software

I want a humbucking pup in a single coil package for my strat.

Which pup would give me a heavier quot;chug chugquot; sound? Cool Rails or JB jr.?

Are the hot rails to hot (very hight output) that it will quot;drownquot; the stock pups of my strat? It's an '89 am. std. strat btw.

Thanks!

Hi fretwire; I can only comment on the CR in the bridge. On mine, I wouldn't call it quot;heavyquot; at all. I never normally like the sound of the bridge by itself on a Strat. The CR added just the right amount of low-end to help fill out the frequency spectrum, making it a nice useful tone by itself. But it still retains the classic quot;bridge-twangquot;. Its just a fuller, richer twang.

Its one of my favorite sounds.

imo, the Hotrails don't overpower stock singlecoil pups... I found it to be a very nice rock pup...

Artie,

Fuller sound = thicker right?

I always find single coils to quot;thinquot; for my taste, so I don't want to play distorted rythmn sound with a single coil (i almost always use the bridge for rythmn be it clean or dirty). Also, the stock pups are so bright sounding, and I don't want to roll down the tone knob that much coz that would make my pinch harmonics sound weak.

Does the CR give me a bassier sound and cuts the highs a bit so it won't sound as bright?

Kommerzbassist,

The HR seem to have more mids to it than the CR. Would this be the high mids or the low mids?

I generally don't like mids for the bridge. I want lots of mids for the neck pup though. Give's my lead tone a quot;rounderquot; sound.Thanks!


Originally Posted by fretburnerArtie,

Fuller sound = thicker right?

Right. In the context that I'm using, I mean a bit more bass, to make up for the lack of same with a single coil in the bridge position. The Cool Rails doesn't have a quot;lotquot; of bottom end . . . just enough to make the bridge sound better.

If this helps, here's a little clip I posted in the Tips and Clips section awhile back when I first installed the CR. Its the same basic part played on one channel with just the CR, and on the other channel in the #4 notch position - CR SSL-1.

Cool Rails clip

^^ Great tone!

I definitely cannot get that kinda tone from the stock pups on my strat. Coz like I said, mine is too bright sounding.

Can you tell me your exact setup for that? Amps and settings? The tone knob on your guitar?

Btw, the bridge (CR) only would be on the left channel?

I wish you can post some distorted, palm-muted clips on those cool rails.

Thanks!

My setup is a minimul home studio. As far as the guitar goes, I always run volume and tone controls on quot;10quot;. Since I run into so much equipment that has those controls, I never use them.

Here's a quote from the thread where I originally posted that clip:

I run the guitar straight into a DBX 163x compressor, but I have the compression turned to minimum. I use it as a buffer to split the signal and match it to the next stage, which is a Johnson J-Station, and Yamaha FX-500. The J-Station is set to the quot;Black Facequot; emulation with all effects turned off. I have the Yamaha set for just a smidgen of chorus, reverb, and delay. Not much, just a touch. Both of those units are stereo, so all four inputs come into a Tascam mixer, which feeds my soundcard.

The quot;trickquot; to keeping it clean is, I only mix in a bit of the Yamaha. The quot;Jquot; is full strength, but I bring in just enough of the Yamaha to give it a bit of ambiance, and to help take away the quot;digitalquot; character.

The CR is the one panned quot;rightquot;. btw - I made a little mistake in that other post. On the left is the Cool Rails with an EMG. I hadn't installed the SSL-1 yet when I made that clip.


Originally Posted by fretburnerI wish you can post some distorted, palm-muted clips on those cool rails.

Thanks!

I'll see what I can do about some distorted tones. I don't think I know how to do palm-mutes yet.

Wow. You didn't even use a real amp? The J-station is that good?

I almost always roll up my tone knobs to 10... and it's only on this strat that I considered rolling it back to the center position for the bridge (and mid) pup. I love the twang when playing it clean but yeah, just too bright for my taste. Your tone though, I wouldn't consider bright, but is so clear, and yeah, fuller.Btw, I read back at the website, and SD says lower output pups would be more open, i.e. you have more control on the tone? As opposed to high output pups?

