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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup options for HS superstrat

« on: May 05, 2026, 12:49:35 PM »

Andy doesn’t use the AT-1 by itself in humbucking mode for cleans. And yes, he seems to always use the Cruiser in conjunction with a pedal of some sort. What I don’t know is whether he uses a pedal with the Cruiser for high gain solos which he doesn’t also use with the AT-1. I suspect the answer to this question is no.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Telecaster Tone in a Humbucker

« on: April 11, 2026, 01:52:21 PM »

The Lollar Novel T completely slipped my mind before. It isn’t cheap but it’s a better solution than the others I mentioned previously.

Edit:
It looks like there are other manufacturers which I’ve never heard of that make the same thing.

https://magnetodesignlab.com/store/tsc-h

https://revelcustompickups.com/revel-guitar-pickups/revel-telecaster-pickups/the-six-t/

https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-other-single-coil-pickups/novel-t

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The Pickup Place / Re: Telecaster Tone in a Humbucker

« on: April 08, 2026, 01:01:18 PM »

You may still like the sound of the Bluesbucker. I think it sounds much more like a single coil than a PAF, as it has more of a pure bell-like tone all the way through the midrange, where humbuckers tend to sound scooped due to frequency cancellations because the string is being sensed at two different locations.

If you want the sound of a P90 look at the Fantom P90, Seymour Duncan Phat Cat, Phat Cat Silencer or P-Rails. The Phat Cat Silencer and P-Rails offer vintage and hot versions. Another option could be a Lace Sensor Purple/Emerald Dually giving you both Texas Strat and P90 tonality (I wouldn’t bother with series or parallel wiring where both pickups are combined, though I would experiment with the orientation).

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The Pickup Place / Re: Looking for a Neck PU to pair with a Satchur8 - HFH with A8?

« on: April 07, 2026, 05:11:30 PM »

An A4 in a PAF Pro seems like a step backwards to me. An A8 that is fully aired might get you closer to what you’re looking for but you may still lose clarity. Turning that Tone Zone into an Air Zone might yield good results, since DiMarzio mentions the neck position as a use-case for the Air Zone.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Telecaster Tone in a Humbucker

« on: April 07, 2026, 04:58:25 PM »

Not really, no. Put simply it’s a split humbucker with an inductor in series. This assumes no signal is generated from the coil that has dummy slugs, though this is not strictly the case and the small signal generated by the coil only serves to make the pickup sound less like a single coil. More importantly, the geometry of the coils are that of a humbucker as opposed to a single coil or P90. The magnetic field is the same as a budget single coil that employs a pair of narrow opposing ceramic bar magnets centered under the screw coil. What the Bluesbucker does offer is versatility, assuming you like the sound of the pickup when split. It purportedly has DiMarzio’s virtual vintage tech which will lower the resonant frequency, helping it to sound better than a typical split humbucker with a similar coil (~6.7k of 43(?)AWG).

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The Pickup Place / Re: Telecaster Tone in a Humbucker

« on: April 07, 2026, 02:09:56 PM »

I’d say that, a humbucker-sized P90 or an adapter ring so you can install a single coil or an actual a tele bridge pickup.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Super Distortion or the Super 3

« on: March 11, 2026, 02:15:10 PM »

There is a massive gap between a 36th Anniversary and the other two pickups you just mentioned. Why not a Norton or The Breed for example?

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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup options for HS superstrat

« on: February 24, 2026, 05:42:12 PM »

Andy Timmons relies on the Cruiser Bridge for his clean tones, either with a compressor or an overdrive pedal with the volume rolled way back that has a treble bleed. This pickup is the second brightest (and second weakest) rail pickup that DiMarzio makes.

