Duncan Hot Rails

[Immortal]

Hi.

I am about to buy Squier Strat Anniversary with alder body, maple neck and rosewood. Since this is a nice guitar for its money, I was thinking of replacing pickups.

For bridge position I was planning to get one hot rail.
What are these exactly? Are they close to the humbucker or single-coil? I've never ever tried a minibucker before so I need opinions and info.
I want crunchy rock sound from time to time, but also keeping clean wery nice and warm.

Second: I was looking at ebay and some stupid Germans write Cool Rails not Hot Rails. Well... do Cool ones really exist or it's just a silly trick?

Thanks.

[etaeniura]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

Hot rails are a single coil sized humbucker-the coils are just like on a humbucker, but narrower so that they fit in an SC slot. They come close to the sound of a full HB, but seem to remain a little brighter due to narrow focus of the coils. The clean sound may not be exactly what you are looking for, though. The cool rails are basically the same thing with lower output-more of a vintage hmbucker sound i suppose. Both are fully humbucking and should be a major tone improvement from the squier singles.

[Immortal]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

Dumb me. I see, Cool Rails really exist.

Okay, which are the best for crunchy sounds and also keeping nice clean?

[Immortal]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

I was checking some sound samples for both of the pickups.

Judging them by these clips I would rather take Cool Rails.

But what should I take for middle and neck? I was thinking of some jazzy pup for neck and something between cool rails and jazzy for middle.

Shoot your opinions.

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

I'm using Hot Rails in the neck and middle positions of my Soloist, and I get a surprisingly crystal-clean sound out of them on my amp's clean channel. I like it. It's high-output clean without being overly hot that it clips the signal. You CAN control the beast, and that's what I love about the Hot Rails for clean. Plus, it's four conductor, so you can wire it so that it can be split into a "noiseless single coil" sort of sound if you think that will give you an even cleaner sound. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

For distortion sounds in the neck and middle positions of my Soloist, the Hot Rails are fat-sounding while at the same time being REALLY smooth-sounding for the legato work that I like. Great for those Dave Murray sort of neck pickup leads. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

If I were to get a three-single Strat like yours, I'd personally want to get Hot Rails neck, Vintage Rails middle, and Hot Rails bridge for an H/S/H sort of configuration. Or, I'd get all EMG-SA pickups and EMG-EXG Guitar Expander and EMG-SPC "turn your singles into humbuckers" accessory controls. [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[1trussell]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

My Hamer Mirage has a Hot Rails/Vintage Rails/Vintage Rails set up. It can go from hot shred to sparkly clean and most everything in between. The Vintage Rails operate on the same lines as the Hot/Cool Rails. All three are full humbucking pickups that fit in a single coil slot. Hot Rails = modern high output brutal distortion. Cool Rails = mid output classic PAF type rock tones. Vintage Rails = classic Strat tones with jsngly cleans and bluesy drive.

[Immortal]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

Okay ... I was checking pickups and I almost decided. Hot Rails in bridge, something vintage but hot in middle, and a Cool one in neck.

What's with the minibucker splitting? As far as I understand those minibuckers, each coil has it's own wire, right? Soldering them together, you have full humbucker, but disconnecting one will leave with just single-coil?

I was thinking of 3-way toggle switches for that... That would be fantastic, yeah... [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

And then we have BC Rich Strat. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[toejam]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

Personally, I'd go Hot Rails bridge, Cool Rails middle, and either Cool Rails or Vintage Rails in the neck.

Or if you want to check out DiMarzio's blade pickups, look into The Chopper, Pro Track, Fast Track 1, Fast Track 2 or The Cruiser.

[Immortal]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

Well ... I found your suggestion very interesting. But I am afraid that you think I want to make a shredding guitar out of this Strat.

No, I want to blues from time to time ... I want to rock a bit, and play some jazzy riffs. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
That's what I want.

[1trussell]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

I'm almost in total agreement with Toe. But, I would go with a Hot Rails in the bridge, Vintage Rails in the middle and a Cool Rails in the neck. That way you have hard rock/shred at the bridge, Vintage rock/clean jazz at the neck, and vintage blues/sparkly cleans at the middle. But that is just my opinion.

[Immortal]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

Thumbs up for both of you, guys!

I will start collecting money. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[etaeniura]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

You can probably get any of them on Ebay pretty cheaply. I think they run in the 70 dollar range retail, but you can prolly get them in the 40-50 range on the bay. I'm sutre you will be happy with any of the suggestions made above. In my experience, you can't really go wrong with the Duncans. Good luck!

[tonemonster]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

I have a buddy that put a Hotrails in his Strat and it sounds great. Yes, a bit different than a full size humbucker, but not much. He put it in the bridge pos. I watched a Iron Maiden concert and those guys use those Hotrails and the JB jr. pikcups in their strats. Good sound! [img]graemlins/band.gif[/img]

[Immortal]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

I decided for the 3 Rails rack:
- bridge: Hot ones
- middle: Vintage
- neck: Cool

I saw Hot Rails on ebay and the seller claims that it's the bridge model of Hot Rails.

Are there any difference, since I cannot find that "b" placed by the name of the pickup? There are two types selling on ebay: bridge and middle/neck.

So?

[Black Mariah]

Re: Duncan Hot Rails

Maybe it's just my Soloist, but Hot/Cool Rails sound like SHIT in it. Fuckin' horrible. I have them in the neck and middle and want to puke every time I flip the switch.

Then again, I do the same with the Distortion in the bridge. It probably is just this guitar. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]