Hot Rails for the crunch, but definitely QP for the clean... Great comparison.... One of the few comparisons where you can actually hear a clear difference especially here on RUclips...
You said something in the beginning of your video that I don't believe you understand how much of a difference it really makes. You said the hot rails pick up does better with the 500 k pots and the other pick up uses the 250 k pot. The pots will change the frequencies considerably. Most guitarists don't understand this. What you are doing is basically beefing up the amount of sound that can come through your guitar. I changed the pots on my strat copy from 250 k pots to 500 k pots and the guitar came alive. The higher end seamed higher but the lower end really made the bigger difference. The guitar was so alive that I had troubles with keeping my pinch squeals at bay. They were effortless to do. I was so impressed by this change that I always ask people who want to modify their guitars with hotter pick up what are your pots in your guitar? Change those first is always my first response. It's cheaper and you will be impressed with the sound quality. It's like adding nitro to a motor. So this comparison you did isn't correct. If you used the same out put in pots you wouldn't be so impressed with the sound, trust me on this. Also if you just changed the pots to the hotter pots you would have been surprised. They also make a 1,000 k pot. But I've never tried them. I was impressed with the sound I got from the 500 k pots. Just thought I would throw that out there for who ever wanted to know. 😊
Thank you so much Douglas, really appreciate the feedback. I have made a few other pickup comparison videos on another pickup brand in the same style on the channel. Thank you for watching!
While I would agree that the Hot Rails really came into its own the higher the gain increased, I also agree with your decision to keep the Quarter Pounder installed to preserve the “Stratiness.” I rather prefer the harmonic characteristics of the QP because it sounds so unique in all tonal situations.
Hot rails we're very useful Before High Gain amplifiers. Because it pushed the front end of the amp. But they're a little too hot for High Gain amplifiers
Perfect, straightforward A/B demo. Every other video I've seen conducting an A/B comparison play sections for too long or the playing is far too busy. You are the A/B demo king!
Awesome demo! I'm a bigger fan of modern tones, so the Hot Rail sounded better with gain, especially in the higher gain bits. Clean, the single coil was stunning.
Thank you! Those initial chords I played on the high gain test sounded great with the hot rails. I've literally had that pickup lying around for years unused. Don't know how I ignored it for so long!
Absolutely agree. It's such an interesting topic. A 12k AlNiCo 5 pickup would sound completely different to a 12k AlNiCo 2 or Ceramic. I try and give the info I can find from the manufacturers so that viewers can consider it in relation to the tone test. Thank you for watching :)
They both sound really good indeed. Good choice on keeping the Quarter Pound for a Strat. I can definitely hear Highway Star on that thing! Thanks for the Hot Rails demo, it really makes the Strat sound like an SG which is exactly what I was looking for. Cheers!
That was a great comparo. Thanks. I thought the Hotrails wasn't nearly as good as the Quarter Pounder when playing clean but had the edge on crunch and dirty sounds.
The Hot Rails almost sounds like the perfect pickup for me (tho the mid hump might be slightly excessive). Kinda wish i didnt get rid of my beat up squier strat so i had a single coil guitar to put it in.
I just put a hot rail in my Strat and love it. It cuts through like crazy and sounds so focused and clear and fat. The other one you got sounds good too. I like the hot rail better, though. It sounds when you’re playing with other people
This is a clinic on how an A/B test should be done. Thanks for comparing the exact two pickups I wanted to compare! I'm gonna get a quarter pound set for my squier CV tele.
The hot rails bridge is in my main guitar for playing live. I play hardcore/thrash it works extremely well with every amp in the back line. I have a quarter pound in the neck it’s impressive.
Great combo! Yes the hot rails handles gain so well. I haven't had a chance to play it in a band setting but I bet it also cuts through nicely. Thanks for watching mate
Hi Chris, that is a great set up. I almost never play the middle pickup, and even though I love the in-between positions I rarely use them. I need at least one strat that is a "strat" though :)
The Hot Rails sounds good but i don't really see the point of owning a strat for these types of sound you can just get a superstrat type guitar. The quarter punder however retains that typical strat style IMHO.
I have both. Best option that I like the most is a hot rails or duncan distortion on the bridge (two different guitars) and quarter pounders at the mid and neck. Use the volume knob and get about anything you every wanted. The hot rails is by far the best sounding bridge single coil replacement I ever had. You won't be sorry.
The Quarter Pound easily wins on the clean test! I much prefer it in the crunch test as well, and the higher gain tests I like it a bit better as well, so no-brainer really. I still think the best metal Strat pickups are the Bare Knuckle Sinner and Cobra, the latter especially.
Would love to get some Bare Knuckles on the channel. I tried one of their P90s and just needed to strum a D power chord before deciding it was awesome.
I feel like the Quarter Pound had a quasi-P90 sound going for it on the crunch tones. Loved that sound. The Hot Rails excelled in the high gain portion of the video but I think the Quarter Pound was best for cleans and crunch.
I agree with the p90 comparison. They definitely have more punch than most single coils! The hot Rails absolutely nail the high gain sound. Thanks for watching!
Great comparison! I’m a bridge PU Strat guy, so this was great reconnaissance for any future swaps. I had a Quarter Pounder in my Strat bridge position in the 80s so I have forgotten how it sounded. I have friends the hot rails in the bridge. It works great in humbucking mode when soloed and then split for position #2 for maximum quack.
Thank you very much Chris! As I said in the video, I went for single coils in the end to retain the strat sound, though I'm still thinking about the hot rails haha. I've heard they are also great in the neck position, but nothing can beat a single coil neck position in a strat! Thanks for watching mate
@@AlexisGuitars One friend has a Hot Rails in the bridge and Classic Stacks in the middle and neck. I wired it up so the switch auto splits the Hot Rails in position #2. That is one really great sounding pickup set that is mostly hum free. The Cool Rails are also great in the middle and neck spots, they have a more typical Stratty tone.
the more gain you push onto that hot rail the better it sounds. the cleaner tones are dominated by the quarter pounder. it seems to me there is no winner or loser here but simply a matter of what style you'd like to play. for me personally, it'll be the quarter pounder as I'm not much of a high gain player. cheers.
Completely agree. Both are great options, and ideally id have two starts for both! Or maybe also a third for some classic vintage output pickups too. Thank you for watching mate!
Thanks for a truly informative comparison. I too wish to retain my Strat’s “Strat-ness” while adding some meat, and hence I intend to upgrade my Player model pups to the Quarter Pound full set.
Yes I also thought they sounded awesome pushed and tightened up a bit with the TS. Not all the 2nd pickguard's screw holes lined up with the ones in the body 🤣 so I improvised with tape
One of the best reviews, thank you! The only problem is, you made them both sound great, and now I need both 🎸🎸 the hot rail in the Strat reminds me of SG gain tone
I have a hotrails in my strat and it mixes great with the fender noiseless neck and middle. I still get the position 2 quack without coil tap, very happy with it.
