Rails type pickups for strats - opinions please?

paulnb57 · July 2019

Megii said:

it's probably a bit weird and of me, but I just don't like the look of strats with a full size humbucker in the bridge - I like to see that slanting bridge pickup.

https://i.imgur.com/3ATy6DR.jpg

lysander · July 2019

I’d never put them in the neck or middle position of a strat, but in my opinion pretty much anything is an improvement over a standard strat bridge single coil.
I had put one of the first available ones which I think was a Duncan JB junior in my first guitar.
It always sounded in between single coil and humbucker to me which I think is cool.

Lestratcaster · July 2019

paulnb57 said:

Megii said:

it's probably a bit weird and of me, but I just don't like the look of strats with a full size humbucker in the bridge - I like to see that slanting bridge pickup.

https://i.imgur.com/3ATy6DR.jpg

I've always been interested in the reasoning behind an angled bridge humbucker in a Strat and how it affects the sound.

ICBM · July 2019

Lestratcaster said:

I've always been interested in the reasoning behind an angled bridge humbucker in a Strat and how it affects the sound.

The reasoning is because Eddie Van Halen was a genius player and an awful guitar tech... he did that to his first one and a lot of people copied it. It's still a bad idea though.

How it affects the sound is that it makes the E strings weak, which is why Seymour Duncan developed the 'Trembucker' which is wider, to avoid the problem of the Es being outside the sensing area on one coil - although it still works better with the pickup straight.

There's an even worse problem if you do that to a two-post bridge guitar - the treble side can collapse through into the cavity because the corner of the pickup rout is too close to it... especially if it's been crudely chopped out with a chisel, as many were.

Lestratcaster · July 2019

ICBM said:

Lestratcaster said:

I've always been interested in the reasoning behind an angled bridge humbucker in a Strat and how it affects the sound.

The reasoning is because Eddie Van Halen was a genius player and an awful guitar tech... he did that to his first one and a lot of people copied it. It's still a bad idea though.

How it affects the sound is that it makes the E strings weak, which is why Seymour Duncan developed the 'Trembucker' which is wider, to avoid the problem of the Es being outside the sensing area on one coil - although it still works better with the pickup straight.

There's an even worse problem if you do that to a two-post bridge guitar - the treble side can collapse through into the cavity because the corner of the pickup rout is too close to it... especially if it's been crudely chopped out with a chisel, as many were.

See Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day does it with his strat and a lot of people claim his tone is due to the pickup being positioned like that. Something to do with the bassier strings not being as trebley or something.

I'm putting a Seymour Duncan JB in my Strat (you may have seen my thread about the upgrade) in the bridge position. I expect it to be straight rather than angled, in the pickguard but it should still get me in that ballpark "Dookie album" tone?

rossi · July 2019

The Dimarzio twin blades in the Billy Corgan strat sounded decent to me and still strat like .i only played it once at a store through a Blackstar but liked it.

digitalscream · July 2019

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...if you want humbucker body with the definition and a bit of the attack of single coils, forget about single-sized humbuckers. Get a Red or Blue Lace Sensor instead (depending on whether you want a modern or a classic sound respectively).

As well as being the best-sounding single-sized pickups you can get (yeah, I'm a little biased), they use a much weaker magnetic field so string pull is minimised.

For context, I've used all the alternatives from SD and DiMarzio, as well as the Irongear variants, and none of them come close to the Lace Sensors.

drwiddly · July 2019

I've tried a few - Kent Armstrong, SD Hot & Cool Rails, Irongear Jailhouse Rail I & II and Oil City. None of them sound like full size humbuckers. They have a sound of their own and you need to get used to that and make it work for you.

The best by far are the Oil City pickups that Ash winds to special order. The Jailhouse Rail I sounded awful in one guitar and really good in another (??!!). No, I have no idea why. JR II was a bit meh, SD's were Ok and the KA's were nothing special.

At the moment I have the JR I in the bridge position in my LAG Strat, an Oil City in the bridge position in my G&L S500 and a full set of Oil City in my Eggle Los Angeles. All doing an excellent job.

ICBM · July 2019

digitalscream said:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...if you want humbucker body with the definition and a bit of the attack of single coils, forget about single-sized humbuckers. Get a Red or Blue Lace Sensor instead (depending on whether you want a modern or a classic sound respectively).

As well as being the best-sounding single-sized pickups you can get (yeah, I'm a little biased), they use a much weaker magnetic field so string pull is minimised.

