Which is your favorite Stratocaster pickup setting?

[tremoloman***]

(Poll recommended by duhvoodooman)

[Katastrophe]

Gotta be the neck. There is something special about a Strat with a good clean tone and the neck pup, IMHO.

[tremoloman***]

It's a sketchy topic becuase my favorite settings are different on each Strat I own. I tend to lean toward Neck/Middle and Neck only on my Custom Shop '69s where I love the bridge/middle with the SCNs.

[duhvoodooman***]

I love the neck p'up tone a la SRV or Hendrix on my Strat, esp. with the Texas Specials. The 12th fret on the G string from the neck p'up has to be the "perfect" clean Strat note, IMO!

[Cranium]

Neck pickup seems alot more open in clean sound, it usualy has alot of presence so it just sounds "closer" then the bridge, also its a little softer then the bridge.

[Bloozcat]

SRV, Hendrix, Trower...gotta be the neck pickup. Those are the tones that are quintessential Strat, IMHO. That doesn't in any way diminish all the great tones that others get from different pickup combinations (a Strat is, after all, one of the most versatile guitars). But, when I hear someone wailing on the neck pickup of a Strat it gives me the chills...

[Nelskie]

A favorite Strat p'up setting, you ask? Wow. I didn't even know there was such a thing. The fact that the Stratocaster has not one, not two, but FIVE p'up settings is something that should lend itself to constant exploration and discovery. As in "I wonder how it would sound if I played it in this position?" For example, I love rolling the tone / vol. off the bridge for heavier stuff. The "2" position produces some ultra-sublime Dire Straits-ish stuff. The middle position works well with just about any style of music - its warm tone always thick & inviting. Position "4" (middle / neck) is very underrated in the sense that there's so much low end there that often times you can completely eliminate the bass and much of the mid on your amp, and come up with some really cool stuff. Or leave them status quo, add a Tonebone, and move mountains. And the neck, well - the sky's the limit.

For players who have a good grip on the tone settings on their amp, and a solid sense of pedal use, the Strat offers vast realms of killer tone in just about every p'up postion. Should you have the desire for adventure, the tonal destinations are merely left to the imagination of the player.

[Robert****]

Position 4 - middle/neck is my fav.

[marnold***]

Only on a music forum would "positions" have something to do with a guitar.

[Cranium]

Only on a music forum would "positions" have something to do with a guitar.

There is also diffrent positions of holding the guitar...

[Iago]

its been some ime i dont play one.. but i "remember" my favourites being only neck or bridge+middle

[Tone2TheBone]

I like them all but my favorite is the neck. Although I've been liking just the middle lately. I got bored with neck and middle. I'll tell you when I start liking the bridge when I get a good pup.

[Spudman***]

I've been playing Strats since 1976 and it has always been about the neck pickup for me. Coming in closely at second is bridge/middle mainly because the tone knob works on the bridge pickup and the hum is gone. Hey, that's a good song title, "The Hum Is Gone."

[Tone2TheBone]

Hey Spud, I'm starting to like the bridge middle too. Put in a new bridge pickup last week and really like that sound now. Heard it on many recordings.

[Spudman***]

Hey Spud, I'm starting to like the bridge middle too. Put in a new bridge pickup last week and really like that sound now.

So what kind of pup did you put in and what did it do for you?

[Tone2TheBone]

I put in a used Seymour Duncan out of production pup called "Great White Snark for Strat". Crazy name eh. Loved the name so I snagged it for $15.00. Sounds good too. Not too much treble and the right amount of output to balance my other pups. I wrote SD asking about it before I bought it and their reply was that it was made specifically for retail in "Guitar Centers" stores and makes a great all around pickup in any Strat. The magnets are Alnico V so its warm sounding and they're balanced to the strings in a gentle curve and not staggered. I like the sound of bridge/middle now. Quacky yeah but still with nice separation and definition. Clean or dirty it sounds neat. A lot like Steve Miller's Strat sound clean. And it does a mean "Life in the Fast Lane" lick PLUS it's Robert Cray's sound. *thumbs up*

[sunvalleylaw]

I keep coming back to the neck. I like the bridge or bridge middle if I am punking out or doing some surf punky chords or something, but most of the time, I like it up at the neck. The neck/middle will make a nice Dire Straits rhythm tone too. Ahhh, so many choices.