This video was sponsored by Skillshare. First 500 people get 2 months FREE membership here: skl.sh/csguitars The only 'stupid questions' are the ones you are Too Afraid To Ask. "How are Hot Rail pickups made?" is the question for this TATA video. Let's make one and find out. Leave your TATAs in the comment section and I'll make a video answering them. Wind your own pickups - www.nebulabelgium.com?aff=2 #hotrails #humbucker #pickup More from CSGuitars: Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store Website - www.csguitars.co.uk Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk Affiliate Links: Thomann - www.thomann.de/gb/index.html?offid=1&affid=367 Sweetwater - imp.i114863.net/2mGGg CSGuitars uses: LEWITT Microphones - www.lewitt-audio.com/ Hoffnine Cabinets - www.hoffnine.co.uk/ Hosa Cables - hosatech.com/ Dragon's Heart Guitar Picks - www.dragonsheartguitarpicks.com/ Title graphics and logo by: www.studiosmithdesign.co.uk/ Join the discussion at: Facebook - facebook.com/csguitars Instagram - instagram.com/csguitars/ Twitter -twitter.com/CSG_Scotland Music available at: Amazon: amzn.to/2HUdXgV iTunes: apple.co/2JvpCjp Google Play: bit.ly/2KgSzkl Or stream on Spotify: spoti.fi/2HuYPTP
@@captaincuntybollocks3266 Because presumably it was Skillshare's lawyer he had to threaten with legal action? I mean, I'm guessing but that's how it read to me
Most people at my local guitar stores are always friendly and helpful, idk where your going. Even just ordering from sweetwater they'll call you just to see if you have any questions.
@@aidan6536 Sweetwater is an online shop to most people. I'm pretty sure most who like this comment started playing and buying guitar gear before internet shopping ever existed. Before internet shopping music stores had no incentive to be good salesmen because there was nowhere else to get the gear that they sold. They almost all were filled with guys in bands who would all ignore you if you weren't one of the known local guys or if you weren't playing like Stevie Ray Vaughan. Literally they'd just ignore you until you were walking out the door then they'd be like oh sorry man can I help you find anything. If you were lucky. Even buying a pack of strings was an annoying ordeal to the average learning guitarist. They'd always keep them behind the register like they were cigarettes or something lol. You'd have to stand there listening to the same 3 hungover guys talking about the same god darn thing they were talking about the last time you came in until one of them actually realized you needed something. Oh man it was an awful experience. I think Are You experienced is about this one thing lol. No just kidding about that but the rest i can't exaggerate how bad they were. If I grew up in today's world I would've learned everything I know now before I was a teenager. Pre 2000's music shops were unbearable to go to.
The companies know, just the advertisement department often fucks up or the ones selling it in the stores. I still think it would be a nice video since there are different versions even if it's singlecoil or humbucker. The outside circuitry can allow various options to keep certain properties intact while one coil or a certain amount of windings are bypassed (usually inductivity drops by sqrt(2)) . With parallel coils you have other options as well. Lots of great stuff out there like the dummy coils that are used on alembic bass guitars.
My TATA would be concerning truss rods. An indepth explanation would be rather eduational as well as pleasurable. P.S. Sorry, couldn't make it any more fancy sounding.
Thank you for asking. You know, I'm doing quite well. While life might not be the happiest, I am content with where I am, and everything is looking up. At this moment things can only get better, and that is reassuring.
I first saw Hotrails in Iron Maiden's Dave Murray's Strat. It had two Hotrails and a true single coil in the middle position. I have used them every since. A Hotrail in the bridge, a Lil' 59 in the middle and a Coolrail in the neck. With coil splitting, you can get such a range of tones that every genre you can imagine is right there. So versatile and sounds so good. Magic!
I’m doing a project for my school and I’m looking into putting hot rails into my strat. This video couldn’t have come at a better time while I’m doing research. Thank you, Collin
I bought the Telecaster Hot Rail and actually had to file out my bridge a bit to get it to fit right. Totally worth it though, breathed whole new life into my Nashville Blackout Tele and make it sound like a whole new guitar.
Wow, dude, I thought I knew most of what there was to know about Hot Rails, but came away learning new things-namely that bit about the uniformity of volume across all strings (with that awesome visual demonstration). Very well produced!
I have had a SD Hot Rails in my Strat since the 80's. Absolutely love it. The sound quality is amazing and the lack of hum is fantastic. Unless there is a cavity already there for Humbucker pickup and you want to spend time and money on a new pick guard, get one instead, you won't be disappointed.
Be careful handling that copper while winding. Gloves are a good idea, don't want you dropping too soon over an oversight. The video was very informative and done really well.
Great series, I’ve been playing for almost 22 years but some of these thing I’ve not put any thought into. Only recently have I been more into expanding my knowledge beyond my own comfort
So glad i found this, i'm refurbishing an old guitar from my band days for my bro as hes just started learning, it been sitting in the loft for 20 years and tuck a lot of abuse, i went for a humbucker and a hot rail but wasn't actually sure how it functioned, cant't wait to get the new pots in and try this rail out 8-)
Ack! I was waiting the whole time for a comparison of how the Hot Rails sound compared to the traditional pole-piece sound. Once again though, your descriptions and both technical and easy to understand. I've learned so much from your videos, I look forward to the next. Thank you!
I've been using a Dimarzio Fast Track 2 on the bridge of my strat and I can't recommend it enough. Massive metal machine, just as brutal as my EMG 85 loaded ESP.
Certainly not too afraid to ask.... but I can't find any specific content regarding this.... WHY are guitars the way they are? Specifically, talking about the pots/switches themselves and how they work. Signal flow/ capacitance/ phase (the real nerd stuff!) I think you are the perfect person to ask. Thanks Colin!