For context, I've used all the alternatives from SD and DiMarzio, as well as the Irongear variants, and none of them come close to the Lace Sensors.

I've always found them really characterless. It was one of the main reasons I stupidly (with hindsight) turned down a Fender Deluxe Strat in Firestorm... which is now a very valuable guitar. It just sounded completely boring.

I can't stand the Duncan Li'l '59 either, for balance!

I really like the Dimarzio Fast Track and Chopper though.

digitalscream · July 2019

ICBM said:

digitalscream said:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...if you want humbucker body with the definition and a bit of the attack of single coils, forget about single-sized humbuckers. Get a Red or Blue Lace Sensor instead (depending on whether you want a modern or a classic sound respectively).

As well as being the best-sounding single-sized pickups you can get (yeah, I'm a little biased), they use a much weaker magnetic field so string pull is minimised.

For context, I've used all the alternatives from SD and DiMarzio, as well as the Irongear variants, and none of them come close to the Lace Sensors.

I've always found them really characterless. It was one of the main reasons I stupidly (with hindsight) turned down a Fender Deluxe Strat in Firestorm... which is now a very valuable guitar. It just sounded completely boring.

I can't stand the Duncan Li'l '59 either, for balance!

I really like the Dimarzio Fast Track and Chopper though.

Hilariously, I'm the exact opposite - I find the Fast Track and Chopper to be so generic as to be useless for what I do! Little '59 is great in the neck, but the Blue is better.

I've always found that humbuckers - particularly single-coil-size ones - tend to mask the attack too much. They cover up picking inaccuracy, which is nice (it's something I'm not very good at), but most of them totally miss the "ch" of "chug", particularly DiMarzios. It's something you can't really correct for with EQ or compression.

Also, given that the other guitarist in my band uses a Les Paul, that little extra definition really helps differentiate the two guitars.

guitarcookie1 · July 2019

I like the Lil’59 in the neck position of my Jagstang, works really well.

paulnb57 · July 2019

Better,option for me is a Bare Knuckle Sinner, which is a hot Simgle Coil, retaining the look and the Strattiness......

Fez · July 2019

I've had a Seymour Duncan hot rails in my favourite strat for about 35 years and it's going nowhere. Sure rails are different to full size humbuckers and they may not suit every guitar. It is definitely worth having a push pull switched pot to split the coils.
Lack of chug would be due to the compression from too much distortion back of the gain a bit.

maltingsaudio · July 2019

I put a Dimarzio fast track in my mm Silhouette years ago and love it, to make it more balanced in position 4 I simply took the two wires your supposed to solder together to make it humbuck and soldered them to the spare lug on my 5 way switch so when it’s in position 5 it’s full humbucking when position 4 it’s split to balance with the middle pick up. Ps lug 3 on the side of the switch which isn’t used is then sent to earth on the tone pot

Megii · July 2019

paulnb57 said:

Megii said: he look of strats with a full size humbucker in the bridge - I like to see that slanting bridge pickup.

https://i.imgur.com/3ATy6DR.jpg

Well played and touché re the angled full size 'bucker - hadn't thought of that, and not what I'm after either, but can't deny it is a thing.

Megii · July 2019

Thanks again for all the replies, and it has helped me get my thoughts together. No right or wrong here of course, but hopefully I'll get to something that is right for me.

I do have a strat with a Lace red-silver-blue set, so as a side issue was interested in the discussion on those - my take is that for versatility they are great, and for a gigging guitar they really get the job done, and obviously can suffer from less noise when that's an issue. For me they have a smooth, hi-fi kind of thing, which is nice sometimes, but also I do understand where @ICBM is coming from if I'm honest.

Anyhow - I am going to be building yet another partscaster strat (surf green, all maple neck) having already made 3 of them - must be bonkers, but I just like strats it seems. Since I already have a couple of strats with the classic tones covered well, for this next one I'm going to go a bit different - it will have Axesrus Red Mag pickups in the neck and middle slots - for a warmer/fuller take on the single coil tone, and a rails in the bridge, and with switching to tap that one. To be honest I think I'll try something fairly inexpensive to start with, like an Artec or similar (alnico magnet) - will see how that works out, can always upgrade if not happy. Cheers again though!

hollywoodrox · July 2019

I think these days , single size pickups can provide near enough the same tone /output as their double size brothers. Seymour Duncan jb dimarzio super distortion, iron gear jailhouse rails.

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Rails type pickups for strats - opinions please?

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