Question about guitar pickups & noise

I want to throw out a question, I recently bought a brand new Ibanez RG350M guitar. It plays great, the frets feel great, ect, I am really pleased with it overall. It has a single coil middle pickup about where your picking action takes place and 2 double pickups one at the bridge, the other is higher up above the middle (single coil) pick-up. I have noticed when I use distortion, when I switch solely to the middle (single coil) pickup, I get more amp noise or extra noise, than when I use any other pickup selection. Is this fairly normal for a single coil pickup in the middle with distortion? A guitar salesperson said it was fairly normal and I just want to make sure. The guitar overall is a joy to play.

This is normal. The larger pickups are called humbuckers and are designed to reduce/eliminate the hum you hear in the single coil.

Many thanks, I know for sure now the guitar is as it should be.

Originally Posted by: RazboThis is normal. The larger pickups are called humbuckers and are designed to reduce/eliminate the hum you hear in the single coil.

...and that's how they got the name hum bucker...couldn't resist (though true)

Originally Posted by: JeffS65...and that's how they got the name hum bucker...couldn't resist (though true)

I felt that was implicit :D

And as we all know the humbucker is 2 single coils next to each other with opposing polarities which cancels out the 60 cycle hum from a single coil....in the same way that if you play 2 of anything with opposing sounds/ signals you get silence...!!! Much like beer cancels out my need for women and hard drugs...only joking...:D I still need women....!!!