Single coil sized humbucker advice and opinion

FriskyDingo

Looking to upgrade my bridge pickup in my Chapman ML1 as I miss a high output/humbucker sound.
ive looked at the DiMarzio super distortion or the Seymour Duncan hot rails.
has anyone tried either of these? Or is there another option you recommend?
Thanks for the help

Funkfingers

The single-coil-sized humbuckers with an alnico bar magnet sound more convincing than the ones with ceramic.

On the other hand, Chapman themselves use the SHR-1B Hot Rails. This should eliminate any possible string to polepiece alignment issues and volume drop outs during string bending.

A sensible compromise might be the SLSD-1 Li'l Screamin' Demon or the new Red Devil.

drwiddly

Best I've tried is the Oil City ones that Ash winds to special order. I put one in the bridge position on my G&L S500 and it sounds wonderful.

Grumpyrocker

Iron Gear do a nice one called the Jailhouse Rail. Had this in my Squire http://irongear.co.uk/irongear_pickups_038.htm

FriskyDingo

Grumpyrocker said:

Iron Gear do a nice one called the Jailhouse Rail. Had this in my Squire http://irongear.co.uk/irongear_pickups_038.htm

They look great for the price. I thought of just buy something cheaper first to try out. I know there's better quality control with the well known brands but you can get a pickup of equal quality elsewhere 

Funkfingers

FriskyDingo said:

Chapman ML1

Presumably, the Traditional with SSS pickups?

FriskyDingo said:

a high output sound.

Does this have to be a dual-coil hum-cancelling pickup? Would a high output single coil be of interest?

drwiddly said:

Oil City ones that Ash winds

Diamond Geezer. 

Replace the tone control pot with a push-pull type. This selects between the two output level modes.

fretmeister

The Hot Rails has mental string pull if you set it too close. Nasty warbling can occur.

I like the Dimarzio Chopper for this - it's high enough output for some good metal but backs of pretty well too.


But if you want a normal looking pickup then the Dimarzio Injector is great. I;ve got them in my strat at the moment. They are the current Paul Gilbert model.

FriskyDingo

It is SSS I did replace the pickup once with a true grit bare knuckle single coil but I need something more powerful 

andy1839

I've just got a Seymour Duncan Red Devil, it sounds fantastic. Warm HB tones, loads of subtlety but has that great grind to it.

I've used a hot rails for ages and the Red Devil is the much better, more toneful pickup, even when used with ultra high gain.

Maynehead

If you’re looking for output then the hot rails have tons. More than a JB and even more than active EMGs, they are monstrous. Tone wise they are most similar to Duncan Distortions.

FriskyDingo

andy1839 said:

I've just got a Seymour Duncan Red Devil, it sounds fantastic. Warm HB tones, loads of subtlety but has that great grind to it.

I've used a hot rails for ages and the Red Devil is the much better, more toneful pickup, even when used with ultra high gain.

Bit more pricey than what I was looking at but they sound good