My American Deluxe Strat is the very first Strat that I actually liked. A lot of it has to do with the pickups, which are Kinman Hx noiseless single coils. These have a bit more output than stock Strat pickups and they make a HUGE difference in the tone of the guitar; fattening up the sound significantly.
Traditionally, I have absolutely abhorred the middle pickup of Strats. To me, with the stock set, though it is mid-rangy, which is a tone I like, I always felt the middle pickup was a little lifeless. Even EVH with the Frankenstein removed the middle pickup, and replaced the bridge pickup with a humbucker I suppose to fatten up his tone. With my Kinmans, the tone is not quite ‘bucker-fat, but it is much fatter than the stock pickups. As for the middle pickup, it’s my favorite pickup on the guitar when I’m playing with distortion. It produces tons of mid-range that cuts right through a mix.
Plus, at least to me, it has the best balance of sustain and fatness to simply be an ideal pickup. Take this demo that I recorded this morning called “The Way The Truth The Life:”
I actually recorded this a few years ago, but couldn’t get a groove with the song. So I finally got it put together, and after I recorded the acoustic guitar and piano parts, realized that it needed a driven electric guitar sound; specifically, my Strat through a cranked Marshall. 🙂 To be honest, I tried recording with the neck pickup which is my usual go-to pickup, but that was way too fat, and the bridge pickup was way too thin. But the middle pickup was just right… (yikes! sounding like Goldilocks and the three bears).
When I spent time with Doug Doppler way back when, he talked about the middle pickup being one of his favorites. I personally didn’t “get it” at the time because up until that point, I hadn’t heard a middle pickup on a Strat that I liked. But after recording this song, I’m sold. When I want a smooth drive with lots of mid-range, the middle pickup is it!
I have the Highway One Strat and I love the position that utilizes both the neck and middle pickup on clean tones. They sound really good together.
I dig that setting too for clean riffs. Nice and jangly without being over the top.
I had similar experience when i started playing. My initial impression was that middle pickup was only for quacky in-between tones. Only good friend of mine that was gigging actively at the time, gave me a secret of using middle most of the time and other two for more of special effect. When you think of it, if you adjust your amp for middle one that neither bridge not neck pickups would be too unbalanced.
Excellent song and great tone. I normally play humbucker equipped guitars, but hearing your song, makes me want to break out my Strat and see if I can duplicate that tone.
Just seriously crank up the amp. 🙂 I used my attenuator to control the volume. Plus it helped that I had a speaker with a fantastic bottom-end response – Jensen Jet Falcon.