Strat Quack

Up until the mid 90s my Strats had three way switches and have never made duck noises. I still don't use the 2 and 4 positions.

 

Quack is referred to positions 2 and 4.


...And it is because it sounds AWESOME. Like 50 ducks in unison. Is the best sound of a guitar ever, Period. I really like it

 

If it walks like a duck.
Robert Cray has a few songs in his pocket
with it and of course Knopfler.

 

Morning big log Quack attack:

 

I have to assume these phrases that by and large mean nothing probably got started when weirdos like us had to describe obscure sounds over the internet using words, so the late 90's?

Before people could have just said it sounds like [this].

 

In the early 90's.
But don't take my word as the only one. There may well have been other references that I wasn't aware of.

 

Thanks for this post. I feel infinitely better with respect to my trajectory as a musician have struggled through about half the video.
I do, however, now have a lingering sense if dread, and increased concern for the future if mankind.

 

I never used the term quack and I really don't understand it. I have two Stratocasters, one with CS '69 and one with VN pickups. Position 2 has stronger mids than position 1 with highs seemingly suppressed. With distortion, it's humbucker like. Clean, it's of very limited utility to me. The VN pickups are noticeably dark compared with the CS '69 pickups. Position 4 is useful clean with both of my Strats using the 5W setting on my Mesa Boogie express. 5W restores higher harmonics. Position 4 on my FCS '69 Strat is almost ideal for vocal accompaniment, having an acoustic like quality. With VN pickups, position 4 has a very jazzy humbucker timbre. Attack seems to be blunted in positions 2 and 4 with both Strats. That's either good or bad depending. Quack? Unless the term refers to the slightly muted attack with high frequency suppression, I don't hear it. Then, thinking about it again, maybe I do. A ducks quack is rich in mid frequencies with nothing much in the way of higher order harmonics and a soft attack. I wonder what the ducks think of the sound.

 

Some call it the "quack" others used to call it the "out of phase" sound (but it's not). It's just two single coil Strat pickups together and like it or not, it's part of the Statocaster's collection of sounds. Both Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler helped to make that sound both recognizable and world famous and I believe because of that, the "quack" helped Fender sell lots & lots of Stratocasters.

 

If it looks like a Strat and quacks like a duck it's a Strat not a duck as long as it quacks.

 

Being a lover of the Strat, I couldn't agree more. I'm sure there's an application for it, and many have recorded with their Stats in that position. I, however, seldom go out of the fifth position, but that is likely because I only play in my house, so the volume is not at concert levels where the first position might me more applicable.

 

Well, it seems like an attempt to get Hubert Sumlin's tone he had with the half-out-of-phase Les Paul he used with Howlin Wolf. Buddy Guy started using it in the mid-60s almost by accident and it's all over the Delmark stuff with Jr. Wells. I'm sure Clapton heard all that and went for a similar sound. After that, it took off.

 

Listen to some Loggins and Messina and u will hear Messina's strat quack. I love that sound, not a fan of the acoustic under the saddle pickup quack

 

I like both Robert Cray and Mark Knopfler but their 2 and 4 tones are very different -- maybe Cray mostly playing with a pick, Knopfler mainly using his fingers?

When using 2 or 4 positions on a Strat I have to keep the high end knocked well back. No such concerns when playing either of my two other three-pickup guitars, both thinline semi-acoustic centre blocks -- an Epi Riviera with three P90s and a Gretsch 5622 (early type) with three Super Hilotrons. And both give the option of dialling out the middle pickup so there's a bridge/middle choice as well.

 

I first heard it in the mid 70s when a friend finally got a strat. He said I love that quack sound, referring to the 2 & 4 positions. So, like me, the term has been around for awhile.

 

I have heard people say that the pos 2/4 sounds on a strat go back at least to the 60s. They say that guitars (Hendrix seems to be the most common example) used to jam their 3 way switches in the in-between positions to get these sounds. Whether this is true or just another unsubstantiated rumour from the fever dream that is the modern-day internet I can't say, but it's an interesting theory.

 

It's true. There were no 5 way switches until the mid or late 70s, and Clapton (Slunky, Let it Rain, etc.), Ed King (Sweet Home Alabama), and others, including me, were carefully setting our three way Strat switches in the in-between positions to get those sounds.

 

Two ducks walking through the middle of Belfast.
One says 'quack, quack'.
The other says 'I'm going as quack as I can'..


I'm here all week, folks. Don't forget to try the falafel.

 

I don't know when I first heard it but I never paid it much attention. It's a sound I used to like but have since avoided. Seems to be over done some how.

But I thought it was interesting that Eric Clapton regards it as the sound of a banjo when he first heard it. It made me think that during those early years of rock what Americans regard as quaint British styles are really sounds and riffs from their music like skiffle or early English folk or even Irish jigs.

Banjos included

We tend to associate guitars with the Blues or Jazz. That's a different take all together.

Just thinkin out loud (probably shouldn't do that)