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Two-pickup Strats...


Muddslide

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I've seen this mod done before and wonder at its utility. Not that the Strat can't be a great, versatile guitar with only two pups (and here I'm talking about two single coils--not a double 'bucker "fat" Strat.)

On the recent "Let's see your #1s" thread, at post #116, a forumite named J-E-M shows a pic of his one and only electric, which is a gorgeous creamy Strat with gold anodized pickguard and just the neck and bridge single coils. He said it covered all the bases he needs a guitar for.

I think Robbie Robertson (of The Band) also had a cople of Strats set up this way.

Has anyone done this, or played a Strat with this configuration? It seems cool, but I also wonder what would get lost in the process and what the benefits--if any--would be for doing this, aside from fewer pickup selections.

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the benefit, for some people, would be that their pick won't get hung up on the middle pickup's polepieces.

Richie Blackmore lowered his middle pickup as low as it could go. His Signature Model has no middle pickup, just a dummy:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guita...lectric-guitar

What you lose are the 3 tones that come from positions 2, 3 and 4. Since most Strats have a reverse-wind middle pickup to reduce hum, you would lose that benefit (which you get in positions 2 and 4).

Positions 2 and 4 are also the pickup combinations that give the Strat its famous "quack" tone. This is caused by the two pickups being out-of-phase.

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Quote Originally Posted by peskypesky View Post
the benefit, for some people, would be that their pick won't get hung up on the middle pickup's polepieces.

Richie Blackmore lowered his middle pickup as low as it could go. His Signature Model has no middle pickup, just a dummy:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guita...lectric-guitar

What you lose are the 3 tones that come from positions 2, 3 and 4. Since most Strats have a reverse-wind middle pickup to reduce hum, you would lose that benefit (which you get in positions 2 and 4).

Positions 2 and 4 are also the pickup combinations that give the Strat its famous "quack" tone. This is caused by the two pickups being out-of-phase.
No, the pickups are NOT out of phase. They get their phase-cancellation from the fact that they read different point on the string at at vibrating at a different radius. It's the same effect that give full-size humbuckers their midrange phase-y-ness/creaminess/muddiness. If they were out of phase, they would sound so anemic and thin that many would think they were broken.

In a 2-pickup Strat/Tele/LP Special/etc., you can use a reverse-wound/reverse-polarity neck PU to get hum-cancelling with both PU's on.
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Quote Originally Posted by peskypesky View Post
the benefit, for some people, would be that their pick won't get hung up on the middle pickup's polepieces.

Richie Blackmore lowered his middle pickup as low as it could go. His Signature Model has no middle pickup, just a dummy:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guita...lectric-guitar

What you lose are the 3 tones that come from positions 2, 3 and 4. Since most Strats have a reverse-wind middle pickup to reduce hum, you would lose that benefit (which you get in positions 2 and 4).

Positions 2 and 4 are also the pickup combinations that give the Strat its famous "quack" tone. This is caused by the two pickups being out-of-phase.
No, the pickups are NOT out of phase. They get their phase-cancellation from the fact that they read different point on the string at at vibrating at a different radius. It's the same effect that give full-size humbuckers their midrange phase-y-ness/creaminess/muddiness. If they were out of phase, they would sound so anemic and thin that many would think they were broken.

In a 2-pickup Strat/Tele/LP Special/etc., you can use a reverse-wound/reverse-polarity neck PU to get hum-cancelling with both PU's on.
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Quote Originally Posted by billybilly View Post
I don't know, seems like a disservice to yourself. Get a tele.
Aw, I'm a Tele man all the way, actually. Always have a Tele. I like Strats too, and own a cheap one now that is a lot of fun, but for me when it comes to classic solidbody electrics I'm

Tele>Les Paul>Strat
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Quote Originally Posted by Muddslide View Post
^^^ I remember those well. They came with a few different pickup configurations.


Yes. There were 3 different Fender Lead models: Lead I, Lead II, and Lead III.

The Lead I had a single bridge humbucker. Lead II had two single coils. Lead III had two humbuckers. They didn't sell well and were discontinued rather quickly.

I bought my red Lead II with maple fingerboard as new-old-stock in 1987. About a week later I bought a used-but-like-new black Lead I (like the one below) with a rosewood fingerboard for dirt cheap -- $100 if memory serves.

1981_made_in_usa_7146.jpg



Roger Miller from Mission of Burma used one almost exclusively and I remember seeing Bono playing one with U2 on Live at Red Rocks. Pretty cool little gits.

Eric Clapton played a Lead II for a bit in the early 1980s. He ended up donating it to the Hard Rock Cafe in London soon afterwards. It may have been the first guitar he ever donated.


http://travelingwilbury.files.wordpr...uitar-blog.jpg




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Quote Originally Posted by Radar-Love View Post




Eric Clapton played a Lead II for a bit in the early 1980s. He ended up donating it to the Hard Rock Cafe in London soon afterwards. It may have been the first guitar he ever donated.


http://travelingwilbury.files.wordpr...uitar-blog.jpg




http://www.hardrock.com/locations/ca...91&MIBenumID=3

It was the first guitar donated to the hard rock
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Quote Originally Posted by cephus

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Aesthetically they fail. I am normally a form over function guy. I have an hh strat and I love it. But the 2 singles look effeminate. I hate myself for being so shallow.

 

I agree. For me, a Strat looks best with 3 single coils. I can deal with HSS and HH, too, but they seem off to me. And the two single-coils looks way off.
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And with cover:
PICT0136.jpg

I'd like to do a 1 pickup Strat some day with just a neck pickup, but only bc I have a dozen Strats and it would just be something different. Great thing is it just costs you the cost of a custom pick guard (about $25 from Warmoth?) and your time (to remove parts from old pick guard and wire up the new one.). Same with a 2 pickup setup - if you have a 3 pickup Strat already, you already have either the RWRP middle pickup or neck pickup to use, and all the other parts you need. Just unsolder, transfer, and resolder everything. If you have time. That's one thing I'm short on these days.

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