Collin: Great pitch for SS. I really appreciate them. My whole family uses them for better understanding, and we come together with something to teach and learn every day.
I love my SD hotrail on my Strat. I hated the shrill stock single coil it came with and I never used that position. The hotrail has a darker tone and makes it more usable to me. Sounds great with distortion/od.
absolutely fantastic video. everywhere i see these pick ups everyone takes them for granted, nobody explains how it works, or why it is so. this is the video we all needed
I love the high output and sound of a Gibson but ive always loved the feel of the Strat. A decent Strat with even just a medium quality hot rail setup sounds great imo. Thats what i got and i couldn't imagine a better sound tbh.
Thank you! I am building a solid body steel string ukulele based on a LP Jr., but there's no 4 pole piece P90s that I'm aware of so I decided to go with a DiMarzio rail humbucker. I started 2nd guessing myself a little, but this video confirmed that I made the right choice for my application.
It's basically single rail pickup inside what use to be actual lipstick tubes but now is just a metal covering. More accurately it's a single bar magnet wrapped in something nonconductive like tape and then wrapped in wire followed by more tape and then the metal covering.
The two thin blades with powerful coil windings give you the incredible sustain and a fat, full sound that's needed for playing heavier rock music. This pickupresponds to the subtlest finger movements. The Hot Rails is a high output single-coil-size “rails” humbucker.
thank you for this videos once again, I never played on hot rails and didn't even thought about what could be the difference with other types of pickups...
I replaced the single coils in my uber-cheap first Strat with DiMarzio hotrails; they sound amazing and the guitar positively roars where it used to whimper and cough.
@@hazrod13 And that's all you get from all kinds of ads. Just listen to demos before you buy them. They have to fit the guitar and especially the circuitry that has a huge influence on the pickups.
Lucas, I used the Air Norton S and Super Distortion S model pickups. And as for my comment being an "ad"... I just like the hotrail pickups I have, I'm sure there are plenty of crap ones out there. I didn't do a perfect job of rewiring the guitar when adding them either; on some amps it has a really loud buzz when the strings are still which goes away depending on the selector switch position and whether my hand is touching the bridge or any metal parts; I've had some robo-style fun with that noise, but it's certainly not for everyone. Long story short hotrail pickups can be pretty kick-ass and plus they look cool.
My TATA would be, how to create a good setup for guitar on your computer. What kind of specs does your pc need? How do interfaces, monitors, amp sims, and cab impulses get used together with the computer? How would you set it up? A comprehensive tutorial would be so helpful!
I love how you when you’re talking, you’re try to annunciate more as to be understood. Very well I might add. But when you say “characteristics” the Scottish just falls out of your mouth. Brilliant 😂 great video.
I have one of the newer Floyd Roses. Setup is a pain in the A$$. But once it's set up, it's done. It holds its tuning better than many hard tails. Crazy. The guitar in question is a Schecter Hellraiser Hybrid FR-S.
One of the first electric guitar pickups is refered to as a Charlie Christian pickup. It is esentially a blade pickup and has a smooth and mellow tone. Of course the other early pickup design was the horseshoe pickups Rickenbacker used however they are not a rail design. The strings went through the magnets!
I have built a guitar with 4 courses of octave paired strings. I could not find a pickup with pole pieces at the correct spacing. A blade pickup solved the problem. There is another option, the stacked humbucker, as used in Burns guitars from the 60's. When the factory closed in the mid-60's, Golumbs of Glasgow in the Saltmarket bought the entire factory stock. I bought one of those pickups and fitted it into the sound hole of my Eko Ranger 6.
I believe the ceramic magnet on the bottom presents the SAME magnetic polarity to each rail. The coils are reverse-wound in order to have opposite electrical polarity regarding respective output. When those two signals are mixed, the reversed winding does the cancellation, not reverse magnetic poles underneath.
The ferromagnetic fluid is really really excellent idea. without the ability to manage or understand all of the variables, (which means I will be buying ferromagnetic fluid shortly). The first observation is it looks like you trade the magnetic field height on the individual pole pieces for more uniform magnetic field horizontally, which supports things I've heard before rail pickups are very sensitive to string height above pickup. 2nd observation the slight heterogeneous field above the individual poles may be what gives vintage single coils such character and feel, I've tried several different brands of rails and always found them to be lacking harmonic decay and character. which you can perhaps reclaim at very high gain. Finally I've always had problems with the high E volume drop off on the rail pickups, it does look to me like the magnetic field runs out or dissipates at the edge or end of the pickup, supported by seeing how the magnet is positioned. I think a smart designer might try to figure out how to improve the length of the magnet or magnetic field to provide the E strings with uniform sensing field. It may actually require slightly modified pickguards to install a fully designed lengthened pickup, instead of using fender standard holes which limit your design parameters forcing you to jam too small of a pickup just because the original hole was too small. Great discussion.
I've always considerd Hot Rails its own seperate category and not jsut a humbucker. It's beefy but doesn't have the magnetic field of a traditional humbucker. makes it sound like a noisless P90 and not really like a traditional humbucker
I just MUST to turn on captions bc of the accent... It is a must for me even i know english better than an average American guy. Even captions get confused... for f sake.... So weird... Thanks mate, awesome vids!
@@oddsparrow3532 Yeah, it is very strange :) But we can adopt, we are guitarists and musicians, nothing is a problem for us ;) LoL We are smart... kinda :D
@@oddsparrow3532 LoL, im in dropD at this moment playing #Volbeat songs :) DropB is awesome, enjoy !! You to Sparrow, have a great one and stay safe 👍👋🤟
I really enjoy this format. I’d love to see one on p-90’s, granted you’ve already covered this in previous videos but I personally would love a deep dive into them. Great content as always my dude!
