Pick up replacement for a hotrail

[strat_master]

hi guys i currently have a hotrail humbucker in the bridge of my strat, but i find its only good for distortion i wnat a pick up that can do cleans as well. Im thinking of eitehr putting a lil 59 in the bridge or a full 59 humbucker in the bridge. I want my strat to sound more like a classic rock guitar and some room more a little bit of aggressive metal. I play classic rock, to punk rock to a little bit of harder stuff but i want more of that classic rock type tone. I also don't want to much twang comming from my strat either. My guitar is a MIM strat with all single coil styled pick ups (exluding the hotrail) im not sure of the routing can i put a humbucker in the bridge? the code on the head stock says

MZ0223105

if that helps you know what time it wasmade if that affects anything.

Right now im kinda of intertested in the 59 humucker in the bridge...would i also need ia trembucker spacing?
Thanks guys

[Travis]

Re: Pick up replacement for a hotrail

First of all, you don't NEED F-spacing (can't get it in a single-sized humbucker anyway). It is purely cosmetic. A full size humbucker would probably fit, you just need to take off the pickguard to check the route for sure. This also means you would need to get a new pickguard to accomidate the full size humbucker. You might think about switching out the Hot Rails for a Cool Rails. The Cool Rails is more of a vintage sounding pickup, much less hot than the Hot Rails (thus the name), but still with enough output to drive an amp for a good rock tone. A little '59 might also get you the sound you're looking for. Check up on Duncan's home page and look at the tone chart and descriptions. That will give you a basic idea of what you want to look at.

You could also try putting a Cool Rails at the neck or mid and keep the Hot Rails at the bridge. That way you've got a more versatile guitar to work with. Hope this helps.

[Metalman_666]

Re: Pick up replacement for a hotrail

well Travis pretty much summed it all up