Hot Rails, Etc.

[zsullivan38]

Been digging the hot rails thing lately. Anyone have experience with less popular variants of this design? Seems like it's always hot (obviously) and ceramic. Any good options less hot? Anything Alnico? What about both? Let me know what all everyone has tried.

 

[kennl]

I've got dual rail pickups in a number of guitars, including Duncan Cool Rails and Hot Rails, Joe Bardens, DiMarzio Super Distortion T, P. J. Marx, and GFS Li'l Killers. I like the noise cancelling feature, and they sound good to me. Most can be wired in parallel instead of series to provide a less-hot output.

 

[DanteNHK]

Seymour Duncan have the Red Devil, it's a mini humbucker with A5.

 

[Trenchant63]

Dimarzio has a wide range of blades from facsimile of real single coil sound to hot - all use ceramic. I use their Chopper-T in my Tele and pretty impressed at its versatility both clean and overdriven. I’d call it slightly closer to full humbucker sounds vs single coil.

 

[Call Me Al]

I put an Artec Alnico in a Strat neck position. I really like it. On low gain settings it sounds a bit more single coil-ish, but more humbucker-ish when I push the gain.

This one

 

[zsullivan38]

I put an Artec Alnico in a Strat neck position. I really like it. On low gain settings it sounds a bit more single coil-ish, but more humbucker-ish when I push the gain.

This one

View attachment 1395083

That's what I've liked about the Dragonfire one I have. It was actually given to me for free with the first Telecaster I bought over 10 years ago because the previous owner bought it and never put it in. Recently dropped it in a Squire Thinline and have been very impressed with the brightness and clarity when clean but the nice rock edge when driven. Only issue is headroom since it's so high output, but I don't really see that as a problem because it was made to be like that.

I'm thinking about buying a 6k one I found online from Musiclily, or buying this minihumbucker and throwing a big alnico V magnet on the bottom and dropping it in the bridge position of a guitar. I feel like that might act like a sort of mini-humbucker/filtertron hybrid.

 

[WelhavenTW]

Amber Steamer. I love this pickup.

Amber Pickup single: Steamer Standard

Humbucker in Single-Coil Format for Tele Razorblade Humbucker in the size of a single coil, for the bridge position. perfect to transform…

www.tubeampdoctor.com

 

[zsullivan38]

Amber Steamer. I love this pickup.

Amber Pickup single: Steamer Standard

Humbucker in Single-Coil Format for Tele Razorblade Humbucker in the size of a single coil, for the bridge position. perfect to transform…

www.tubeampdoctor.com

View attachment 1395441

Looks very well made. Don't see a lot of German pickups, pretty cool - I'll have to check out their site!

 

[OttoCorrect]

Big fan of the DiMarzio Chopper T here. It’s not as hot as many blade pickups, and it is a ceramic magnet. Has some of that midrange squawk when distorted that sounds so good, but it does some great clean tones and if you set it up for parallel operation you get some really sweet vintage tele bridge tones while still being hum cancelling. I have it in an Esquire type build now, and get great results.

 

[WelhavenTW]

Looks very well made. Don't see a lot of German pickups, pretty cool - I'll have to check out their site!

Half of my guitars got Amber pickups. 4 out 8, that is.

 

[gonzo]

Lindy Fralin Split Blade Pickups - Hum Free Single Coil Tone

A Lindy Fralin Original Design. Split Blade Pickups offer true single-coil sound, without the hum, all packed into a single-coil footprint.

www.fralinpickups.com

 

[uriah1]

Have seymour Neck rail.
Pretty nice.

 

[arlum]

I'll say up front that I don't currently have any guitars with rail pickups. I've tried the Joe Barden, Seymour Duncan, Bare Knuckle and DiMarzio rail types over the years but I've only found a couple that I really enjoyed.
My introduction was through Joe Barden's pickups and then, years later, I found the DiMarzio Chopper & Cruiser models. I really don't care for ceramic magnet pickups and was bit surprised when I found that both DiMarzio pickups were using them. The Cruiser, (neck or middle pickup on the Ibanez Andy Timmons models), had surprisingly good tone I really enjoyed, but, I thought the Chopper had a ton of added potential. It had power and good note definition like most ceramics but didn't have that lack of feel or emotion I attribute to ceramics. That alone grabbed my interest.
Most ceramics, to my ears, have the soul of a stone depressed into a bog under a section of log that was once bored into by a man with a large drill and strange desires. Yet ..... the Chopper didn't sound debased. It sounded very much in charge, full of vim and vigor and ready to perform for the crowd. Later on I tried out the Chopper T and liked it even more. Not that I would recommend it to anyone wanting vintage Telecaster bridge pickup tone. I could end up like the log I mentioned earlier.
I've considered using a Chopper T in the bridge of a Nashville 3 pickup Telecaster so I could have my favorite Nashville Tele tones and then slam it into the first position to cut through the mix, (or anyone standing in the way).

 

[bigben55]

I once traded into an all Hot Rails MIM Strat. It had the Hot Rails bridge, a Hot Rails neck in the middle and a Cool Rails in the neck. I tried to like it, but couldn't and eventually wound up selling it. Here's what I remember: the Hot Rails bridge is good for one thing, high gain rock/metal. It's really good for that! But it's impossible to play clean on most tube amps, doesn't sound like a strat at all. The Hot Rails middle is about the same, just a little less hot. Now, the Cool Rails, I actually liked! I've always liked that creamy neck humbucker tone, and this has it. Very fat, just good sounding. Clean tones can be had.

These pickups need 500k pots to sound best. Just dropping them into a strat, with its 250k pots doesn't optimize Hot Rails, and many folks dismiss them after doing so. Change the pots if you go tge Rails route!

 

[Jakedog]

I love a lot of rail pickups. My favorites are the DiMarzio Cruiser and Fast Track Models. The Chopper models are also very good, but I prefer the lower output and clarity of the cruisers and fast tracks. Fast track 3 is too dark for me, but the standard Fast Track is a great pickup for Strat or Tele.

As has been stated, wire them with series/parallel switches and you drop output, sound very traditional, and maintain noiseless operation. Much better than a splitter.

I will say I wholly disagree with the 500k pot assessment. I feel exactly the opposite. The overwhelming majority of these type pickups are designed as drop in replacements, and to run with 250k pots. I don’t like them with 500k. Overly bright, harsh, and brash sounding. I’ve never thought it worked at all. If you’re really not used to a beefier tone, or are trying to get some kind of super bright and thin sound like a vintage single coil, these probably aren’t for you. But hey, different strokes and all that.

If you want a little extra sparkle, stick a 25k resistor on your 250k volume pot. Now you’ve got a 275k pot and it’s kinda sweet. Just a touch of top end clarity and sparkle right where it belongs.

 

[Area51]

I think they're good in the bridge position, but I've been disappointed with them at the neck. IMO, it just loses that tele, or strat, sound. If I want that type of sound I have Gibson style HH guitars.

Also, least for me and my taste, I also don't find they split very well. The pickups that I like that split well are super D and transition, both powerful pickups I use in the bridge position. I just, yesterday in fact, ordered a dimarzio Injector Neck and Area 67 to replace a fast track middle and chopper neck. The chopper in the neck is just way toooo dark for me. Splitting didn't help. It would probably work well in a bridge position. I have the Injector & 67 in another HSS guitar with a Super D that splits and it can go from a rock and roll machine to great sounding strat tones. So I went for a similar setup except this guitar has a transition - which is probably my favorite humbucker.

As with everything, YMMV.