I have a strat and I feel bad because I don't use the position 2, 4, and middle pick up. I kinda feel it's a waste to get the guitar. I usually just use the neck and bridge. Can anyone suggest to me when those 3 positions would be appropriate and maybe a song that uses them? Thanks!

-FaR

just listen to jimi hendrix or SRV

position bass + middle --> gives a very bluesy warm sound, try rolling off the tone of the middle pickup also, it makes it darker.

middle + treble --> good for backing rythm, or funky solo. Used with overdrive, it gives a thicker sound than the treble pickup alone.

middle alone: not very used, i know that mark knopfler uses it a lot. It's nice, but doesn't have much personality.

I feel stupid and genius at the same time explaining all this, because you have the guitar in your hands, so you could try it all by yourself ...

for me, neck for rhthm & bridge for solo. but so stickla. sometimes forgot to switch also . but sometimes i use 4 & can feel extra "twang" which is good for rhthms. i donno..

I usually use the middle for RHCPlike stuff. Roll the tone knob down and it'll sound funky as hell.

those in between sounds are actually something special to a strat, gives a glassy, twangy sound. I think U2, John Mayer uses alot of bridge+middle

If you read up the strat history, you can see that they were initially produced with only a switch for 3 positions, but musicians eventually found out that they could have another sound by putting the switch in between positions 1-2 and 2-3.

also, the reason that they gives a strat 5-way instead of 3 is that when switching from 1 position to another there will be a "no sound" stage in the 3-way config.

Try using less distortion and try using overdrive instead when using those positions. Or try to play clean with the gain slightly up, or with a louder volume. Then you can really hear the qualities of these in between sounds.

this might be a bit off topic a bit, but i have a squier standard strat and when i turn one or both the tone knob, it doesn't seem to make a different to the sound...

was the internal wiring wasn't wired properly?

even with both at 0 got no difference?

yeah....i've never tried another strat, but i presume when i turn the tone knob, the sound will be very different, as in we'll notice the difference rite??

for my case, i cant hear any difference