When do you use the middle pick up?

[Leeking]

I am thinking of upgrading my Yamaha strats sopy guitar (pacifica) stock pickups.

It is a S-S-H combination.

I realised that I never use the pickup in the middle position. so is it worth while for me to upgrade the middle pickup as well?

or am I missing something here? are there cases where the middle pickup will be used?

 

[carlosguardia]

Depends on how your middle pick up sounds to you. I've used middle pick ups for clean sounds. But to answer your question, if you never use your middle pick up, why would you consider spending money upgrading it?!

 

[Outlaws]

So then you ONLY use the pickup selector in the 1st and 5th position? You NEVER use 2, 3, or 4? You do have a 5 position selector, right? If you do, then you might use that middle pickup more than you think.

 

[Leeking]

Yup, most of the time I used posotion 1 for solo, lead
position 5 for heavier stuff.

Position 2,3,4 never sounded good to me... maybe cos the pickup sucks..

anyway, I've just learnt some stuffs from seymourduncan.com and its seems worthwhile to upgrade the middle pick up as well.

 

[64Firebird]

I only use it when I want to sound like Buddy Guy.

 

[Freudian Slip]

I personaly can live with out it. The most it does for me is get in my way Seriously It depends on the guitar I guess but even on pretty nice guitars I have never really used it.



F.S.

 

[Outlaws]

Since you never use that middle pickup, I think there is something you could do just to experiment for fun. I can't remeber how it works, but Hendrix did a phase reverse on it, so when you play with the neck or bridge pickups with the middle one, the two pickups are out of phase.

 

[Kelly5150]

I never use my middle pickups, they sound weaK and muddy...

Not to mention they get in my way...

 

[64Firebird]

Since you never use that middle pickup, I think there is something you could do just to experiment for fun. I can't remeber how it works, but Hendrix did a phase reverse on it, so when you play with the neck or bridge pickups with the middle one, the two pickups are out of phase.

Most new strats come wired that way already. That's why if you turn on two of them the hum stops.

I once had an old strat copy that I wired up so that I could change the phasing on any pup at any time. All you have to do is replace the 5 way switch with 3 DPDT switches from Radio Shack. That axe made some funky sounds.

 

[scottboyher]

I use it in combination with the first pickup to fatten up a track when recording. That is when the switch is in the second from the bottom position.

 

[shawn gibson]

On it's own for clean (lots of chorus), out of phase with either neck or bridge. I only use it once in a while, seems to give a 'nasal' (bright, dark, bridge, neck) tone like that (out of phase, which works nice sometimes).

Or used to, still a bit of a mock-newbie getting back into it after many years.

 

[PFDarkside]

To clarify for some of you guys regarding the middle "out of phase" position on a Strat...

A. It's just two single coil pickups in parallel. The middle pickup is reverse wound/reverse polarity. (So it is sort of out of phase, but the reverse winding brings it back in phase).

B. This RW/RP winding is the same that is used on humbuckers, BUT humbuckers have the two coils wired in series instead of parallel.

C. Pickups in parallel give a lower output, more "bell-like" tone. (Pickups in series but out of phase have a similar characteristic, also with less bass)

D. What Jimi did was to simply "wedge" his 3 way selector in the middle of two positions. This is just like positions 2&4 on a modern 5-way selector switch. It had a sound similar to "out of phase", so that's the term that was coined.

Just wanted to clarify that for you guys.

 

[Aaron Cheney]

Oh man....
I could never do without my middle pickup! I very rarely use it alone, but I simply couldn't go on living without my 2 and 4 tones!

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com

 

[cavedog101]

I use it all the fukin time....if i didnt id buy guitars without middle pickups.....a strat in the middle has a bite nothing else has

 

[Toker41]

middle pick up on a strat is great, but I'll tell you...the middle pick up on my Les Paul is useless!

 

[carlosguardia]

Middle pick-up on the Les Paul useless??!!!! Wait a minute, Jimmy Page used the middle pick up on his Les Paul all the time!!!

 

[Toker41]

So did Frampton....his tone sucked too....

Try playin one. It's always in the way, and it just sounds like crap. It doesn't give it a "fat" tone or anything like that...it's more of a "phased" thin tone. It's really just not good, just looks impressive. Ace had the right idea....disconnect it!

 

[64Firebird]

So did Frampton....his tone sucked too....

Try playin one. It's always in the way, and it just sounds like crap. It doesn't give it a "fat" tone or anything like that...it's more of a "phased" thin tone. It's really just not good, just looks impressive. Ace had the right idea....disconnect it!

Yeah, and set it on fire. LAMO!

 

[Toker41]

yea, it makes good firewood....hehe.

 

[Doug H]

when I hit the pickup selector by accident.