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Possibly the most disliked pickup on a Strat? It gets those great notch tones, but on its own, nobody loves it. So what would you do to the tone of a Strat middle pickup that would make it usuable, on its own?

Two things that I've thought of lately:

1. Make your Strat SHS. Put a humbucker in the middle. It would be split in the #2 and #4 positions, preserving that tone, then run full for a nice phat tone in the #3 position.

2. Do some unconventional wiring scheme to make the #3 position neck and bridge, instead of middle. Or, all three. (Thats what I have on my Strat.)

To be honest I use it! As does Matt (martinsixstringcustoms)...Matt more so that I, he even has a 3 way pickup selector! when I play live I tend to really lean on one pickup or another...rarely ever the 2 and 4 posititions live...maybe during a clean part but rarely ever! I often find the neck pickup to be a bit to flubby under gain, so I lean pretty hard on the bridge pickup (I have a tone control for it to roll off just a tad of the highs), and then I use the neck alot of solo work, and I do use the middle quite a bit as well...


Originally Posted by ArtieTooTwo things that I've thought of lately:

1. Make your Strat SHS. Put a humbucker in the middle. It would be split in the #2 and #4 positions, preserving that tone, then run full for a nice phat tone in the #3 position.

2. Do some unconventional wiring scheme to make the #3 position neck and bridge, instead of middle. Or, all three. (Thats what I have on my Strat.)I used to have a Fender Mustang that somebody had stuck a bucker in between the 2 singles...lots of different tones to be found in that!

Lew has a Strat that is set up so that in the middle position (number 3) it is the neck and the bridge...I used to have a strat set up like that...it's cool too, but like I said above, I do use the middle pickup alone

On myold fender copy (yamahaa ) i use to use the middle pick upall the time. Only alitte tiny bit of crunch and dirt, crank it, and it was sweet, very chimey and perfound, stood out alot more then 1/3, and 2/4 in my opinion. Sounded great when using a WAH aswell.

i like using it for rockabilly stuff, where the tone needs to be rounder, but a little quot;jumpierquot; than the sound of a neck strat pickup

I love the full round sound I get out of mine. Never used it much before, but it just goes to show the difference decent pickups make.

I have a Lace Hot Gold 6k in the middle position. Useable it for clean rhytm parts and for country twang.

I never use it on its own, only in mixed positions. Putting a humbucker in the middle seems like a cool idea.

I love my middle pup, but here's the trick..it's a dual blade SC with spin a split (Joe Barden on my strat, Dmzo Crusier on my nitefly)-

Of course it's main reason d'etra is quack in 2 and 4 position- But with about 1/2 of the 2nd coil rolled in I get a really clean sound like slightly brighter version of a regular strat neck pup-

The reason I think this happens is that the mid pup is brighter due to it's position, but the 2nd coil adds in just enough bass to make it an entirely different creature than a single coil (and it just takes a bit of 2nd coil of hum cancel so best of both worlds)-

It's a beauty for rhytem and arpegio work on clean or sligthly dirty fenderish sounds and really worth the mod in my book-

i love my duck - all by its lonesome in the middle of my HSH ibanez 540s ... i put in some 'mission control' wiring so as to be able to get it by itself, which i use for a country-esque single note soloing tone .. sounds cool for funky 80's, 'chinka-chinka', high-string chord comping and chorused-out chime chords too ..t4d gots luv for the 's' in the middle !!

cheers
t4d

I love the middle pup but I used to find it boring. Getting older I guess. However, my theory is that all Strat middle pups would be much better sounding if the guitars were designed like my Godin. In other words, there are 24 frets so all the single coils get pushed back towards the bridge a bit. I have numerous Strats, etc but the Godin (alder body I think) has the best quot;Stratquot; tone I've heard. - Rob McFee

I wouldn't do anything to it! I like the neck and middle pickup to be the same pickup only RW/RP for the middle. What I'd recommend is to replace your standard 5 way switch with a Schaller Mega Switch. When you put the switch in the #3 or middle position, instead of the bland sounding middle pickup by itself you'll get the neck and bridge pickups combined, like on a Tele. Lew

I don't get why people don't like the middle pickup on its own. It has a very unique quot;chime-likequot; tone that I find very useful for a lot of rhythm parts. I actually use the middle on its own far more than I use neck middle (the most useless position on a Strat IMO). Honestly, I don't think I'd change anything about it.

I've been thinking of wiring a push-pull tone pot into my S/S/S Strat to turn on the bridge pup no matter where the switch is set. That way I could get neck bridge, or all three. It's a pretty simple and cheap mod from what I can tell.

neck middle might be my favorite......go figure


Originally Posted by flankneck middle might be my favorite......go figure

Just goes to show there's no one quot;truequot; way of getting good tone. It isn't an ugly sound, but I really have no use for it with my style. I can definitely see why some people would like it.

I love the middle pickup...to me it is one of the most recognizable Strat sounds.