Strat Middle Pickup RW/RP?

[jdier]

On a standard strat (meaning any regular off the shelf strat) is the middle pick up ALWAYS reverse wound/polarity?

My strats all have the classic quack sound in position 2 and 4 and I have always assumed that this came from the RW/RP set up of the middle pick up.

Am I off base here?

[Jeff_H]

Re: Strat Middle Pickup RW/RP?

I don't know that I would say ALWAYS, but I would hazzard a guess that 80-90% are. I bought a set of Fender Custom Shop 54's and they do not have a RW/RP middle.

I think it's all personal taste really. Some will say for a true vintage sound you don't want RW/RP - they quack better. Some say the quack is better with RW/RP plus the hum cancel in pos 2 and 4. Some people say Elvis is still alive.

[Curly]

Re: Strat Middle Pickup RW/RP?

wow, good question!

at the risk of sounding ignorant, I don't really know, and I looked in my strat books, too

but, I think the early ones were all wound the same .. remember that the notch positions weren't "officially" there till later - that is, the early strats had the 3-position switch, and it was really player demand that got it changed to a 5-way later ... I wouldn't be surprised if it was around the same time that they began winding the mid pickup RW/RP ...

but don't quote me on that - just a guess on my part