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Post subject: seymore duncan hotrails
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 2:28 pm
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Hello!

Up until this point I have used a standard strat with the factory configuration pickups.
However, since I am partly into heavy music I would like to install a humbucker or a Seymore Duncan Hot Rails™ (singel coil size)on my strat. From what I can understand most people install this Seymore Duncan Hot Rails™ in the bridge position:

bridge: H-S-S neck configuration

However I do not want to sacrifice the wonderfully bright sound of the bridge single coil pick up.In fact I only use this and the neck pick up when I play. That is: I never use the middle pickup so this is where I would like to install the humbucker!

bridge: S-H-S neck config

But since I am a novice at this sort of thing I have some questions:

1.Why do almost everybody position the humbucker in the bridge position? Is it becuase this is where one does the palm muting of riffs etc.?

2.I have read something about the single coil in the middle having reversed polarity to reduse hum.If I buy a seymore duncan pickup(which specifically is designed for the strat + it`s middle position) will this be reversed as well?

3.I have never removed my pickguard. Is there room for a full sized humbucker in the body of the strat (under the pickguard)? If so, one could just replace the picguard and install a full sized humbucker.


I will greatly appreciate some advice!


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Post subject: Re: seymore duncan hotrails
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 5:24 pm
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Greetings and welcome!!

A lot of the reason people play off the bridge pickup is tradition, believe it or not. Many moons ago, players simply plugged their guitars into their amps and did their thing. There was no such thing as a genuine signature sound and certainly, no after market pickups. Consequently, when solo time came, most flipped to their bridge pickup to cut through the rest of the band and stand out due to all that treble. Many guitars back then had mechanical mutes on the guitar too so even palm muting wasn't a widespread technique.

Nowadays, most players solo off of whichever pickup best suits them. This is not limited to just one of their pickup positions either.

You have read correctly about the single coil in the middle having reversed polarity to reduce hum. This is not an absolute but is a very popular feature in many model Stratocasters.

A Seymour Duncan Hotrails is a humbucking pickup and is phase reversable. However, you'd have to know the polarity of your outer two pickups (or the middle one) first in order to guarantee that the Duncan you buy has the correct orientation for combining for a humbucking effect with either of the outer two. Even if you order the wrong polarity by mistake, Duncan has a 21 day exchange policy for such things.

The specific Stratocaster model and year determines whether you have accomodations for a full sized humbucker in the Stratocaster's body. It should be noted though that a Duncan Hot Rails fits in a single coil slot.

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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 10:07 am
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Quote:
A Seymour Duncan Hotrails is a humbucking pickup and is phase reversable. However, you'd have to know the polarity of your outer two pickups (or the middle one) first in order to guarantee that the Duncan you buy has the correct orientation for combining for a humbucking effect with either of the outer two. Even if you order the wrong polarity by mistake, Duncan has a 21 day exchange policy for such things.


From what I can understand on their web page they basically offer two versions of the hotrails.The SHR-1 and the SHR-1b (bridge version).I assume that the SHR - 1 is the one I would want for the middle position. I tried to look into what is meant by this pickup being "phase reversible" but it seemed kind of complicated to figure out.Has it got something to do with practical aspects of the soldering\wiring phase? I have also seen that some picups are offered in RW\RP version - reverse wound - reverse polarity right?What`s the difference between RW and RP?

+The hot rails are said to be high output - is this going to be a problem when you combine it with standard fender single coil pickups?

I`m trying to figure out exactly which Strat version I have, but I guess I won`t find out if it can accomodate a full size humbucker until I open it up..
Anyway I think a single coil size humbucker is the way to go for me because replacing the whole pickguard would be to advanced.


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 10:55 am
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superfuzz80 wrote:
Quote:
A Seymour Duncan Hotrails is a humbucking pickup and is phase reversable. However, you'd have to know the polarity of your outer two pickups (or the middle one) first in order to guarantee that the Duncan you buy has the correct orientation for combining for a humbucking effect with either of the outer two. Even if you order the wrong polarity by mistake, Duncan has a 21 day exchange policy for such things.


From what I can understand on their web page they basically offer two versions of the hotrails.The SHR-1 and the SHR-1b (bridge version).I assume that the SHR - 1 is the one I would want for the middle position. I tried to look into what is meant by this pickup being "phase reversible" but it seemed kind of complicated to figure out.Has it got something to do with practical aspects of the soldering\wiring phase? I have also seen that some picups are offered in RW\RP version - reverse wound - reverse polarity right?What`s the difference between RW and RP?

+The hot rails are said to be high output - is this going to be a problem when you combine it with standard fender single coil pickups?

I`m trying to figure out exactly which Strat version I have, but I guess I won`t find out if it can accomodate a full size humbucker until I open it up..
Anyway I think a single coil size humbucker is the way to go for me because replacing the whole pickguard would be to advanced.


OK, let's take it from the top:

It depends on how loud you want that middle position pickup to be. The bridge model has a bit more "oomph" to it when compared to the other. Regardless, either model will positively be louder than stock Stratocaster pickups.

RW/RP = Reverse wound, reverse phase.

Reverse wound: This means (oversimplified) that a pickup's coil winding has a starting point and an ending point, usually defined by the particular model's design. When the starting point and the ending point are switched, this is reverse wound.

Reverse Phase: Again, oversimplified, a pickup's magnet(s) have a north pole to south pole or a south pole to north pole charge. Here too, this is usually defined by the particular model pickup's design. When the direction of the magnetic charge is done opposite to the norm of the model, you now have reverse phase.

If a pickup is said to be, "out of phase" when combined with another, you hear a trebly, hollow, nasal sound void of any real bass which consequently creates a volume drop. In reality, this is a slight misnomer in the sense that the coils could be in phase but one of the pickup's magnets could be out of "polarity" with the pickup it is teamed with.

If both conditions (RW and RP) are not there, the pickup can still sound "out of phase" when teamed with another and yes, maybe even humbucking. Or, they won't be humbucking but will be in phase and sound 'normal' together.

As you can see, in order for a pickup to be combined with another where the two of them sound normal and become humbucking, one of the pickups must be RW AND RP in relation to the other.

Sometimes just reversing a couple of wires or flipping a magnet upon the pickup's installation can achieve the results you are looking for.

How do you know what's going on inside a given pickup? There are a few technical ways to verify and a few colloquial ways but the colloquial ways can mess up the magnet strength. I'll sidestep all these methods here due to the fact that usually, if you contact the pickup manufacturer and tell them which of their pickup(s) you want and which pickups you plan teaming their's with, they can pretty much zero in on which one is correct for you.

FWIW, it's infinitely easier and cheaper to go with the single coil size humbucker if that's what your Stratocaster came with.

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Post subject: Pickups
Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 8:25 pm
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Hi,
Scientifically, the bridge position allows any pickup to 'pickup' a much richer harmonic content. Therefore, your sound is more detailed, more powerfull and contains more harmonics than in other positions.

And if u want the sound of a bright twang of a strat in the bridge and at the same time u want the raw power of the Hot rails, then no need to install a humbucker, because the hot rail is a humbucker. The only this u do is wire it to a push-pull pot to split it to single coil and back to humbucker again. That way, u'll get single coil sound by just pulling the vol. pot up and fully fledged humbucker sound when pushing the pot back down again:D

Hope it helps.


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