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My guitar is a 70's Strat and I am wanting to replace the pickups to get more of an Iron Maiden sound. I've read lots of different arrangements for the pickups Iron Maiden use, mostly involving Hot Rails and JB Jrs. Could someone tell me what the correct arrangement is? My guitar has 3 pickup slots and I'm wanting to know what pickups should be in each slot.

Thanks for any help.

im pretty sure dave murray uses 3 hot rails. there was a thread abou this a while ago. if u do a search u should find it, but it was quitae awhile. like months i think.

OK thanks, but just looking at the site, it appears Dave Murray uses hot rails in the neck and bridge only, so should I just get them and leave the original pickup in the middle slot?

I'll search for that other thread now.

you're probably ok just leaving the middle slot as it is.... I doubt that Dave or Adrian used the middle pickup.

And besides, having the same pup in the neck and middle seems like kind of a waste, but since you'll be using mostly neck and bridge I guess you could leave the middle one out to save money. The bridge is up to you I guess, anyone would work

Yeah I would be very rarely using the middle pickup, so I think I'll just go with hot rails in the bridge and neck.

Thanks a lot for all your help

They use hot rails for their newer stuff. i saw it in an interview of adrian smith where he says that murray and he use them. i'm sure gers uses them too. For the older tone from quot;iron maidenquot;, quot;killersquot;, and quot;number of the beastquot; -- their best albums and their best tones, IMO-- they used PAF'S.

welcome to the forum, by the way


Originally Posted by Boleslaw Gers 666H has a PAF pro in the bridge and stock single coils in the other positions. Jan uses a strat with 3 way switching (bridge, bridge/neck, neck) with JB Jrs in both positions (sometimes in all three with 5 way switching). Dave uses strats with hot rails in all three.

thanx for clearing that up. i wasnt' really sure. But i have a question: if you listen to the albums, their tone seems to chaange from quot;number of the beastquot; to quot;piece of mindquot;. does anyone know why? i think that's when dave switched to hot rails, but i'm not sure...

Murray uses either 3 x Hot Rails, or 1 x JB Jr in the Bridge, and 2 x Hot Rails ...

I took these pics myself last year ...


Originally Posted by TwilightOdysseyMurray uses either 3 x Hot Rails, or 1 x JB Jr in the Bridge, and 2 x Hot Rails ...

I took these pics myself last year ...

YOU WENT TO ONE OF THEIR SHOWS
Damn, i was gonna go see them in Ozzfest but they're not playing down here.


Originally Posted by colz10YOU WENT TO ONE OF THEIR SHOWS
Damn, i was gonna go see them in Ozzfest but they're not playing down here.

Hehe ... I saw Maiden 6 times in 04.


Originally Posted by TwilightOdysseyHehe ... I saw Maiden 6 times in 04.

i worship you man
i'm such a big fan of maiden but i'm afraid i'll never get to see them


Originally Posted by Boleslaw Gers 666Not to worry. They'll probably come to Miami on their quot;still rockin' in wheelchairsquot; tour in 2030.

LOL
WAIT. that's bad for me

they'll never come down here cuz it's filled with rappers and whatever. That's why i wanna move out for college. Hopefully out of state. Maybe i'll catch one of their shows later on. I've managed to make some maiden fans though. i had like a group of twelve that would've gone to the show

Dave Murray uses the bridge pickup about as much as the neck pickup for soloing. The intros to Killers and Still Life are bridge pickup for sure, you can really tell on Maiden England. The Aces High solo has him starting off on the bridge pickup then he switches to the neck pickup for the hammer ons at the end. Heaven Can Wait he switches back and forth a few times. I believe he mainly uses the neck pickup for trilling etc...it provides a smoother, softer tone.

Alrighty then...

I'd probably go with a hot rails neck and a JB bridge. I don't know how much they used JB themselves, but it just sounds like maiden anyway. If you're not restricted to SD only, do yourself a favor and check out super distortion and paf pro for the bridge slot as well.

I think maiden has said themselves in interviews, that they prefer to use strats on gigs because of their lighter weight. As everyone knows, what people use when they play out may not be what they use on records.

For example in the Wicker man video, H is playing a Les Paul, but in RiR he plays it with a strat.