software

Hi Everyone,

I am having a hard time trying to decide which pickup I want to get for my guitar.

I currently have a 50th Anniversary Golden Strat, that has a JB Jr. in the Bridge,
and Fender Texas Specials in the Middle and Neck. I love the JB Jr, and the Neck Texas Special, but I want to replace the middle pickup with a Humbucker. I need it to be a single slot humbucker like the JB Jr. since my guitar isn't routed for full-size ones.

I plan on playing mostly rock, some heavier, but I need something pretty versitile , as I won't strickly play with distortion by any means.

I was wondering if you guys could rate these pickups in your opinion of what you would do. (For Middle Pickup)

Hot Rails
Hot Stack
Cool Stack
Lil '59
Vintage Rail
Classic Stack
DuckBucker

I really appreciate the input, thanks for your time!

Hey Bradmatic, WELCOME TO THE FORUM! I've broken you selections into groups to facilitate better judging. I can't make a great recommendation due to the fact I don't know what you want to do with the bridge pup. Over all the Lil 59 gets my vote.

Hot Rails------2
Vintage Rail---1

Lil '59---------***

The duckbucker is supposed to give you humbucking beefy output with single coil quack, it is in a league of its own.

DuckBucker----yea or nea depending on your intended use

The Stacks are designed to sound like a single so they will not sound like your JBjr in the least.

Classic Stack-1
Cool Stack----3
Hot Stack-----2

Are you wanting humbucker type grind?

Luke

I do not necessarily want my middle pickup to sound just like the JB Jr. I want a really versitile balance between the JB Jr. and the Single Coil Texas Special Neck pickup. I really liked the sound of the Hot Stack on the website, but I haven't heard all that much about it. I love my JB Jr. in the bridge, it's perfect. Everyone raves about the Lil 59, i'm just trying to get a better idea of it.

Thanks!

My suggestion is Hot rails for middle pickup and Vintage rails for neck.

But Anniversary Golden Strat should sound like a strat. All single coil antiquities if it were mine...but

the lil 59 for that mid position should be nice, and provide a certain tonal difference from the JBjr bridge. I use a 59 in the bridge, and it should be good in the middle. I think they come in bridge or neck flavours. So be sure which one you get (unless SD have a special Middle voiced one. Awww, no notch position strat quack?

The 59 is going to sound more vintage-esque than the JBjr. The cool rails would be a good choice as well. It will have PAF type of tone with rails.

As far as the texas specials matching something goes I'd say the hot stack would be in the right direction. Nothing in the Duncan line really is quite like a Texas Special, to me the Texas Special sounds grainy/gritty and shrill, but hey if you like it more power to you. If you want want more strat quack in the middle you could go with the custom for high output, or for less output the Alnico 2 Pro has an incredibly smooth sound, however both of those are old school singles.

Also regardless what you do look into the flat versions. In my strat I found they have a fatter tone and slightly different tonality.

Hope that helps man!

Luke

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate this, if anyone else has any input let me know what you think, your input is very valuable to me.

I know little about the Texas Special, so my input is somewhat limited... from what you listed you're going to want to go with a pup with slightly higher output unless you mind a middle pickup that is overpowered in the notch positions. That said, I wouldn't likely consider vintage stacks, vintage rails, etc. At the minimum I'd look into the cool rails, and then into the hot rails, hot stack, and duckbucker. My personal tastes leans towards the cool rails, as I think it's a greatly underrated pickup.


Originally Posted by MikeSI know little about the Texas Special, so my input is somewhat limited... from what you listed you're going to want to go with a pup with slightly higher output unless you mind a middle pickup that is overpowered in the notch positions. That said, I wouldn't likely consider vintage stacks, vintage rails, etc. At the minimum I'd look into the cool rails, and then into the hot rails, hot stack, and duckbucker. My personal tastes leans towards the cool rails, as I think it's a greatly underrated pickup.

I think that's a fair assessment of the situation.

Luke