Decent demonstration of the difference between the sounds here. I used neck, bridge, and quack all on the same guitar.
tdn, as I mention above in my *mea culpa *:smack: post, picking two pickups out-of-phase AND picking positions 2 & 4 on a Strat both sound thin, but arrive at that sound via different means - one is electronic and the other has to do with the position of the pickups in relation to each other. And, while both sound thinner, I would argue that, on a good rig, an out of phase thin sound is kinda “plinky” whereas positions 2 & 4 are, legendarily, “quacky”…
So I don’t know exactly what that switch on your guitar does, but it is not standard on a Fender Strat, unless it is a special model. It may, in fact, be a phase switch. Does this Strat have 3 single coil pickups like a normal Strat or is it a Fat Strat, i.e., a humbucker in the bridge position? In that case, it is common for those humbuckers to have split coils - i.e., they stick a wire into the pickup so you can isolate one or both of the two coils that make it up. It was a common mod in the 80’s so you could insert a 'bucker in the bridge, but make it a single coil like a stock Strat for songs that required that tone. And since the coils were split, they often came with a phase switch, so you could wire the two coils of the humbucker out of phase with each other and get that tone, too (**Shakester **will no doubt let me know to what degree I am embarrassing myself here…but I am pretty sure I have the basic concepts correct - and I have lived with guitars wired up this way so I know at least the playing side of things…). As I mention above, an out-of-phase tone can often sound “plinky” - I am referring to a split-coil 'bucker where you’ve engaged the phase switch. Back in the day, while this sounded like a neat feature that added to one’s tonal palette, simply splitting coils and then wiring them out of phase didn’t automatically translate into a useful tone. The pickup was designed to operate as a whole; ensuring it sounded decent in other configs required tweaking. Today, with a bit more emphasis on going back to basics and not going all Super-Strat, it is recognized that the tweaks to make that type of switching work often detract from the actual humbucker sound and they are less popular except in specific applications…
Does that help?
The guitar that I’m talking about (and that you hear in the recording I posted) is not a Strat, it’s a Guild S300-D. Two humbucker pickups (DiMarzio). It’s basically a Les Paul but with an extra switch.
The phase switch does not turn them into single coils, nor does it reverse the polarity or whatever within a single pickup. When a single pickup is selected, the switch does nothing. It only does something then the toggle is in the middle position.
Got it. I would assume then, that the switch wires the two pickups out of phase - again, a way to get a thinner tone that is different from the approach that positions 2 & 4 on a Strat use…
…and all of this confusion is one reason why I don’t get any extra switches on my guitars where I can avoid them. 
It is indeed confusing, and I can honestly say that I know less about the subject today than I did yesterday. I am humbled.
But it’s hard for me to believe that the two instruments acheive the exact same tone by completely different means. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
That’s my observation above: it is NOT the exact same tone. However, and as you know, I am NOT trying to slam yours (or anyone’s) rig, if you don’t have decent gear designed to bring those types of tones to the front, they can sound the same, i.e., thinner than normal. A great Strat quack tone, however, is a humbling thing of beauty, whereas a phase switch-based thin tone is usually, at best, a compromise thin tone that you can use if you need one on the fly.
A genuine out of phase setting is fun for about a minute but isn’t much use for anything. The sound of any combination of pickups together will have some harmonics out of phase so you get a bit of quackyness, if they really are out of phase and mixed equally you lose the fundamental and the sound isn’t so much ‘quacky’ as frackking annoyingly nasal.
I’ve experimented with this and never bothered to have it as an option on any guitar. Coil taps = useful, phase switch = waste of space.
Can I get an “Amen”!!
Not from me. 
Mine goes to six.
Best wishes,
hh