Need Information about the Hot Stack Pickups

[Rei Arthur Pendragon]

In my local store they have these Pickups Hot Stack and the Hot Rails. I have been considedring seymour duncan for my strat and maybe will go for a HSH config. The Hot Stack is a single or a humbucker like the Hot Rails??? What does it sound like compared to other pickups? I was thinking about using Hot Rails/Hot Stack/Hot Rails bridge. If anyone has experimented those pickups I would like to hear from them.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Need Information about the Hot Stack Pickups

I can give you the technical part: a Hot stack is basically, a humbucker, with the coils "stacked" one on top of the other, rather than side-by-side. So, its hum-cancelling, in a single-coil sized pickup.

I'll have to defer sonic evaluations to others.

[Robert S.]

Re: Need Information about the Hot Stack Pickups

Im a big fan of the Hot Stacks. I had a set of three in my Strat for quite awhile and I have a Hot Stack in my Tele as well.

The are definately hotter than a true single coil and they are quite a bit warmer as well, but they still sound like a single coil pickup without the hum. They do not sound like a humbucker in the same way as the Hot Rails do.

My start is currently loaded with a JB in the bridge, a Hot Stack in the middle and a lil59 in the neck. The Hot Rails don't sound the same as the JB and the lil59 but your guitar will still be ballpark to my Strat and you'll definately get some very useable tones from that combo.

I have a series/parallel switch on my JB and running the bridge in parallel for clean work adds a little more quack and openess to the tone of the #4 position. I also have a bridge pickup on/off switch so that I can run the bridge pickup with the neck pickup and thats a very cool tone as well.

I think you'll like the HR/HS/HR combo. Just make sure you get a bridge AND a neck model Hot Rail and make sure you get a neck model Hot Stack for the middle position.

[Rei Arthur Pendragon]

Re: Need Information about the Hot Stack Pickups

Thanks Man that really helped. Funny why use a neck Hot Stack in middle pos? its better for cleans? people seem here to prefer JB and Lil 59 to hot rails here.. is this cause they are too strong? bad cleans?

[Robert S.]

Re: Need Information about the Hot Stack Pickups

There are two types of strat pickups, bridge models and neck/middle models. With true singles the middle pickups are usually rw/rp to cancel hum, but the wind is usually the same. With the stacks and single sized humbuckers, the neck and middle pickups are identicle.

I really like the Hot Rails bridge model a lot, I just happen to have a JB in this guitar at the moment because I had an s/s/h pickguard and an extra JB laying around.

Different strokes for different folks.......