Product Spotlight - Redesigned Rails Series

Nothing like a taking a good thing and making it even better. Look at our Top 10 List on page 5 and you’ll see that one-third of the pickups are part of our “Rails” series of side-by-side single-coil-sized humbuckers for Strat®. The Rails series includes Hot Rails™, Cool Rails™, Vintage Rails™, JB Jr. ™, Little ’59 ™, Li’l Screamin’ Demon™ and Duckbuckers™. Great pickups. Great tone. No hum. So why would be mess with a proven winner?

As good as the Rails pickups are, we identified two areas for improvement. First, they're ever so slightly oversized, making them a snug squeeze in a Strat pickguard. Second, the plastic "topper," found on the models with the mini pole pieces, can occasionally snag on an errant high-E string, especially in the neck position and especially when the player is strumming hard. When this happens, it stops the strings' vibrations - not a nice thing. The topper can also come off during installation into a pickguard.

So here's what we did: we took each of these pickups and fitted them with a secure cover which will make installation much easier and make snagged high-E strings a thing of the past. All of the pickups in the series will benefit from the makeover.

"But what about the tone," you ask? Good question. Just to make sure we kept the same tone before and after the makeover, we performed a rigorous testing regimen that included comparisons of d.c. resistance, impedance, peak output, and resonance. The frequency response and waterfall plots were accomplished using a laboratory "strum guitar" and a digital recording system. The pickups were not only bench-tested, but they were sound tested as well.

Click here and you can learn much more about the bench testing and sound testing. Not only can you see frequency charts of the new styles vs. the old styles, but we've posted sound bytes so you can hear them as well. The result: all the pickups in the series benefit from the upgrade, and none - we repeat - none of the great tone

Around here, we call that a win-win.