This is one of my definitions
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... D=90286766

another would be how sensative a PU is and the amount of output it produces.

I guess both are relative

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Guitar- Amp

This is my idea of hotness:


Smear some of that on your pickups and hear them scream!

Cheers - C

To answer Ellen:
The basic concept of "Hot" is more than, better than or higher than whatever is considered average.
Therefore, when a guitar pickup is termed "Hot", then the output is more than what would normally be installed in the guitar.
However, with humans, "Hot" tends to be superficial, in regards to LOOKS.... and THAT is usually just an opinion.
Obviously, the source of the word "Hot" is directly related to temperature, which implies it is warmer than 'comfortable'.
Unfortunately, "Hot" can be vague. It depends on how it is used and WHO is using it, as well as how it is perceived.

Ladies: If a guy tells you that the guitarist is "Hot"..... it usually means he (or she) plays the instrument extremely well and probably looks darn good doing it.

Guys: If a woman tells you that the guitarist is "Hot"..... it usually means she'd like to play his instrument! LOL

I hope this covers it all. Just don't go near a stove when it is "Hot".

Well not quite. One more important thing: Louis Armstrong was Hot Jazz, Bix Beiderbecke was Cool Jazz.

...

Just in case Ellen wants a slightly sensible answer to her question, hot ain't always best, pickup-wise. Fairly low output pickups are typical of the sounds of the '50s and '60s, and many from Mark Knopfler to Eric Johnson have pursued those jangly single coil tones ever since.

For that matter, Jimmy Page did most of Led Zeppelin on pickups that were not especially hot by humbucker standards. And I believe Joe Bonamassa uses very PAF flavored lowish output 'buckers in his LPs, too.

High output is good - if that's what you want. Just to be clear that hot ain't necessarily better than cool...

Cheers - C

Hot (to me) means comparably more output than another pickup of the type. For example, between a stock Strat pickup and a Texas Special, the TS is hotter than the stock Strat. And I don't know why they'd say "tightly wound" (loose winding is bad for pickups), but overwound just means that it will, again, be "hotter."

Pickups that are very high output (hot) tend to have less of a dynamic range, just like pickups that are very weak.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

"..... slightly sensible.... " ??????

Are you debasing your own definition or giving me a bas-ackwards compliment? (Apparently, my take was slightly in-sensible.)


How vague is this > "Pickups that are very high output (hot) tend to have less of a dynamic range, just like pickups that are very weak." OK.... so there's no real difference????? (I guess we nailed it down tight, eh?) ..... it's as clear as mud now.....

I don't recall which song Albert King was playing but sometimes I seems to me that I can hear his fingers just touching the strings before he pulls the note. For me that's a hot pickup.
Claude.

Thanks, everyone, for all those answers, sensible and otherwise...

When I posted the topic, I thought about calling it this instead: "What is the definition of hotness, apart from all of you here of course?"

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2008 MIM Strat w 3-tone sunburst
2002 LP Special Ebony Faded
2008 G-Dec
'59 Reissue Bassman 4x10 combo
TS 808
DS 1
Gretsch 6120DS (on loan)

EllenW: Since you have a Sunburst Strat, I thought I'd show you (& everyone) my 2 Strats.....
The first photo is stock, but it is clearer than mine, (smaller below).
The other is a custom HSS with a (red) latching coil-tap switch.

Just remember to wash your hands before you go to the bathroom.

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“All music is folk music, I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.” Louis Armstrong

See this is all I was getting at when I was talking about "sensible".

And I think we've all experienced how sensible that particular piece of advice is, at some time or other...

- C

Another topic/posts that has one foot in the twlight zone....

Yup... it kinda reminds me of the part in FireSign Theater when Nick Danger (3rd Eye) read his name on the back of his door: reg-naD k'ciN