The so-called Stratocaster quack sound in pickup positions 2 and 4.

I know it isn't particularly liked in surf music but here's my question. Does a reverse wound middle pickup accentuate the quack sound more than a non reverse wound.

I can only speak for my own guitar which came to me with Fender factory (USA) non reversed middle pickup and a replacement 5-way switch. It's fairly void of quack and actually drops volume in positions 2/4.

Brian wrote:

I think you need the middle pickup to be RW/RP for the quack to work.

Brian, That's not necessary. Vintage Strats are not RW/RP

I find that it can help to lift the tone control from the middle pickup to induce more "quack" in positions 2 and 4. We build a lot of our "S style" guitars with the tone controls on the bridge and the neck only.

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Thanks Brian I meant to say RW/RP and it's also to my understanding Fender didn't use it in early days during which surf music was in it's infancy. But if they did sometimes use Stratocaster positions 2/4 with a 3-way switch then I muse it wouldn't have caused a quack sound.

Last edited: Jul 15, 2014 11:28:10

Of course I'm no expert but here is what I remember from reading countless internet forums (which admittedly is a pretty terrible source )

Original design: 3 pickups (all the same) with 3 way switch.

At some point guitar players (including Dick Dale) noticed that the switches could be carefully balanced so you could have 2 pickups activated at once.

Fender listened to their customers and began offering a 5 way switch. However the hum you got from having 2 pickups on with the same polarity / winding was too annoying so the middle pickup became RW/RP.

The "quack" that people refer to is only on the models with the 5-way switch and middle pickup RW/RP. You get it by moving the switch to the in-between positions (2 & 4?) where the middle pickup on in conjunction with 1 of the outer pickups.

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Last edited: Jul 15, 2014 11:33:53

So a vintage Jaguar should quack in the middle position ? Or is it something to do with distance between the pickups.

I personally only use a 3 position switch in my strat as I'm not a "quack" fan. That being said, if you use positions 2/4 it helps to have a treble bleed / treble bypass mod to keep the treble frequecy present when you roll off the volume. With out the treble bleed when you roll off the volume the tone gets dull and muddy (for better or worse).

Read Don Mare on strat quack I think it's good info if that's what your going after: Don Mare Strat Quack

Here's one for y'all: "Quack vs. Cluck"... I always thought of "Quack" as the sound that out-of-phase pickups make, as heard from T-Bone Walker and early BB King. So Cal blues guitarist LA Jones is known for having his strat pick ups switchable to out-of-phase (1:12 on the video):(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLEBTprwGM0http://)

A RW/RP middle PU reduces noise but is not the quack factor. Just as a JM or Jag is quieter in the middle position due to the RW/RP of one PU but does not quack like a Strat.

I had a '61 Strat when I was in high school and never used the bridge position. I crammed a toothpick in the pickguard to stop the switch from going all the way to the bridge position to get the Strat quack even though we didn't call it quack back then. I don't know what we called it other than "in between".

Keep it Drippy Brothers and Sisters!

Most guitars that have two similar pickups, when played with both on yield a 'twangy' sound. I guess the peculiar sonics of the three-p'up Strat produce 'quack' instead of 'twang'? Does the DD wiring allow more normal 'twang'?
I always liked the sound of my '70s Strat on Middle+Bridge, with treble rolled all the way off, for a 'woman tone' that worked well with my Mesa Boogie in overdrive. Influenced by Beck & Clapton then, before I got a Twin Reverb and started to appreciate clean reverberated tones. Now I play that Strat on the bridge and it sounds great.

Squink Out!

I believe the source of the quack is not so much the distance between the pickups per se, but more precisely the points along the length of the string at which they're picking up the signal and what those particular harmonics do to each other once all the phase cancellation takes place.
I've gotten the classic Bell Bottom Blues / Sweet Home Alabama quack out of three pickup Les Paul Customs and Firebird VIIs. I once played a SG bodied LP Jr. that had a second P90 added in the middle position, and it quacked like mad! Another guitar I regret not buying.

Eric