I use 500ks but 250s can work too. They fucntion closer to a true humbucker than a single, darkness included so it's more or less about personal taste. I use 500ks on some singles and all my necks are wired with 250ks because of my personal preferences so experiment and find yours
I have the Duncan Hot Rail Tele set and I have them with 250k pots (mainly because when I got them installed I had no clue that pickup value could affect tonality) and they do just fine.
I've been using hot rails in the bridge position since the late 90's. They also get super spanky when you split the coils. (4 conductor lead). They can have a more sweet thick sound if you keep the pickup height low. If you bring the pick up height close to the strings they get metal nasty. Lots and lots of mids.
Idea for the next TATA How exactly do fishman fluence pickups work? I've seen videos trying to explain but I fail to comprehend the scientificals. I'd also to know your opinion on them. Cheers!
The level of depth and explanation in this video is amazing!! As soon as you pulled out the ferrofluid to show the different magnetic distribution on each pickup, BOOM! Subscribed :)
I had Seymore Duncan Custom shop make me a standard humbucker sized pickup from 2 humbucking single coil format humbucker models the Duck Bucker and the Screaming Demon. Great versatility in a single humbucker LP Jr for a customer. It was my first time hearing the format pickups and I have to say It sounded very good. I added a mini toggle to switch between the 2 or both. It took a while after ordering from the custom shop to getting them in the shop But the customer was very pleased. After that I bought a few screaming demons and pearly gates single coil sized format pickups for my own projects guitars.
Intonation is quite simple really. It's your guitars ability to keep the correct pitch on a string regardless what fret you press on. So if you tune your guitar to standard tuning for example (EADGBE), as you work your way up the frets all the notes should be correct when played and not going sharp or flat. Playing the 6th string (low E) open should also produce an E when played at the 12th fret just a higher octave (?). At least I think that's the theory lol. Someone correct me if I'm wrong please, cheers!
@@sheepdogxpress that's correct. Guitars Not intonated properly the notes further up the neck are out of tune. Adjustment is made to make string longer or shorter so note same at open position and 12the fret
Bolt-on is brighter but it's extremely subtle, especially in a metal mix. Any style set neck or neck-through sounds darker, but again, it's subtle. Pickups, string gauge, amp and pedal choice (and settings), and cabinet choice are all going to be far more noticeable. Set neck and neck-through sound pretty much the same too, and neck-through is more expensive because it's harder to build and larger pieces of wood are more expensive. Anyone who tells you neck-through sounds better is likely selling a neck-through guitar. Neck joints shouldn't effect sustain either, as long as the necks and neck pockets are routed correctly.
The honest answer is that neck joints are purely for structural integrity. I personally prefer a neck-thru, because everything being bolted to the same thing means no weak spots. Granted, a bolt-on can be easily replaced if it breaks, but that bolt-on itself is still a break between the neck and body.
These exist. I think Kramer used them, or rather, the Chinese company or whoever it was that bought the rights to the Kramer brand did. They were nothing special.
There is such a beast. Its called a quad-rail, and Kramer used to make them. Now a company called Dragonfire (some kind of Korean manufacturer, I think an offshoot of the people that make pups for PRS SE models) makes a version. They are supposed to be ridiculously hot pickups. Something like 23k Ohm resistance.
Great job with explaining this concept. I have Seymour Duncan SVR-1= Vintage Rails on my Strat ( since they were originally invented ). They Sound Incredible & Zero Noise.
I have a lipstick pickup on my Telecaster, it appears to just be a pickup cover for a standard single coil pickup but I think it has a similar (although I'm sure lesser effect I could be wrong here) as the hot rails which I also have on a Duo Sonic.
My old Bill Lawrence rails are king hands down. You normally lose out some top end sizzle with high output pickups but Bills xl500s come in at like 14k ohms and have so much treble response. If only I could get *that* sound in a single coil.
Hi Colin, Excellent video, I recently installed a set of Hot Rails in my Strat, they sound amazing, they are not as harsh as I thought they might be! Take care mate.👍👍👍. Melbourne, Australia.
Great pickups and at one time Seymour said it was their best selling pickups. Not a lot of high end but a great balance of everything and stinging sustain if adjusted properly. Bought a less expensive white fender and was so impressed with the Indonesian monster with those installed. Bought a fender maple neck to finish it off. They don't sell that model now sadly.... Great video!
Bill Lawrence was the architect of this design along with many other great pickup designs up to his death in 2013. His pickups are still available at Wildepickups and still light years ahead of modern companies and boutique winders. He worked at various times throughout his career @Gibson (invented the L-6 pickups), alongside Seymour Duncan and later Larry Dimarzio and the twin blade pickups both of those companies offer are based off Bill Lawrence designs. The holy grail of Twin Blade designs the XL500 used by Darrel 'Dimebag' Abbott was a Bill Lawrence pickup. Unfortunately many people took advantage of Bills genius and lack of business acumen (Bill Lawrence USA). Wilde Pickups is where you can still get Bills pickups and trust me they are amazing and the most articulate pickup designs you have ever used.
Just love your educational vids, Colin! So fun and informative ať the same time. A follow up tone comparison of SCs, HBs and various hot rails would be very cool, too.
Different pickup manufacturing processes and materials produce different magnetic field fluctuations which are detected by the pickups magnets. These fluctuations make the strings vibrate a certain way when you strum them. They have a subtle effect on the frequency your notes are vibrating at which affects how the signal sounds when it goes through an amplifier. The type of amplifier you're playing through, how it was made, its settings, etc then modifies the electrical signal being sent to it by your guitar to produce the final sound.
