So i have the black seymour duncan hotrails in one of my strats and i was pleased with the sound so i got a white hotrail in the bridge for another strat and the white one isnt nearly as hot as my black one. I even tried to matching the height. Im pissed. feel like throwing the guitar away at the moment. Does anybody know what may be causing the difference? I noticed that the white hotrail is designed differently than the black. It has a circuit board kinda look to it.

You might try contacting Seymour Duncan.

woh, dude relax.
what kinda guitars do you have, make and model?mim mia ?
could be different pots your using?
are both pus hotrails, or maybe 1 is cool rails or vintage rals?
need more info.

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

Theyre both fender mim strats. Both are seymour duncan hotrails in the bridge. The white pickup sounds very different from the black and i am considering returning it if gc will let me. Gonna put a single coil back in and save up for a guitar with a full sized humbucker i suppose. Maybe my black hotrail is just special and there will never be another one like it lol.

If the only difference in the pups is the color (you should verify that they are identical spec-wise) then I agree that it could be the pots or the caps on the pots that have them sounding different. Also could be the guitar wood or string gauge. These will all have an effect on the sound from the pickup. Just because they are both MIM doesn't mean that they have the same wood. My MIM 60s Classic Player is definitely as heavy as my MIA Deluxe (which is one reason why I liked it) whereas other MIMs were lighter woods.

If you were happy with the black SD`s why didn`t you put the same pups in the other guitar ? If you don`t like the white SD then change it. You have to like what you hear in order to enjoy your music.

Did you try switching the pickup covers round??? (JK)

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No no and no

I'd first take an ohms reading of both pickups. If they are essentially the same, I'd then verify the resistance value of the pots in both guitars. If they are also the same, I'd try swapping the pickups in both guitars and see what each other sound like. If the white one all of a sudden sounds like the black one and the black one all of a sudden sounds like the white one, then you know it is certain structural integers in that one guitar making the pickup sound bad. Obviously, if the white one sounds bad in both and the black sounds good in both, you MAY have a warranty issue. OR, you can take advantage of Duncan's 21 day exchange policy for something which may work better in that particular guitar.

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You dig?

Perhaps you got a cool rails or vintage rails... or whatever they are called these days. Even though you may have a hotrails packaging, it can sometimes happen. Either way mate, there is an explanation somewhere along the lines

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Mine's in white and it is unbelievable. Totally woke up the guitar.

i use to have two hotrails in my tele, had to rout out the neck pickup. i had some issues with them. every once in a while the output and gain structure would change, until i smacked the pickups a couple of times. i had rewired everything many times over and have come to the conclusion that it was just a faulty pickup. i don't own that tele any more. but i think i know how you feel, hopefully you get a good replacement or your$ back.