What's the hottest, most metal Tele bridge pickup?

[Rex_Rocker]

OK, so thought I'd report back. I got my Esquire today, and I installed the Hot Rails in. Well, first impressions weren't so good. It's surprisingly hot, which I dig, but it's REALLY thin. Like... it's got no low-end at all! Maybe I'm too spoiled by high output pickups in my Les Pauls, but this is too much... or should I say, too little.

I'm going to tweak my settings a bit, but so far, not really feeling it. It's not too bright, mind you. It's got a pretty cool upper-mid spike like the Black Winter, thing is it's got no low-end to back it up.

I'm disappointed.

[Securb]

Interesting, I have never heard of the Hot Rails being described as thin. There is not a ton of low-mid thump but not thin to my ears.

[jeremy]

yeah, thin isnt usually how anyone describes the hot rails. how close do you have it to the strings? i find they usually sound best fairly close compared to a real single coil which i prefer a bit further away

[treyhaislip]

That is a very interesting opinion of them...have had Hotrails is multiple guitars and none of them where ever close to thin. Not saying your ears are wrong–just shocked to hear someone describe them as thin.

[ToneFiddler]

you will never get a tele with a single coil sized bridge PU sound as big as a LP with a full sized bucker. no surprise there.
I even have the same effect switching from one les paul to another. one just has that super deep bass acoustically, the others cannot reproduce, no matter the PU ( OK i didn’t try all the pickups out there, but…).
they all sound kind of bland afterwards (but they are much better for softer stuff)
amp knobs have their purpose but their limit, too

[ArtieToo]

Some of the Tele bridge humbuckers came with a diagram for a "power-boost" function. I've always thought it was a typo. It simply reverses the blk/wht coil, which would cause phase cancelling. Make sure you didn't accidently follow that mistake. (If it is one.)

[ArtieToo]

I can't edit the above. I know you wouldn't have "accidently" installed a push-pull. I meant hard-wiring it in the power-boost mode.

[Demanic]

Worst comes to worst, run active.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

[Wattage]

He does not play the Heavy Metal, but Frank Lee recently read that J. Mascis useth the BG1400 in his Tele.

I have used that pickup in a Tele, it isn't really a Metal pickup but it is heavy

[Mincer]

Yes, the BG1400 is 'heavy' for a Tele, but not really metal. I would make sure both coils are working properly on that Hot Rails, or that it isn't accidently wired in parallel or something.

[Rex_Rocker]

Yeah, I returned that pickup. When I tried measuring it with the multimeter, it wasn't reading anything for some reason. Must have gotten a defective one.

[Rex_Rocker]

Alright, back to the drawing board. Please suggest me more pickups.

Got the Tele Hot Rails. Was defective. Didn't read anything in the multimetermeter, and it was thin as hell.

Got the Super Distortion T. Is defective. Sounds good, but it's microphonic.

So the search goes on. I'm sure I could be happy with either of those pickups if they weren't defective, but I take it as a message from the metal gods to keep searching for something more unique.

So what else is out there?

How does the Piledriver, Brute Force, and Cobra T compare from BKP? Any experience?

How about the Quarter Pound?

[RB522]

I've got a Hot Rails and it's got a very thick, heavy sound , so I would think you got a bad one. I had the same experience with a Dimebucker. Everyone raved about them, but I thought it sounded horrible. Thin and weak.

[uOpt]

I think getting an intact HR is still your best bet.

The QP is special taste and hums like a MF. For heavy stuff with gain I wouldn't use them.

I never tried the BK pickups. Would be curious what you think if you want to be Guinness pig.

[Aceman]

Yeah - Hot Rails is always at least a "correct" answer for Metal? In a single size slot.