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

« Last post by wxs3 on December 19, 2025, 10:53:39 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

Thanks, it’s been awhile. I’ve got several Super Distortions laying around so it was more of a curiosity than anything. I’m kind of an “old”(72 to be exact) school player using the volume knob for various gain strength but using modern equipment (amp modelers) I’m too old to be lugging a tube amp around these days, the seven drunks at the bar yelling “Free Bird” ( yes, they still out there), can’t tell the difference, plus it’s easier to record without pissing off the neighbors at 1:30am.

I exchanged it for a PAF 7 for my Kiesel Delos 7 string (enter newer equipment  - GAS never goes away).  I’m going to match it up with an Air Norton 7 but can’t seem to find any demos of it in the bridge. Now mind you, homie don’t chug  but want to keep the low b in standard tuning and explore the extended range. How does the Air Norton 7 sound in the bridge as it has a ceramic magnet? 

FWIW, I took the cruisers out and put an Injector neck in the neck and a 58 in the middle and put a Full strength Norton in the bridge……for now

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

« Last post by gregr 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

« Last post by darkbluemurder 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

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

« Last post by gregr on December 19, 2025, 01:27:21 AM »

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

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

« Last post by Schneidas on December 19, 2025, 12:55:19 AM »

Actually no, the Satch Track uses Dual Resonance as well, see the patent number (from their webpage back in 2014)

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

« Last post by gregr on December 18, 2025, 10:28:40 AM »

Since the Satch Track was compared to The Chopper, I’d like to add that unlike The Chopper which is a dual resonance design, the coils in the Satch Track are identical.

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

« Last post by darkbluemurder 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

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

« Last post by Schneidas on December 18, 2025, 06:20:14 AM »

To push back a bit on the Satch Track sounding “too fat,” it’s actually pretty tight, the problem is that it’s dull.

There is one easy fix for a dull pickup - it's disconnecting the neck tone pot.
It was the cure for a Steve Morse neck Humbucker, which was super warm and dull. Upon disconnecting its tone pot, it became a totally articulate and clear Humbucker for me.
Try it for the Satch Track and it will totally transform it.

If you're set on trying other Pickups, the Fast track 1 is definitely great, nicely bright and sounds like a cross between a humbucker and Singlecoil. I love it in the neck and it balances great with hotter Humbuckers. I ran mine with a Breed Neck model (which I use in the bridge) or with a SuperD.

The Cruiser Bridge is another great option for the neck for brightness but if you play a lot of cleans, there is definitely a big volume spike when switching from the Cruiser Bridge in the neck spot to a hotter bridge Humbucker.
I wish the Cruiser Bridge was louder, it would be one of the best Single Coil replacement pickups in the neck spot IMO.
It balances fine with a Humbucker up to PAF Pro hotness, but nothing hotter than that IME.

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

« Last post by nienturi on December 16, 2025, 05:45:01 AM »

My pickup was like this.

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

« Last post by darkbluemurder 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