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Post subject: Questions about my new Highway One
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:27 pm
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I just bought a beautiful three colour sunburst Highway One strat a few days ago and I absolutely loved it in the store. However, when I brought it home it was quieter than my MIM strat, the Fender Super Bullets (9s maybe) sounded and played terrible compared to the d'Addario 10s on my MIM strat, the bridge would raise whenever I bent a note changing the pitch of all other notes. I did a few minor tweaks like lowering the action and moving the bridge closer to the body but it still ranks below my MIM in pretty much every regard.

Another really weird thing is that there is a small black spring (not sure if it is one but it is coiled like one) that probably came from my guitar but I don't know where it came from. I would post a pic but I'm a tech noob.

I plan on putting on a set of D'Addario 11s once I add two more strings to the trem. What other adjustments will I ned to make? Will the bridge be floating? Why was my Highway One ever quieter than my MIM? I thought the Highway One had higher output pickups and if anything would be louder than my MIM. Any Highway One players out there that can give me some advice?


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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:56 am
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The small black spring came from the hole for the trem arm, it helps lock into position, it's not needed really. I have a Sunburst Highway One as well, an HSS. I felt the humbucker was kinda weak and just replaced it with a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates and the pickguard with a white pearl one... huge improvement.

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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 10:22 am
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Hello all, new to the boards. I also recently acquired a Highway One HSS. How do you like the sound of the SD pearly gate pup in this guitar elessar820?


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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 11:35 am
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elessar820 wrote:
The small black spring came from the hole for the trem arm, it helps lock into position, it's not needed really. I have a Sunburst Highway One as well, an HSS. I felt the humbucker was kinda weak and just replaced it with a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates and the pickguard with a white pearl one... huge improvement.


Nice! Your guitar seems similar to the Fender Lonestar strat of the 90s. It had texas specials in the neck and middle and a Pearly Gates in the bridge.

How do you like the feel of the neck of your Highway One?

Mine feels dry and unfinished next to my MIM strat and I was wondering if anyone was experiencing the same thing.


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Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:36 pm
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I like the Pearly Gates pickup, I don't hear a huge difference than the Atomic tone and output wise, but I do hear more clarity when distorted. My other guitars all have high output pickups in the bridge, this gives me a much different tone than my others. I like the feel of the neck, nice shape and feel... not too thick or thin. I played many Ibanez guitars before I picked up a Strat, I don't like thin flat necks, I have big hands and it doesn't feel like I'm holding anything with a thin, flat neck. The only two Ibanez guitars that I still own are two SZ's, they seem to have a similar neck to the Highway One... but I do prefer Fender now.

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Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 3:19 pm
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I have the SSS Model in the clear redwine color. the neck was a bit rough in action when I got it but because I really don't care for the flat lustre put a couple coats of carnuba wax on it and hand buffed it to a shine. A tiny bit of wear from playing will smooth out the feel of your neck and it will feel like the old friend you knew you bought. The pickups are pretty good on this model stock, but I do plan on replacing them with 69 hot singles to keep it all Fender as well as replacing the tuners with locking Shallers.[/img]


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Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 3:30 pm
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elessar820 wrote:
I like the Pearly Gates pickup, I don't hear a huge difference than the Atomic tone and output wise, but I do hear more clarity when distorted. My other guitars all have high output pickups in the bridge, this gives me a much different tone than my others. I like the feel of the neck, nice shape and feel... not too thick or thin. I played many Ibanez guitars before I picked up a Strat, I don't like thin flat necks, I have big hands and it doesn't feel like I'm holding anything with a thin, flat neck. The only two Ibanez guitars that I still own are two SZ's, they seem to have a similar neck to the Highway One... but I do prefer Fender now.


I know what you mean, I've got pretty big hands too and that's one thing I like about the HW1 is the neck. I've looked into the Pearly Gates pickups before for my hand-me-down guitar that I played before my Fender and everything I saw or heard about them was good. I may look into them if I ever feel like replacing the stock humbucker in the HW1, thanks for the info. :)


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Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:42 pm
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Like I said before, I like it. I have a nice clean as well as dirty sound now with a lot of clarity. I can get good harmonics out of it too. I have a Hot Rails in my Surf Green Highway One and it smokes, between the Custom 69 pickups in the neck and middle and the Hot Rails in the bridge, it's been my number one. In my Ibanez SZ's I have an Alnico Pro II/Screamin Demon combo and a '59/Invader combo, they seem to compliment each other very well, but the set ups in my Strats are my favorite. I really like the clean sound from a single coil, but I despise the hum when playing with distortion. The Custom '69 bridge pickup was AWESOME distorted, but the hum turned me off to it.

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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:21 pm
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PandaManDan wrote:
I have the SSS Model in the clear redwine color. the neck was a bit rough in action when I got it but because I really don't care for the flat lustre put a couple coats of carnuba wax on it and hand buffed it to a shine. A tiny bit of wear from playing will smooth out the feel of your neck and it will feel like the old friend you knew you bought. The pickups are pretty good on this model stock, but I do plan on replacing them with 69 hot singles to keep it all Fender as well as replacing the tuners with locking Shallers.[/img]


The carnuba wax sounds like a good idea. Anyone know any other details about it?