Really glad you found it helpful mate! Yes the QP is quite the pickup. Still got it in the strat, although still wanting a second strat for the Hot rails haha. Thanks for watching mate
Excellent demo! Very useful - I can't really comment on how to improve your procedure here. Thank you. I was really impressed with both. Since I already have a humbucker-equipped guitar, I prefer the SSL-4 as it keeps a more distinctively "Stratty" tone, as you noted. I think, if all I had was a Strat, especially one that was only routed for Single coils, i might go for the Hot Rails. Again, well done!
Thank you! Really appreciate it :) that's the thing, I feel I need at least one strat sound in my collection. I too would go for humbucker in the bridge if I only had one guitar... Unless the guitar is a tele, in which case tele-bridge pickup all the way haha. Cheers mate!
For my Super Blues Tele, the Quarter Pounders can’t be beat for a little overdrive. The clarity and tone is unbeatable. For heavy crunch, The Hotrails are amazing in many guitars but typically a Tele remains the blues, country tone choice as is mine. Great comparison. It’s going to be Hotrails for my Strat copy.
In my strat I was always changing pick-up configurations. I started with the hot rails in the bridge, and the cool rails in the neck positions. One day I found a pickup position so that I could Omit the middle (Kent Armstrong) and blend the bridge and neck together. Installed a TBS tone pot and I got the bluesy bass sound with the treble cut. For a distorted sound I would never look back, for clean tones, I feel there needs to be more “life”
Nice! The perfect mod is out there for all of us. I like the idea of blending the neck and bridge. That's definitely on my DIY wish list. Thanks for watching !
Hi. I'm in the process of converting my Fender Player HSS Stratocaster (alder body, maple neck and ebony fingerboard) into something like a Superstrat for playing heavy riffs. I bought a Seymour Duncan Invader humbucker for the bridge, but I have a dilemma about the other two - whether to buy 2 Hot Rials or is it better to have one Hot Rials and one Cool Rials? And in which position will both of these pickups perform better? Greetings from Poland... 🤘
Hopefully someone with some experience with the other pickups can comment and let you know. I haven't tried the others but I tend to favour lower output for neck pickups. Have fun swapping pickups!
I'm thinking on a s s s pickguard consisting in quarter pound bridge, DiMarzio sds 1 mid and Fender lace sensor gold on the neck, goldo 1M pots. I'll report the results soon. Great video bro, really no BS and plenty info delivered straight, as it should be. Thank u so much.
I've had a hot rails in my strat for 30+ years but the older I get the more I like single coils, more distinctive and I like more of a classic rock sound than heavy sound. I have a coil split on the hot rails and I find I use the single coil more than the humbucking mode. I have an old duncan hot strat and thinking about putting that back in. I'd have to look up the numbers but thinking that has less output than the 1/4 lb. Nice review
Very nice review. Thanks a lot for the effort put in making this video. It looks like we have a problem here: 1 - Clean tone - Quarter Pounder hands down 2 - Distortion - Hot Rails hands down. Can we glue them together ? 😂 Cheers, Pedro
The Quarter Pound sounds a bit like a P-90. Häussel also uses 1/4" for his "BigMag" PU which is supposed to sound close to a P-90 in a single coil shape w. similar output level (12.2k for the Tely-bridge one) The Hot-Rails is a single-coil sized humbucker. Considering you're a bit hardrock/metal leaning, you may prefer smth like the FastTrack2 or the Sugar-Chakra which are the two SC-humbuckers with the highest output level. My thing would be to have both hand-rewound (if pre-owned, but usually, I have custom PU directly made by an artisan, I will just buy such things when the artisan doesn't already knows the PU I want) and "glued" together with a magnetic shielding between 'em to make a pseudo HB (if you don't do this, the more powerful ceramic magnets will influence your alnico PU and ruin its sound). Note that I've long replaced my Strat by two Vigier Excaliburs, both are routed HSH under the pickguard, and I have several pickguards allowing me to have more fun. I keep the original ones intact, in case I find a better Stratoid than the Excalibur, thus, the 1st one squats my home for 26 years now and the second for 18 years, and no Tom Anderson, Suhr, Tyler or Fender CS/CSMH did it better, so they're still here
You know me, big fat humbucker is where I like it so defo the hot rails lol. I think you could you iron out some of the mids in the EQ though if you find it a bit middy.
I liked the Quarter Pound on the cleans, but as the crunch came in the hoy rails pulled ahead, the high gain where I could hear a difference it was in the hot rails favour. Whenever you would the volume back the hot rails sounded better, maybe it is that treble bleed, but something sounded artificial and not right in there. It would have been good to hear how both pick-ups sat with the middle pickup. The other sounds I would have liked to have heard are with the hot rail, split, and in parallel, I wonder, would this have brought back some more of the stratiness you missed? If it were me I'd have been tempted to keep/try both pickups - quarter pound in the bridge, and hot rails in the middle (maybe with parallel switch). This would have kept your strat cleans you like at the bridge (I'm more of a clean player so I'm a little biased here), your "merr" middle position could have come alive with the hot rails(?) (maybe you'd prefer to split rather than parallel-switch, so you don't lose your middle tones?), and you still have the neck pickup as you like it. lol the great thing about moding is you can do it forever, have fun :)
Thank you for this, rocknrollmouse! You're absolutey right, the awesome thing about modding is that it never ends haha it's an endless rabbit hole but so much fun. I like the idea of the hot rails in middle position. It would be interesting to thear what positions 2 and 4 would be like. I don't use them often, but I like to have them! I can't remember why I didn't test the bridge and middle position together with each pickup. Sounds like I need to revisit this video at some stage to do that haha Thank you for watching and commenting, mate!
I’m a bit late to the party here but I’ll leave my two cents anyway. I’ve been looking for a chugging rock tone pickup that can go head-to-head with a humucker but on a Strat for some time now. I’m not a of single coil twang and the 1/4 just seem to be a bit more aggressive versions of the exact same tone. The hot rails are everything I’ve been looking for and being Seymour Duncan makes a drop in triple set I’m sold on them!
Not late at all, always got time to talk about these awesome pickups ! I've never tried the hot rails neck or middle. If the bridge is anything to go by, they'll be an awesome set for high gain! Thanks for watching
There's no right or wrong answer to this. I would start out with 500k as it might also have the benefit of brightening up the neck single coil pickup. Lots of comments say the HR can be used with 250k so if you don't want to change anything about the neck and middle, maybe think about sticking to 250. Have fun experimenting!
