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The Pickup Place / Re: Rail Strat humbuckers: splitting or parallel?

« on: June 19, 2026, 12:20:39 AM »

I like a simple cap treble bleed circuit and turning down.   It thins the lows just a bit.

Me too, but also with a series resistor and a 1 Meg pot so it doesn’t also load down the pickup as much when you turn it down. What value do you like?

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The Pickup Place / Re: Rail Strat humbuckers: splitting or parallel?

« on: June 17, 2026, 05:13:39 PM »

I find partial splitting useful only when combining a more powerful rail pickup with a weaker single coil. Otherwise I was disappointed with alternate wiring schemes (parallel, split or partial split*). This goes for the Fast Track 1, Satch Track, The Chopper, BC-1, BC-2 and Fast Track 2 (as well as some Seymour Duncan offerings).

The next person to contribute to the discussion will likely have a different opinion. The only way to know for sure is to experiment for yourself. The BC-1 is a good candidate for this, as is The Chopper. As with full-sized humbuckers you will get better performance with hotter models. The problem with the single-sized humbuckers is the coils lack top end chime, even with the weaker models.

(*) My partial splits typically involve two resistors and a capacitor in order to coax a little extra single coil voicing without sacrificing body. I’ve gone as far as three resistors and two capacitors in an attempt to get extra chime out of the Satch Track but it was like getting blood from a stone. Even the brighter Fast Track 1 lacked top end to the point that I could only weaken the duller of the two coils by a small amount with a single resistor and then reduce body further with a shelf. Again this was just to combine it with a middle singe coil. That scenario was with the Fast Track 1 in the bridge. I have another guitar with a Fast Track 1 in the neck and resorted to using only a shelf for a skinnier single coil tonality. I also have an HSH with a Fast Track 1 in the middle and have a position where I am running one coil in series with one coil from the neck humbucker and then shelving that combination for a position 4-style quack. It would have worked very well if it weren’t for the fact that it’s a 24-fret Music Man Silhouette with the intonation adjustment at the base, forcing the neck pickup to be far away from the optimal position. The Satch Track in parallel in the neck position wasn’t terrible as it is the only way to get any chime, but that is at the expense of body and wasn’t worth it. Combining that with a middle single coil sounded pretty good but three active coils didn’t produce the familiar Strat quack that I was looking for.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Creating a Fatter Humbucker-Like Voice from a 2-Pickup Noiseless Setup

« on: June 07, 2026, 01:59:10 AM »

I should really document my values but I never do. They vary a little depending on the guitar. I don’t know your specific switching scheme so you may or may not be able to implement everything. I can usually manage just about everything with a 5-way super switch. I’ve never done work on a Jaguar.

In fat humbucker mode you want the pickup to see a 250k volume and a 250k tone with a 33nF or 39nF capacitor. Choose the value that works best with the tone rolled back just above the point where the top end is swallowed up. To smooth out the top end you want to try like 1nF in series with about 220k to ground from the hot lead of the pickup. It’s subtle and subtle is all that you want. You don’t want the pickup to sound lifeless and dull and especially not nasal. It ought to be just enough when juxtaposed against the single coil voicing.

For the single coil voicing I’d really only be guessing at values because I really don’t remember. I’ve done it for the FT1 in both the bridge and neck positions in different guitars and the values are probably also different. Volume and tone at 500k or possibly even 1M volume when I use a treble bleed. The bass shelf is a resistor in parallel with a capacitor that is between the pickup and the switch. Choose values that reduce bass and midrange and give a frequency characteristic that is similar to a single coil.

Keep the pickup wired as a standard humbucker. The Fast Track 1 is not going to provide a worthwhile sound in either split or parallel modes. Also, the wire colors between DiMarzio humbuckers and single coils need to be reversed for them to work together in phase. It’s most straight forward to wire the Fast Track as red to the switch, green and bare to ground, black and white soldered together and taped off. For the Area 58, green to the switch and red to ground.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Creating a Fatter Humbucker-Like Voice from a 2-Pickup Noiseless Setup

« on: June 06, 2026, 12:53:35 PM »

[1] will give a nasal/cocked wah sound, not a fatter one.

[2] will introduce signal from the other position and only remove a very small amount of top end and move the resonant frequency down only slightly.

Your best solution is to come from the other direction with a Fast Track 1 combined with a bass shelving filter and reduced loading. For an improved humbucker tone you can use a small capacitor (with a series resistor to ground) and then use a 33n or 39n tone cap.

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

« on: May 31, 2026, 03:10:48 PM »

From his original post I didn’t think the Satch Track would be good fit so I didn’t mention it. I think the Chopper would work better if the goal is a cleaner sound against a Tone Zone because it will saturate a bit better given the same amount of gain.

Neither pickup will deliver shimmering clean tones if that is the goal. The weaker Fast Track 1 can’t really do that either, even with 1M pots.

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Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: 36th neck in bridge?

« on: May 26, 2026, 08:38:17 AM »

Keep in mind that in the 50s when the role model for the 36th was invented (the Gibson PAF) there was no such thing as a "bridge" or "neck" pickup.

Not to mention the Bridge version of the 36th, with its A5 magnet, 8.6k wind, and virtual vintage tech, was designed to be at the hotter end of the PAF spectrum. I don’t have any data but it seems to me that the neck version is more on par with a typical PAF.

Fun fact: the bridge pickup in Jake E. Lee’s blue burst, the one he used to play Killer of Giants was a Pearly Gates Neck. The Pearly Gates being closer to a more traditional PAF than anything DiMarzio had made prior to the PAF 57 and 59.

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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.