Middle position on HH guitars is underrated

psyx

Ok so all of my guitars are HH guitars, but lets stick to the Tokai...

When I want to play nice full cleans, I simply switch to the neck and maybe roll back the volume to give me some slightly acoustic sounds or some jazz if I want. Ive managed to get some nice fusions going, but the neck pup is too thick and overwhelming for something like a Spanish acoustic sound...

So when I want OD I go to the bridge pup and I get a nice bitey sound that slices through the crust of the earth... Back to the neck gives some slash tones or some bluesy lead tones. But the important thing I realized is that I simply skip the middle position, since it doesn't do either one of those things particularly good...

I revisited it and I managed to get my spanish fusion sound right, using my middle position and rolling back the volume on the neck pup. This gives the full sound of the neck without being overwhelming and much less bite than the bridge alone would give.

OD on the middle position is very juicy if you keep the gain at medium levels... Gives you a very clapton like sound imo.
But the point is, that the middle position gives you sooo much to work with to shape your sound very carefully.

Any thoughts and experiences?

warrenpridgeon

My guitar has coil tap, so I often find myself using both pickups, but tapped...
Then, also depending on what EQ the sound guy sets up (different sound guys at the different "venues" I play at), I sometimes find the bridge too bright and then I will use both pickups to tone it down a bit.. hehe

Gearhead

psyx wrote: the neck pup is too thick and overwhelming for something like a Spanish acoustic sound...

Just a thought: could it be that you want to back up both pups to clean up the tone? It's the easiest of mods to fiddle around with pup height screws and one of the least used... You can also reverse it easily, as long as you keep track of how many turns you adjust.

AlanRatcliffe

I think the thing with the middle setting is it rarely gives up the goodies immediately. It can be very blurry and indistinct, so you have to fiddle and tweak controls until you find the settings that work for you. This is especially true with drive settings.

I love doing the "woman" tone thing, but with the middle pickup setting - with a bit of distortion it ends up as more of a "Money for Nothing" thing.

Actually, with HH guitars the key to most things is to learn how to use your controls. Aside from the bridge pickup by itself into a driven amp - that's the only 'instant gratification" setting.

Stoner-Riff

I play on the middle pos of my SG most of the time.

I usually roll of both the vol & tone of the neck unit to about '8', and rock on.

Sneaky-Pete

Want to make the most of your guitar?

Install a blend pot instead of the 3 way switch.
I did this on a tele with an overwound bridge pickup and a stacked humbucker in the neck.

When I select the neck pickup , but want a little more bite , I just use the blend pot to roll
on the right amount from the bridge...and magic!

The variations are endless.....obviously...

Don't know what local shops charge for blend pots, but I picked up a 5-pack of them for R100 on eBay UK...

...just saying....

Stoner-Riff

Sneaky Pete wrote: Want to make the most of your guitar?

Install a blend pot instead of the 3 way switch.
I did this on a tele with an overwound bridge pickup and a stacked humbucker in the neck.

When I select the neck pickup , but want a little more bite , I just use the blend pot to roll
on the right amount from the bridge...and magic!

The variations are endless.....obviously...

Don't know what local shops charge for blend pots, but I picked up a 5-pack of them for R100 on eBay UK...

...just saying....

THAT is Brilliant. 8)

Never knew you could even do that !

AlanRatcliffe

I never had much luck with blend pots. The tapers always seems to be off. I also like the security of knowing where the middle position is and I never found one with a centre detent.

V8

Sneaky Pete wrote: Install a blend pot instead of the 3 way switch.

I'm not sure I'd give up a selector switch for a blend pot...But I'd not miss a tone pot at all.

Vintage Vibe did a K7 mod (treble tone pot now blends the neck in pos 1,2,3) on a strat for me many moons ago. I don't miss the tone pot at all and I'm a big fan of blending the neck w/the bridge. Although this is with SC's, my project for today is putting in a blend on the SC in a HSH guitar. Hopefully I don't (&^&^% it up too much ???

Sneaky-Pete

Blend pot doesn't really haqve anything to do with individual tonepots.
Although it does affect the overall tone.
If you wanted to, you could still dial in the tone you want from your selected pickup, but then combine the output of the two pickups in whatever relative balance you chose.

PS: Alan R...the blend pots I have are 250K, have a centre detent...and there's one with your name on if you want it....

AlanRatcliffe

Sneaky Pete wrote: PS: Alan R...the blend pots I have are 250K, have a centre detent...and there's one with your name on if you want it....

Thanks, but I'm old and stuck in my ways now - after years of replacing them with Gibson toggles. ?

Sneaky-Pete

More on blend pots...I just came across an ad for Fender's new American Deluxe Strat Plus....A guitar with 3 'Personality" cards that fit in a slot at the back of the Strat....called Standard/Cutter/Blender....Basically the guitar's wiring is reprogrammed by each card, including the lower tone knob being changed to a Blender function with (obviously) the Blender card.
Not a big strat fan, but I was blown away by the video...
Don't know how to attach it, so go here...
www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/StratADPMMIB

(If this has been covered before, I apologise....

AlanRatcliffe

Sneaky Pete wrote: A guitar with 3 'Personality" cards that fit in a slot at the back of the Strat....

Yeah, we discussed it briefly before. The mod system for non-modding types or for those that need to change the guitars personality in a rush. I doubt it'll catch on - most players would rather have a few guitars than something that can be changed to be a few different guitars. Locks you into what they decide are good options to have.

Ernie Ball's Game Changer is more exciting, IMO. I'd postulated something like this before and EB had a similar idea and ran with it in a big way, making it programmable.

Still, I doubt it'll catch on - we guitarists are just too stuck in our ways. Even me - while I can be an over-the-top modder and tech-loving geek, when I find what works, it generally stays that way.

Who was it did a system you could change the switch presets and cap values with a few dip switches? I think it was Acme Guitarworks, but they went bang and disappeared a while ago.