Oldfart_Shredman
New member
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So I wanted something new for the bridge position of my Strat. And I thought to myself how can you go wrong with a Seymour Duncan/Billy Gibbons approved Pickup?
I have waited a bit before sharing this as I wanted a minimum of a couple of weeks with it and some serious screwdriver time.
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I also decided while installing the pickup that I had grown tired of the all white pickguard and knobs with the exception of the black bridge pickup (the way it's been for 5+ years), so I ordered some cheap black pickup covers and knobs from Guitar Fetish for around $10-15 to give the old girl a bit of a new look.
I desperately wanted to install the pickup as soon as it got here the other parts had yet to arrive (and I'm definitely not a fan of repeatedly diving under Strat pickguards).
I found a wiring diagram here in the website that allowed the Red Devil to split coils in switch position 2 so that's what I went with.
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While everything was apart I put in some serious polishing time, even taped off around the Wilkinson and took stainless steel polish to the bridge.
Put it all back together and it's test time. My soldering skills cut the mustard and all is working.
The Red Devil ended up being exactly what I was looking for. It has a bigger distorted sound than the Dimarzio Cruizer that was in there and it had just enough high end in it without getting trebly.
Things were looking up as my work-now/then-not-work-later middle pickup came back to life and that position 2 and 4 is sweet! Next day, middle pickup on vacation again. Lol
What I've experienced is that if you get the Red Devil close to the strings you get a good full humbucker distorted sound that can even do VH if you play it right.
Back the Red Devil off the strings just a bit (which is where I like it) and the overall fullness barely subsides and more of the snappy Strat character shines through.
So this is the dilemma you may face if you get a Red Devil bridge: good full humbucker sound or a hot rodded snappy Strat sound.
The pole pieces opinion, so a little adjustment on these can go a long way.
This is no news but raising the outer pole piece brings more fullness in humbucker mode while raising the pole pieces closest to the bridge brings more attack.
I may be stuck eternally trying to find the right balance with quarter screwdriver adjustments on the pickup height and pole pieces lol.
BOTTOM LINE:
In my humble opinion, I would be hard pressed to imagine a scenario where someone purchasing a Red Devil bridge would not like it. It's hot, but not so hot that it doesn't blend volume wise with the other pickups.
If you're wanting metal look elsewhere, but if you're wanting a pickup that can do everything from an excellent hot hard rock sound to a low output sound. This is an excellent pickup!
So I wanted something new for the bridge position of my Strat. And I thought to myself how can you go wrong with a Seymour Duncan/Billy Gibbons approved Pickup?
I have waited a bit before sharing this as I wanted a minimum of a couple of weeks with it and some serious screwdriver time.
filedata/fetch?filedataid=103317
I also decided while installing the pickup that I had grown tired of the all white pickguard and knobs with the exception of the black bridge pickup (the way it's been for 5+ years), so I ordered some cheap black pickup covers and knobs from Guitar Fetish for around $10-15 to give the old girl a bit of a new look.
I desperately wanted to install the pickup as soon as it got here the other parts had yet to arrive (and I'm definitely not a fan of repeatedly diving under Strat pickguards).
I found a wiring diagram here in the website that allowed the Red Devil to split coils in switch position 2 so that's what I went with.
filedata/fetch?filedataid=103320
While everything was apart I put in some serious polishing time, even taped off around the Wilkinson and took stainless steel polish to the bridge.
Put it all back together and it's test time. My soldering skills cut the mustard and all is working.
The Red Devil ended up being exactly what I was looking for. It has a bigger distorted sound than the Dimarzio Cruizer that was in there and it had just enough high end in it without getting trebly.
Things were looking up as my work-now/then-not-work-later middle pickup came back to life and that position 2 and 4 is sweet! Next day, middle pickup on vacation again. Lol
What I've experienced is that if you get the Red Devil close to the strings you get a good full humbucker distorted sound that can even do VH if you play it right.
Back the Red Devil off the strings just a bit (which is where I like it) and the overall fullness barely subsides and more of the snappy Strat character shines through.
So this is the dilemma you may face if you get a Red Devil bridge: good full humbucker sound or a hot rodded snappy Strat sound.
The pole pieces opinion, so a little adjustment on these can go a long way.
This is no news but raising the outer pole piece brings more fullness in humbucker mode while raising the pole pieces closest to the bridge brings more attack.
I may be stuck eternally trying to find the right balance with quarter screwdriver adjustments on the pickup height and pole pieces lol.
BOTTOM LINE:
In my humble opinion, I would be hard pressed to imagine a scenario where someone purchasing a Red Devil bridge would not like it. It's hot, but not so hot that it doesn't blend volume wise with the other pickups.
If you're wanting metal look elsewhere, but if you're wanting a pickup that can do everything from an excellent hot hard rock sound to a low output sound. This is an excellent pickup!
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