Choosing a single-coil sized humbucker and the perils of tone guides...

[R3-AUA]

I have an American Fender strat that is in dire need of a bridge pickup swap! The stock pup are fine, but I’m more used to the warmth and the output of a humbucker. The stock pups are a little too trebly for my taste; plus, I use lots of distortion and, well, they just don’t have enough power for the job.

An acquaintance told me to get Duncan’s Hot Rails because they have tons of output and can really do the heavier type of music well. I looked on Dimarzio’s site and I kept coming back to the BC-2 and Tone Zone S.

Here’s the problem: I know I want a fatter and warmer bridge pup that can deliver high output, but I’m confused at Dimarzio and Duncan’s tone profile!

Out of the 3 above mentioned pups, the BC-2 has the most bass and the least treble. Will it make my alder body/maple neck strat sound muddy when using distortion??
Then there’s the Hot Rails: according to the tone profile, the mid is prominent while the treble and bass are more or less balanced. It has the most output of all 3, but my concern is that that boosted midrange will equate to a bright/somewhat trebly sound... the exact opposite of what I want.

Can someone please chime in and help me make some sense of all the tone profiles, and help me pick the right single-coil humbucker pup?

Thanks!

PS: I can’t test out any pickups as I live on an island.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Choosing a single-coil sized humbucker and the perils of tone guides...

Here's a tip my guitar teacher told me way back in my younger days: it is darn near impossible to get a muddy bridge pickup on a Strat. The Hot Rails is fairly low on treble and was designed for use with a single 250k pot in the bridge position, so your should have no trouble with it being too bright.

Something else to consider is output balance. You don't want your humbucker to overpower your single coils.

 

[R3-AUA]

Re: Choosing a single-coil sized humbucker and the perils of tone guides...

Something else to consider is output balance. You don't want your humbucker to overpower your single coils.

Thanks for the tip! By this rule, the Hot rails would be overkill (coming in at over 16K). Well I’ll narrow down my options to either the BC-2, Super distortion S, or the Tone Zone.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Choosing a single-coil sized humbucker and the perils of tone guides...

that 16k isnt the same as a full size humbucker at 16k or a true single coil at 16k. all the pups you mentioned are going to be noticeably higher output than the single coils but that isnt necessarily a bad thing

 

[gregory]

Re: Choosing a single-coil sized humbucker and the perils of tone guides...

16k in a small package means even more parasitic capacitance leading to even less high end.

There are plenty of good demos on the Hot Rails to give you a good idea on how they sound. I haven't heard anywhere near as much of DiMarzio models in the bridge position.

Is the guitar only routed for a single?

The narrow sensing area of a single-sized HB can make it pretty tough to get the tone of a full size HB. I find this is especially true at the bridge.

...don't get me started on Seymour Duncan BMT figures. As examples, Cool Rails Neck and JB Jr. Neck are both way off the mark. It is also very true that it is extremely difficult for three numbers to give a representative impression and I have a feeling this is even harder with DiMarzio pickups that are dual-resonance.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Choosing a single-coil sized humbucker and the perils of tone guides...

I would rely on sound clips and forum members' recommendations rather than the tone graphs, which are not very reliable. Some are good, some are not. I'd love to see them as more of a 15-band graphic EQ setting.

 

[Hank-]

Re: Choosing a single-coil sized humbucker and the perils of tone guides...

I have the Cruiser(b), FT1, Chopper & FT2. I prefer the chopper in the bridge, I find it to be dynamic & versatile enough to handle different amounts of gain levels. The FT2 is a bit darker sounding than say if I had put a full size DP100(SuperD) in its spot, but its still clear enough to cut & not overly bright considering the slanted bridge position & not too saturated unless you were to pair it with real hot singles or FT1 in the neck. The Oleo Strut or Valentinos Victory vid/clip of Gretchen Menn is a good reference for it but I dont think thats what you are looking for.

There is a soundclip on the product page of the TZ-S otherwise not much. They describe the BC2 to be more open sounding than TZS, no audio clips either for reference. I'll leave a clip of the chopper i had found on youtube once.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5grzKZQdRb0

And another clip of the hotrails in the bridge. I would suggest the hot rails myself for what you want to do.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PCkJuwi3JVI

 

[R3-AUA]

Re: Choosing a single-coil sized humbucker and the perils of tone guides...

Thank you all for the info! It’s indeed a shame that Dimarzio doesn’t have any soundclips for the BC-2. When I read that it’s Billy Corgan’s signature pups, I thought that the pup might be what I’m looking; not because I’m a Corgan fan (I appreciate his music but that’s it), but it’s more because of the style of music I was going for. I need this guitr to sound more “grungy”, more bass driven and less twang. Something that can do alternative rock, grunge, post grunge and such (think Nirvana, Bush, Soundgarden etc.)

 

[gregory]

Re: Choosing a single-coil sized humbucker and the perils of tone guides...

I watched this video out of interest in the Pro Track and Chopper, but remember the BC-2:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ejkrV2jlsLo

 

[sedawkgrep]

Re: Choosing a single-coil sized humbucker and the perils of tone guides...

The Pro Track is my favorite HB in a single style pickup. Awesome in the bridge.

 

[R3-AUA]

Re: Choosing a single-coil sized humbucker and the perils of tone guides...

I watched this video out of interest in the Pro Track and Chopper, but remember the BC-2:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ejkrV2jlsLo

After listening to that recording, I find that the BC-2 is indeed very bass driven yet not overly so to sound muddy. I still think it cuts through. But there was something else, something I can’t really explain. It could be the phone’s speakers, but it sounded very “dirty” (if that makes sense). I don’t think that that’s a negative thing, I just fear that it could go from great to chaotic if too much gain is used.

 

[gregory]

Re: Choosing a single-coil sized humbucker and the perils of tone guides...

Besides the lack of fizz, I mostly noticed a bit of an aww vowel sound.