Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

[Hot Octopus]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

I'd try either a JB Jr, Quarter Pounder, or Dimario Chopper in the bridge. YJM in the neck, maybe a start sized Super Distortion in the middle

 

[jeremy]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

if it was my guitar and i wanted to play heavy stuff, id buy a new pickguard and just put this one aside. hot rails bridge, cool rails neck in the middle, hot rails neck if you want the rails look all around, 5 way switch and 500k pots, master volume, master tone. do you use the middle pup at all? if not, no reason you need to have one in there. hot rails neck and bridge gets plenty of good tones. do you use clean tones much? the cool rails in the middle would sound better for clean tones. a custom stack + in the middle would be another good option if you want nice clean tones and dont care about the consistent rails look.

 

[Dahla]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

I'd try either a JB Jr, Quarter Pounder, or Dimario Chopper in the bridge. YJM in the neck, maybe a start sized Super Distortion in the middle

Awesome, thanks! The super distortion looks cool, but I’m leaning towards trying a JB jr.

if it was my guitar and i wanted to play heavy stuff, id buy a new pickguard and just put this one aside. hot rails bridge, cool rails neck in the middle, hot rails neck if you want the rails look all around, 5 way switch and 500k pots, master volume, master tone. do you use the middle pup at all? if not, no reason you need to have one in there. hot rails neck and bridge gets plenty of good tones. do you use clean tones much? the cool rails in the middle would sound better for clean tones. a custom stack + in the middle would be another good option if you want nice clean tones and dont care about the consistent rails look.

Yeah, it’s gonna be a new pickguard, so it’s «reversible». Options are good!

Ok, guys! Thanks for all your help and suggestions! I have a three pickup shortlist, and one of them is a joker (guess which one? lol). I dunno... this is hard!

1: JB jr.
2: Hot Rails
3: Red devil

I really like the JB. I have that pickup in a mahogany tele (trembucker), and that guitar just sounds goooooood. Hot rails seems like a good choice, you know, because Iron Maiden.

The red devil though. Not high output, and maybe not hard rock/metal, but maybe? I have a les paul with wlh and those sounds good for anything I throw at them. Maybe the red devils does too?



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[Dahla]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

I've hot the duncan hot rails neck in my HS strat with a black winter bridge. In terms of output it definitely keeps up and sounds muy bueno with the 500ks, it does shine under the higher gain settings, the "sterile" clean sound I keep reading about is to my ears is like an HB with the tone rolled halfway off, with the tone dimed on the rail and gets muddier as you taper down. It retains an all around "warmness" to the sound and sounds good for 80s metal type liquid soloing, and it fuzzez up a bit on the bass, can be good or bad. For my uses (heavy, funky, bluesy rock and hard rock) it pretty much lives in the high gain chorus solo situations. It performs admirably in most higher to high gain settings, I personally will be swapping for a full size HB (thinking sentient), but mine is routed for a neck HB.

Mine is sss only. But a singel coil black winter...? That would be awesome. [emoji2956]


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[Outa_Tune]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

I have a JB jr in the bridge of a strat now, it had a hot rails before. The JB jr sounds weak compared to the hotrails, I like the hot rails MUCH more for harder music. I am not super impressed with the JB jr at all. For a harder rock guitar, the JB jr would not be on my list at all.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

Hot Rails is more mids, the JB Jr is more highs and upper mids. The Red Devil is scooped, but with more highs than bass. Pick the EQ your guitar needs.

 

[Toejam]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

For real hot single coils, the Quarter Pound or Bare Knuckles Sinner. For hum-cancelling, a Little Screamin' Demon or Red Devil.

 

[Dahla]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

Well, guys! I made my choice. And it’s a compromise I guess. The choice fell on the red devil set! Since my humbuckers are fairly high output, and the thing that bothers me the most with the surfers under high gain is the hum, I figured this might be a good in-between. Hopefully it works, otherwise I’ll try the JB jr. in the bridge next.

Exciting! And yeah, I’m keeping the surfers, and switch out the entire pickguard. So options are endless. (If funding only were endless as well... lol)


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[JimmyO]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

Actually, the resonance switch on the Pickup Booster does a great job at adding that 'girth' to the signal.

Just wanted to comment on the pickup booster. I use one specifically for use with my strats. I play a lot of styles from traditional blues through to contemporary metal. If I were to go from my humbucker equipped guitars to my vintage style strats the difference in level, tone and noise is drastic. So I use the Pickup booster to balance the level and use the resonance control to give the single coils more compatibility with high gain. I also use a boss ns-2 to tame the single coil noise a bit. I don’t use the strats for contemporary metal but for hard rock and classic rock I can quickly switch between my les paul and strats while keeping them stock for use in my blues band (57/62s, Fats 50s and custom shop 54s). If you have a chance to try the pickup booster it could give you another option than a pickup swap.

 

[Dahla]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

Well, they have arrived. [emoji2956]


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[BluesIsBlood12]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

We expect a full tone report. I'm itching to try a bridge red devil.

 

[Dahla]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

Well, the guitar went from this:

To this:

First impressions? The surfers are one-of-a-kind, and they sound truly awesome. But the first thing I noticed were the lack of hum. [emoji1] The red devils are quiet. And they sound equally awesome.

No question they are humbuckers though. The quack and glass isn’t there anymore, but so far playing them I like ‘em. Looking forward to playing some more today!


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[Gtrjunior]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

Looks great.
That guitar needs a black pick guard though. [emoji846]

 

[Dahla]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

Looks great.
That guitar needs a black pick guard though. [emoji846]

Probably. Too late for that now. [emoji1]


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[Rogue4]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

Hi Dahla,
Looks great.can you give your opinion of the tonal balance of the RD particularly the bridge PU and what amp/speakers are you using?

 

[ToneFiddler]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

+1 for the black pickguard, since somebody did a not so great job on the neck route of that white pickguard anyway :corksniffing:

 

[Dahla]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

+1 for the black pickguard, since somebody did a not so great job on the neck route of that white pickguard anyway :corksniffing:

Yeah, that was me with a knife. Aftermarket pickguard didn’t fit perfect with the custom made strat... [emoji6]

It’s fast ‘n dirty diy. It works, but ain’t pretty. I don’t care. [emoji1]


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[Dahla]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

Hi Dahla,
Looks great.can you give your opinion of the tonal balance of the RD particularly the bridge PU and what amp/speakers are you using?

Sure. I’ll give some feedback when I have some more playtime with them.




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[Dahla]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

+1 for the black pickguard, since somebody did a not so great job on the neck route of that white pickguard anyway :corksniffing:

And it’s mint btw, not white like the «original». [emoji4]


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[ToneFiddler]

Re: Pickups for a strat (hard rock/high gain)

haha, i tend to go quick and dirty only on the parts you won't see later on anyway, like in the control cavity...

Well, as long as it doesn't bother YOU...