Tell me about the Seymour Duncan Hotrails SHR-b?

[Moshaholic]

Is this a pretty cool passive pickup?

Does this thing rock close to like like a full size humbucker?

I'm changing a few thing around on one of my USA strats and I wanted to get a new pickgard and possibly stick this in the bridge...

Right now the guitar has a Super Distortion full size humbucker with two stock Fender single coils in the middle and neck positions with a stew mac mega switch.

I love the Dimarzio SD, just wanted to rock somthing else maybe.

Thanks!

 

[jlbaxe]

I was thinking of putting one in my strat. I also like the P90/single/humbucker they have, would like to have a guitar for those pups. P Rails?

 

[Code001]

Is this a pretty cool passive pickup?

Does this thing rock close to like like a full size humbucker?

I changing a few thing around on one of my USA strats and I wanted to get a new pickgard and possibly stick this in the bridge...

Right now the guitar has a Super Distortion full size humbucker with two stock Fender single coils in the middle and neck positions with a stew mac mega switch.

I love the Dimarzio SD, just wanted to rock somthing else maybe.

Thanks!

It should be able to do what you want no problem.

 

[Hard&Heavy]

I had one in my soloist in the neck postition and loved it,and I am also putting one in my gibson v-90 in the neck postition.

 

[FUZZboat]

why don't people who play strats that want humbucker tones just
wire their single coils in series which = humbucking



technically most duncan/dimarzio humbuckers are just
2 of their single coil pickups wire together in series anyway

 

[grooveHT]

technically most duncan/dimarzio humbuckers are just
2 of their single coil pickups wire together in series anyway

For the second time today...wait, wat?

Humbuckers use bar magnets under each coil, whereas singles use rod magnets; singles' polepieces ARE the magnets, while humbuckers' are not. Humbuckers have a baseplate while singles do not. SD has had two pickups that were two single coils mounted together as a humbucker, The Mag and the Stag Mag, and the only difference between the two was staggered magnets vs. non-staggered...really, it's one pickup design for both of those.

So, you are correct in that two opposite wound pickups in series or parallel are hum bucking, but they aren't constructed similarly at all.

 

[Moshaholic]

technically most duncan/dimarzio humbuckers are just
2 of their single coil pickups wire together in series anyway

For the second time today...wait, wat?

Humbuckers use bar magnets under each coil, whereas singles use rod magnets; singles' polepieces ARE the magnets, while humbuckers' are not. Humbuckers have a baseplate while singles do not. SD has had two pickups that were two single coils mounted together as a humbucker, The Mag and the Stag Mag, and the only difference between the two was staggered magnets vs. non-staggered...really, it's one pickup design for both of those.

So, you are correct in that two opposite wound pickups in series or parallel are hum bucking, but they aren't constructed similarly at all.

But will a Suckmour Duncan Squat-Rails float my boat like a Dimazio Super Distortion???

 

[FUZZboat]

technically most duncan/dimarzio humbuckers are just
2 of their single coil pickups wire together in series anyway

For the second time today...wait, wat?

Humbuckers use bar magnets under each coil, whereas singles use rod magnets; singles' polepieces ARE the magnets, while humbuckers' are not. Humbuckers have a baseplate while singles do not. SD has had two pickups that were two single coils mounted together as a humbucker, The Mag and the Stag Mag, and the only difference between the two was staggered magnets vs. non-staggered...really, it's one pickup design for both of those.

So, you are correct in that two opposite wound pickups in series or parallel are hum bucking, but they aren't constructed similarly at all.

Yer right, I forgot that SD vintage style singles use rods

most of my old jackson single coils use bar magnets (not rod mags)
and I luv the tone but got tired of "hum" so I just install a 3 way
switch in all my HSS jacksons and wire the single pups in series

alot beefier tone and no hum

 

[grooveHT]

technically most duncan/dimarzio humbuckers are just
2 of their single coil pickups wire together in series anyway

For the second time today...wait, wat?

Humbuckers use bar magnets under each coil, whereas singles use rod magnets; singles' polepieces ARE the magnets, while humbuckers' are not. Humbuckers have a baseplate while singles do not. SD has had two pickups that were two single coils mounted together as a humbucker, The Mag and the Stag Mag, and the only difference between the two was staggered magnets vs. non-staggered...really, it's one pickup design for both of those.

So, you are correct in that two opposite wound pickups in series or parallel are hum bucking, but they aren't constructed similarly at all.

Yer right, I forgot that SD vintage style singles use rods

most of my old jackson single coils use bar magnets (not rod mags)
and I luv the tone but got tired of "hum" so I just install a 3 way
switch in all my HSS jacksons and wire the single pups in series

alot beefier tone and no hum

There's a rotary switch made by a guy named Deaf Eddie ( http://www.deaf-eddie.net/ ) that will do that...in position one of the switch, with a 5-way, it's stock, position two taps the bridge bucker, position 3 and 4 have additional configurations. Love the switch!

 

[Death by Uberschall]

I don't know about the Hot Rails, but the Cool Rails are very,...................... COOL!!! Any single coil neck guitar that I have that doesn't get the EMG SA gets the Cool Rails.

 

[Digital Jams]

I like Hotrails in s/h guitars where I want the S to match well with a hot bridge pup, they do not clean up very well but are WAY hotter than the lil 59 you spoke about.

It is NOT a stratish pup that is for sure.

 

[Hail Satin]

I've got one in the bridge position of my new strat build.

Very heavy midrange emphasis and quite a bit of gain. Definitely hotter than the quarter pounders
in my blackmore strat and tons more gain than the hs-3 in my other strat.

Tone wise it's not strat like at all as mentioned before but for a hi output heavy rock strat, I like it.

 

[Jerome Allen]

I used the Hot Rails in the bridge of an SG many, many years ago. Yeah, sounds strange. I was 14 at the time. I tried it once again a few years ago in the bridge of another SG, just for kicks. They do rival many humbuckers in output. But compared to the Tone Zone in the bridge, which is what I normally use, I found the Hot Rails to be low-mid oriented, somewhat darker, and not as "open" sounding. I ended up pulling it out after a weekend and replacing it with another Tone Zone.

 

[blackba]

I have had a hot rails in my MIM strat for well over 10 years. As mentioned it is a hot pickup, not really good for cleans. A few years ago, I tried to run it split, but it hummed more than I expected and didn't sound that good split. On a recommendation from here, I then wired the push-pull pot to switch between series and parallel wiring of the coil, that was the ticket. The parallel wiring sounds great, it sounds more SCish and reduces the output. I can still kick the switch down and go to the normal series output.

 

[boost]

I had one in a strat bridge for years. Also tried one in a tele for a while. Like others have said here, great hard rock tone, not so much for cleans. Run it in parallel for a cleaner sound (with a switch) and you can get some dynamics out of it. It won't do that 'clucky' clean sound but it does what regular singles coils don't. Nice and thick tone.

The Lil 59 is also a good pickup similar to the Hot Rails, with less gain and a bit more dynamic, but still doesn't do the super cleans. Both will work for what you're looking for, just slightly different flavors.

 

[Random Hero]

I thought it was really overly hot and muddy. To each their own I guess.