Vintage/Cool Rails to tame Stratitis?

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Mjh36

New member
Hi everybody, I've been looking into dialing down the stratitis warble on my HSS that has flat staggered single coils. Even decking them I can't "unhear" it. After digging around, sounds like some options would be Zexcoils, Lace Sensors, or some Duncan Rails. Here's a couple options I'm thinking:

1. Screamin Demon / Vintage Rails / Cool Rails
2. Screamin Demon / Vintage Rails / Vintage Rails

3. '59 Custom Hybrid / Vintage Rails / Cool Rails
4. '59 Custom Hybrid / Vintage Rails / Vintage Rails

Has anyone noticed an improvement in that annoying warble using Vintage or Cool Rails in the middle and neck of any SSS or HSS guitar?
 
Active pickups have very low pull on the strings.
But in fact in every case i got the pickups dialed in to have no stratitis.
Just start with the neck pup which is the culprit. The low strings side must be flush with pickguard. Dial in all other pickup to match the neck pup. If you want more bass, use the tone control on the amp. I hope that helps.
 
Cool Rails are my favorites of all the "Lil" series of pups. They have a great spank and punch, while still keeping the Strat character. You can't go wrong with a CR. I used to have a Strat with three,
 
I lowered the neck pickup bass side and pushed down the G pole pieces on the CS 69 pickups. Got rid of most of it.
 
Welcome to the forum!

The Vintage Rails or Duckbuckers would be good choices, as well as the YJM Furies.
 
The problem is the vertical magnet poles. Most any horizontal magnet pickup will work better, and those with low magnetic pull are best. Bill Lawrence or Lace Sensors immediately leap to mind.
 
ArtieToo said:
Cool Rails are my favorites of all the "Lil" series of pups. They have a great spank and punch, while still keeping the Strat character. You can't go wrong with a CR. I used to have a Strat with three,
Click to expand...

Yeah they seem great. I'm liking the whole horizontal magnet thing. If you had some of that stratitis warble upper G string sound, did you notice a difference when using the Cool Rails?
 
Mjh36 said:
If you had some of that stratitis warble upper G string sound, did you notice a difference when using the Cool Rails?
Click to expand...

To be honest, I'm not sure what you're referring to. Strats sound like Strats. I just love CR's.
 
Cool Rails sound more like a bright clear humbucker than a Strat pickup, though. That still may work for you.
 
To be honest, I'm not sure what you're referring to.
Click to expand...

Stratitis is an out of tune warble heard on the wound strings usually above the 12th fret. The string is literally double toning, and it sounds worse the higher up the neck you play. Doesn't seem to matter if you play clean or with overdrive. Some folks raise the action to reduce it, but lowering the pickup on the bass side usually takes care of it. It's a very unpleasant sound.
 
Mincer said:
Cool Rails sound more like a bright clear humbucker than a Strat pickup, though. That still may work for you.
Click to expand...

And that's ok I'm pretty flexible. I can always do series/parallel switches for options anyway. I'd put anything in that will lessen the warble problem. I like the look of the Cool Rails too, so I'll probably give one a shot in the neck position, maybe Lace Sensors if that doesn't work, but I think it should help.

On another note, the Screamin Demon Bridge should be a decent match for the Cool Rails neck output-wise right?
 
ICTGoober said:
Stratitis is an out of tune warble heard on the wound strings usually above the 12th fret. The string is literally double toning, and it sounds worse the higher up the neck you play. Doesn't seem to matter if you play clean or with overdrive. Some folks raise the action to reduce it, but lowering the pickup on the bass side usually takes care of it. It's a very unpleasant sound.
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Exactly as described. All is well clean and but once the gain comes in it's nasty. I've tried the usual remedies, but I have to lower my pups seemingly too low to where they aren't even effective.

I'll probably give the Cool Rails a shot first before going for Lace Sensors, as I kinda dig the "rail" look.
 
Following are two songs from Armored Saint's 1991 studio album "Symbol Of Salvation" where I've long suspected the warble i hear to be due to Stratitis.

1. Song "Tainted Past". The clean arpeggiated intro at the very start, and then later at the end of the song, the 3 sustained natural harmonics played with gain. Absolutely love this song, BTW, despite the blemishes from the stratitis RIP Dave Prichard.

https://youtu.be/GvViP0bP2JE

2. Song "Dropping Like Flies". The lead guitar at the beginning of the song and that appears as fills between the verses, and then the solo at the end. This one i'm less sure about, because the guitarist is definitely applying his own vibrato technique at the tail end of the notes, but i believe i hear warble even in the short spans b4 he adds vibrato technique. I actually think he's adding the vibrato technique to try and get some control over the unmusical warble of the stratitis.

https://youtu.be/YXEVnAmuMHU
 
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Mjh36 said:
Hi everybody, I've been looking into dialing down the stratitis warble on my HSS that has flat staggered single coils. Even decking them I can't "unhear" it. After digging around, sounds like some options would be Zexcoils, Lace Sensors, or some Duncan Rails. Here's a couple options I'm thinking:

1. Screamin Demon / Vintage Rails / Cool Rails
2. Screamin Demon / Vintage Rails / Vintage Rails

3. '59 Custom Hybrid / Vintage Rails / Cool Rails
4. '59 Custom Hybrid / Vintage Rails / Vintage Rails

Has anyone noticed an improvement in that annoying warble using Vintage or Cool Rails in the middle and neck of any SSS or HSS guitar?
Click to expand...

