1

The Pickup Place / Re: Bridge pickup for Strat

« on: January 19, 2026, 04:03:52 AM »

From the rails/blades type pickups I played the Super Distortion S and the Chopper, the Chopper being my clear favorite of those two. No experience with any of the Duncan models in the bridge position.

Cheers Stephan

2

The mini bar (off topic & misc) / Re: Spam

« on: January 06, 2026, 05:12:56 AM »

From time to time I see spam threads on this forum, and these are so far the only instances where I exercise my moderator power - such threads will be invariably removed with no exception.

Cheers Stephan

3

The Pickup Place / Re: Neck Position: Fast Track 1 vs. Injector bridge vs. Virtual Solo

« on: December 19, 2025, 04:58:48 AM »

That is a small offset but I guess this still qualifies as Dual Resonance. I just checked in the stickied post and found that the Satch Track is not listed. And since I assume you measured the coils back-to-back, we can rule out variances due to temperature changes.

The description on the current website does not help much insofar. "Articulate, vocal and musical, it is our most advanced Fast Track-style pickup to date."

You can only infer from the wording "most advanced Fast Track-style pickup to date" that it would not have fewer technologies than the other Fast Track-style pickup but we are talking marketing language here so I would not jump to conclusions.

Cheers Stephan

4

The Pickup Place / Re: Neck Position: Fast Track 1 vs. Injector bridge vs. Virtual Solo

« on: December 18, 2025, 09:00:26 AM »

It is certainly worth trying as it costs nothing and can be redone at any time. Keep in mind though that various pickups react very different when the load of a tone control is removed. From my personal experience the Injector neck as well as the Chopper are quite sensitive to this whereas with other pickups the difference was rather minimal (i.e. audible but not significant). As the Satch Track's specs are close to the Chopper's this could have a significant effect. It is also a matter of whether the guitar in question produces the frequencies. In some cases it is not really the tone that changes much but the playing feel - this is hard to describe but the guitar "feels faster" and more open. You have to try to see whether you like the effect.

It also depends on the value of the tone pot. Going from a 250k to no tone control is a bigger step  than going from 500k to no tone control. So if you have a 250k right now, you could go to 500k or 1meg, lighten the load on the neck pickup and still have a tone control for it.

I have a tele (my Pinepartscaster) that has a Chopper T in the bridge and an Injector neck in the neck. 500k volume. I started out with a 500k tone pot and a 0.0015uf cap (yes, not 0.015uf) but that made both pickups slightly nasal. I then removed the tone control but that made both pickups too harsh. I settled on a 1meg tone control as a happy medium - now the pickups are open, articulate and neither nasal nor harsh.

Cheers Stephan

5

The Pickup Place / Re: Can anyone identify this old 80s stacked single?

« on: December 16, 2025, 05:08:26 AM »

Actually the Virtual Vintage single coil series were only released in the mid 90s so if the Seller says he bought the pickup in the mid 80s it is impossible that it is one of those. So if it has pole pieces it is most certainly a HS-1. If it does not have polepieces it could be a Shock Wave - this was a set developed for the use with a preamp but it works passively as well, sounds quite good but is low output as well.

Personally I would go straight to the Areas as IMHO they have a convincing single coil tone paired with healthy output.

Cheers Stephan

6

The Pickup Place / Re: Neck Position: Fast Track 1 vs. Injector bridge vs. Virtual Solo

« on: December 15, 2025, 04:20:22 AM »

I would be cautious about the Virtual Solo in the neck position as it has Alnico 5 magnets which have more string pull than the other models mentioned. Anything else fine - Chopper and Satch Track would be the closest to the humbucker camp.

Cheers Stephan

7

The Pickup Place / Re: Can anyone identify this old 80s stacked single?

« on: December 15, 2025, 04:18:15 AM »

In the 80s DiMarzio had the HS-1, HS-2 and HS-3 models but I believe they were all higher DC resistance. Even though their output was rather low - even lower than standard single coils. I guess they had to use very thin wire to get enough turns on both coils.

I have to check the old catalogue whether this could be one of the Virtual Vintage models which are now discontinued in favor of the Area series.