Zidders‘ response is good, but I want to clarify that pickups affect perceived timbre, rather than a vibrating string’s fundamental frequency. The pitch of a note played, therefore, is left unaffected. This may seem obvious, but I believe this distinction is important enough to mention. Also, an example of a manufacturing variable is the type of magnet used. Alnico magnets and ceramic magnets have their own nuances.
it's called a "proprietary eponym"... when your hoover sucks up your kleenex so you google a solution to fix it. vacuum cleaner. facial tissue. web search. used to drive me crazy trying to figure out what that phenomenon was called so i... "web searched" it.
Another good one! I knew most of this, but I really look forward to your videos at the end of the week, because you are great at making confusing things seem easy. 👍
i had a guitar once that came factory set with...wait for it. 12 freaking blade pickups. not kidding. it was basically a hotrail, and another hot rail stuck together as a quad-rail the size of a humbucker...and it had 3 of these quadbucker beasts in line like a strat. 12 frigging coils. needless to say there was no noise or hum in the instrument.
Kiesel/Carvin makes 11-pole-per-coil pickups to deal with string bending, and they're pretty damn good (though they stopped making humbuckers like this, you can still get AP11 single coils).
2:44 CORRECTION! Contrary to popular belief, Gibson were not the first brand to use humbucker style pickups, humbuckers actually date all the way back to the 1930's on semi-electric archtop style guitars. Rickenbacker made an attempt in 1953 to put humbucker pickups in a more modern style electric guitar, but dropped it in 1954 due to complaints about too much distortion in the sound, which ironically has become one of the defining characteristics of the humbucker. The Gibson Les Paul didn't come standard with humbuckers until 1957, prior to that they used P90 pickups which much more closely resemble single coils, albeit overwound for a more humbucker-esk tone. Just in case anyone were wondering
Nice, great vid. Have one of these on a old Charvel and always wondered "whats going on with that strange looking pickup" but never looked into it. Great stuff, -Cheers
My peavey T60 and peavey T40 have this system and i absolutely love them, especially when you can coil split and put the pickups out of phase and in phase, now im thinking of modding them to put it in parallel and series as well as maybe add a hot rails in the middle portion of the body nicely snug and fit between the super ferrites
Just to add something to what Colin was saying about volume and magnetic distribution etc. The DiMarzio Will Power pickups, that Billy Sheehan uses, feature 8 pole pieces instead of the standard 4 you'd normally get on a bass pickup. This is because he noticed that drop in volume when bending strings but he didn't like the tone of rail pickups. So by doubling up on the number of pole pieces, it solves the problem of having a consistent and even volume, but still keeps the pole piece tonality. Just something interesting to add here.
This video was sponsored by Skillshare. First 500 people get 2 months FREE membership here: skl.sh/csguitars
The only 'stupid questions' are the ones you are Too Afraid To Ask. "How are Hot Rail pickups made?" is the question for this TATA video. Let's make one and find out.
Leave your TATAs in the comment section and I'll make a video answering them.
Wind your own pickups - www.nebulabelgium.com?aff=2
#hotrails #humbucker #pickup
More from CSGuitars:
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I got charged for a year subscription a month into a free trial by them and had to threaten a lawyer to get my money back
@@captaincuntybollocks3266 Because presumably it was Skillshare's lawyer he had to threaten with legal action? I mean, I'm guessing but that's how it read to me
CSGuitars could you do a video about attenuators? Might be interesting
@@captaincuntybollocks3266 Haha well ok you earned a like from me
It's a rip off!
This guy would never be able to work at a guitar store. He's friendly and informative.
Most people at my local guitar stores are always friendly and helpful, idk where your going. Even just ordering from sweetwater they'll call you just to see if you have any questions.
Alto music is pretty good
@@aidan6536 its just a joke about some of the bad guitar shops we've all been to. Consider yourself lucky you have a good local shop
I hate it when the guitar store guy starts showing off then I don't feel like playing anymore. Stupid.
@@aidan6536 Sweetwater is an online shop to most people. I'm pretty sure most who like this comment started playing and buying guitar gear before internet shopping ever existed. Before internet shopping music stores had no incentive to be good salesmen because there was nowhere else to get the gear that they sold. They almost all were filled with guys in bands who would all ignore you if you weren't one of the known local guys or if you weren't playing like Stevie Ray Vaughan. Literally they'd just ignore you until you were walking out the door then they'd be like oh sorry man can I help you find anything. If you were lucky. Even buying a pack of strings was an annoying ordeal to the average learning guitarist. They'd always keep them behind the register like they were cigarettes or something lol. You'd have to stand there listening to the same 3 hungover guys talking about the same god darn thing they were talking about the last time you came in until one of them actually realized you needed something. Oh man it was an awful experience. I think Are You experienced is about this one thing lol. No just kidding about that but the rest i can't exaggerate how bad they were. If I grew up in today's world I would've learned everything I know now before I was a teenager. Pre 2000's music shops were unbearable to go to.
Be Honest Colin, this was just a video to show off your new winder
He threw it out the winder.
i wonder if it does tattoo machine coils as well
@@michaelskelton18 you want a hand winder for that so you can get the wire perfectly layered and parallel with each other.
😂
Great! I need to change my Peck Up now.
Are those those magnatac things?
Vay dee os are great
but you must fairst lairn how to change the peck up
Hahahahahaha
Da shet thet makes de fockin sound?
Coil tap vs coil split?
I know the difference, but it seems manufacturers don't
This is a MASSIVE pet peeve of mine.
agreed Sir know your own product WTF people
The companies know, just the advertisement department often fucks up or the ones selling it in the stores.
I still think it would be a nice video since there are different versions even if it's singlecoil or humbucker. The outside circuitry can allow various options to keep certain properties intact while one coil or a certain amount of windings are bypassed (usually inductivity drops by sqrt(2)) . With parallel coils you have other options as well.
