Re: where is the best place to put the Little '59™
Re: where is the best place to put the Little '59™
To my ear, the middle pickup is a great spice to combine with the other two pickups but isn't meant to be heard by itself.
And to get a good "cluck" or "quack" tone in the #2 and #4 positions, Artie Too is right, it really should be a classic/vintage type single coil -- or at least a quality stack of some kind (Kinman) -- and should be pretty low output with a high resonant peak.
The single narrow line of traditional Strat pickup poles sits under the ideal harmonic node for cluck -- a rails or other narrow 'bucker might also work, but it might spread the magnetic field a little too wide and straddle that node instead of nailing it, thus making it a little murky or even muddy, especially if it's a higher output pickup.
You can also hear how important the position of the middle pu is when you play some 24-fret HSS guitars -- both the neck and middle pu's are pushed about 1/2" out of position by those extra two frets so they sit under a different harmonic node (portion of the string) and as a result sound absolutely god-awful -- at least to my ear.
Hotter pickups work very well in the neck and especially bridge positions, BUT...I say stay with a classic single coil in the middle. Leo Fender just flat-out got the middle pickup position and output thing right on the first try.
