Hot Rails or other for Strat?? Ideas?

[poweredbysoul]

Hey everyone

Once again I'm looking to you for advice. I've found an old 1986 Charvel Model 1,
with 3 single coils. Basswood body and maple neck, a nice playing guitar.
Now it looks like someone replace the bridge single with a dual blade hummer, could be a real old hot rails. No identifying marks anywere on it. Pretty beat looking. I'd like to replace it with another single hummer. Was looking at the Hot rails, Fast Track 2, Super Distortion S, or Tone Zone S. This is for pure mid to high gain metal. It's going through a Mesa.

Opinions??

 

[walt]

Re: Hot Rails or other for Strat?? Ideas?

If you want to stay in the Duncan line go with the HotRails. If you don't want to stay with Duncan, then I would suggest Fast Track 2 (which I have heard is hotter than the hot rails, if that's possible), ToneZone S, then Super Distortion S.

I'm sure others will chime in.

 

[poweredbysoul]

Re: Hot Rails or other for Strat?? Ideas?

Yeah I think I'm gonna stay with a hotrails and maybe a quarter pounder in the neck. I also have a lil' 59 on standby too.

Thanks

 

[Robbiedbee]

Re: Hot Rails or other for Strat?? Ideas?

Cool Rails in the neck goes great with a Hot Rails in the bridge. You may have read this around the forum (it is a popular choice), but to put a Vintage Rails in the middle position to bridge the gap between the HR and CR will work really well. The CR/VR/HR is a very versatile set up for the hotrodded Strat.

 

[The JEM Ghost]

Re: Hot Rails or other for Strat?? Ideas?

Cool Rails in the neck goes great with a Hot Rails in the bridge. You may have read this around the forum (it is a popular choice), but to put a Vintage Rails in the middle position to bridge the gap between the HR and CR will work really well. The CR/VR/HR is a very versatile set up for the hotrodded Strat.

Can't agree more with all he said, exactly my thought!
Kid, how did you get all that pup wisdom on the age of 19?? LOL
Proof that forums like these damn well are good for something!
Thumbs up Robbie, great advice man!

 

[poweredbysoul]

Re: Hot Rails or other for Strat?? Ideas?

Okay so what kind of tones can I expect with the cool rails in the neck and vintage in the middle.

Thanks again

 

[LesStrat]

Re: Hot Rails or other for Strat?? Ideas?

I've often wondered how a VR would sound in LesStrat. Then again, I have too much invested in him already.

<---------------

HR-CR-HR

 

[The JEM Ghost]

Re: Hot Rails or other for Strat?? Ideas?

Okay so what kind of tones can I expect with the cool rails in the neck and vintage in the middle.

Thanks again

You would get a very verstatile guitar with that set-up:
The Hotrails in the bridge will set you up for a loud and beefy bridge sound, the Cool Rails in the neck will grant you a smooth sounding, little more punchier than standard single coil sound, nice and bleusy and perfectly usable under high-gain as well, with the Vintage Rail in the middle, you will get more "quack" from your number 2 en 4 notch positions, adding more Strat-sounds to your arsenal.
On top of all that, it will be low on hum since you are using rails-type SC's only. Seriously a set that is worth trying.

 

[jimijames]

Re: Hot Rails or other for Strat?? Ideas?

just a quick question: How do the vintage rails sound compared to regular single coils? (ssl-1 for example)

 

[The JEM Ghost]

Re: Hot Rails or other for Strat?? Ideas?

just a quick question: How do the vintage rails sound compared to regular single coils? (ssl-1 for example)

To my ears the Vintage Rails sound more progressive than the SSL-1, it has a bit more of "funky"-vibe than the SSL-1, slighlty less mids if you want to say it that way, at least to my ears, the SVR-1 seems a bit more dynamic and is more silent for sure compared to the SSL-1. All in all it sounds more progressive and a little different than the SSL-1, it still remains enough pure single coil tone, works great in the notch positions too.

 

[Tor]

Re: Hot Rails or other for Strat?? Ideas?

I too have the CR/VR/HR combo, and it works wonders for me. I play in a context where I'm dependent upon having various types of tones, and by having only one guitar with that combo, it suits me perfectly well.

If you go with the VR, you might want to go with the bridge version of it, to compensate for the volume loss you would have with the VRn relatively to the two others, though. I have the VRn, and I don't think much about it, but I know there's a couple on the forum here that advocate using VRb.