Middle pickup love

[JB_From_Hell]

I see a lot about middle pickups being in the way of picking, using them as dummy coils for gum cancellation, etc... But very little about using them on their own.

Last year, I saw Chris Duarte do a clinic, and he mentioned riding the middle as his main tone, then going to the neck or bridge for more or less bass. He’s my favorite blues-rock Strat player, so I’ve been trying it for awhile. My current Strat has Tex Mex singles in the neck and middle, and I really love the middle with the tone rolled back a bit. My usual Strat setup is a tone for the neck, the other for the bridge, and none on the middle, but I think I’m gonna leave the neck without one.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Middle pickup love

You're talking about Strats obviously.

I never use the middle pickup by itself. There's nothing the middle pickup can do that the neck pickup doesn't do better.

I do like combining it with the neck pickup though. Bridge pickup too sometimes.

Jimmie Vaughan uses the middle by itself. A few players do.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Middle pickup love

Yes, Strats.

I think the middle does a better job of having a cool tone that the overwhelming majority of Strat players don’t beat the hell out of. I love it for the aggressive SRV-style blues riffing where you play one note but hit 3 or 4 muted strings with it. I suppose I’m glad everybody and their mom isn’t using it.

 

[TVFV]

Re: Middle pickup love

The middle pickup is excellent for crisp arpeggio playing. It also provides a different voicing when using gain that can be used instead of a an overwound single coil in the bridge. In fact, I believe overwound bridges are part of the reason they fell out of favor.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Middle pickup love

If you’ve got 3 pickups and 5 switch positions, you may as well use them all! I like the middle for a bluesy shuffle like Pride and Joy. Also, I’ve got a few Strats that use different pickups between all three positions. One has Dimarzio Injectors (hotter bridge, slightly hotter and juicier neck and bright middle) and another uses an APS-1 in the neck and SSL-1 in the middle. Both of these give a darker, more round tone for the neck and brighter tone for the middle, so depending on what tone I need it’s immediate available. I agree with TheViewFromVenus, the brighter middle pickups work great for cleaner arpeggios that need to be less aggressive than the neck and less bright than the bridge. I think a brighter bridge helps for more “quack” in the notch positions too.

Moving tone controls is a great tool in the toolbox as well. I usually have one for the bridge, one for the neck and I leave the middle open to keep the middle and bridge/middle brighter.

All just my opinion.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Middle pickup love

Scott Henderson has a super switch wired to bypass the tone control on the 2 & 4. Seems like a cool idea.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Middle pickup love

Scott Henderson has a super switch wired to bypass the tone control on the 2 & 4. Seems like a cool idea.

Bypassing the tone control is a super useful thing to do.

Seems to bring up the output a little and add clarity and reduce mud.

I have several guitars wired with no tone control on the neck pickup...but I can't live without a tone control on my bridge pickup.

BTW, most Strats have two tone controls, as we all know. If you have a tone control for the neck and a tone control for the middle, when you combine those two pickups you also combine those two 250K tone pots. That makes them sound like a tone pot turned down to 125K.

The resistance is halved just like when you combine two 8 ohm speakers in parallel you get 4 ohms.

So bypassing the tone control in #2 and #4 sounds like a great idea!

 

[Mincer]

Re: Middle pickup love

I use a super switch or megaswitch, so my middle position is the neck & bridge pickups. Much more useful sound to me.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Middle pickup love

I use a super switch or megaswitch, so my middle position is the neck & bridge pickups. Much more useful sound to me.

A standard pickup combination on modern Telecasters though.

When I play my Strat I use it more often than the middle pickup by itself.

 

[TVFV]

Re: Middle pickup love

Middle pickup alone is pretty good for HSH setup. I would be less tempted to add coil splits when the middle is a viable single coil option.

Sent from my SM-A205U using Tapatalk

 

[jeremy]

Re: Middle pickup love

i dont care for the neck/bridge tone on a strat as much as the middle alone. when i got a strat it was hss so i used the neck for single coil tones, neck/middle for quack, and the bridge for rockin. as ive matured as a player i find i like the middle pup by itself a fair amount and use it as much as any of the other positions. my main strat has a trio of antiquity II jaguar pups; neck in neck, bridge in middle, bridge w/baseplate bridge master tone, master volume. the middle sounds terrific! very clapton like and some nice lowell george slide tones

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Middle pickup love

My dad’s ‘73 Strat was wired for neck/bridge in the middle position. I didn’t care for it much, either. The notch positions are ok in general, but I liked them better on a non-rwrp setup.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Middle pickup love

I use the middle for rhythm/chord parts. Mixes and balances really well with acoustic guitars, e.g. stereo left/right mix.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Middle pickup love

Middle position is my home base on a Strat. No notch positions, set amp for middle. Click to bridge to go one brighter, or neck to go one darker. Middle is clean, straightforward, and midrangey. Bridge is stark and aggressive, nearing Esquire-like but a bit thinner. Neck is meaty but sweet. No knob fiddling while playing. Just pre set tones, and use your switch.

The Strat is designed around the middle pickup IMO...for the reason of exactly the way I just described using it. The Tele was originally designed around the neck pickup, as were the JM and Jag. When I say “designed around,” I mean that that tone is the tonal midpoint of the guitar, and you can go brighter or darker from there.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Middle pickup love

I've recently switched to focusing on jazz so my main ax at first was a neck humb only. I thought I'd try neck and middle hums just for the heck of it to see if I could get more sounds and things to fiddle with. I thought it might have just been a novelty but it is not. It sounds great! The neck provides the usual breathy throaty toans and the middle gives a more clucky, immediate, and percussive tone while still being fat and suitable for jazz. I could see it being very useful for live since it can be a crap shoot if you'll get the rig and room to sound very bright or very dark.

At the moment I have 2 strats set up xHH. 1 with flatwounds for full fat and 1 with roundwounds. I can even see the xHH roundwound suitable for general playing. Maybe with a super/maga switch. Mincer, I think you would really like xHH. Maybe with an A2P set.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Middle pickup love

I could even go without a middle pickup, like Ritchie's sig Strat.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Middle pickup love

^ Lame. J/k, but I would hate that.

Clint - Anders Osborne runs a Lil’ Screain Demon between two vintage singles in a Strat. Been wanting to try that for awhile.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Middle pickup love

That sounds pretty unique. I wonder what you'd go for in a setup like that. While watching a radiohead show, I noticed Thom put a humbucker in the middle of his Tele. I'm like wtf is that.

 

[esandes]

Re: Middle pickup love

The mid position in a strat is perfectly positioned to be neutral. The neck has emphasized bass and the bridge emphasized treble. When strumming like a rock star the switch tends to inadvertently get moved. I hate the sound of the 2 and 4 positions. Too out there to use at all.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Middle pickup love

^ Lame. J/k, but I would hate that.

Clint - Anders Osborne runs a Lil’ Screain Demon between two vintage singles in a Strat. Been wanting to try that for awhile.

I think his Strat also has a 2 position switch. Neck or bridge. I guess if that's all you use, then, sure, just have only that.