Bear in mind that with rail pickups the top end drops very quickly as the output increases. By the time you get to the Pro Track cleans become more suited for jazz, though unfortunately they’ve already lost articulation. Luckily that sounds like a non-issue for you. So that out of the way, yes, the Air Norton S or BC-1 will pair well with the Tone Zone in terms of output and sustain. They are almost the same pickup; if I were to choose between the two for the neck position I would opt for the slightly tighter Air Norton S.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Which Pickup Features Which Technique

« on: February 01, 2026, 05:24:15 PM »

43AWG provides an increase in capacitance and resistance per turn over 42AWG. The Screamin’ Demon is slightly darker and has more growl than a 59. It also seems to be just a touch weaker, though not in any appreciable way; I mention this only because Duncan classifies it as medium output and I believe that to be misleading. At the end of the day they are different, and seeing that my favorite bridge pickup is the TB-12 I’m glad they decided to manufacture an under-wound 43-gauge design.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Bridge pickup for Strat

« on: January 16, 2026, 01:09:56 PM »

The Seymour Duncan Lil’ Screamin Demon is the best I’ve played and the best I’ve heard. The Chopper is my runner up, but it really isn’t all that close.

Others that I’m familiar with in the bridge position and am prepared to comment on include the following:
Fast Track 1
BC-1
BC-2
Fast Track 2
Little 59
JB Jr.
Hot Rails

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

« on: January 03, 2026, 03:15:01 PM »

Generally speaking, my tone control simply removes presence and does little to nothing in a band context when playing anything heavier than mild distortion.

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

« on: January 02, 2026, 08:48:32 PM »

The Injector Bridge in the neck can be a good sound for sure. I’ve contemplated putting one in the neck for high gain solos, but for me it would just be a 1-trick pony. With weaker pickups there is still the option to turn down the tone control to remove some of the harsher top end. The HB2 is the hottest stacked single coil I’ve used in the neck position. It was in the HSS guitar before the FT1, but it was pitted against a hotter JB2 in the bridge and it just couldn’t keep up. The HB2 is now slated to go in an SSS configuration with a Virtual Solo in the bridge along with the 54P it was previously paired with in the middle position. Like with the Injector Neck you can coax a bit of vintage single coil sparkle out of the HB2, primarily by defeating the dummy coil and secondarily by reducing the loading, combined with the additional step of shelving away some of the body. This final step isn’t necessary for the Injector Neck.

I love the tones Jake E. Lee gets with a pair of SDS-1s and have been contemplating a noiseless option for that. I suspect a Lace Sensor Burgundy or Purple may be a better solution than a stacked design.

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

« on: January 01, 2026, 05:12:55 PM »

I’ve been modding one of my Marshalls and testing it with my main guitar which has a Screamin’ Demon in the bridge and A3-loaded Duncan 59 Neck in the neck with a passive bass shelf control (to give you an idea of what I like in the neck position). I switched over to the guitar with the FT1 in the neck and both voicings sounded great without adjusting any of the controls on the amp. The bridge pickup is an A2-loaded JB/Screamin’ Demon hybrid which is a tad weaker and darker than the stock A5 Screamin’ Demon. The Screamin’ Demon is a vintage output pickup, on par with a Duncan 59 Bridge. With a stock JB in the bridge the FT1 is going to sound more like a vintage single coil (minus the chime, though still very bright), as if you plugged in a Strat and dialed your amp accordingly. There are key sonic differences between a rail pickup and a single coil, but in the neck position the FT1 sounds more like a single coil than a humbucker.

Piguitars has a demo of the Injector Bridge in the neck position to give you an idea of what it might sound like. It’s too dark for my tastes, personally. It still sounds very bell-like through the midrange unlike the FT1.

https://youtu.be/g5JQBRvF2qc?si=sJshNtJtHc6RCCl5

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

« on: December 19, 2025, 10:42:23 AM »

It’s less than 2%.

From the patent abstract:
“The coils have substantially the same number of turns of electrically conducting wire wound thereon, and the wires constituting the coils are of different gauges.”

Perhaps someone can tell me what two different gauges of wire can give those DCR measurements using substantially the same number of turns.

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

« on: December 19, 2025, 01:27:21 AM »

I just measured mine (again):
Red-Black: 3.71k
White-Green: 3.77k