Is there any guitar that features the 69 hot singles. I wouldn't mind a pickup swap, but I would want to know what I had before I put into in my guitar.

elessar820 wrote:
Like I said before, I like it. I have a nice clean as well as dirty sound now with a lot of clarity. I can get good harmonics out of it too. I have a Hot Rails in my Surf Green Highway One and it smokes, between the Custom 69 pickups in the neck and middle and the Hot Rails in the bridge, it's been my number one. In my Ibanez SZ's I have an Alnico Pro II/Screamin Demon combo and a '59/Invader combo, they seem to compliment each other very well, but the set ups in my Strats are my favorite. I really like the clean sound from a single coil, but I despise the hum when playing with distortion. The Custom '69 bridge pickup was AWESOME distorted, but the hum turned me off to it. [/img]


How are the Hot Rails and the 69s on the strat. What kind of tones can you get from them? And aside from the hum, what is the difference between the two pickups?

Nice pickups on the SZs btw, I've always loved those guitars and I've thought that they would be absolutely brilliant with a nice pair of Duncans. THe Alnico Pro II/Screamin Demom combo looks particularly good to me, seems like a very versatile guitar you've got there.


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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:30 pm
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My Strat came stock with the '69's, it was the FSR Highway One Surf Green Strat. The bridge pickup is a great pickup, but the hum was too much so I swapped it out for the Hot Rails. The combo works great, I still get the great single coil clean tone and a heavy distorted tone now, I really like this combo, I'd definitely recommend it if you want a a bit of variety. The Hot Rails is very high output which I really like and is a single coil sized humbucker, so it's great for heavy music. I love my SZ's they are the first really good guitars that I've owned and I'm going to hang onto them for a LONG time, they are very versatile. I have them wired with 2 push/pull pots as well, one splits the humbuckers and the other is for phase reversal. It's a shame Ibanez is discontinuing them and replacing them with the subpar SZR, I guess it's Fender only for me for now on... maybe I'll have to look into a Tele.

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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:58 pm
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elessar820 wrote:
My Strat came stock with the '69's, it was the FSR Highway One Surf Green Strat. The bridge pickup is a great pickup, but the hum was too much so I swapped it out for the Hot Rails. The combo works great, I still get the great single coil clean tone and a heavy distorted tone now, I really like this combo, I'd definitely recommend it if you want a a bit of variety. The Hot Rails is very high output which I really like and is a single coil sized humbucker, so it's great for heavy music. I love my SZ's they are the first really good guitars that I've owned and I'm going to hang onto them for a LONG time, they are very versatile. I have them wired with 2 push/pull pots as well, one splits the humbuckers and the other is for phase reversal. It's a shame Ibanez is discontinuing them and replacing them with the subpar SZR, I guess it's Fender only for me for now on... maybe I'll have to look into a Tele.


Ibanez is discontinuing the SZ!?!? That's terrible. I want to buy one before they go out of stock everywhere now but I just bought a Highway One. Your SZs sound great, especially with the push/pulls What exactly is the SZR?

How much more output does the Hot Rail have compared to the 69 and how does the pickup sound clean? What sort of music do you play?

That FSR strat sounds awesome! How much did you pay for it?


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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:18 pm
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The SZR is the SZ's replacement, similar, but different and most likely more cheaply made so it is probably horrible. It killed my interest in Ibanez. The Hot Rail is way hotter that the 69, it sounds pretty good clean, but I usually use the neck and or middle pickup for clean tones. I play rock, I don't know what to compare it to, but my influences are Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pantera, Black Label Society, Deftones, Chevelle and Seether to name a few. I have some music on my myspace page. The song John McClane was recorded with the 69 bridge pickup using Rifftracker with Gearbox, I think it was through the Soldano amp model. I've seen the Surf Green FSR Strat listed various places for $900-$1000, but I know this awesome little store in Monsey, NY where I got it for $800, plus a hard shell case.

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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:35 pm
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John McClane is a strat? That sounds wicked.

I just checked out the SZR via a google search and I have to say 'm disappointed. No Ibanez/Duncan pickups, ugly body, ugly headstock.



Changing the subject, I'm not a big whammy user, but I can't but the bar into my Highway One because it's out of line somehow (hard to explain). As I mentioned earlier a little black spring fell out of the guitar. Does this have anything to do with it?


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Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:07 pm
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From what I understand, that spring is just to help "lock" the arm into place, more just keep it in place. I don't have them in either of my Strats and the arms go in just fine. Yeah, that was done with my Surf Green Strat, pre-Hot Rails. The guitar was recorded with Rifftracker and Gear Box, so the sound is processed, eliminating the hum. My amps on the other hand are a different story. The Wolves was recorded with after the Hot Rails mod. I actually tried trading my SZ720 for a Telecaster a few weeks ago, no luck so I decided to keep it.

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