing in position 2 is a whole other sound, and I like it!

Froggy

U.S.A./Florida

Frogs are lucky, they eat what bugs them
Jun 23rd, 2012 06:48 PM Edit Profile Print Topic Search Topic
I use the Middle pickup mostly for Chords and the
Bridge for Lead playing on the E,A,D strings and the Neck pickup for the G,B,E strings!

Previous 20 Messages

FDP Forum / Fender Guitars: Stratocasters / Strat middle pickup; love it, hate it or ignore it?

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