Differences between Classic Stack/Hot Stack and Vintage Rails

[edi_87]

Hi! I was thinking of a pup for middle to my American Strat (JbJrB, Cool RailsN)
and for verstatility i thought of these ones pups above What are the main diffrences between them? Which one would suit me best? I like warm sound and need a versatile jazz rock guitar..

[midnite_man]

Re: Differences between Classic Stack/Hot Stack and Vintage Rails

I currently am using Hot Stack's in the bridge and neck of my 60's RI Strat, and a Classic Stack in the middle. To be honest with you, I think the STK-2 is almost a little overkill, and I think Robert_S. would agree as he used to run straight STK-2's in one of his Strats, but replaced them with Antiquity's, I think.
STK-2's are hot pups, no doubt there's a lot of wire wrapped around those magnets, and I actually ran out of room trying to lower the neck pup far enough to get some real-good tone out of it. I almost need to router out another 1/8" at the bottom of the body cavity to really get it low enough to where it needs to be, but I really don't want to do that. I will say that when played clean, the STK-2 neck sounds about as rich a single coil as I've ever heard, very classic sounding, lots of nice deep Fender bell-tone. I'm hoping the Antiquity will get me towards that sound but with a bit more clarity when I eventually install one. The STK-1 Classic sounds a little thin next to two STK-2's, so I'm thinking a person would be better off going straight STK-2's or with maybe a LIL 59 in the bridge.
So be advised, the STK-2 and STK-1's are deeper in size than the standard sized single coil pickups, and think about that when you take string height into consideration. You'll not want to get your strings too close to these p.u.'s or you won't get the tone. So hopefully your Strat's body is routed out a little bigger than my MIJ model.
I will probably end up pulling the Stack trio out of my RI axe and replacing them with Antiquity's and a Lil 59 in the bridge, I already have a Lil 59 and one Antiquity on the shelf, but I just bought a '02 American Standard Strat and am awaiting delivery and to hear what it might need before I make any moves with those pups.
This is all just my opinion only, bro, and I hope it helps. Heck, if you can get ahold of a Hot Stack cheap, go ahead and buy it and try it. You never know.

Good luck!