The QPs look and sound amazing... God, I really wish there was just a noisless single coil with a little less spank/twang/jangle than normal. Love that clarity, but I also love fullness and body. Wondering if a stacked humbucker (AKA "noiseless single coil") with neodymiums, and series/parallel switching would do it. That stack keeps the magnetic aperture narrow like a single coil, and also keeps the negative pole and coil away from the strings, which should, in theory, allow more clarity and sparkle. The neodymiums add power and bass (something single coils tend to lack) and allow you to UNDERwind a pickup compared to "normal" which should also give you a broader overall response. Put all that together with being able to halve the impedance through parallel wiring, or DOUBLE it with series, and, well.... You go from about a 4k to a 16k pickup depending on the mode. That 4k mode should put it in filtertron/mini humbucker territory, which already sound bright and sparkly like single coils, so the stacking of the coils and narrowing of the field should accentuate that. The kicker is I have no idea what the inductance would be, so all this theory could just straight up be in the trash and it could sound like crap, IDK. We really just need SOMEONE to build the damn things.
The thing i love about strats is you can literally buy any fender player series and just upgrade the pickups, i have a tele, a les paul and a strat (the holy Trinity) i found that i love the sound of the LP BUT love picking up my tele so whats the solution? Well im buying a dual humbucker tele. I suggest you get yourself a HSS strat throw in a pearly gates or vintage gibson on that bridge and you'll love it.
The quarter pounder sounded better on the cleans for sure, but on the crunch, the hot rails sounded a whole lot better. The hot rails for sure on the high gain too
The Quarter Pounder came out top on every comparison for me, just more agility and clarity. I had a Strat with a set of Quarter Pounders on it for many years and I have to say that although I loved the sound of the bridge pickup the neck and middle left me cold. The guitar itself, a 2006 American Series, was a bit bland, too and I ended up trading it for a stock 2001 American Series Tele which is much, much better. Still thinking about putting a Quarter Pounder at the bridge of my 1999 American Standard Strat, though. But just the bridge. Everything else is perfect.
Yes I also think there are better neck pickups for a strat than the QP. I do like it, but I prefer something more traditional in the neck pickup position of a strat. Thanks for watching!
Hi mate, from my experience the output can be adjusted for by adjusting the pickups. The biggest difference for me is EQ. These pickups are beefier than standard pickups. That can be adjusted with amp settings, but the thicker tone is inherent in these pickups in my opinion.
@@AlexisGuitars Hi Alexis, thank you for replying. I like that it is thicker for the bridge pickup, I will pair it with single and a cruiser dimarzio in neck. Let's see the results.
That should be a cool combo! Yeah the extra thickness in the bridge is what appealed to me and why I like the QP so much. When I eventually have time again to do another comparison I'll be doing one on two different sets of strat pickups.
I quite like the QP overall. I wonder how the Seymour Duncan Vintage Hot Stack Plus and Dimarzio Solo compare. I know the pro track would be somewhere between, less mids than hotrails for sure.
Well I pretty much agree with you. I do like the quarter pounder. I ordered a hot rail for my strat though. I was disappointed with the chugging of both. I play metal mostly. I never use the bridge for clean. I subscribed to your channel. 🤘 Thanks.
Thanks a lot mate! Both are great pickups. Yes for metal I think you made the right choice! Thanks for subbing. I should hopefully be doing more pickup comparisons in the coming months :)
Hi Paul, if you mean with the QPs, kind of. It's not the "real deal" in my opinion but it's close enough for me and still sounds good. I've not tried the hot rails with a 5way switch so I can't say. Thanks for watching!
The QP imo was the winner. I personally prefer the clarity single could provide even with gain. I usually just dial back my top end anyway so things don’t get too spiky.
I'm really impressed with the QP! Who would have known a single coil would sound so beefy... oh, i get it now! 🤦😆 But it sounds like the best of both worlds cause it lacks that slight muddiness of the HR. At least to my ear. While still giving it some chunkiness in the mid department while breaking up nicely. I still prefer rails in my strat bridge and both of my duo sonic pickup positions.
I have a quarter pounder telecaster bridge pup and if you bring high e side up to 1/16" and low e side 3/32" it will shred with the best of em.. distance between string and pole pieces really makes all the difference in the world.. also try to get pickups as flat and parallel to strings as possible for best balance of body and presence..
Oh yeah the QP for Tele is incredible. My QP Tele was my main guitar for a long time. I only changed it to a slightly more traditional pickup to mix things up, but definitely need to install the QP Tele in another guitar
Great video well done, I like a meaty guitar tone akin Gary Moore style tone (Borderline Heavy Metal) would you say the Quarter Pounder would be the better pick up for this sound?
Thank you very much Andrew! That's a really good question. As much as I love Gary Moore's playing, I can't say I'm overly familiar with his rig. If you want to stay single coil (and not venture in p90s which would probably be a great compramise in this decision) then I haven't found a single coil better suited for bluesy hard rock. I associate Gary Moore with his greeny Les Paul, though, so I would have simply picked the Hot Rails just to get the thick humbucker tones (I haven't tried a Hot Rail in the neck position, so I can't say anything about that!). Hope this helps!
@@AlexisGuitars no that's a great reply, I love his Red Strat but totally get where you're coming from. Watch Blues for Jimi on RUclips Gary plays his red strat for pretty much the entire show 👍🏼
I'm trying to find something for my squier cyclone. It's a shorter scale and the angle of the pups are all slanted. Ive tried cheapos but they suck. The guitar is pink but I want it to sound hot af and crunchy.
@@AlexisGuitars I have a Wilkinson hot rail in the bridge rn but it's not so hot and sounds like ceramic. There's lots of models of Duncan hot rails, do you have a favorite or is this the one to get for the bridge? I'm ready to order today. I put 57/62s in my Mexican strat recently and it convinced me that the high prices are worth every penny when choosing pickups. On my pink cyclone, I changed the 3 black switches to white switchcrafts and wired them to flip the opposite way for off and on, replaced the black knobs with chrome tele styles that looks sick on the chrome jaguar plate and upgraded the guts so I really want white pickups to complete the look. Btw the 2020 run of pink and blue cyclones ($400) are amazing guitars for a modding platform, with the Gibson 24.75 scale.. try one if you ever get the chance. Lol sorry I typed a lot
Defo QP on clean, but HR generally preferred for crunch. HR was too dark on the clean, may sound better with 500K pots. It's strange how good the HR sound for blues when dialed in.
Yes the HR sound great when you add some gain. You would have to change the EQ for clean to compensate but I think one doesn't intent on playing clean often with a HR installed
Hi Jim, I completely agree! I also have a tele with Quarter Pounds in this and love it. Going to feature the quarter pound tele pickups in another video at some stage - when I have time haha. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Interesting! I don't think I would want to darken it up any more with 250k pots. It sounds great with the 500k. Worth giving it a go, though! Thanks for watching
Hot rails more mid and compression quarter pounder a bit more presence and open sounding.. both good but I think the quarter pounder is a little nicer..
