Strat Middle Alone

[marnold]

As I was playing my Floyd, I got to thinking. Do any professional Strat players use the middle pickup predominately? Obviously the bridge alone and neck alone get used a lot, as well as the "quack" positions. The middle alone seems to be the "red-headed stepchild" position on the Strat.

 

[Robert]

It's the "plague"-pickup - everyone avoids it!

 

[Iago]

hehehe

I could name a couple people that use it exclusively for a song or another! thats as far as you can go on that middle pickup hehehe

 

[birv2]

Funny you should ask. I've just discovered a clean setting on my Behringer Vampire amp that sounds awesome on the middle pickup. Kind of a shimmery twangy snappy thing, if that makes any sense.

Previous to this, I have definitely always avoided it. I realize that lots of people love the neck pickup, but I've never really taken a liking to it. And I'm not crazy about the bridge pickup either. I'm on 2 and 4 almost exclusively, at least till I found this great clean setting.

Bob (Sweetness)

 

[Adrian30]

For the most part, I like neck and middle. I dodn't really use middle pick up only...

 

[Tone2TheBone]

I love the middle pickup position on a Strat. Especially in Jimmy Vaughan wiring mode....disconnected to the tone pot. It gives me a nice alternative to a bridge sound either clean or dirty. Wide open middle pup tone is the schnitz.

 

[marnold]

I love the middle pickup position on a Strat. Especially in Jimmy Vaughan wiring mode....disconnected to the tone pot. It gives me a nice alternative to a bridge sound either clean or dirty. Wide open middle pup tone is the schnitz.

All of mine are disconnected inasmuch as I don't have a tone pot The position is kind of hard for me to judge because the single coils in my Floyd are missing that brightness one hopes to have from them. I think the middle position could be interesting. It cuts through better than the neck, but isn't as "twangy" (not the right word, but I can't think of another one other than "bridgey" which isn't a word) as the bridge. I could see it being nice for pseudo-acoustic things.

 

[Tone2TheBone]

All of mine are disconnected inasmuch as I don't have a tone pot The position is kind of hard for me to judge because the single coils in my Floyd are missing that brightness one hopes to have from them. I think the middle position could be interesting. It cuts through better than the neck, but isn't as "twangy" (not the right word, but I can't think of another one other than "bridgey" which isn't a word) as the bridge. I could see it being nice for pseudo-acoustic things.

Tell me again what pups you got as singles on the Floyd?

 

[Spudman]

Marnold
What is the value of the volume pot? You might be able to brighten up the singles by changing it.


A cool sound that I like with the middle is with some distortion or gain and the tone rolled all the way off. Kind of flute like.

 

[duhvoodooman]

Not all that hard to add a tone pot, if you want one, as long as there's enough room already routed out under the pickguard....

BTW, I like the middle pickup tone on a SSS Strat better than the bridge, personally.

 

[Tone2TheBone]

....BTW, I like the middle pickup tone on a SSS Strat better than the bridge, personally.

Me too. It was my "Sonny Landreth" sound....then I got the Virtual Vintage Blues bridge pup and that fixed things right up.

 

[marnold]

Tone: the pups are generic Chinese-made jobbies. When I emailed Floyd about them, they couldn't even give me specs on them. I measured them myself for the review I wrote. They're not terrible. I just prefer more shimmer. They're also noisy as all get out, even for single coils. The Dimarzio Area '61s will take care of both issues. Conversely, I like the stock humbucker quite a bit. I'm considering replacing that one too, but more to differentiate its tone from my Fender than any fault with the pup. The singles go first, then I'll worry about the humbucker.

Spud: I believe that it is a 500K already. The pups themselves are just rather middy.

DVM: There probably would be room for a tone pot, I'm not going to bother, however. If I would, I'd probably just go with a concentric pot. I think I'm going to stick with the plan from the other thread and replace the volume pot with a push-pull pot to add the bridge-neck and all-three pickup combos.

 

[Jimi75]

I do not really like the middle position...

When I saw Robin Trower live two years ago he played the entire show using the middle pu - and guess what - it sounded great.

 

[Bloozcat]

I love the middle pickup position on a Strat. Especially in Jimmy Vaughan wiring mode....disconnected to the tone pot. It gives me a nice alternative to a bridge sound either clean or dirty. Wide open middle pup tone is the schnitz.

Ditto....

All my Strats and clones are wired like this. I find the middle pickup very usable.

I agree with DVM about the bridge pickup too (single coil). Except in very high gain modes, or mixed with the middle pickup, I find the bridge pickup to be my least favorite.

 

[Jampy]

I tend to use 2nd or 4th position, I can't even remember using the 3rd on it's own..I'll be trying it tonight..

 

[tremoloman]

Very good description... I love it in use with the neck and bridge, but alone it is NASTY.

As I was playing my Floyd, I got to thinking. Do any professional Strat players use the middle pickup predominately? Obviously the bridge alone and neck alone get used a lot, as well as the "quack" positions. The middle alone seems to be the "red-headed stepchild" position on the Strat.