how to compare pickups

[pooo]

Hot rails are FAT. Really nice high output pickups for strats. I find the overdriven tones really sweet for heavier music. For a better idea of what they sound like, listen to some of the later Iron Maiden records, some of which Dave Murray recorded with Hotrails.

You could blend active pickups with passives, but you might have to compensate for the high output of the active pickups by installing a 500k pot for the passive one instead of the usual 250k. Hide from X Japan did that with his signature mockingbirds, Dimarzio Dual Sound in the neck and EMG 81 in the bridge.

A popular Seymour Duncan combination is to match Hotrails with JB Jr. Maybe you could tell us which position you'd like the Hotrails to be in? Perhaps then we could offer a more precise advice as to what can be matched with it.

 

[pooo]

I've come up with a few weird pickup combinations.

SD Hotrails (b)
Fender Lace Sensor Gold (m)
SD lil' 59

EMG SA set + EMG SPC

Dimarzio Cruiser
Dimarzio HS2 (m)
Dimarzio Tonezone S (b)

Dimarzio Cruiser
SD Alnico 2 (m)
SD lil 59 (b)

Hehe, i doubt this will be of much help but i hope it does. Kinda put this together by assumption you prefer hotter pickups. All the combinations are interchangable so there's quite a variety there. Had to post this before the idea is lost

:lol:

 

[man_kidal]

I definitely getting hotrails for my new strat in the bridge. Maybe neck and mid i use some normal fender vintage pickups

 

[fibredrive]

on the same topic of pickups, can anyone tell me whether its better to get these aftermarket pickups? as in, why do people get it? is it becos your stock pickups are normally not good?
am thinking of changing my prs pups, and my fender amercian vintage pups, but was wondering if i should? will the sound be vastly different? hope someone can help. cheers

 

[pooo]

My understanding is that people change pickups in their quest for a certain desired sound/tone or, getting rid of the irritating 60 cycle hum in reference to single coils. Stock pickups can be good as well. Fender american vintage for example, for those true blues players who do not need loads of drive, they'll happily keep those stock. Well you need to ask yourself what kind of sound you're leaning towards, then choose the pickup which meets your needs. But if your current pickups do the job nicely, leave it Pickups are a hit or miss thing, one might sound good in a particular guitar but sound like pure shit in another.

 

[fibredrive]

heya thanks for the reply mate! under the circumstances, considering the simple fact that i am a metal head, think i might change my fender pups. will retain the other cos am happy with it.
suppose next big qn is, change to what pups. haha. think the above combinations will give me a good place to start. cheers

 

[nishant]

hmm, where would hot rails sound better, neck or bridge... by the way, my strat looks like at has 3 pickups right now, which is the neck and bridge?

 

[nishant]

i'm leaning towards the metallica, toshiro masuda, korn kind of music... more rock. but i have a feeling in future i might want to play more clean music too...

 

[pooo]

Neck pickup is the one closest to the base of the neck of the guitar. The bridge being the slanted pickup close to the bridge in the case of a strat.

Hot rails can go in either pickup position. They sound equally fine.

fibredrive: Best of luck finding the tonal bliss you seek!

 

[fibredrive]

hey pooo - its a never-ending quest man...heh.

 

[pooo]

A tiring but exciting one as well! And one guitar is definitely not enough for this quest!

 

[Jayshen]

whats a vintage pick-up?

 

[man_kidal]

I suggest putting hot rails in your bridge .... Unless you wanna be different .... Fender vintage pickups are just pickups that have that older sound like hendrix ..... Got that twang .... Nothing special ....

 

[nishant]

what are active emg pickups and are they available in singapore?

 

[pooo]

whats a vintage pick-up?

Think of them as pickups from the rock era. Staggered single coil pole pieces, low output, lots of hum and microphonic feedback if you drive them hard, but they have one of the best clean sound on the planet. Immaculate.

what are active emg pickups and are they available in singapore?

EMGs have batteries to power the preamp inside them. This makes them considerably hotter and because they use batteries, they're termed "active". They can be available at Davis.

 

[nishant]

So if i like playing music from bands like three doors down, metallica, korn, linkin park and such, should i be getting the hot rails? If so, what should i accompany it with?

 

[man_kidal]

From the music you play i say it doesnt really matter what you use.

 

[MrE]

Haha :lol: (see above)

 

[nishant]

How's that?

 

[man_kidal]

Cause most of the music you wrote are either clean or with muddy distortion i don't think anyone will actually listen to the guitar riffs/solos(if there are any) in the songs you play .... Only metallica la get EMG 81s la for that ..... Good humbuckers .... But then again you can make do with normal pickups imo ...