middle pickup probs

[sourmash]

This may sound like a simple fix but I am really getting annoyed with this. Since I have acquired an acoustic and play with it mostly, when I switch to my Ibanez rg270(H-S-F pickups), I keep hitting the middle picked with my pick. I have tried to keep my arm back away from it but it really seems hard to keep in mind. Has anyone else had this problem and come up with some sort of fix? There has to be an easy way, I just cant figure it out.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Well, as long as the pickup isn't too high (and needing adjustment), I'd say that you just need to adjust your playing to get around the problem. When playing on that electric, you don't have to beat the snot out of it, and you can pick just above or below the middle pickup, or for that matter, near the fretboard end or just in front of the bridge; all these picking positions yield different tones, and along with other variance in the nuance of picking attack and angle and "touch" will make a more expressive and less polepiece-clicking guitarist out of ya.

 

As for "beating the snot out of it", SRV did a lot of that on a Strat and managed to get around the pickups, too. And, if it makes you feel any better, I play fingerstyle pretty much exclusively, and if I'm careless I catch my picking-hand nails on the polepieces of the P-90 "soapbar" pickup in the bridge-position of my guitar (it's up extra high, to balance with the neck-pickup; I've gotta get some calibrated Seymour Duncans or somethin'). And I want to add a middle pickup to it... !!

 

Best of luck, sourmash, let us know how you make out!

[Blue Strat]

Anchor your wrist on the bridge of your electric and only use small motions of your wrist and fingers. Or, you could just lower your pickups almost flush with the body and let your stronger pick attack make up for the slightly lower volume coming out of your guitar.

[sgstrat]

Robbie Robertson of The Band used to have the same problem, so he removed his Strat's middle pickup!

[Major Tom]

Lower it.