Does anyone actually use position 3 on a Strat?

Cirrus

Don't tend to use it live much, but when recording it gets a use - as the mix fills up, quite often I'll try positions 2,3 & 4 to search for a place a part can sit where it won't clash with something else in the arrangement.

guitargeek62

I use* it loads, particularly to dial in an amp. From there you can go darker/brighter at the flick of a switch. It's a superb rythm sound too, very overlooked.


*well, used to use it loads - I haven't got a strat these days though!

EricTheWeary

OMusicwolf said:

I've always thought of the 3 position as being the Wolverhampton of pickup selection.  Something that you pass through on the way to somewhere better but you never actually stop there.

Very much my go to position on my strat, although I did grow up in Wolverhampton so maybe that’s why. 

I tend to find the bridge pick up alone pretty much unusable, although I tend to find that with any guitar. It’s actually given me a hankering  for something like a Junior so I’d be forced to work out what to do with the bridge pickup. 

bobbatone

I use the middle pickup the most out of all the positions, and by some way too. 

I play a lot of 50s/60s stuff and find the middle position is the tone I need more often than not...Hank Marvin, Buddy Holly, etc. I think it’s a pretty versatile position. 

I’ll use the neck here and there and position 4 occasionally for something specific. Position 2 gets the least amount of use from me. In fact I don’t recall ever using it. 

I will use the Bridge position too, but I find it can be abit thin on a strat and much prefer the bridge on a Tele. Although my current Strat has a very usable bridge and it did take me 3 Teles to find one without any Ice Pick so I think bridge positions in general are very unreliable!. 

Anyhow back to middle position, yeah it gets used a lot!

thegummy

p90fool said:

All the time, and it's much easier to grab in a hurry with a 3-way switch.

That's a good point - the vast majority of my mid-song or mid-part switches are either to the neck or bridge cause on my 5-way it's so much easier and quicker to switch to those than to one of the inner three settings.

thegummy

the_jaffa said:

It’s definitely in my top five positions

lol it actually isn't for me cause I have an S1 switch for bridge+neck so the middle pickup by itself is my 6th favourite position. I still like it though, I just like the other five more

slacker

I sold my 57ri strat in 2008 and bought one in 2018. This is actually relevant because I used all positions except the bride. I used the middle pickup instead of the bridge.

My current strat has a tone control for the bridge pickup and another for neck and middle. I'm now using the bridge pickup a lot more.

I had a go on the strat last night going through all the permutations and would subscribe to the Wolverhampton method. No offense meant as my uncle has been a wolves fan for many years.

stickyfiddle

I use it a fair bit - as noted, it's a decent rhythm sound. 

FWIW I can't think of a single track where the Edge uses the middle position. All his most famous Strat moments are bridge+middle, and otherwise tends to mostly stick to bridge or neck.

chrisj1602

I have only had my current Strat since last week but I’ve been using the middle quite frequently and do recall using it on my previous Strat in a band because it just sat well in the mix for certain songs.

TheBigDipper

I use it all the time on my Strat and on my EBMM Silhouette (SSS config). I like the neutrality of it. 

ICBM

I wouldn’t quite describe it as neutral, but for me it’s the fullest and most even-sounding of the positions - the neck is deeper but scooped, and if you go further up the neck it starts to sound very hollow. The bridge really cuts through but lacks bottom-end, unless it’s heavily overwound or an actual Tele-type pickup. The in-between positions are either softer or thinner, depending on the type of pickups.

Really I prefer a much hotter bridge and slightly fuller neck pickup, which is why I have a HSH using Strat-sized mini-humbuckers in mine - I just use the middle when I want a ‘normal’ Strat sound. Having mismatched pickups also stops the thinness in the in-between positions. No ducks or chickens in my guitar .

Moleman

Yes, I like it a lot. It’s a great half-way house between the neck and bridge pickups. In the words of Andy Partridge (XTC) “close aural scrutiny reveals that Jimi Hendrix played some of his best solos using the middle pickup”.

normula1

Almost never. Annoyingly rewiring the switch to have position 3 as bridge and neck doesn't sound right on a Strat either.

Stratavarious

Instant SRV tone on my rig in middle position.

impmann

Depends on the Strat. Some sound awful some sound great on that mid pickup...

Logie

Yep. It gives a really good punchy rhythm sound. Bitey without being shrill. Good for Floyd stuff.