I have used option 1 and liked it a lot. Very versatile
 
I'm watching your thread with interest. I may be wrong, but I thought you shouldn't get stratitis when the pickups are completely decked. I'm wondering if the unwanted noise could be caused by something else such as fret buzz, oversize nut slots, or bridge saddles that could be worn out or poorly fitting.
 
Teleplayer said:
I'm watching your thread with interest. I may be wrong, but I thought you shouldn't get stratitis when the pickups are completely decked. I'm wondering if the unwanted noise could be caused by something else such as fret buzz, oversize nut slots, or bridge saddles that could be worn out or poorly fitting.
Click to expand...

Thanks for reading, I'll go into a little detail about what brought me here. It's technically for 2 guitars. It's a warble on the G string and somewhat on the B and D strings.

I have a '08 Fender American with Dimarzios (PAF Pro bridge/2 Virtual Vintage '54 Pros noiseless) which has this problem for a while. I used to not care, but it's driving me nuts lately. I've tried everything. Took it apart completely and inspected every single part. Tried all the tricks, decking pickups, decking bridge, raising/lowering action, dampen strings, dampen tremolo springs, change string gauges, removing neck and/or middle pickups, new saddles, new bridge, I do my own setups and fret leveling and all is well there, etc.... I go into great depth what I did in this thread, which I need to update:

https://www.strat-talk.com/threads/g....555125/page-8

Spoiler is nothing worked. Exhausted from hours of troubleshooting, I decided to order a new guitar from Warmoth. Everything about it is opposite. Different woods, hardware, nut, body size, neck shape, etc... similarities are it's an HSS also. I have Bootstrap pickups in this one. Sweet Serrano bridge and 2 Oatmeal Stout traditional singles. Low and behold it does the same damn thing on the same damn strings! (Head explodes)

Here's a couple samples of my original problem with my Fender:

https://youtu.be/OWzNwAR6jDE

https://youtu.be/q5BKakLLMFY

I saw this video recently which seems almost exactly my problem:

https://youtu.be/hw-6W_uxltk

He said he switched to Zexcoils and that solved it. So I started looking for different magnets in pickups, which brought me here. Going with some rails has gotta help if anything. Because next stop is ditching 25.5" scale length guitars for good and just playing Les Paul's or something. Attached pics show when I tried switching the necks for an experiment. Open to any suggestions at all.
 

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I prefer the clean demo because distortion makes it very hard to hear what is happening.

I was most interested in your demo with the Gotoh bridge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i48Hpoi-ik

To me that is NOT 'stratitis'. In this particular demo I think it sounds like simple fret buzz.
What I would suggest for this:
1) Continue using the Gotoh bridge.
2) Test the amount of relief on the neck by fretting the string at the 1st fret and 17th fret. I guess you might have your neck completely level (zero relief). Just adding the smallest possible amount of relief so the middle of the strings are free to move when fretted at both the 1st and 17th frets.
3) Consider changing to heavier strings such as 10-46. They are less prone to have fret buzz than lighter gauges. In other words, heavier gauge of string allows you to use lower action without increasing fret buzz. Otherwise raising the action height and having the right amount of neck relief is the most certain way to avoid fret buzz.
 
Teleplayer said:
I prefer the clean demo because distortion makes it very hard to hear what is happening.

I was most interested in your demo with the Gotoh bridge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i48Hpoi-ik

To me that is NOT 'stratitis'. In this particular demo I think it sounds like simple fret buzz.
What I would suggest for this:
1) Continue using the Gotoh bridge.
2) Test the amount of relief on the neck by fretting the string at the 1st fret and 17th fret. I guess you might have your neck completely level (zero relief). Just adding the smallest possible amount of relief so the middle of the strings are free to move when fretted at both the 1st and 17th frets.
3) Consider changing to heavier strings such as 10-46. They are less prone to have fret buzz than lighter gauges. In other words, heavier gauge of string allows you to use lower action without increasing fret buzz. Otherwise raising the action height and having the right amount of neck relief is the most certain way to avoid fret buzz.
Click to expand...

All great stuff and things I have checked on both guitars. The gotoh bridge is on the Warmoth now. You are correct that I do like very little relief, just enough that I can feel the string tap. However, I have tried more exaggerated relief and higher action, fretting every note gently and cleanly with zero fret buzz and with 10-46's. Made no difference. Only thing I haven't done is try pickups with that rail design or Lace sensors. Bridge humbuckers sound great on both guitars, notes ring true. It's only with the single coils that it's all warbly.
 
Jack_TriPpEr said:
Following are two songs from Armored Saint's 1991 studio album "Symbol Of Salvation" where I've long suspected the warble i hear to be due to Stratitis.

1. Song "Tainted Past". The clean arpeggiated intro at the very start, and then later at the end of the song, the 3 sustained natural harmonics played with gain. Absolutely love this song, BTW, despite the blemishes from the stratitis RIP Dave Prichard.

https://youtu.be/GvViP0bP2JE

2. Song "Dropping Like Flies". The lead guitar at the beginning of the song and that appears as fills between the verses, and then the solo at the end. This one i'm less sure about, because the guitarist is definitely applying his own vibrato technique at the tail end of the notes, but i believe i hear warble even in the short spans b4 he adds vibrato technique. I actually think he's adding the vibrato technique to try and get some control over the unmusical warble of the stratitis.

https://youtu.be/YXEVnAmuMHU
Click to expand...

That's interesting. I don't think I've ever been aware of this phenomenon before. Now I'll probably start listening for it. :oo
 
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