What is the most frequent or common pick ups selection for traditional surf music on a Strat, or is there one? On my Jaguar, I use the neck and bridge together.
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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »
most common pick ups setting on a Strat
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Joined: Jul 27, 2016 Posts: 5 Wooster, Ohio |
Posted on Jul 27 2016 03:27 PM
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Joined: May 04, 2014 Posts: 734 
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Posted on Jul 27 2016 03:56 PM
Same here. Neck & bridge. Just a small but very useful mod for a strat. |
Joined: Jul 05, 2006 Posts: 969 
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Posted on Jul 28 2016 12:30 AM
Welcome to the forum. Please see this thread and feel free to add to this ongoing discussion. Middle pickup, almost exclusively BTW. |
Joined: Jan 09, 2014 Posts: 621 Vancouver BC 
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Posted on Jul 28 2016 02:58 PM
Definitely a Bridge+Neck toggle on a Strat! Before I did that mod with a mini-toggle, I either used just bridge or just middle in the spirit of when Strats just had the basic 3-way PU selector. —Lorne |
Joined: Aug 17, 2012 Posts: 94 Eugene, Oregon
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Posted on Jul 29 2016 12:03 PM
I run a blender pot on my Strats. Depending on the song I'm playing I switch between the neck and bridge, use the blender pot to taste. —Rock |
Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 10331 southern Michigan
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Posted on Jul 29 2016 12:15 PM
I use all three pickups, probably the middle the most in the Madeira and the bridge the most in the Space Cossacks. To me a 5-way switch is blasphemous - like Leo Fender I hate the sound of combined pickup settings. Given that, just imagine how I feel about mods that allow the bridge and neck pickups to be combined! Horrible! That's not a Strat!
Ivan |
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Joined: Jan 09, 2014 Posts: 621 Vancouver BC
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Posted on Jul 29 2016 06:43 PM
IvanP wrote:
Ivan, do you have one of the tone pots controlling your bridge PU? —Lorne |
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Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 10331 southern Michigan
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Posted on Jul 29 2016 07:01 PM
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Joined: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 11076 Berkeley, CA
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Posted on Jul 29 2016 08:59 PM
IvanP wrote: Given that, just imagine how I feel about mods that allow the bridge and neck pickups to be combined! Horrible! That's not a Strat!
Danny Snyder I am now playing trumpet with Prince Buster tribute band 'Balzac' Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF |
Joined: Jul 09, 2010 Posts: 1153 Lillian Alabama
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Posted on Jul 29 2016 11:03 PM
Ivan I must agree. I do not like the 2nd and 4th pup switch positions on a Strat. Too ducky or quacky for me. But that is just me....... Enjoying the surf,sun and sand!! |
Joined: Feb 10, 2010 Posts: 352 Australia 
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Posted on Jul 30 2016 12:53 AM
IvanP wrote:
Well said. |
Joined: Jul 14, 2015 Posts: 478 Near Atlanta, GA
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Posted on Jul 30 2016 09:08 AM
IvanP wrote:
The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not mod thy strat to allow thy bridge and neck pickups to be combined. On the other hand, this is surf music, so perhaps:
As long as you add more reverb, of course. -Tim —-Tim |
Joined: Dec 11, 2013 Posts: 2537 Akron, Ohio
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Posted on Jul 30 2016 09:11 AM
The only time I like the sound of 2 and 4 is when the middle is not connect to a tone pot. This is how my Jimmy Vaughn is wired and it has value but certainly not for surf. A blender is a great feature to warm up the bridge pup but used very sparingly. I might roll in 10-20% neck to the bridge. —The Kahuna Kings https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kahuna-Kings/459752090818447 |
Joined: Mar 16, 2016 Posts: 217 Highland CA |
Posted on Jul 30 2016 10:30 AM
Surfersaurus: What was the OTHER band rule the Atlantics had? Thx! |
Joined: Dec 31, 2008 Posts: 284 Riverside, CA
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Posted on Jan 10 2017 05:01 PM
IvanP wrote:
Ivan, Ho, I thought you and I were getting close...You must "hate" my "blasphemous" sound. lol When your class is busy with their crayons filling in their coloring books, zoom on over to YT and our pull up our latest record, Tsunami. Tell me wise 1,which blasphemous PU or PU's am I using? Know that it got in the high 70's down here in CA. Stay cool, and know my comments were made in jest only. I saw your post and it made me laugh, so, I had to toss out a reply. |
Joined: Mar 06, 2006 Posts: 311 seattle, wa
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Posted on Jan 10 2017 08:43 PM
I have two strats now with different wiring, one with the blasphemous 5-way switch and the aforementioned jimmy Vaughn wiring. Through the years, I've experimented with various setups. Ivan, you're going to hate this. . . . So, the neck and bridge are wired to the 4-way like a tele, and the middle with its own volume control. I ended up really liking having both series and parallel with the neck and bridge. Having a fuller setting on the strat is nice. I don't normally like having that many different options on one guitar, but I have all the settings of a normal strat plus a few (not that I love all the settings). I mostly used the pickups individually or neck and bridge series or parallel. —-Eric New music! Also: |
Joined: Jan 30, 2017 Posts: 17 St.-Petersburg 
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Posted on Feb 14 2017 02:21 AM
When I started my surf band, I tried to work with classic middle pickups sound. But later I started to use more dirty, garage-rock style tone, so now my most common setting is Bridge pickup with some dirt. And I am not avoiding 2 and 4 positions. Just for a few songs, but I like it's hollow glassy tone. I use it for clean bluesy stuff or with dirt, if I need some mellower sound then bridge pickup. |
Joined: Apr 21, 2006 Posts: 852 Connersville, Indiana, USA
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Posted on Feb 14 2017 06:21 AM
I'll probably go to surf guitar hell, but I love Strats that are modded to use all three pickups, such as the mid-80s Fender Elite Stratocaster, with three push/push switches instead of a blade switch...and that was a factory thing. I was originally intending to do this, from the get go, with my GFS sourced "Strat," using their ProTubes Lipsticks, then Fender released the Squier Vintage Modified Surf Stratocaster. Having caught an early Shadows video on Facebook, last month, I'm getting inclined to go with Burns Tri-Sonics, for the GFS "Strat." —Fast Cars & Loud Guitars! |
Joined: Oct 01, 2014 Posts: 519 Streatham, London 
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Posted on Feb 14 2017 07:01 AM
My Strat has had position 1 wired to the middle, because I keep hitting it when playing and I use the middle most. If I hit it in position 1 it can't go any further...unless you call it position 5! It also means at position 4, I get the Bridge and Neck together. |
Joined: Mar 27, 2006 Posts: 213 Newington, CT USA
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Posted on Feb 14 2017 07:08 AM
I like all 5 switch positions. But then, I'm not a traditionalist. |
I would never tell any of you to not do it, though. To each his own. For me the Strat is pretty much perfect the way Leo and God intended it. 
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