Why the middle Pup?

[amt7565]

I find then middle pick up on the VWH absolutely useless!
Any one use them and for what purpose?

[crevis]

Position 2 and 4 give nice stratish, clean and lightly distorted tones, by itself its pretty useless. I allwayus disconnect it and put a 3 way on with coil tap.

[The Euphor]

I've got a Fender Custom Shop '54 single coil, and my Jem has a very nice clean tone. Then in the 2nd and 4th position. With lots of gain, not so useful.

[supermau]

I find some nice clean tones on the middle pickup of my 7vwh. What really bothers me about it though it that my pick tends to strike the pickup when I'm playing in general. That middle p/u sits right where I pick and it's so damn close to the strings that it gets in my way! I'm used to my dual humbucker Strat with no middle p/u I guess. I'll get over it.

[crevis]

Originally Posted by supermau

I find some nice clean tones on the middle pickup of my 7vwh. What really bothers me about it though it that my pick tends to strike the pickup when I'm playing in general. That middle p/u sits right where I pick and it's so damn close to the strings that it gets in my way! I'm used to my dual humbucker Strat with no middle p/u I guess. I'll get over it.

I always have that problem, i usually screw it down as far as it will go.

[andy7jem]

Originally Posted by crevis

I always have that problem, i usually screw it down as far as it will go.

Same here.Trouble is it kills the volume of it though.

[The Euphor]

Use a smaller pick! You don't need to pick the string from half an inch below the string.

[crevis]

I do, petrucci does too

[ThomasBJ]

I use the middle pickup alot. I use it when i need a more cleaner sound on my amp. It's very strat'ish and can make my guitar sound like Hendrix. I love it and it has such a good vintage sound (to me).

[Jem#5150]

i love my middle pickup, especially in pos. 2 and 3. nice clean tone, and when it is overdriven in pos. 4, you get a nice twangy sound.

[rrhea]

From what I've read Vai uses it in positions 2 and 4 and almost never alone. What's weird though, is that DiMarzio makes several very nice, stacked singles that have low magnet pull and high output (like the Virtual Vintage 2, for example) that would have mated much better with the higher output Evos.

I'll never understand why he chose that weak, noisy pickup for his guitar. I set mine down just far enough so I don't hit it with the pick... and I do use it occasionally for certain licks on high gain. Kind of gives that Gilbert sound when he rolls off the volume.

Ryan

[supermau]

Originally Posted by The Euphor

Use a smaller pick! You don't need to pick the string from half an inch below the string.

Yeah I hear ya but I'm pretty attached to my Tortex yellows and I don't actually have a half inch out hitting the strings. It's the poles on that single coil that I actually hit, they're practically right under the strings in a couple of spots. Maybe I'll screw that puppy down as suggested. I don't typically use that pickup anyway. Since most of my playing is balls-out rock, the humbuckers do the trick. But it's nice to use that single for recording some good clean tones nonetheless.

[RCB]

position 3 is useless, but positions 2 and 4 are a must!

I cant imagine how somebody could NOT use them?!?!

[amt7565]

I use potion-1 (tail) for crunch and position-5 for shred. The other positions don't sound interesting on my Univalve, perhaps it would in a bigger setup....

[kennydoe]

I had a thread on this a few years back...the stock Jem single is useless, but if you put a decent quality (higher output) single in there, you can get some nice funky/clean tones.

~K