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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

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

« Last post by nienturi on December 16, 2025, 01:21:06 AM »

I had once a HS-1 from mid or late 80s. Its DCR was 10.63K. But old catalogs says for HS-1, it was wound 14.97K. But that pickup is very similar to my HS-1

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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 15, 2025, 04:30:25 PM »

My concern about pairing a Fast Track 1 with a fat bridge humbucker is about it lacking body, not so much about it lacking output. The limiting factor of it not sounding “humbuckery enough” has more to do with the aperture than the wind and this issue still exists with the hotter rail pickups, IME. In my SSS with an Area 61 in the middle and Injector Neck in the neck, the Fast Track 1 sounds very much like a humbucker, though I’m shaving off a bit of top end and am using a larger tone cap dedicated to position 1 in order to give it the appearance of sounding fatter. Likewise, in my HSS I’m sculpting the Fast Track 1 in the neck position to have more of a single coil tonality in position 4 and more of a humhucker tonality in position 5 (positions 4 and 5 are both neck-only). Context is everything. So with all that out of the way I say go ahead and give it a shot.

To push back a bit on the Satch Track sounding “too fat,” it’s actually pretty tight, the problem is that it’s dull. It’s great with a lot of distortion where the distortion is filling out the top end. Cleans are perhaps better suited for jazz, though it still doesn’t have enough articulation for my taste. Perhaps I’d be more ok with it in a 24-fret guitar that is naturally bright.