Haha! Sorry mate, they are both great pickups. If I was playing all proper metal, though, I would go for the hot Rails and tweak the EQ for clean parts. Thanks for watching!
Yes I have heard that the HR can be used with 250k - having tried it out for this video I wouldn't want it any darker. I tend to like brighter tones, so 500k pots works for me. Maybe I should re-do this video with both at 250 and both at 500 to be thorough
I prefer the Little '59 over the Hotrails every day. The Hotrails are a bit too dark and dull, whereas the Little '59 is agressive and it will provide a wide palette of screaming overtones. You'll love it.
Great, thanks for the tip! I have a little 59 for my tele which I'll be doing a comparison on at some stage. It would be cool to get the strat Version and see how the tele and strat single-coil sized humbuckers compare, too! Thanks for watching
@@cmurduh1 : Depends. They’re close. In my opinion the JB Junior sounds better for clean tones. The Little ‘59 is not the best pickup if you want to use both clean and overdriven sounds out of it. But for those overdriven sounds I personally prefer the Little ‘59. For clean sounds I usually switch to a single coil in the neck position. Off course, it’s all a matter of personal taste and set ups and all of that.
Haha that would be cool! I am thinking of comparing some Tele and strat bridges in a strat, so maybe I'll compare the chopper and hot rails :) happy new year mate!
@@AlexisGuitars awesome :D I’m going to build a tele soon, with a hotrails in the bridge a quarter pounder in the neck. Hopefully it comes out as I expect it 😅😅
Cheers! I've read that in a few comments. Definitely interested to try it at 250k, though I like bright tones so now sure I'd want it any warmer sounding. I'll give it a go at some point 👍 thanks for watching!
Seymour Duncan vs Dimarzio Tele Bridge Humbucker: ruclips.net/video/Aed3tzTv8Vk/видео.html
Hot Rails for the crunch, but definitely QP for the clean...
Great comparison.... One of the few comparisons where you can actually hear a clear difference especially here on RUclips...
Thank you very much! Glad you found it helpful!
You said something in the beginning of your video that I don't believe you understand how much of a difference it really makes. You said the hot rails pick up does better with the 500 k pots and the other pick up uses the 250 k pot. The pots will change the frequencies considerably. Most guitarists don't understand this. What you are doing is basically beefing up the amount of sound that can come through your guitar. I changed the pots on my strat copy from 250 k pots to 500 k pots and the guitar came alive. The higher end seamed higher but the lower end really made the bigger difference. The guitar was so alive that I had troubles with keeping my pinch squeals at bay. They were effortless to do. I was so impressed by this change that I always ask people who want to modify their guitars with hotter pick up what are your pots in your guitar? Change those first is always my first response. It's cheaper and you will be impressed with the sound quality. It's like adding nitro to a motor. So this comparison you did isn't correct. If you used the same out put in pots you wouldn't be so impressed with the sound, trust me on this. Also if you just changed the pots to the hotter pots you would have been surprised. They also make a 1,000 k pot. But I've never tried them. I was impressed with the sound I got from the 500 k pots. Just thought I would throw that out there for who ever wanted to know. 😊
Thanks for this! It's great to see people share their experience and wisdom in the comments
This may be the most useful pickup comparison video I have seen. Thank you for posting it.
Thank you so much Douglas, really appreciate the feedback. I have made a few other pickup comparison videos on another pickup brand in the same style on the channel.
Thank you for watching!
While I would agree that the Hot Rails really came into its own the higher the gain increased, I also agree with your decision to keep the Quarter Pounder installed to preserve the “Stratiness.” I rather prefer the harmonic characteristics of the QP because it sounds so unique in all tonal situations.
Hi mate, yes the QP offers something pretty special across the gain range. A very cool pickup! Thanks for watching!
Hot rails we're very useful Before High Gain amplifiers. Because it pushed the front end of the amp. But they're a little too hot for High Gain amplifiers
Perfect, straightforward A/B demo. Every other video I've seen conducting an A/B comparison play sections for too long or the playing is far too busy.
You are the A/B demo king!
Haha thank you very much! I try to make these as helpful as possible. Glad you enjoyed it
@@AlexisGuitars Just subscribed as well...!
Thank you for the support!
Awesome demo! I'm a bigger fan of modern tones, so the Hot Rail sounded better with gain, especially in the higher gain bits. Clean, the single coil was stunning.
Thank you! Those initial chords I played on the high gain test sounded great with the hot rails. I've literally had that pickup lying around for years unused. Don't know how I ignored it for so long!
This is the proper way to do a side by side comparison. Thank you. To me it would depend if you want a single coil of humbucker sound.
Thank you very much!
DC resistance is just one component in determining output. Magnet strength also important as is the position of the windings in the field
Absolutely agree. It's such an interesting topic. A 12k AlNiCo 5 pickup would sound completely different to a 12k AlNiCo 2 or Ceramic. I try and give the info I can find from the manufacturers so that viewers can consider it in relation to the tone test. Thank you for watching :)
Nice test. The hot rails definitely do a great crunchy muddy blues.
But the QP cuts through.
You should try Rio Grande pickups.
Perfect comparison video. Format, execution, presentation, all of it. Well done!
Thanks a lot mate! Glad you enjoyed the video.
They both sound really good indeed. Good choice on keeping the Quarter Pound for a Strat. I can definitely hear Highway Star on that thing! Thanks for the Hot Rails demo, it really makes the Strat sound like an SG which is exactly what I was looking for. Cheers!
Cheers mate and that's a great point, the hot rails have that gnarly nasally sound like a good sg. Thanks for watching!
That was a great comparo. Thanks.
I thought the Hotrails wasn't nearly as good as the Quarter Pounder when playing clean but had the edge on crunch and dirty sounds.
Thank you very much! Yes I completely agree, though the QP held their own with gain too. Thanks for watching
Really useful! Many of us would like an hotter bridge mantaining a typical strat tone
Yes I agree! I think the Quarter Pound is a great option for that. Thanks for watching mate!
The Hot Rails almost sounds like the perfect pickup for me (tho the mid hump might be slightly excessive). Kinda wish i didnt get rid of my beat up squier strat so i had a single coil guitar to put it in.
I was really impressed. If I had a second strat or s-type I'd install it in straight away. I'd love to test it out in a band setting
I just put a hot rail in my Strat and love it. It cuts through like crazy and sounds so focused and clear and fat. The other one you got sounds good too. I like the hot rail better, though. It sounds when you’re playing with other people
Nice! I wish I had the hot rail in my start when I was in a band. I bet it cuts through great with that mid hump it has
I have to agree with majority of the sentiments here. QPs for cleans and mild crunch, but HRs for more crunch and higher levels of gain.
