Duncan Vintage Rails Bridge

[cdub]

Anybody use these in a Stratocaster bridge? The neck version, I’m just floored by. A series/parallel switch makes this pickup a real two-in-one option, not just a watered down version of itself.

I am wondering if the bridge model, in series mode, is comparable to a Dimarzio Chopper in output. I would love it if it were at least that hot. I can imagine what parallel mode is like, but the kicker is, how ballsy can this SVR-1b get in series?

No great demos out there, I’ve looked. Not interested in a metal rythm tracking tone demo, I can make any pickup go chugga chugga sqweeee, would just like to hear in a rock or blues setting, or soloing.

It probably can’t touch my favorite for Strat bridge, the Fast Track 2...

 

[Strat Avenger]

I'd just go with a Dimarzio Super Distortion-S. It's the same output as the Fast Track 2.

 

[cdub]

Ok, why is that? And I take it you have tried the SVR1b? Any opinions?

 

[Strat Avenger]

Ok, why is that? And I take it you have tried the SVR1b? Any opinions?

I have not tried the SVR1b, so I didn't answer your question (sorry).
I just really like the SD-S for the bridge position where a single-coil size pickup is used. It's not too hot or too weak, and sounds really good. Looks good too.

 

[Vulpez]

From my understanding, you're probably not gonna like the Vintage Rails in the bridge.

It sounds to me like what you're after is a single coil-sized humbucker. That's effectively what a Fast Track 2 is. The Vintage Rails is like a noiseless single, so it's gonna be twangy and on the lower output side. Definitely not as hot as the Chopper.

In terms of Duncan's offerings, the Cool Rails may be more what you're after in a bridge pickup. That, I think, will get you closer to the Fast Track.

 

[cdub]

Thanks for the tip on the DiM SD-S. I will probably at least try one out.

The cool rails neck was nice sounding, especially clean, and the right output level but way too dark or smooth for my tastes.

I am also wondering about the Vintage Rails bridge model wired in series, not the parallel wiring that Duncan instructs us to use. As long as it approaches chopper level gain, I could make that work. I know it’s a very specific question but the VR design is a side-by-side coil, as in one coil senses three high strings, the other senses three low strings. It can’t be “split” like a normal humbucker, you will only hear three strings amplified.

But this design gives it a “narrow string window” (shaped like a z-coil, same principle) with less phase cancellation and to my ears and fingers, this is the only truly “Strat-like” rail design out there. I love a screaming fat bridge pickup but also want the highs of a single coil so I guess I just have to order a SVR-1b. The neck model reads 2.2k in parallel and about four times that DCr in series, so I guess the SVR1b is around 10k in series mode?

You get the hifi smoothness of a rail for bending, low string pull, tons of output if you raise them high, true Strat sparkle and tons of juicy character, vastly different switchable modes, and no hum. Pretty much a best of all worlds scenario. Very underrated pickup and my go-to Strat neck choice.

 

[Ace Flibble]

The SD Hot Stack—that's the one with the solid bar magnet as a single 'blade—is closer to what it sounds like you're after than the Vintage Rails is. Don't underestimate how much the 'offset' nature of the Vintage Rails affects the tone when it comes to the bridge position, where there is less string movement to cover the pickup. It's a nice pickup for the neck and okay for the middle, but it's really thin in the bridge and sounds more like a Cool Rails which has been completely split than any kind of regular single coil. The Hot Stack gets around this problem by using a bar magnet right under the strings, giving you the sharp attack of a normal single coil's pole pieces but the smoothness of a rail design. Critically there's no offset to it, and the bar is wider than rails, so it works well with the bridge's more limited movement. In parallel mode it sounds like a regular Strat pickup (but hum-cancelling and a smoother when bending, of course) and in series it sounds kind of like a P-90 (but double the output and still hum-cancelling).

It may not necessarily be your kind of music, but if you listen to Prince's Purple Rain album, the rhythm guitar on nearly every track (as well as the lead guitar on When Doves Cry and one of the two dueling lead guitars on Let's Go Crazy) is the SD Hot Stack (Tele bridge version, but used in both neck and bridge) mounted in a Rickenbacker, kept in parallel. Wendy Melvoin, Prince's guitarist at the time, specifically swapped in the SD Hot Stack because she needed to cover the previous guitarists' Gibson Explorer humbucker tones as well as double up Prince's own Strat single coil (in a Tele body) tones, and the Hot Stack was the standard session musician's pickup of choice at the time for flexibility and pulling double-duty.