Lots of great stuff out there like the dummy coils that are used on alembic bass guitars.
Squirtle Squirtle!
I agree. That would make for a great video.
I'm here just to hear you say "Peckups"
And pul peecees
For a non-native English speaker his accent is hard to oondarstend
Years ago, I put a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails pickup in the bridge position of a Fender Strat. That thing screamed. Great pickups.
Dude, it's been three years. Does it still scream?
My TATA would be concerning truss rods. An indepth explanation would be rather eduational as well as pleasurable.
P.S. Sorry, couldn't make it any more fancy sounding.
I second this!!!! 🖤
Truss rods are EASY: Lefty loosey, righty tighty! ;oP
I think including stiffening rods in such a video would be good!
They DO have an operation for that now for men!
@@DMSProduktions instructions unclear, guitar is now a longbow.
I was once playing my Strat on a high volume and heard voices from the amp. I've either gone crazy, or caught the radio waves.
Radio inside.
That happens, a friend lives right next to a radio station, Tropical FM, and we can hear everything on our amps.
Appetite For Metal
Happened to me once before too only mine was a Japanese conversation. I was in central Michigan at the time...
When I first started playing, I would pick up a radio station and somebody's cordless phone.
I played with this phenomenon a few times. Got as clear of a signal as possible then messed with it using modulation pedals and a wah, fun experience
Dude, i fully dig that you have not only decided to make your own guitars and make a brand but you are going full on into pick ups, muchos respect
Patreon early attack!
Here is a question that nobody is asking. How is my man Colin doing?
Thank you for asking. You know, I'm doing quite well. While life might not be the happiest, I am content with where I am, and everything is looking up.
At this moment things can only get better, and that is reassuring.
@@ScienceofLoud I'll drink for your life getting better. Cheers mate
@@ScienceofLoud ❤
I first saw Hotrails in Iron Maiden's Dave Murray's Strat. It had two Hotrails and a true single coil in the middle position. I have used them every since. A Hotrail in the bridge, a Lil' 59 in the middle and a Coolrail in the neck. With coil splitting, you can get such a range of tones that every genre you can imagine is right there. So versatile and sounds so good. Magic!
BOHBENS ! I love them so much.
they're almost as good as pole piecies.
I’m doing a project for my school and I’m looking into putting hot rails into my strat. This video couldn’t have come at a better time while I’m doing research. Thank you, Collin
I bought the Telecaster Hot Rail and actually had to file out my bridge a bit to get it to fit right. Totally worth it though, breathed whole new life into my Nashville Blackout Tele and make it sound like a whole new guitar.
Wow, dude, I thought I knew most of what there was to know about Hot Rails, but came away learning new things-namely that bit about the uniformity of volume across all strings (with that awesome visual demonstration). Very well produced!
I have had a SD Hot Rails in my Strat since the 80's. Absolutely love it. The sound quality is amazing and the lack of hum is fantastic. Unless there is a cavity already there for Humbucker pickup and you want to spend time and money on a new pick guard, get one instead, you won't be disappointed.
Be careful handling that copper while winding. Gloves are a good idea, don't want you dropping too soon over an oversight. The video was very informative and done really well.
Great series, I’ve been playing for almost 22 years but some of these thing I’ve not put any thought into. Only recently have I been more into expanding my knowledge beyond my own comfort
amazingly informative video! I love the demonstration you did comparing the pole pieces to the rail with magnetic particles.
So glad i found this, i'm refurbishing an old guitar from my band days for my bro as hes just started learning, it been sitting in the loft for 20 years and tuck a lot of abuse, i went for a humbucker and a hot rail but wasn't actually sure how it functioned, cant't wait to get the new pots in and try this rail out 8-)
2:13 advertisement ends
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TYFYS
Ack! I was waiting the whole time for a comparison of how the Hot Rails sound compared to the traditional pole-piece sound. Once again though, your descriptions and both technical and easy to understand. I've learned so much from your videos, I look forward to the next. Thank you!
I've been using a Dimarzio Fast Track 2 on the bridge of my strat and I can't recommend it enough. Massive metal machine, just as brutal as my EMG 85 loaded ESP.
Certainly not too afraid to ask.... but I can't find any specific content regarding this.... WHY are guitars the way they are? Specifically, talking about the pots/switches themselves and how they work. Signal flow/ capacitance/ phase (the real nerd stuff!) I think you are the perfect person to ask. Thanks Colin!
and i thank you my dear CSGuitars, as now i can actually learn music theory, also you are awesome keep up the amazing work
Collin: Great pitch for SS. I really appreciate them. My whole family uses them for better understanding, and we come together with something to teach and learn every day.
I love my SD hotrail on my Strat. I hated the shrill stock single coil it came with and I never used that position. The hotrail has a darker tone and makes it more usable to me. Sounds great with distortion/od.
absolutely fantastic video. everywhere i see these pick ups everyone takes them for granted, nobody explains how it works, or why it is so. this is the video we all needed
6:04 I recognize this paintjob, is it the return of the legend ?
I love the high output and sound of a Gibson but ive always loved the feel of the Strat. A decent Strat with even just a medium quality hot rail setup sounds great imo. Thats what i got and i couldn't imagine a better sound tbh.
I'm not afraid to ask but a good discussion of RW v RP and in phaze v Out of phase+ series parralel. Discussion exist but not as one topic. Cool.
Michael B, RW? RP? I’m no longer TATA!🥴
Thank you! I am building a solid body steel string ukulele based on a LP Jr., but there's no 4 pole piece P90s that I'm aware of so I decided to go with a DiMarzio rail humbucker. I started 2nd guessing myself a little, but this video confirmed that I made the right choice for my application.
