Seymour Duncan SHR-1B Hot Rails Strat Bridge

I got this baby from music scene mansfield through mail order for around £70.

where do we begin. well it beats the crap out of the original single coil pickups fitted to my strat. i thought maybe because it is much smaller than a regular humbucker that it might not be as good, but it has really good levels of output and gives you all the crunch and reythem needed for hammering out those barre chords.

it makes the other pickups sound crap.

well its very well sturdy and fits into a normal single coil slot on a strat body. as long as you dont hit it with a hammer or anything i think it'll be fine.

If you are looking for a pickup to give your single coil equiped guitar more crunch and a more solid sound , you cant go wrong with one of these.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Seymour Duncan is probably the most popular pickup maker in the world. They are known for their humbuckers and vintage style single coils. This Hot Rails is a more modern style single coil sized pickup more in the style of what Dimarzio does. Dimarzio is more known for their single coil sized humbuckers than Seymour Duncan is. Duncan is known for their vintage hot rodded single coils that everyone loves and their vintage Humbuckers. This is a single coil sized humbucker. It does not sound much like a single coil because of this. It sounds more like a humbucker than a single coil. It has a very big and fat sound. It is not thin and twangy like a single coil In the neck is has a smooth tone like a vintage paf or something. In the bridge it can give a nice fat tone for hard rock playing. It can be split which is something you dont think about much when you are playing with single coils. The split tones sound more like single coils but it kind of defeats the purpose of this pickup. If you are going to split it why not just get single coils to begin with. Some of the older models have a different kind of case with a little lip on the top. If you are working the tremolo hard your strings can get caught on the lip of the pickup. This is the reason you see some 80s players putting tape on the bottom portion of their pickups to prevent the strings form getting caught under heavy tremolo use. If you are looking a fat humbucker sound in your strat and do not want to get a new pickguard or carve out your body this is probably one of your best bets from Dimarzio.

The Seymour Duncan Hot Rails is a single coil sized humbucker that features two blade rails, a ceramic magnet and four conductor wiring.

This is my favorite single coil sized humbucker in the Seymour Duncan lineup. It’s very fat, has tons of output and works awesome in the neck and bridge positions. When it’s in the neck, it’s a very warm, fairly focused sounding hotrodded PAF-esque pickup. It’s great for lead tones, especially in guitars like the Caparison Horus where the neck pickup is moved back a bit due to there being 27 frets. In a 22 fret guitar, it can sometimes get a bit too fat, but it all depends on what tone you’re going for. In the bridge, it’s tight, focused, yet still retains that fat and powerful sound. It works awesome in the bridge of strats.

Split coil tones are all right on this, and parallel is all right as well. It’s nothing I use too often with this pickup as I feel it sounds best in series. The Hot Rails has actually gone through a change in terms of looks. However, there has been no difference in terms of tone. It sounds the same, and Seymour Duncan has links on their website A/Bing both pickups. I have both versions, and they sound the exact same to me as well. I prefer the newer housing as it prevents the high e string from snagging the coils during crazy vibratos.

If you’re looking for a very fat sounding single coil sized humbucking pickup in the Seymour Duncan line, I highly recommend you check this out. It works in most any wood, but it sounds especially awesome in alder where the neutrality of the wood helps make the pickup sing a bit more. If it’s too hot for you, try lowering the pickup height. I don’t really recommend trying out the Cool Rails if you’re looking for a lower output version of this.