What duncan single coil sized neck pickup for pairing up with a JB ?

[Guitarweb]

Guitar is a superstrat w/24.75 scale.. maple neck/mahogany body.

JB sounds awesome as usual, neck pickup right now is a "duncan designed" hotrail. Obvious choice is a proper shr1n hot rail for the neck but I was hoping for something with a lot more tonal options.

I'm worried the lil '59 will be weak. lil demon seems interesting but might be weak as well.

 

[Guitarweb]

Re: What duncan single coil sized neck pickup for pairing up with a JB ?

I think it'll be fine.

What will be fine, a hot rail?

 

[darthphineas]

Re: What duncan single coil sized neck pickup for pairing up with a JB ?

If I have the switching option, I always throw a Hot Rail in there with a JB. then use a push/pull or a mini-switch to split the coils (on both, if possible). you'll end up with a Hot Rail in the neck that you can split for a single coil for cleaner tone. if you can split the JB too, you'll have way more options.

but if I have no or limited switching options (like something that is either one pickup or the other with no blending available), I've been using the Vintage Rail for a long time. I like the tone, but the output is on the low side... which has pros and cons.

I think the STK-S4 or STK-S2 might have the output you want if you're wanting to match the JB. check out the audio samples on the site.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: What duncan single coil sized neck pickup for pairing up with a JB ?

Jb jr.

 

[jammertom]

Re: What duncan single coil sized neck pickup for pairing up with a JB ?

FWIW--I recently loaded a MIM strat with a TB4 in the bridge and JB jr's in the neck and middle--and I like 'em just fine. But actually, they don't really sound quite as good to me as the cool rails neck and middle that used to be in this guitar. I'd probably change 'em back except that I gave 'em to my brother for a squier he's fixing up. The CR's have a snappy presence to them that I miss now that this guitar is all JB. To be fair, I've only had these pups in for a couple weeks now, so I still have some tweaking to do. Maybe I'll eventually end up digging them as much as the cool rails...

 

[Guitarweb]

Re: What duncan single coil sized neck pickup for pairing up with a JB ?

If I have the switching option, I always throw a Hot Rail in there with a JB. then use a push/pull or a mini-switch to split the coils (on both, if possible). you'll end up with a Hot Rail in the neck that you can split for a single coil for cleaner tone. if you can split the JB too, you'll have way more options.

but if I have no or limited switching options (like something that is either one pickup or the other with no blending available), I've been using the Vintage Rail for a long time. I like the tone, but the output is on the low side... which has pros and cons.

I think the STK-S4 or STK-S2 might have the output you want if you're wanting to match the JB. check out the audio samples on the site.

Either way I'll be using a push/pull tone pot to give me some more room to experiment. I guess also in terms of pots I'm not sure if I should be using a 250k or 500k, a lot of people seem to think the jb is good and pickups like the jb jr. sound best with them. Personal taste probablly I think i'll try it both ways.

STK-S2 actually sounds pretty nice. On the tone samples I actually like the glassyness of the clean cool rail but I'm playing mostly metal, fusion and progressivish music so gain usually trumps everything else. I wish the audio samples for the singles weren't so strat-centric.