I am not Alone . . .Love for the "middle only"

[newey]

My love for Position 3 on the std Strat 5-way switch is well-known here, but I can't remember anyone agreeing with me. Now I feel vindicated!

www.musicradar.com/news/is-the-middle-position-on-a-strat-one-of-the-most-underrated-tones-in-guitar

[gckelloch]

I'm with you on that. SRV apparently made good use of it. It depends on the SC pickup as well. AlNiCo V poles can be too harsh in general. It may also be too bright if the tone knob is moved to the bridge PUP (as I do), a ~250k R is not wired over it, and/or if the peak lies in the 3-3,5kHz range.

[b4nj0]

Including a Pacifica I have five S-types, and two are wired with the Mike Richardson design. That particular wiring eschews the middle position in favour of a Tele-like neck bridge combo. I can't say I've ever missed the middle pup alone on those two guitars, in fact I prefer the combo sound in that position three over a vanilla Strat- I find it more useful and it has led me on to reaching for one of my two Teles in preference. Everyone is different to some extent and I guess it's "whatever floats your boat".

でつ e&oe ...

[stevewf]

Why choose? JohnH's "Strat SP" offers both the Middle-only and the Bridge/Neck sounds... especially if the series fader pot is of the no-load-at-10 variety. Granted, getting that middle-only requires three settings: Selector=Neck/Middle, Series mode (pull) and fader knob=0... and to wire it, you have to have the right control hardware: a 4P5T Super Switch and a pair of DPDTs... but the tone is there. 

And then what about Quack-vs-MiddleOnly? Tinkering around with an SSS Strat with low output pickups, I found that if I lower the middle pickup, I get a more pronounced quackiness in the in-between positions, but that in the middle position, volume suffers. If my findings can be generalized, then we have not just one, but two conundrums (conundra?): Middle-only vs Bridge/Neck and Middle-only vs Quack.

[ashcatlt]

Have I never mentioned it?!? I’m totally a middle guy. When I actually have a middle pickup, I’ll use it probably 7 times out of 10. 2 of the remaining times would be B+N (parallel or series, depending) and the 10th would be the time I’m looking for some real special effecty sound so I’d use some other pickup or combination. But that’s like “in the studio”. If I’m playing live, I just leave it in the middle.

If there’s only two pickups, I almost always want them both on. Neck on its own is just boomy and muddy and Bridge alone usually has that nasal honky quality. The middle position is a nice balanced blend that I can work with.