Thanks for watching! Yes they definitely have their own areas where they excel
This is a clinic on how an A/B test should be done. Thanks for comparing the exact two pickups I wanted to compare! I'm gonna get a quarter pound set for my squier CV tele.
That's great, glad the video was helpful!
The hot rails bridge is in my main guitar for playing live. I play hardcore/thrash it works extremely well with every amp in the back line. I have a quarter pound in the neck it’s impressive.
Great combo! Yes the hot rails handles gain so well. I haven't had a chance to play it in a band setting but I bet it also cuts through nicely. Thanks for watching mate
I like the setup Prince had on his strats. Full size humbucker at the bridge, no middle, single coil in the neck.
Hi Chris, that is a great set up. I almost never play the middle pickup, and even though I love the in-between positions I rarely use them. I need at least one strat that is a "strat" though :)
Joe Satriani has the set up for the last 10 years on all of his signature Ibanez guitars 👍🏼
The Hot Rails sounds good but i don't really see the point of owning a strat for these types of sound you can just get a superstrat type guitar.
The quarter punder however retains that typical strat style IMHO.
I have both. Best option that I like the most is a hot rails or duncan distortion on the bridge (two different guitars) and quarter pounders at the mid and neck. Use the volume knob and get about anything you every wanted. The hot rails is by far the best sounding bridge single coil replacement I ever had. You won't be sorry.
Cheers mate! I am a good step ahead in my decision making....guess it will be the quarter pounder for me.
Awesome, glad it was helpful mate!
The Quarter Pound easily wins on the clean test! I much prefer it in the crunch test as well, and the higher gain tests I like it a bit better as well, so no-brainer really. I still think the best metal Strat pickups are the Bare Knuckle Sinner and Cobra, the latter especially.
Would love to get some Bare Knuckles on the channel. I tried one of their P90s and just needed to strum a D power chord before deciding it was awesome.
Very, very significant test. One of the best, I've ever seen. Subscibed!
Thank you very much Peter. Glad you found the video helpful!
I feel like the Quarter Pound had a quasi-P90 sound going for it on the crunch tones. Loved that sound. The Hot Rails excelled in the high gain portion of the video but I think the Quarter Pound was best for cleans and crunch.
I agree with the p90 comparison. They definitely have more punch than most single coils! The hot Rails absolutely nail the high gain sound. Thanks for watching!
Putting the ¼-pounder in, you could always get that mid pushed sound with an overdrive
Certainly, and as the high gain sound test shows, it sounds awesome with a tubescreamer!
What a great review! Very well done
Thanks a lot mate! Got more of these style videos planned - just need time to film it haha
Thanks mate, great comparison
Been in the fence for a while, going with the qp’s 🤙
Glad it was helpful!
@@AlexisGuitars I put a set n my telecaster yesterday.
They are awesome!
Heaps more grunt without loosing the essence of the tele sound 🎶🤙
Great comparison! I’m a bridge PU Strat guy, so this was great reconnaissance for any future swaps.
I had a Quarter Pounder in my Strat bridge position in the 80s so I have forgotten how it sounded. I have friends the hot rails in the bridge. It works great in humbucking mode when soloed and then split for position #2 for maximum quack.
Thank you very much Chris! As I said in the video, I went for single coils in the end to retain the strat sound, though I'm still thinking about the hot rails haha. I've heard they are also great in the neck position, but nothing can beat a single coil neck position in a strat!
Thanks for watching mate
@@AlexisGuitars One friend has a Hot Rails in the bridge and Classic Stacks in the middle and neck. I wired it up so the switch auto splits the Hot Rails in position #2. That is one really great sounding pickup set that is mostly hum free. The Cool Rails are also great in the middle and neck spots, they have a more typical Stratty tone.
@@cruller23 so many pickups to try haha! Now I need to get my hands on a set of cool rails :)
the more gain you push onto that hot rail the better it sounds. the cleaner tones are dominated by the quarter pounder. it seems to me there is no winner or loser here but simply a matter of what style you'd like to play. for me personally, it'll be the quarter pounder as I'm not much of a high gain player. cheers.
Completely agree. Both are great options, and ideally id have two starts for both! Or maybe also a third for some classic vintage output pickups too. Thank you for watching mate!
Thanks for a truly informative comparison. I too wish to retain my Strat’s “Strat-ness” while adding some meat, and hence I intend to upgrade my Player model pups to the Quarter Pound full set.
Thank you for the feedback and for watching! I really appreciate it. The Quarter pound set is great. I hope you enjoy the tones you get from them!
The screamer helped push the mids on the Quarter Pound to really sell it for me. Also the taped on pickguard is an interesting aesthetic.
Yes I also thought they sounded awesome pushed and tightened up a bit with the TS. Not all the 2nd pickguard's screw holes lined up with the ones in the body 🤣 so I improvised with tape
One of the best reviews, thank you! The only problem is, you made them both sound great, and now I need both 🎸🎸 the hot rail in the Strat reminds me of SG gain tone
Glad you enjoyed the video!
I have a hotrails in my strat and it mixes great with the fender noiseless neck and middle. I still get the position 2 quack without coil tap, very happy with it.
Nice! I need to load the hot rails back on the strat to hear it out with other positions. Thanks for watching
Thanks for the Review. I always wanted to know the difference between them. The quarter pound has much brighter highs on the Clean.
Really glad you found it helpful mate! Yes the QP is quite the pickup. Still got it in the strat, although still wanting a second strat for the Hot rails haha. Thanks for watching mate
Excellent demo! Very useful - I can't really comment on how to improve your procedure here. Thank you. I was really impressed with both. Since I already have a humbucker-equipped guitar, I prefer the SSL-4 as it keeps a more distinctively "Stratty" tone, as you noted. I think, if all I had was a Strat, especially one that was only routed for Single coils, i might go for the Hot Rails. Again, well done!
Thank you! Really appreciate it :) that's the thing, I feel I need at least one strat sound in my collection. I too would go for humbucker in the bridge if I only had one guitar... Unless the guitar is a tele, in which case tele-bridge pickup all the way haha. Cheers mate!
For my Super Blues Tele, the Quarter Pounders can’t be beat for a little overdrive. The clarity and tone is unbeatable. For heavy crunch, The Hotrails are amazing in many guitars but typically a Tele remains the blues, country tone choice as is mine.
Great comparison. It’s going to be Hotrails for my Strat copy.
ah yes, the QP for Tele is an awesome and versatile pickup. Thanks for watching!
I used 500K pots in my mate's Telecaster when I installed his Quarter Pound, as it is a fairly dark pickup
I love experimenting with this stuff so I'll give that a go. I have a quarter pound in my tele too and absolutely love it.
