Sound of neck plus bridge pickup on a Strat

[Bill]

I was at a local luthier's shop today. Keith Holland builds some very nice Strats and Teles. Anyways, one thing he has been adding to his Strats is a pull-pot on the second Tone control that turns on the bridge pickup. That way you can add the bridge to any other pickup combination.

Having loved the neck + bridge sound on the Tele, I always felt this was something the Strat was missing. But guess what? On the Strat it really didn't add anything to the mix. It sounded like the neck pickup with just a very slight high-end sparkle added to it.

Nothing like the magic of a Tele's two pickups together. I think it must be because the pickups on a Tele are so different from each other that you get a distinctly new sound with both pickups on. But with the Strat, they just aren't different enough.

The all-three-pickups-on setting wasn't that interesting either.

Anyone else have a similar/different experience with the neck + bridge setting?

[Astro1176]

I have added a blend pot to mix bridge and middle PUs on my strat, so you can have both on full or bridge with a bit of neck or vice versa. So far I am finding this very useful, and generally prefer the blended positions a lot more than both full on. Using it as a blend lets me use it as a clever tone pot, adding a bit more body to the trebly bridge pickup, or a bit more bite to the neck if I want it.

I agree that all 3 or blending in to all 3 doesn't seem very inspiring.

To me, the dynamics of my Strat and Tele are very very different, the Tele has a lot more attack and is kind of percussive sounding, the front of the note is really emphasised, whilst the strat has a much smoother envelope. This quality of the sound doesn't seem to be affected by the pickups or pickup positions/combinations.

[red57strat]

My experience was similar to Bill's. I've tried both a switch and a blender pot and was disappointed with the sound of a Strat's neck and bridge pickups combined. It's not a bad sound at all, just not as good as on a Tele (or Les Paul).

[Bill]

You bring up a good point red57strat--a Les Paul has (or in my case an ES-347 and a ES-175) gets a distinct sound with both pickups on. And that's even though on a Gibson both pickups are typically the same design.

Well I guess that means I need a Strat AND a Tele AND a Gibson.

[Steinar G]

Originally Posted by Astro1176

I have added a blend pot to mix bridge and middle PUs on my strat, so you can have both on full or bridge with a bit of neck or vice versa. So far I am finding this very useful, and generally prefer the blended positions a lot more than both full on. Using it as a blend lets me use it as a clever tone pot, adding a bit more body to the trebly bridge pickup, or a bit more bite to the neck if I want it.

Same here, I love being able to blend in 'the other' pickup gradually and can't imagine having a Strat without that function.