software

ok...

i have a 77 strat and replaced the stock bridge PU w/ a hot rail about 10 years ago and have kept the mid and neck stock PUs in.

recently, i've started having a severe problem w/ buzzing, so i took it to a tech, who went through it and he concluded that it was a problem with the PUs and that i should look into getting 'matched PUs.' keep in mind that this is the same tech that originally replaced the stock bridge PU w/ the hot rail.

so, in regards to matched PUs and assuming the old hot rail is not the cause of my headaches and is still fully functional, would i have a problem if i replaced the original stock neck and mid position PUs with a new cool rail (neck) and a new vintage rail (mid), and kept the original hot rail in the bridge position?

thanks...t

Sounds like a perfect match to me. I can't think of any way that it would be a bad thing or mismatched.

BTW, welcome to the board.

The cool Rails and Vintage Rails are a good match for the HR. Also check into getting a trio of new CTS pots. I know the pots in my '77 strat were pretty worn when I swapped out the pickups.

The Hot Rails/Vintage Rails/Cool Rails combo has been popular with many people on this site for a long time and I have installed it iinto customer guitars a couple of times. Personally I prefer the Hot Stack in the middle because it balances a bit better with the higher output HR and CR but your choices are fine.

Pickups rarely go quot;badquot; if for no other reason that they don't have moving parts or contacts that can corrode. If your buzzing problem occurs with the Hot Rails as well as with the single coils I would suspect that one or more of your pots has a problem. Pots are far more to develop problems that cause noise than pickups are. If it is a pot problem, changing the pickups will not cure your problem.

If you just have issues with 60 cycle hum, changing out the singles will cure it.