In my strat I was always changing pick-up configurations. I started with the hot rails in the bridge, and the cool rails in the neck positions.
One day I found a pickup position so that I could
Omit the middle (Kent Armstrong) and blend the bridge and neck together. Installed a TBS tone pot and I got the bluesy bass sound with the treble cut. For a distorted sound I would never look back, for clean tones, I feel there needs to be more “life”
Nice! The perfect mod is out there for all of us. I like the idea of blending the neck and bridge. That's definitely on my DIY wish list. Thanks for watching !
Hi. I'm in the process of converting my Fender Player HSS Stratocaster (alder body, maple neck and ebony fingerboard) into something like a Superstrat for playing heavy riffs. I bought a Seymour Duncan Invader humbucker for the bridge, but I have a dilemma about the other two - whether to buy 2 Hot Rials or is it better to have one Hot Rials and one Cool Rials? And in which position will both of these pickups perform better? Greetings from Poland... 🤘
Hopefully someone with some experience with the other pickups can comment and let you know. I haven't tried the others but I tend to favour lower output for neck pickups. Have fun swapping pickups!
I'm thinking on a s s s pickguard consisting in quarter pound bridge, DiMarzio sds 1 mid and Fender lace sensor gold on the neck, goldo 1M pots. I'll report the results soon. Great video bro, really no BS and plenty info delivered straight, as it should be. Thank u so much.
Thank you Nathan, glad you enjoyed the video! Awesome sounding SSS idea. Love the 1M pot too. Thanks for watching!
@@AlexisGuitars keep up your good work. All the Best
Really cool choice of riffs!
Thanks!
I've had a hot rails in my strat for 30+ years but the older I get the more I like single coils, more distinctive and I like more of a classic rock sound than heavy sound. I have a coil split on the hot rails and I find I use the single coil more than the humbucking mode. I have an old duncan hot strat and thinking about putting that back in. I'd have to look up the numbers but thinking that has less output than the 1/4 lb. Nice review
Thanks a lot! Glad you enjoyed the video
Thank you. I was wondering how the Hot Rail’s clean sounded. Stock single coils suck, and I wanted a replacement that didn’t change the tone too much
You're welcome! Thanks for watching
Very nice review. Thanks a lot for the effort put in making this video.
It looks like we have a problem here:
1 - Clean tone - Quarter Pounder hands down
2 - Distortion - Hot Rails hands down.
Can we glue them together ? 😂
Cheers,
Pedro
Haha! Yeah the answer for me is owning two strats, one for each pickup. They are both awesome. Glad you enjoyed the video mate! Thanks for watching
The Quarter Pound sounds a bit like a P-90. Häussel also uses 1/4" for his "BigMag" PU which is supposed to sound close to a P-90 in a single coil shape w. similar output level (12.2k for the Tely-bridge one)
The Hot-Rails is a single-coil sized humbucker. Considering you're a bit hardrock/metal leaning, you may prefer smth like the FastTrack2 or the Sugar-Chakra which are the two SC-humbuckers with the highest output level.
My thing would be to have both hand-rewound (if pre-owned, but usually, I have custom PU directly made by an artisan, I will just buy such things when the artisan doesn't already knows the PU I want) and "glued" together with a magnetic shielding between 'em to make a pseudo HB (if you don't do this, the more powerful ceramic magnets will influence your alnico PU and ruin its sound).
Note that I've long replaced my Strat by two Vigier Excaliburs, both are routed HSH under the pickguard, and I have several pickguards allowing me to have more fun. I keep the original ones intact, in case I find a better Stratoid than the Excalibur, thus, the 1st one squats my home for 26 years now and the second for 18 years, and no Tom Anderson, Suhr, Tyler or Fender CS/CSMH did it better, so they're still here
You know me, big fat humbucker is where I like it so defo the hot rails lol. I think you could you iron out some of the mids in the EQ though if you find it a bit middy.
Yes exactly, but I love that mid focused sound for leads. Sounds amazing!
How about comparing Quarter Pounder and Big Mac?
I liked the Quarter Pound on the cleans, but as the crunch came in the hoy rails pulled ahead, the high gain where I could hear a difference it was in the hot rails favour. Whenever you would the volume back the hot rails sounded better, maybe it is that treble bleed, but something sounded artificial and not right in there.
It would have been good to hear how both pick-ups sat with the middle pickup. The other sounds I would have liked to have heard are with the hot rail, split, and in parallel, I wonder, would this have brought back some more of the stratiness you missed?
If it were me I'd have been tempted to keep/try both pickups - quarter pound in the bridge, and hot rails in the middle (maybe with parallel switch). This would have kept your strat cleans you like at the bridge (I'm more of a clean player so I'm a little biased here), your "merr" middle position could have come alive with the hot rails(?) (maybe you'd prefer to split rather than parallel-switch, so you don't lose your middle tones?), and you still have the neck pickup as you like it.
lol the great thing about moding is you can do it forever, have fun :)
Thank you for this, rocknrollmouse! You're absolutey right, the awesome thing about modding is that it never ends haha it's an endless rabbit hole but so much fun.
I like the idea of the hot rails in middle position. It would be interesting to thear what positions 2 and 4 would be like. I don't use them often, but I like to have them!
I can't remember why I didn't test the bridge and middle position together with each pickup. Sounds like I need to revisit this video at some stage to do that haha
Thank you for watching and commenting, mate!
Do you think the hot rails for pop punk would work well? I'm looking at upgrading my Strat bridge pickup soon and that tends to be what I play...
Yes I think it would be great for pop punk! Power chords, especially palm muted sound great with gain.
I’m a bit late to the party here but I’ll leave my two cents anyway. I’ve been looking for a chugging rock tone pickup that can go head-to-head with a humucker but on a Strat for some time now. I’m not a of single coil twang and the 1/4 just seem to be a bit more aggressive versions of the exact same tone. The hot rails are everything I’ve been looking for and being Seymour Duncan makes a drop in triple set I’m sold on them!
Not late at all, always got time to talk about these awesome pickups ! I've never tried the hot rails neck or middle. If the bridge is anything to go by, they'll be an awesome set for high gain! Thanks for watching
Personally I love the hot rails clean, it's like a super compressed single coil. Put in my my Jimmie Vaughan tex mex strat and it's a perfect combo!
Yes it has a distinct sound. Definitely enough mids!
What value pot would you use If you'd combined hot rails with singles?
There's no right or wrong answer to this. I would start out with 500k as it might also have the benefit of brightening up the neck single coil pickup. Lots of comments say the HR can be used with 250k so if you don't want to change anything about the neck and middle, maybe think about sticking to 250. Have fun experimenting!