What about lipstick style pickups? Is that just a covering on regular single coils or are they also different?
It's basically single rail pickup inside what use to be actual lipstick tubes but now is just a metal covering. More accurately it's a single bar magnet wrapped in something nonconductive like tape and then wrapped in wire followed by more tape and then the metal covering.
The two thin blades with powerful coil windings give you the incredible sustain and a fat, full sound that's needed for playing heavier rock music. This pickupresponds to the subtlest finger movements. The Hot Rails is a high output single-coil-size “rails” humbucker.
thank you for this videos once again, I never played on hot rails and didn't even thought about what could be the difference with other types of pickups...
I replaced the single coils in my uber-cheap first Strat with DiMarzio hotrails; they sound amazing and the guitar positively roars where it used to whimper and cough.
@@valonberchtold those adjectives makes me want to try them
@@hazrod13 And that's all you get from all kinds of ads. Just listen to demos before you buy them.
They have to fit the guitar and especially the circuitry that has a huge influence on the pickups.
@@onpsxmember yes of course, I said try, not buy.
Lucas, I used the Air Norton S and Super Distortion S model pickups.
And as for my comment being an "ad"... I just like the hotrail pickups I have, I'm sure there are plenty of crap ones out there. I didn't do a perfect job of rewiring the guitar when adding them either; on some amps it has a really loud buzz when the strings are still which goes away depending on the selector switch position and whether my hand is touching the bridge or any metal parts; I've had some robo-style fun with that noise, but it's certainly not for everyone.
Long story short hotrail pickups can be pretty kick-ass and plus they look cool.
My TATA would be, how to create a good setup for guitar on your computer. What kind of specs does your pc need? How do interfaces, monitors, amp sims, and cab impulses get used together with the computer? How would you set it up? A comprehensive tutorial would be so helpful!
Hot rails: doing rails of meth with a heated up glass tube. 😂😂
I love how you when you’re talking, you’re try to annunciate more as to be understood. Very well I might add. But when you say “characteristics” the Scottish just falls out of your mouth. Brilliant 😂 great video.
Explain how to set up a floyd rose? How to keep it in tune, and how to maintain?
This is your best bet: ua-cam.com/users/FruduaTv
Find a witch doctor! I had a Floyd Rose on an Ibanez years ago...I finally sold it, lol.
I have one of the newer Floyd Roses. Setup is a pain in the A$$. But once it's set up, it's done. It holds its tuning better than many hard tails. Crazy.
The guitar in question is a Schecter Hellraiser Hybrid FR-S.
One of the first electric guitar pickups is refered to as a Charlie Christian pickup. It is esentially a blade pickup and has a smooth and mellow tone. Of course the other early pickup design was the horseshoe pickups Rickenbacker used however they are not a rail design. The strings went through the magnets!
Ferrofluid is a great way to demonstrate the magnetic field!
I have built a guitar with 4 courses of octave paired strings. I could not find a pickup with pole pieces at the correct spacing. A blade pickup solved the problem.
There is another option, the stacked humbucker, as used in Burns guitars from the 60's. When the factory closed in the mid-60's, Golumbs of Glasgow in the Saltmarket bought the entire factory stock. I bought one of those pickups and fitted it into the sound hole of my Eko Ranger 6.
2:14 End of the ad.
Savior😄
I believe the ceramic magnet on the bottom presents the SAME magnetic polarity to each rail. The coils are reverse-wound in order to have opposite electrical polarity regarding respective output.
When those two signals are mixed, the reversed winding does the cancellation, not reverse magnetic poles underneath.
You believe wrong.
The ferromagnetic fluid is really really excellent idea. without the ability to manage or understand all of the variables, (which means I will be buying ferromagnetic fluid shortly).
The first observation is it looks like you trade the magnetic field height on the individual pole pieces for more uniform magnetic field horizontally, which supports things I've heard before rail pickups are very sensitive to string height above pickup.
2nd observation the slight heterogeneous field above the individual poles may be what gives vintage single coils such character and feel, I've tried several different brands of rails and always found them to be lacking harmonic decay and character. which you can perhaps reclaim at very high gain. Finally I've always had problems with the high E volume drop off on the rail pickups, it does look to me like the magnetic field runs out or dissipates at the edge or end of the pickup, supported by seeing how the magnet is positioned. I think a smart designer might try to figure out how to improve the length of the magnet or magnetic field to provide the E strings with uniform sensing field. It may actually require slightly modified pickguards to install a fully designed lengthened pickup, instead of using fender standard holes which limit your design parameters forcing you to jam too small of a pickup just because the original hole was too small. Great discussion.
I've always considerd Hot Rails its own seperate category and not jsut a humbucker. It's beefy but doesn't have the magnetic field of a traditional humbucker. makes it sound like a noisless P90 and not really like a traditional humbucker
I just MUST to turn on captions bc of the accent... It is a must for me even i know english better than an average American guy. Even captions get confused... for f sake.... So weird... Thanks mate, awesome vids!
Really? Lol I understand every word. Crazy how we all hear things differently depending on our own dialect and environments!
@@oddsparrow3532 Yeah, it is very strange :) But we can adopt, we are guitarists and musicians, nothing is a problem for us ;) LoL We are smart... kinda :D
@@hetjamesfield4473 growing is the name of the game in music. Tuned down to drop B today, gonna be a fun day. Have a good one and stay safe out there.
@@oddsparrow3532 LoL, im in dropD at this moment playing #Volbeat songs :) DropB is awesome, enjoy !! You to Sparrow, have a great one and stay safe 👍👋🤟
I really enjoy this format. I’d love to see one on p-90’s, granted you’ve already covered this in previous videos but I personally would love a deep dive into them. Great content as always my dude!
