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[El Chiguete]

Hello all, I don't know about you gusy buy I don't tend to use the middle pickup on my guitars that much (only have a single coils middle pickups in on guitar actually),  IN FACT I actually have it as low as I can so it don't bother my picking! So the other day I was reading about the new SD Dave Murray loaded pickguar and they say that his middle pickup is also lowerd in to the pickguard and that he uses that one for cleans only and just now I was watching an 80's concert video of him doing that... so it got me thinking, is there any pickups out there that will you guys recomend to be mainly use as a clean tone pickup? Maybe even ¨acoustic sounding¨?

[DesmoBob]

I think people don't talk much about this pickup in a clean setting because most of its users are playing shred, but the SD YJM Fury middle & neck pickups sound really nice clean. Definitely not acoustic sounding, but still very pleasant. They look like regular single coils, but they are actually two coils stacked on top of each other in opposite directions. So technically they're humbuckers, but as far as output goes, they are pretty low output compared to normal humbuckers. But the net result is clear, noiseless cleans.

In another guitar, I have a Carvin S60A single coil in the middle. I hardly ever used the middle on any guitar until I heard that pickup. I love it. I wouldn't say it has an acoustic sound, I would describe it as a "brilliant" clean sound. Very articulate, and pretty sensitive to picking technique. It's higher output than a standard USA Strat. If you give a mild push to the clean channel with a pedal, you can approximate a SRV sound with this pickup. The main downfall is it's just as noisy as any other single coil. But I have a good noise gate. 

[rnolan]

Hey El, like you I wind the middle PU as low as possible to be out of the way of my picking (as does Blackmore) and I rarely use the middle PU. But when I combine the neck PU (series) and middle PU (parallel) I get a really nice tone suck perfect for cleans (very shimmery/glassy and less output). So this is with Ultrasonic PUs which are all dual coil (hence I can run each PU series or parallel and combine them). So each PU in my Anderson has a 3 way switch, down = series, up = parallel, middle = off. So I can have any combination. Unfortunately Ultrasonics are hard to come buy, SC got me one from German eveilbay which I put in my tele (neck position), I love them.... very flat full range PUs which is why they were called reference series.

[WickedBlade]

As for me, almost all my electric guitars are HSH, and I use mostly the middle pickup in the 2 & 4 position, rarely in the "pickup alone" position 3 (but it happens). Keep in mind I'm in a pop/rock cover band, so I need versatility.

Anyway, I can tell you what I use on my go-to guitars:
- my main axe has a Bill Lawrence L280. It works really well and it's noiseless when alone (but not in the in-between pos, but that's ok as I use this mostly clean). I can get a good strat-like quack out of them when used with my humbuckers split. Be warned that its looks are slightly different than the average SC pickup, though, if this matters to you.
- my strat has 3 single coils, and it's got all the strat tones that you'd expect. It's outfitted with a D.Allen Echoes set (true single coils) which are basically the same as Fender Custom 69 in neck/middle and Duncan SSL-5 in bridge (except that the middle p/u is RW/RP, so I get noise cancellation when quacking).
- my newest guitar (have to post a NGD for this one!) is equipped with a DiMarzio Area 61 in the middle. I wired it so that it does its humcancelling thing when alone and not when in pos 2 & 4, so that (if chooosing the correct coil from my split HB) I always get noise cancellation one way or the other. Tone wise it does what I want: good quack in 2 & 4 and not too much level difference compared with the Bare Knuckle Cold Sweat Humbuckers (obviously, there is some because HB are always hotter and I want my SC to stay clean). Out of the Area family I chose the 61 because it had the highest output and the trebles were very present.

For the record I tried the Duncan SSL-2 in my newest axe and wasn't impressed. It was not bad but I found it lacked some brightness, which I want when playing clean. Also the wiring, before I swapped for the Area 61, was such that the 2 & 4 positions had the HB not split, so I couldn't get any quack out of that and the output was way too hot for my idea of clean (only because of the HB; the SSL-2 is a standard low output SC otherwise).
I fixed it when I installed the Area 61, but I had to use a more sophisticared pickup selector (I used a Schaller Megaswitch M) and figure out which half of the HB to use, and what the polarities where because I wanted noise cancellation everywhere. It's not difficult if you have a compass and a multimeter, but you have to think ahead.

Oh, and I don't set my mid pickup lower than the rest, I just learned to play around it, it's no big deal (the pickup selector location on strats, though, THAT is something I find annoying as I often bump into it when strumming). To each his own

[El Chiguete]

Oh, and I don't set my mid pickup lower than the rest, I just learned to play around it, it's no big deal (the pickup selector location on strats, though, THAT is something I find annoying as I often bump into it when strumming). To each his own

I've never had a Strat and when I play one I think that I have a bigger problem is with the Vol knob because I tend to place my ring and little finger there to "anchor" my hand when picking 

[Harley Hexxe]

EC,

I do use the middle pick up in all my Strats because when I'm trying to get a Robin Trower tone, that is one of the most important pickups for me to achieve that with! I know there is a lot of debate about the pick ups Robin uses, but my ears can tell me when he is on the neck or middle pick ups. Those are the two he uses most on a Strat. He will only use the bridge pickup 1% of the time.
As for the location of the Volume Knob, it's perfect for me. I use my pinky to control the volume and tone knobs. I rest the heel of my hand on the back of the Strat bridge, which I need to do anyway to keep the bridge from detuning when I bend strings. When I pick, it's usually just behind the middle pickup, but that changes when I want to get a warmer tone, then I'll pick just behind the neck pick up, or over the 15th fret. depending what sound I'm after.

[rnolan]

Wow, Robin Trower, I haven't heard that name in a long while, he was a favourite back in my teens in the late 70's. I find the majority of my playing these days is also on the neck PU with middle thrown in. I don't use the bridge PU much anymore.

[Harley Hexxe]

Yeah Richard,
His vibrato is something else! He's still putting out some great blues albums. Even though he looks his age these days, he can still wail with the best of them. I saw him a few years ago at the HOB in Cleveland, great show, awesome tone!
I get a lot of that tone with the middle pickup on my black and red Strats, but not quite on the green one. Maybe it's time to take out the Texas Specials, and put the originals back in 

Harley