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Anyone use Hot rails type pickup in a strat?


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I'm thinking my strat needs to be beefed up a little bit, and may buy a single coil sized HB. Anyone have any experience with these types? Do they really sound like a full sized HB? What about getting the that second swtich selector quack sound, is it even close, or can it be coil tapped? Any particular brands you found sound good for the classic rock type bite?

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Ilove my Dimarzio Fast Track 2. It really rocks! It has more of a warm sound (like a real humbucker) than the harsh sounding hot rails - to me anyway. It also dials down really nice. I was seriously ready to route out my Daytona for a real humbucker until I tried this one.

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Ilove my Dimarzio Fast Track 2. It really rocks! It has more of a warm sound (like a real humbucker) than the harsh sounding hot rails - to me anyway. It also dials down really nice. I was seriously ready to route out my Daytona for a real humbucker until I tried this one.

+2000

Fast Track 2 is awesome....versatile, beefy and goes great in a Daytona.

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Fast Track 2 is awesome....versatile, beefy and goes great in a Daytona.

...and what's your recommendation for the middle and neck position?

My Daytona has that Lil'59 and two Duncan APS, but I'm not happy with

this two APS, especially in the neck position.

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hmmm, I like the APS-1's in the neck and mid so far. I tried some Bill Lawrence singles in there and went back to the APs's. YMMV

Key of Z, Is that a pic of your Daytona w/ a FT2 in the bridge. I can't tell for sure because it's so small.

Here's a pic of my Daytona w/ FT@2;

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Ilove my Dimarzio Fast Track 2. It really rocks! It has more of a warm sound (like a real humbucker) than the harsh sounding hot rails  -  to me anyway. It also dials down really nice. I was seriously ready to route out my Daytona for a real humbucker until I tried this one.

+2000

Fast Track 2 is awesome....versatile, beefy and goes great in a Daytona.

Great info...I've been looking into changing the bridge pup on my G&L legacy. It currently has Rio Grande's Stelly, which sounds pretty good, but It can't do heavier stuff.

-FunkyE9th

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Wow. Perfect timing-I'm looking for a humbucker (bridge) for my Strat as we speak. Damn ZR, that's about the nicest looking Daytona I've ever seen.

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It is.

JK :)

Thanks again for Mobster for setting me up with that one!

It's basically my number one (when my set-neck Chap isn't!) - very versatile.

I am super -picky about tone. I love great clean sounds so the stock APS 's work for me in the mid/neck but I'm also an old school metal > modern rock > progressive rock guy so I needs my distortion fix as well! This gives it to me AND I love how it cleans up by rolling off the volume. The SD Hot Rails sounded too gritty to me (as Bill Altman said it might). So, this one's just right for me.

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I have a factory installed setup of a SD Hot Rails in the bridge and a pair of Vintage Rails in my Daytona. The Hot Rails is super loud and will do hard rock and metal sounds no problem, if that's what you are after. It still interacts well with the other pickups and will quack when mixed with the middle pup. I like this pickup as it has a lot of mids, will crunch up nicely and breakup cleans if you push it.

Edited to add some porn:

100_2079.jpg

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I didn't have a hot rails pickup in a Strat, but I had one in a Tele for a few years when I was playing some pretty heavy music. It's loud, fat and rude, especially for power chords and was louder than just about any pickupo I'd heard. I really liked it for a while, but eventually got away from overwound, super hot pickups in favor of more traditional (and also more versatile) types of pickups. But if you're looking for a thick heavy sound the hot rails will deliver.

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Duncan JB Jr. in the bridge position of my G&L Legacy. I haven't lifted the pickguard in five years it sounds so good. Fatter and hotter than a stock single but it doesn't blow the other two singles away in volume.

GLLegacy.jpg

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Do they really sound like a full sized HB? What about getting the that second swtich selector quack sound, is it even close, or can it be coil tapped? Any particular brands you found sound good for the classic rock type bite?

In answer to your questions, yes, yes, yes, yes!!

I've got guitars with the Duncan Li'l Screamin Demon, Li'l 59, the Dimarzio Tone Zone S, and used to have a Duncan JB Jr.

They do sound like humbuckers, but they do quack when you flip the selector to the bridge/middle position. They can be coil tapped or parallelled. I have an ESP with a Tone Zone S at the bridge and Li'l 59's at the middle and neck. The guitar has a series/parallel switch for all 3 pickups. When I parallel the coils, I get all the great single coil tones from the guitar.

I found the JB Jr to be very edgy and bright. It would work great in a guitar that had plenty of bass and was high end challenged. In my ESP and my two Mirages, the Tone Zone S and Li'l Screamin Demon sound great in the bridge position. Either of them would work fine for classic rock, or if you want a little smoother sound, use a Li'l 59. Dimarzio has a model, I think it's the Fast TRack Pro, that also simulates a vintage humbucker sound.

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hmmm, I like the APS-1's in the neck and mid so far. I tried some Bill Lawrence singles in there and went back to the APs's. YMMV

Key of Z, Is that a pic of your Daytona w/ a FT2 in the bridge. I can't tell for sure because it's so small.

Here's a pic of my Daytona w/ FT@2;

Yeah that's the Fast Track 2 in the Ash Daytona.

DAYTONA_FR.jpg

I also have a DiMarzio ProTrack in my other Daytona that sounds more like a PAF than a Distortion pickup.

My 1994 Daytona (Ash) is setup as follows:

DiMarzio Fast Track 2 in the bridge (heavy but still round, versatile with volume rolled off...this is my favorite pickup for rock/metal)

Stock SD Single in the Middle position (I wanted the single coil in the middle for clean channel and adding extra "quack" in the nothed positions)

DiMarzio HS3 in the Neck (Stacked humbucker designed by Yngwie, sounds very single coilish without any hum, nails Yngwie's neck pickup tone...also good for blues)

My 1993 Daytona (Green) is setup as follows:

DiMarzio ProTrack in the bridge (PAF Pro for strat style guitars, I wanted something more vintage sounding but with Humbucking tone...this did the trick)

DiMarzio HS2 in the middle (Straight, clean single coil tone without any hum...does the quack thing great as well)

DiMarzio YJM in the Neck (Same pickup as the HS3 only it has a vintage magnet stagger and a little more high end...great for Jazz, Blues and clean chords)

With the Fast Track 2 pickup I think the DiMarzio Chopper has more output to match up better in the Neck position. One thing about my 1994 Daytona is that there is a big pickup output difference between the Bridge and Neck/Mid pickups. Something to think about.

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:P

I agree that the fast track and the hotrails both scream... but if you wire a hotrails with anothern they screem even better..... gotta love the quad bucker....

id go hotrails neck and fast track bridge... but thats my opinion which may or may not refelct your needs...

Randy :)

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Seymour Duncan Lil59 in this Legacy. Tried a JBjr before going to this. Both are great, and work well with the other pickups, as Jeff has already noted.

legnew.jpg

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Wow...I was just over at the DiMarzio site....they have a SuperDistortion S single coil sized pickuop 325 output rating!!! :)

That's even hotter than my Fast Track 2!

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Well went to Dimarzio's site from the link Freak provided, and it appears that the Fast track 2 may be what I'm looking for. Thanks for all the advice guys.

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