Is the output of a hot rail similar to a regular sized humbucker, or to a regular single coil? Would you use 250k pots with a hot tail?
I use 500ks but 250s can work too. They fucntion closer to a true humbucker than a single, darkness included so it's more or less about personal taste. I use 500ks on some singles and all my necks are wired with 250ks because of my personal preferences so experiment and find yours
I have the Duncan Hot Rail Tele set and I have them with 250k pots (mainly because when I got them installed I had no clue that pickup value could affect tonality) and they do just fine.
They ARE a true humbucker, just not a full sized one. Dave Murray has been playing them almost exclusively for 20 years.
I've been using hot rails in the bridge position since the late 90's.
They also get super spanky when you split the coils. (4 conductor lead).
They can have a more sweet thick sound if you keep the pickup height low.
If you bring the pick up height close to the strings they get metal nasty.
Lots and lots of mids.
Idea for the next TATA
How exactly do fishman fluence pickups work? I've seen videos trying to explain but I fail to comprehend the scientificals. I'd also to know your opinion on them. Cheers!
I'll see if they'll let me pull one of their pickups apart for science.
Dylan talks tone....cut one apart. Stacked pcb’s.
The level of depth and explanation in this video is amazing!! As soon as you pulled out the ferrofluid to show the different magnetic distribution on each pickup, BOOM! Subscribed :)
How does the lace sensor pickups work? Like they don’t even have coils
James saiz they have coils, unless you are referring to the alumatones
I had Seymore Duncan Custom shop make me a standard humbucker sized pickup from 2 humbucking single coil format humbucker models the Duck Bucker and the Screaming Demon. Great versatility in a single humbucker LP Jr for a customer. It was my first time hearing the format pickups and I have to say It sounded very good. I added a mini toggle to switch between the 2 or both. It took a while after ordering from the custom shop to getting them in the shop But the customer was very pleased. After that I bought a few screaming demons and pearly gates single coil sized format pickups for my own projects guitars.
My tata is regarding intonation. What is it and what’s the difference between an intonated guitar and a guitar that’s not?
Intonation is quite simple really. It's your guitars ability to keep the correct pitch on a string regardless what fret you press on. So if you tune your guitar to standard tuning for example (EADGBE), as you work your way up the frets all the notes should be correct when played and not going sharp or flat.
Playing the 6th string (low E) open should also produce an E when played at the 12th fret just a higher octave (?). At least I think that's the theory lol. Someone correct me if I'm wrong please, cheers!
Check this out: ua-cam.com/users/FruduaTv
@@sheepdogxpress that's correct. Guitars Not intonated properly the notes further up the neck are out of tune. Adjustment is made to make string longer or shorter so note same at open position and 12the fret
Dude, I love your videos. Definitely one of the best informative channels. Free of all the bullshit, I love it man.
What are the tonal differences between all neck joints (in regards to metal)?
Thanks Colin!
Bolt-on is brighter but it's extremely subtle, especially in a metal mix. Any style set neck or neck-through sounds darker, but again, it's subtle. Pickups, string gauge, amp and pedal choice (and settings), and cabinet choice are all going to be far more noticeable. Set neck and neck-through sound pretty much the same too, and neck-through is more expensive because it's harder to build and larger pieces of wood are more expensive. Anyone who tells you neck-through sounds better is likely selling a neck-through guitar. Neck joints shouldn't effect sustain either, as long as the necks and neck pockets are routed correctly.
The honest answer is that neck joints are purely for structural integrity. I personally prefer a neck-thru, because everything being bolted to the same thing means no weak spots. Granted, a bolt-on can be easily replaced if it breaks, but that bolt-on itself is still a break between the neck and body.
Great explanation Colin. I just got one in the mail to install this weekend on my Strat and I can't wait!
How about a humbucker with two rails in each coil?
Dhima Sam Gran woah
These exist. I think Kramer used them, or rather, the Chinese company or whoever it was that bought the rights to the Kramer brand did. They were nothing special.
There is such a beast. Its called a quad-rail, and Kramer used to make them. Now a company called Dragonfire (some kind of Korean manufacturer, I think an offshoot of the people that make pups for PRS SE models) makes a version. They are supposed to be ridiculously hot pickups. Something like 23k Ohm resistance.
dragonfireguitars.com/Quad-Rails-Hot-Humbucker-Pickups-Set-Bridge-Neck-ColorChoice-2120.htm
Great job with explaining this concept. I have Seymour Duncan SVR-1= Vintage Rails on my Strat ( since they were originally invented ). They Sound Incredible & Zero Noise.
When u said "Kurzgesagt" (engl.: for short) 😅
Holy shit that ferrofluid freaked me out. Looked like a cartoon of itself.
What are lipstick pickups, I’m not sure what they are and how they sound compared to regular single or double coil pickups
I have a lipstick pickup on my Telecaster, it appears to just be a pickup cover for a standard single coil pickup but I think it has a similar (although I'm sure lesser effect I could be wrong here) as the hot rails which I also have on a Duo Sonic.
My old Bill Lawrence rails are king hands down. You normally lose out some top end sizzle with high output pickups but Bills xl500s come in at like 14k ohms and have so much treble response. If only I could get *that* sound in a single coil.
I just installed an MGB hot rail pickup in one of my most recent cigar box guitar builds. It's one smokin' hot badass monster!
A hot rail pickup is something you use before you get clean
Hi Colin, Excellent video, I recently installed a set of Hot Rails in my Strat, they sound amazing, they are not as harsh as I thought they might be!
Take care mate.👍👍👍.
Melbourne, Australia.
"... Sex Pole Peesees ..." Love your accent dude!