The QPs look and sound amazing... God, I really wish there was just a noisless single coil with a little less spank/twang/jangle than normal. Love that clarity, but I also love fullness and body. Wondering if a stacked humbucker (AKA "noiseless single coil") with neodymiums, and series/parallel switching would do it. That stack keeps the magnetic aperture narrow like a single coil, and also keeps the negative pole and coil away from the strings, which should, in theory, allow more clarity and sparkle.
The neodymiums add power and bass (something single coils tend to lack) and allow you to UNDERwind a pickup compared to "normal" which should also give you a broader overall response. Put all that together with being able to halve the impedance through parallel wiring, or DOUBLE it with series, and, well.... You go from about a 4k to a 16k pickup depending on the mode. That 4k mode should put it in filtertron/mini humbucker territory, which already sound bright and sparkly like single coils, so the stacking of the coils and narrowing of the field should accentuate that.
The kicker is I have no idea what the inductance would be, so all this theory could just straight up be in the trash and it could sound like crap, IDK. We really just need SOMEONE to build the damn things.
Haha the theory sounds good! Who knows, someone might read this comment and know how to actually make them. Thanks for watching mate!
Very nice video singlecoils are best at "clean to breakup sounds" the rest is humbuckerland
Thanks for watching mate!
The thing i love about strats is you can literally buy any fender player series and just upgrade the pickups, i have a tele, a les paul and a strat (the holy Trinity) i found that i love the sound of the LP BUT love picking up my tele so whats the solution? Well im buying a dual humbucker tele. I suggest you get yourself a HSS strat throw in a pearly gates or vintage gibson on that bridge and you'll love it.
I know what you mean about teles. I keep picking mine up too! I do have a pearly gates somewhere... Might have to try it in the strat
A year too late to the party . Maybe , the hotrails were a bit fizzier .. just a little bit ... But great review . Thanks V. Much ..
Cheers mate! Never too late to the party
The quarter pounder sounded better on the cleans for sure, but on the crunch, the hot rails sounded a whole lot better. The hot rails for sure on the high gain too
A perfect description of the middle pickup 😂
Haha cheers!
On ur comparison
How do I know which pickup ur using? I like the second one
The pick guard with three pups is the Quarter Pounder. The pick guard with only one pup is the Hot Rail.
Excellent demo.
QP for the win, way more clarity and same punch.
It's a great choice for strats. Thanks for watching!
The Quarter Pounder came out top on every comparison for me, just more agility and clarity. I had a Strat with a set of Quarter Pounders on it for many years and I have to say that although I loved the sound of the bridge pickup the neck and middle left me cold. The guitar itself, a 2006 American Series, was a bit bland, too and I ended up trading it for a stock 2001 American Series Tele which is much, much better. Still thinking about putting a Quarter Pounder at the bridge of my 1999 American Standard Strat, though. But just the bridge. Everything else is perfect.
Yes I also think there are better neck pickups for a strat than the QP. I do like it, but I prefer something more traditional in the neck pickup position of a strat. Thanks for watching!
Back in the day i had the Qtr Pnder and a Mesa Boogie Mark 3 combo....to play out with. OMG....🎸
Awesome rig 🔥thanks for watching mate
Hi. Nice comparison. Does the quarter pound overpower regular output singles in middle and neck? Can it be equaled by lowering it?
Hi mate, from my experience the output can be adjusted for by adjusting the pickups. The biggest difference for me is EQ. These pickups are beefier than standard pickups. That can be adjusted with amp settings, but the thicker tone is inherent in these pickups in my opinion.
@@AlexisGuitars Hi Alexis, thank you for replying. I like that it is thicker for the bridge pickup, I will pair it with single and a cruiser dimarzio in neck. Let's see the results.
That should be a cool combo! Yeah the extra thickness in the bridge is what appealed to me and why I like the QP so much. When I eventually have time again to do another comparison I'll be doing one on two different sets of strat pickups.
i just bought a hotrails, and two single coil quarter pounders for my new custom build!
Nice! That'll be a great mix I think! Good luck with the build and thanks for watching
I quite like the QP overall. I wonder how the Seymour Duncan Vintage Hot Stack Plus and Dimarzio Solo compare. I know the pro track would be somewhere between, less mids than hotrails for sure.
There are so many pickups on my wish list haha definitely want to try more dimarzios. I've only had good experiences with them
Well I pretty much agree with you. I do like the quarter pounder. I ordered a hot rail for my strat though. I was disappointed with the chugging of both. I play metal mostly. I never use the bridge for clean. I subscribed to your channel. 🤘 Thanks.
Thanks a lot mate! Both are great pickups. Yes for metal I think you made the right choice! Thanks for subbing. I should hopefully be doing more pickup comparisons in the coming months :)
Can you still get the strat 'quack' in pos 2 w the Seymour installed... ?
Hi Paul, if you mean with the QPs, kind of. It's not the "real deal" in my opinion but it's close enough for me and still sounds good. I've not tried the hot rails with a 5way switch so I can't say. Thanks for watching!
man I wish they would offer the QP with white covers
Yes same here! Or at least with white bobbins
The QP imo was the winner. I personally prefer the clarity single could provide even with gain. I usually just dial back my top end anyway so things don’t get too spiky.
Yes the QP is a great pickup. Thanks for watching!
I love the snarl that single coils give on high gain. It just sounds so angry and nasty.
I'm really impressed with the QP! Who would have known a single coil would sound so beefy... oh, i get it now! 🤦😆
But it sounds like the best of both worlds cause it lacks that slight muddiness of the HR. At least to my ear. While still giving it some chunkiness in the mid department while breaking up nicely. I still prefer rails in my strat bridge and both of my duo sonic pickup positions.
Yes the QP packs a punch for sure!
I have a quarter pounder telecaster bridge pup and if you bring high e side up to 1/16" and low e side 3/32" it will shred with the best of em.. distance between string and pole pieces really makes all the difference in the world.. also try to get pickups as flat and parallel to strings as possible for best balance of body and presence..
Oh yeah the QP for Tele is incredible. My QP Tele was my main guitar for a long time. I only changed it to a slightly more traditional pickup to mix things up, but definitely need to install the QP Tele in another guitar
Great video well done, I like a meaty guitar tone akin Gary Moore style tone (Borderline Heavy Metal) would you say the Quarter Pounder would be the better pick up for this sound?
Thank you very much Andrew! That's a really good question. As much as I love Gary Moore's playing, I can't say I'm overly familiar with his rig. If you want to stay single coil (and not venture in p90s which would probably be a great compramise in this decision) then I haven't found a single coil better suited for bluesy hard rock. I associate Gary Moore with his greeny Les Paul, though, so I would have simply picked the Hot Rails just to get the thick humbucker tones (I haven't tried a Hot Rail in the neck position, so I can't say anything about that!). Hope this helps!
