Metal pickups for strat

K

korpse pop

Horde of Undead Vengeance
Jun 22, 2005
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I have a MIM Fender maple/alder strat with stock single coils, the guitar plays so good I'd like to use it some metal stuff as well, so I need to replace the bridge pickup. What are your recommendations, would a SD Hot Rails sound heavy enough for some low tuned riffs? Or do I need to buy a new pickguard and a full size humbucker?
I'm not aiming for 80's hard rock tone or Iron Maiden, but rather a thick modern tone and some sludgy stoner metal goodness too. I would probably use tunings ranging from Eb to drop C. I use mostly VST amp sims and occasionally Marshall JCM 800.
So, what's the best metal pickup for an alder/maple guitar? The guitar has pretty balanced tone unplugged, not too thin or bright as you would assume from the specs
 
I think a hot rail would be great. Ive got a alder/maple strat that I have done out with an evolution and a hot rail and it sounds tits!

9.jpg
 
Have you tried Hot Rails in the bridge position? I'm only planning to upgrade bridge pickup and leave the single coils for neck & middle
 
Are you only considering single-coil-sized humbuckers?

I've tried the DiMarzio Super Distortion. I like it. I think it can add at lot of chunk to bright-sounding guitars, so maybe the single-coil-sized version, the Super Distortion S could be worth looking at.
 
I haven't decided if I want a single coil size or a regular size, but I have to find a HSS pickguard if I go for a regular humbucker. I had a Duncan Cool Rails in the bridge for a while, but it was not very metal, did not sound like a real humbucker to me. I bet the EMG 89 would sound amazing, but then I had to either do a lot of extra work to get it working along the neck & middle single coils or buy EMG singles. That would be too expensive I'm afraid
 
Guys, the dude is not asking for Iron Maiden tone, yet you suggest the Hot Rails? For fuck sake, Iron Maiden USE those, at least Dave Murray anyway.
If you want properly thick tone, a single coil sized humbucker wont deliver unfortunately. Yes it will sound thicker than a true single coil, but the reason why a full size humbucker sounds the way it does is because of how it spreads across a larger area than a single coil.

If we are talking about Alder, the Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB model is a match made in heaven.
It's worth getting a full size bucker in there man, do it
 
^^ Depends how much he cares really, but I do tend to agree. With a full sized bucker its going to sound better no doubt about it. That is gonna mean a scratch plate change too which can be surprisingly expensive. With 500k pots the hot rail is good. A JB will be balanced quite well with stock pots. Maybe the answer is to buy one in 2nd hand, test it and see if it is what you are after.
 
Time to start looking for a scratchplate then I quess. The original volume pot is 250k, am I right? If I replace it with a 500k pot how will it change the tone of the neck & middle single coils?
 
Strange that I can't find any decent sample clips of hot rails (or other single-size humbuckers). If it sounds heavy enough I would not need to buy the overpriced HSS pickguard
 
I never liked the Hot Rails, always found it very noisy, and you're never gonna get a full humbucker sound from a pickup in the single-coil size form factor (this is according to the luthier I take my guitars to)
 
I have the Hot Rails in my guitar (bridge and neck)and I think it's ok. I don't have much to compare it to, since I only have one guitar, but I think it's not that noisy. Output is quite high, I've had little trouble with clean tones with some amps. Although I'm not sure if that's because of the pups or the guitar/wiring.

Don't know about how it works with low tunings, I've never needed to go lower than D and to me that worked well.

I could record some DI's but I don't know if that'd be of any use to anyone since my strat-clone body is cheap plywood. I doubt that it resembles anything else than cheap plywood. :lol:
 
You can also consider the DiMarzio Fast Track 2 (a lot like the ol' Super Distortion) or the Rockinger Blade Screamer.
 
Harry Hughes said:
Guys, the dude is not asking for Iron Maiden tone, yet you suggest the Hot Rails? For fuck sake, Iron Maiden USE those, at least Dave Murray anyway.
Click to expand...

This logic is absolutely retarded. Dudes don't ask for a Thrice guitar tone, but we might recommend a JB - doesn't matter that Thrice actually use the JB, as a band using it does not mean that's the only tone you can get out of it... especially with a pickup.

Alive or Just Breathing was a mini-sized humbucker, most likely a Hot Rails even. Sound like a thin tone to you?


But seriously, if you don't want to get a new PG or route or anything (might not be necessary), just get a Hot Rails or a ToneZone S.
 
The only guitar Adam used around that time was a strat with a mini humbucker in the bridge - the uniform black color from the pictures I've seen pins it as a hotrails rather than a JB Jr.

No clue on amp.
 
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