Cheers Stephan

8

The Pickup Place / Re: Difference between The Breed and Dominion?

« on: December 10, 2025, 08:26:48 AM »

By now it is back in the regular line up, even though there is a footnote saying that it is made to special order with a production time of 4-6 weeks.

Cheers Stephan

9

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Breed

« on: December 10, 2025, 08:23:26 AM »

Glad to see the set is back in the regular line up, albeit as a special order model with longer production time.

10

The Pickup Place / Re: My review of the Super PAF Ceramic

« on: December 09, 2025, 11:57:45 AM »

First of  all, welcome back!

Going from an Air Classic to a Super Distortion type pickup is quite a radical change in output and compression, and it is a substantial volume mismatch to the Cruisers which are quite low output.

If you want a bit hotter than PAF level, Air Norton is worth considering.

Cheers Stephan

11

The Pickup Place / Re: 3 New Pickups from Dimarzio: Super PAF, Muscle T's

« on: December 05, 2025, 03:54:19 AM »

That should be a great match for the Hamer. 90s Hamers are great great guitars.

12

The Pickup Place / Re: Quacky Neck PU for Super 3 Bridge PU?

« on: December 01, 2025, 03:57:53 AM »

If the Air Norton has too much bass in the neck spot (for me it would), LiquiFire is an option.

Cheers Stephan

13

The Pickup Place / Re: Quacky Neck PU for Super 3 Bridge PU?

« on: November 21, 2025, 08:58:52 AM »

For a neck pickup to partner with the Super 3 I would probably go for the hottest model that still "makes sense" somehow. Super 2 with the Ray mod (remove the screws in one coil) should work well. Quacky, however, it is not.

If you want something quackier/brighter than the PAF Pro, the Seymour Duncan Full Shred neck (SH-10n) does it. It is lower output than the PAF Pro, though.

Bluesbucker is nice as well but also lower output than the PAF Pro. Its biggest asset is that the split mode does not drop in output compared to the series mode. If you already have one it does not hurt to try.

When you say "the PAF Pro feels ... a little generic" what exactly do you mean by that? What exactly do you want more or less of? That may be helpful. E.g. if you want a more singing tone, Breed neck would be it.

Cheers Stephan

14

The Pickup Place / Re: Which Pickup Features Which Technique

« on: November 21, 2025, 08:47:55 AM »

Agree that it would impossible on standard sized bobbins. Never seen either the bridge or the neck model and cannot judge whether the bridge pickup may have a deeper than usual bobbin.

My guess is that the neck pickup is wound with AWG PE 43 and the bridge pickup with some weird in-between gauge. I know that BKP for example use 42.5 polysol wire on some models.

Cheers Stephan

15

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: Chopper/Chopper T

« on: November 21, 2025, 05:14:27 AM »

Now on to the regular Chopper. I had this in two different strats in the bridge together with an Area 58 in the middle and an Area 67 in the neck. The main difference is that in one the volume pot was 250k whereas it was 500k in the other. I prefer to run it with 500k.

Keep in mind that I am not a vintage strat pickup fan usually, and definitely not a fan of a traditional single coil in the bridge position - too icepicky for my taste. I was always looking for something beefier in the bridge but without the usual compromise to the bridge + middle position.

The set up I have now is as follows: 500k audio volume pot, 500k audio tone for positions 2-5, 500k audio tone only for position 1 (bridge only). No coil split in position 2 (bridge + middle in parallel). No series option - not really necessary with the Chopper in the bridge. 5-way 4 level switch. I use a 560k resistor to bring down the load to approx. 270k for positions 3-5. Note: position 2 keeps the 500k load.

Result: a fat but present bridge tone without any trace of icepick, very hot PAF like. Volume balance to the single coils is great. The bridge + middle position sounds excellent and does not feel like a compromise at all. The guitar also offers a setting that gives bridge + neck which sounds excellent as well.

In summary the Chopper is a great option for anyone wanting a fatter sound in the bridge position of a strat that is routed for SSS which still sounds great together with the middle single coil.

Cheers Stephan