Great pickups and at one time Seymour said it was their best selling pickups. Not a lot of high end but a great balance of everything and stinging sustain if adjusted properly. Bought a less expensive white fender and was so impressed with the Indonesian monster with those installed. Bought a fender maple neck to finish it off. They don't sell that model now sadly.... Great video!
Bill Lawrence was the architect of this design along with many other great pickup designs up to his death in 2013. His pickups are still available at Wildepickups and still light years ahead of modern companies and boutique winders. He worked at various times throughout his career @Gibson (invented the L-6 pickups), alongside Seymour Duncan and later Larry Dimarzio and the twin blade pickups both of those companies offer are based off Bill Lawrence designs. The holy grail of Twin Blade designs the XL500 used by Darrel 'Dimebag' Abbott was a Bill Lawrence pickup. Unfortunately many people took advantage of Bills genius and lack of business acumen (Bill Lawrence USA). Wilde Pickups is where you can still get Bills pickups and trust me they are amazing and the most articulate pickup designs you have ever used.
Wow, tysm!
Just love your educational vids, Colin! So fun and informative ať the same time. A follow up tone comparison of SCs, HBs and various hot rails would be very cool, too.
Why do pickups sound different how are they made to do that
Watch the video!!
Different pickup manufacturing processes and materials produce different magnetic field fluctuations which are detected by the pickups magnets. These fluctuations make the strings vibrate a certain way when you strum them. They have a subtle effect on the frequency your notes are vibrating at which affects how the signal sounds when it goes through an amplifier. The type of amplifier you're playing through, how it was made, its settings, etc then modifies the electrical signal being sent to it by your guitar to produce the final sound.
Zidders‘ response is good, but I want to clarify that pickups affect perceived timbre, rather than a vibrating string’s fundamental frequency. The pitch of a note played, therefore, is left unaffected. This may seem obvious, but I believe this distinction is important enough to mention.
Also, an example of a manufacturing variable is the type of magnet used. Alnico magnets and ceramic magnets have their own nuances.
@@absurdistcat Thanks, sorry. I got a feeling I was off there somewhere but you beat me to correcting it.
thanks. Great explanation. exactly what I was looking for. Seems ideal for custom guitars with weird string spacing..... huehuehue
it's called a "proprietary eponym"... when your hoover sucks up your kleenex so you google a solution to fix it.
vacuum cleaner. facial tissue. web search.
used to drive me crazy trying to figure out what that phenomenon was called so i... "web searched" it.
I've always used genericized trademark, now I need to "web search".
Nobody really does anything but "Google" things anymore, so I'd say that one is almost always accurate.
You deserve a coke (aka any carbonated sugar water aka soda aka pop aka sodapop) for that sentence.
Another good one! I knew most of this, but I really look forward to your videos at the end of the week, because you are great at making confusing things seem easy. 👍
I love your videos man, but I'm jus gonna say it: Scottish macaulay culkin
Scottish McCauley culkin if he never did meth
This channel has gotten so awesome. Well done Colin.
Could you do the video again, but with a Scottish accent? 😊
Dude almost everything I know about Qatar I've learned from this channel for real mate props
You are a true gift to us all
Excellent vid and very well presented. As usual
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I have been wanting to build a tele but hate single coils. This is the work around I needed
a nice feature to concider when tinkering or for lap steels: you can get the sensing area very closer to the bridge and pick up a lot of overtones
Great video. Tanx for taking the time & effort 🤘
i had a guitar once that came factory set with...wait for it. 12 freaking blade pickups. not kidding. it was basically a hotrail, and another hot rail stuck together as a quad-rail the size of a humbucker...and it had 3 of these quadbucker beasts in line like a strat. 12 frigging coils. needless to say there was no noise or hum in the instrument.
Kiesel/Carvin makes 11-pole-per-coil pickups to deal with string bending, and they're pretty damn good (though they stopped making humbuckers like this, you can still get AP11 single coils).
chuck comes to my mind right away
Excellent coverage on Hot rail pick ups, as I learned something new today! Thanks...
2:44 CORRECTION! Contrary to popular belief, Gibson were not the first brand to use humbucker style pickups, humbuckers actually date all the way back to the 1930's on semi-electric archtop style guitars. Rickenbacker made an attempt in 1953 to put humbucker pickups in a more modern style electric guitar, but dropped it in 1954 due to complaints about too much distortion in the sound, which ironically has become one of the defining characteristics of the humbucker. The Gibson Les Paul didn't come standard with humbuckers until 1957, prior to that they used P90 pickups which much more closely resemble single coils, albeit overwound for a more humbucker-esk tone.
Just in case anyone were wondering
Nice, great vid. Have one of these on a old Charvel and always wondered "whats going on with that strange looking pickup" but never looked into it. Great stuff, -Cheers
My son and I have re wound several hot rail type pickups. We always use gauge 45 magnet wires.
My peavey T60 and peavey T40 have this system and i absolutely love them, especially when you can coil split and put the pickups out of phase and in phase, now im thinking of modding them to put it in parallel and series as well as maybe add a hot rails in the middle portion of the body nicely snug and fit between the super ferrites
Excellent and very informative. Thanks!
Thanks for all your work Colin
Just to add something to what Colin was saying about volume and magnetic distribution etc. The DiMarzio Will Power pickups, that Billy Sheehan uses, feature 8 pole pieces instead of the standard 4 you'd normally get on a bass pickup. This is because he noticed that drop in volume when bending strings but he didn't like the tone of rail pickups. So by doubling up on the number of pole pieces, it solves the problem of having a consistent and even volume, but still keeps the pole piece tonality. Just something interesting to add here.
This was great! Thanks for the visuals!!!! This video was near perfect!
Too Afraid To Ask is a wonderful theme for a series. TATA!!!❤️❤️❤️
how is this not the best channel in the world
I just realized, this video was posted on my birthday, awesome!