The hot rails sound heavy. And the JB seems to be quot;openquot; too. And both are high output pups.

Thanks Man!

Yeah, I think the quot;Jquot; is killer. Unfortunately, its out of production, but you can still find them on eBay from time to time. Several folks from the J forum, who've used POD's and V's have all said the J had better sound.

For digital recording, its excellent. I'm not sure how it would be quot;livequot;, though.

there's someone here selling it really cheap but i'm afraid i wouldn't have much use for it. my jtm60 has an emulated/unemulated(?) midi out that i can connect to my soundcard.

btw, i think i'll go with the cool rails.

i was thinking, i won't use it to play megadeth anyway as i will be using my RG and LP for that... so yeah, i love your tone, and i love the tone the the audio samples, so i'll go for it.

thanks man!

if you can still post a soundclip with a distorted sound, it will still be cool though.


Originally Posted by fretburnerbtw, i think i'll go with the cool rails.

Thats cool, but I'd hate to see you make that decision based on my one clip alone. There's a lot of folks who love that Twangbanger. I just haven't had a chance to try one yet. Originally Posted by fretburnerif you can still post a soundclip with a distorted sound, it will still be cool though.

I'll see what I can do. quot;Distortionquot; tends to be modelers weak point.


Originally Posted by fretburnerKommerzbassist,

The HR seem to have more mids to it than the CR. Would this be the high mids or the low mids?

I generally don't like mids for the bridge. I want lots of mids for the neck pup though. Give's my lead tone a quot;rounderquot; sound.Thanks!

All the mids

artie,

from the soundclips on SD's website, the CR sounded best for me... followed my the HR and the hotstack... the quarterpounder sounds good too... i also liked the EQ shape of the CR from the site ...and the tonewizard is saying CR too if i want rock/classic rock...

Kommerzbassist,

I don't really like mids on a bridge pup... but some will argue that a great pup is that pup with well-defined mids and that it will help you cut through in a live setting... i'm not so sure about this though... what's your opinion?

Hey, why is the twangbanger NOT yet in the tone charts? And no soundclips?

I don't think you can get a quot;truequot; heavy metal quot;chugga chuggaquot; tone from a single coil size pickup...but Jennifer Batten (guitarist with Jeff Beck) gets a pretty heavy tone with the JB JR. The Hot Rails might be even heavier.

Of the pickups mentioned in this thread the Twangbanger is my favorite.

Lew

^^ yeah... i think so too... but maybe the CR can get me close? i wanna preserve the 3-single-coil look of my strat...

I've heard the CR is more open than the HR... though the HR sure sounds heavier?


Originally Posted by LewguitarI don't think you can get a quot;truequot; heavy metal quot;chugga chuggaquot; tone from a single coil size pickup...

The Livewire Hot for Strat will do some serious quot;chugga-chugginquot;

You might want to reconsider the look of your strat. A 59, C5, or Custom trembucker would get you plenty of quot;chugquot;, quot;chunkquot;, and make your harmonics scream in a strat's bridge position.

(The Custom and the C5 would also split well and blend very nicely with your middle pickup for clean, twangy sounds)That being said, I would also look at Dimarzio's Fast Track 2 for the sound you're describing. It might not do it as well as the full sized humbuckers I mentioned, but it will keep the look you want.

^^ I've also thought of that -- putting a full sized humbucker on my strat making it a fat strat -- but then i already have an Epi LP as my main Metal guitar... I just want my strat to sound heavy occassionally when i really need to... I'd be using my strat mostly when I play with my other band who plays quot;girlyquot; rock (we got a girl vocalist and rythm guitarist) but sometimes, I need that quot;chugga chuggaquot; sound when we play say Veruca Salt, or something Punk perhaps...
Boleslaw Gers 666,

Does the HR clean up well?

My strat is a '90 american std.