Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

[spuds]

A question for you guys about strats.

What pickups do you use for different applications?

For example for bluesy lead, I'd go with the neck pickup. High gain rhythm, I'd go with the bridge.

What about clean arpeggio's? What would you use? Neck sounds nice and warm, but in the mix, does it just muddy the front of house sound? Wouldn't the bridge complement other instruments more?

Then what about clean strumming? What would you use then?

I always find that I perfect my tone at home... and when I play with a band, it reacts completely differently (obviously).

Comments please.

 

[Fender_Punk]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

neck - blues
neck & bridge out of phase - P-90 type sounds, good for new green day and some other stuff
all three pups in Series out of phase - great acoustic-electric tone
bridge & middle parallel out of phase - great true single coil sond, like the bridge one that was in my strat before the lace sensor, use a lot for ska when not playing my Tele.
bridge sound - great humbucking sound. Still has a good amount of high end spank.

I use pretty much all the posisitions, these are just the most used

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

Blues: Neck 75% -Neck/Mid 20%- Bridge 5%
Rock: Neck 60% - Neck/Mid 5% - Bridge 35%

 

[fenderiarhs]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

high gain lead sounds: bridge pickup
bluesy mild overdriven sounds: neck pickup
Clean: neck pickup or neck+middle (with some chorus)
funky rhythm: middle+bridge
telecaster clean simulation(!!!) :middle pickup

 

[Robbiedbee]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

Bluesy leads - neck pickup (sometimes, with tone rolled down, and distortion on

Clean bluesy/jazzy leads - neck/middle pickup

Rock - bridge rhythm, neck leads

Clean chord strumming is usually done on the middle pickup

When I feel like Mark Knopfler - bridge/middle pickups.

 

[bungalowbill]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

I use all the positions for everything. Play it where it sounds good to you.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

I use them all..........in all different ways!

 

[thespricket]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

i think the 4th position middle and neck is the most underated. great for clean arpeggios and chords. I have a JB in my bridge, so thats normally for rockin chords and some leads, other leads i use the middle with the tone rolled off all the way.

 

[Kac]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

Notch Positions. I almost exclusively utilize the 2 and 4 spots, if I had a two-way switch that only had those as options I wouldn't be very disappointed.

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

I have a HSS right now...
Neck, Neck + middle for clean Little Wing style arpeggios, sweeps, funky chords.
Bridge bucker (or bridge pickups when I have the chance) - funk sounds well, power chords, overdriven leads.

 

[tubeman87]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

Neck or Neck and Mid position w/tone at around 5. I really can't stand the bridge pup in strats.

 

[mrturtle_91]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

I use the bridge and middle together for more of a humbucker sound, the bridge when I want something a bit brighter, and the neck for playing jazz and blues.

 

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

A question for you guys about strats. For example for bluesy lead.... What about clean arpeggio's? What would you use? Neck sounds nice and warm, but in the mix, does it just muddy the front of house sound? Wouldn't the bridge complement other instruments more? Then what about clean strumming? What would you use then?

Hmm. Recently, for bluesy lead it's been either the neck, neck+middle, or middle, depending on how it sounds. I usually try all three, but I prefer single coil rather than notch position for those leads if I'm already playing in a notch position, simply because it sounds louder. Depends on a lot of things. I played such a lead ("God Of Wonders", Third Day style) clean using neck+middle with the semi-hollow simulator clean, then for lead switched to only the "Natural" distortion (like a mix between BD-2 and Tube Screamer).

Clean arpeggios, depends. If I am doing them slow, I'll add tap echo (quarter note -> triplets) with chorus, and from here it depends on how the rest of the song goes. If I'll be in the middle+bridge notch on a solo, I'll do arpeggios with chorus and delay on that same notch position. If the lead is natural distortion, I may do the arpeggios clean on the middle, neck, or middle+neck positions, or if I want more sparkle and brightness, I'll use middle+bridge.

As for muddiness, I hate it, so I try to avoid it. I try to play a warm tone, but sometimes bright is a good thing. As for complimenting other instruments, the guitar (in my opinion) is already mid-range enough, so if they keyboardist is in the normal middle range near middle C, I'll try to go up the fretboard and play high 3 string arpeggios with chorus and delay (usually a notch position). If the song needs more strumming rhythm, anything but bridge by itself works good for me (since my strat is default two tone config, i.e. no tone control of bridge pickup). If it needs more muscle, power chords.

Really it depends on a LOT of things. If you had examples of bands, music, songs, let me know. Lastly, sometimes the old-school open chord arpeggios work good with a natural distortion with/without tremolo in the middle pickup. Me, I use my middle pickup a lot, notch positions and alone.

 

[LesStrat]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

Considering LesStrat is setup

HR/CR/HR

My pickup choices are rather different than normal strat selections.

 

[Philcguitars]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

On a Strat, I pretty much live on my Neck p/u. Unless I'm trying to match the tone of a particular song by another artist. I just love the warmer tone it gives, I hate really high trebly screaming lead. I have EMG's on my Strats and tend to drive lead with both the SPC and EXG in all or close to all the way when I'm just jamming. I am not a lover of conventional tone controls, and tend to use them rarely, I use degrees of SPC or EXG on almost everything I play.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

bridge: rocking rhythm, hot leads

bridge/middle: when I want that bluesy overdrive tone. On its own its a bit too bright for my taste, but with some darker overdrive, it works well.

middle: clean rhythm

middle/neck: funk, clean bluesy stuff

neck: jazz, bluesy leads

 

[Corbic]

Re: Strat: Which pickups position do you use when you...

I use the bridge and bridge/middle the most for what I do, but I use them all a lot.

Bridge is my usual rhythm tone, and I sometimes use it on leads, but higher up on the neck it starts to get really bright. I'm hoping something like a Surfer or some other bridge pickup will fix that in the future.

Bridge/Middle is used when I either want a twangy clean tone or when I do most of my leads. It's a great tone that is very good for a lot of things.

Middle is used for some occassional leads when I want a rounder sound than the bridge/middle position, but not as bassy as the neck. It's also good for a thicker rhythm tone, a la Robin Trower, or for clean funk stuff.

Middle/Neck is my default blues tone, since it gives me a nice warm tone that still has a little twang and spunk in it. With lower gain I can get a nice SRV kinda tone sometimes.

Neck is what I use for most clean chords, arpeggiated stuff, and the occassional lead. It also serves as my rhythm tone on a few songs, most notably when my band does a cover of Sunshine of Your Love.