I Wonder How Far I’ll Fall Down It?
I’m finding a new love for hotrail pickups and it’s because of a particular way of wiring them, which has opened the door to a new world of tonal exploration for me.
They Are Not Hotrails!
Commonly referred to as “Hotrails” regardless of brand or model, mini (Strat or Tele-sized) rail humbucker pickups should only really be called “Hotrails” if they are made by Seymour Duncan. However, the name has become infinitely associated with any pickup of the rail type, so from here on in I will be using the term “Hotrail”… Sorry Mr. Duncan!
Late to the Party
I’m sure this is nothing new to many players, but I recently got into the idea of wiring a hotrail pickup in my guitar with the coils in parallel to each other instead of in series, which is how they normally come by default.
It’s not that I was never aware that they could be wired in parallel, it’s just that I never gave it much thought. I have an Artec alnico 5 rail pickup, which I used in a Strat and breifly in my Epiphone Les Paul SL (a Melody Maker basically).
In the Strat it was a bit dark and muddy, but that is mainly because I kept the 250k pots for the single coils that were still in the guitar. It actually sounded pretty damned good in the Epiphone bridge position, but I was set on putting a Firebird pickup in there. I don’t prefer the tone of the Firebird pickup – they’re both good, but I do prefer the look, so the hotrail is sitting on a shelf for now.
More recently I acquired a few cheap, unbranded pickups from Ebay, which claim to be Alnico 5 “Vintage-style hotrails”. They are Strat pickup shaped with an unusual-looking cover that gives the look of a gold-foil type of pickup. Kind-of retro, vintage looking, but to be honest I don’t rate their appearance much.
The sound of the “Vintage” hotrails are actually ok. They are hum-free, wound to about 8kΩ and have an all-round useable sound, so I was reminded that I have never had and often wanted to try a hotrail Telecaster bridge pickup. My next mod project is likely to be the “Claptonisation” of my Paramount PE200 Telesonic – A great, cheap Tele copy that I’ve decided deserves to have all it’s flaws fixed and to be properly upgraded, so a noiseless option (on a budget) is required.
A hotrail was the obvious answer, but I’m a little unsure if it will prove to be too fat-sounding to be paired with the Clapton mid-boost electronics. So here is the entrance to the rabbit hole I was talking about!
I found a likely candidate online and ordered an alnico 5 hotrail pickup. There were three versions available: 6kΩ, 9kΩ or 12kΩ, so I went in the middle. Not too hot, not too weak and I had the opportunity to install the pickup with my “Poor man’s Clapton” system in the form of an Artec VTC ( a little circuitboard attached to a pot, which provides an active boost). The VTC does not sound anything like the Clapton boost though as it seems to boost treble quite a lot as you turn it up, but it was a good way to try out the hotrail with an active circuit anyway.
It sounded fine, but despite the brightness of the VTC boost I still thought the hotrail lacked a bit of sparkle in it’s character and wondered if the 6kΩ version would stand the best chance of sounding good with the Clapton boost.
About the Wiring.
After the usual trawling through forums for useful information (which can take some time!) I read plenty of posts about wiring the pickups in parallel. The general consensus seems to be that most players think they stink in parallel, but a few opinions were full of praise indeed. It seems to be a love/hate thing – not much inbetween.
So, seeing as I had a hotrail I could try for myself and see how it sounded, even though I thought it might not be well suited to the VTC as I’d read that the tone gets brighter when in parallel.
Well the result so far is that this pickup just sounds so much better to me in parallel. The best way to describe the difference is that in series it sounds like so many complain about – “Great with distortion, but lacklustre & lifeless clean”… or “It doesn’t sound like a Tele anymore”.
But in parallel it sounds to me much more like a typical Tele pickup but with no hum and ready to give more when it’s time to rock out. All the comments I’d read about parallel wiring sounding weak and dull were not applicable in this case. Maybe those comments were from players who’s idea of high or low pickup output is very different from mine.
I’m pretty excited to hear what this pickup will sound like with the Clapton boost once I’m able to get it and install it. I think it’ll pair nicely. It will at least sound different from my two Claptonised Strats.
A bonus is that after installing the hotrail in the Paramount Telesonic I think I prefer the look to the traditional Tele-style pickup, at least with this colour combination (black and white).
The other big upgrade for this guitar will be a rosewood neck with stainless steel frets, which will put it on the front line of gigging duties as those frets should be very hardwearing.
I’m looking forward to making a beast of this guitar and I’m already thinking of ways I can successfully implement a parallel-wired hotrail in another guitar.
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