@@AlexisGuitars no that's a great reply, I love his Red Strat but totally get where you're coming from. Watch Blues for Jimi on RUclips Gary plays his red strat for pretty much the entire show 👍🏼
Great, I'll check it out! Thanks mate
def the QP, since the push in his sound came always from the amp or pedal in front of it
What’s the first example?
What’s the second example ?
Did you use 250k or 500k pots for the Hot Rail?
Hi I used 500k pots for the hot rail
Which is the white pick up ?
this its a partcaster guitar?, its a MIM ?
Hi Victor, if started off as a Squier, but heavily modded. Almost all hardware and electronics replaced and I refinished it. Thank you for watching!
I think the key is to buy two strats, that'll solve and quarrel or being conflicted.
Absolutely!
I'm trying to find something for my squier cyclone. It's a shorter scale and the angle of the pups are all slanted. Ive tried cheapos but they suck. The guitar is pink but I want it to sound hot af and crunchy.
Thanks for watching. Out of these two pickups the Hot Rails seems like it ticks the boxes! I've not tried the middle or neck position, though.
@@AlexisGuitars I have a Wilkinson hot rail in the bridge rn but it's not so hot and sounds like ceramic. There's lots of models of Duncan hot rails, do you have a favorite or is this the one to get for the bridge? I'm ready to order today.
I put 57/62s in my Mexican strat recently and it convinced me that the high prices are worth every penny when choosing pickups. On my pink cyclone, I changed the 3 black switches to white switchcrafts and wired them to flip the opposite way for off and on, replaced the black knobs with chrome tele styles that looks sick on the chrome jaguar plate and upgraded the guts so I really want white pickups to complete the look. Btw the 2020 run of pink and blue cyclones ($400) are amazing guitars for a modding platform, with the Gibson 24.75 scale.. try one if you ever get the chance. Lol sorry I typed a lot
Great comparision. It's better a volume pot 250k for ssl4 and 500k for HR, to have the same result
Thank you very much Nicola! Which pickup would you choose for your strat?
@@AlexisGuitars I played ssl4 for 10 years and I would like to try HR. Congrats for your video
You can't go wrong with either. I need to get another strat to put the HR in.
Defo QP on clean, but HR generally preferred for crunch. HR was too dark on the clean, may sound better with 500K pots. It's strange how good the HR sound for blues when dialed in.
Yes the HR sound great when you add some gain. You would have to change the EQ for clean to compensate but I think one doesn't intent on playing clean often with a HR installed
@@AlexisGuitars In your picking demo with volume at 7 at 9:16 did the HR have treble bleed too bc it definitely sounded darker so I'm assuming not?
From memory there wasn't. If there was I would have stated it on the screen like with the QP.
Was the quarter pounder paired with 250 pots!
Yes, QP 250 pots, HR 500
what potentiometer value each one has? thank you
250k for Quarter Pound and 500k for Hot Rails. I checked the specific values and from memory they were all within 10% of the expected values
Quarter Pounder. I have one in a strat and a tele. Teles sound amazing with them.
Hi Jim, I completely agree! I also have a tele with Quarter Pounds in this and love it. Going to feature the quarter pound tele pickups in another video at some stage - when I have time haha. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I thought Seymour Duncan voiced those humbuckers to work well with 250k pots
Interesting! I don't think I would want to darken it up any more with 250k pots. It sounds great with the 500k. Worth giving it a go, though! Thanks for watching
With gain it sounded like the quarter pounder had a much louder low E string where the hot rails was too dark.
That's interesting. I need to look again and see if both rails of the Hot Rails are actually under the low E. Thanks for watching mate!
Quarter Pound sounds awesome!
They do indeed!
Hot rails more mid and compression quarter pounder a bit more presence and open sounding.. both good but I think the quarter pounder is a little nicer..
I agree. The hot Rails with high gain really sound awesome, but as I only have one strat style guitar, it has to be the QP for me
I was about to buy hot rails for my strat to make metal and I liked this tone better, what the hell am i supposed to do now?
Haha! Sorry mate, they are both great pickups. If I was playing all proper metal, though, I would go for the hot Rails and tweak the EQ for clean parts. Thanks for watching!
I wonder if hotrail neck might be good for me, in bridge.
Interesting! I'd also like to hear how that would sound. You might be on to something
Wtf you look exactly like that one guy from saturday night live hahaha ive never seen such an exact doppleganger in my entire life.
Did you use 250k pots...or 500k?
250k for the QP, 500k for the hot rails
@AlexisGuitars thanks man...great vid..and playing.
I was told that the HR was designed as a drop-in with 250k pots..but it didn't made sense to me
Yes I have heard that the HR can be used with 250k - having tried it out for this video I wouldn't want it any darker. I tend to like brighter tones, so 500k pots works for me. Maybe I should re-do this video with both at 250 and both at 500 to be thorough
@AlexisGuitars you should actually...I'm interested in seeing the difference...I'm.sure others would as well
Hot Rails for Metal
Quarter Pounders for rock n other genres.
Both sound great but hot rails win in my book
The more time goes by the more I think I should put the hot Rails back in!
I prefer the Little '59 over the Hotrails every day. The Hotrails are a bit too dark and dull, whereas the Little '59 is agressive and it will provide a wide palette of screaming overtones. You'll love it.
And btw, they work best with 250k pots.
Great, thanks for the tip! I have a little 59 for my tele which I'll be doing a comparison on at some stage. It would be cool to get the strat Version and see how the tele and strat single-coil sized humbuckers compare, too! Thanks for watching
JB Jr sounds better.
@@cmurduh1 : Depends. They’re close. In my opinion the JB Junior sounds better for clean tones. The Little ‘59 is not the best pickup if you want to use both clean and overdriven sounds out of it. But for those overdriven sounds I personally prefer the Little ‘59. For clean sounds I usually switch to a single coil in the neck position.
Off course, it’s all a matter of personal taste and set ups and all of that.
Hot rails for me. It just sounds more complete
The Quarter Pound is that bridge right before your Strat starts sounding like an SG...
Nicely put!
Hot rails vs chopper T next :D
Haha that would be cool! I am thinking of comparing some Tele and strat bridges in a strat, so maybe I'll compare the chopper and hot rails :) happy new year mate!
@@AlexisGuitars awesome :D I’m going to build a tele soon, with a hotrails in the bridge a quarter pounder in the neck. Hopefully it comes out as I expect it 😅😅
That'll be an awesome sounding Tele!
Seymour Duncan recommend a 250k pot for all their single coil sized humbuckers including the Hot Rails
Cheers! I've read that in a few comments. Definitely interested to try it at 250k, though I like bright tones so now sure I'd want it any warmer sounding. I'll give it a go at some point 👍 thanks for watching!