So far, everything I have ever purchased from SD has been great for studio and live performances. Keep up the great work and QC.

I put this pickup in my Squier Bronco bass. I was looking for a short scale bass guitar, since arthritis is aging body. I had a conversation with Chris about what bass pickup would fit this, since the pickup slot was the standard Fender single coil size, and he suggested the Hot Rails Strat pickup. I couldn’t be happier with the tone!!! Amazing pickup in this bass. Another great Seymour Duncan pickup in one of my basses.

I honestly freaking LOVE how these pickups sound. I typically play in drop C and these pickups seem to sound pretty amazing to my ears with it.

Exactly as advertised. Great tone and versatile.

Best pickup I have ever heard in any strat. . . Nuff said

The transformation was increase able. Installation was quick and the sound, well, extremely, Extremely, extremely AWESOME. The guitar came alive. Look forward to installing some in my Gibson & Fender guitars 🎸. Hands down, the best investment for upgrading my 🎸 🎸 🎸. !.

Big humbucker tone in a single coil size. I have 2 other full sized humbuckers on this guitar but so far the hot rails is my favorite!

Really balances well with other pickups for when you need to add a little more mids into your tone

Sounds great.

Love my new hot rails!

classic, tight, ruthless and very well balanced. This plays in the same output range as full sized humbuckers with a ton of clarity. I can't think of anything better for an HSH setup

Has a great clean tone and the dirty side of it sounds fantastic. Exactly what I was looking for. Love it! Was very easy to install as well. 😉

So of course, this being a Strat pickup, most of the reviews are logically going to cover how they sound in that style of guitar, and as Dave Murray from Iron Maiden can attest to, they certainly bring a lot of tone and sustain to the party. But what if you're wanting to be a bit... different? Put it in a less popular Fender, or indeed some other kind of single coil by nature guitar where they just might fit? Well as someone who has done just that, you can. And in my case, I'd recommend it. I fitted a SHR-1b to the bridge of my CIJ Fender Jaguar in about 2019, I believe. Some concessions have to be made to make this work - you need to strip back the wires a lot further than you'd think to make them go through to the correct contact points in the Jaguar's more complex wiring scheme with the switches, and because pickups screw into the body rather than mounting to the pickguard you'll probably want to put a little something underneath the Hot Rail to brace it against the screws, ensuring that it doesn't sit too low or move around, and get screws that'll comfortably fit through both the pickup and the body without incident (not forcing larger screws through the pickup that might break the delicate copper winds inside is important). You need to be careful when routing the pickup wires around the cavity as well - forget about putting the pickup claw on this, it doesn't do much of use anyway. God bless Seymour for not making these regular Fender Strat style bobbins with the little lip that pokes out otherwise the body really would need routing, and for me personally that's a step too far. You'll need to carefully bend the wires around the edge of the pickup without breaking them, remembering the pickup was never made for this style of guitar. All these kinds of things, so it's not easy, nor is it impossible. Is it worth it? Well, I left the pickup in the guitar (it replaced the also excellent SJAG-3b which I loved but had too much hum in certain venues) because it sounds incredible. You really wouldn't know it wasn't made for the Jaguar because if you play a certain way and like your gained up rock tones, this thing brings a hefty slice of that to the Jag without completely killing the unique offset tone that the vibrato system brings to the guitar. Probably helps that I'm using a Mastery bridge and a Buzz Stop as well, which affect the tone and sustain of the guitar in a way I like already - more of it. Definitely not a regular Jag player, really more analogous to doing what J Mascis does on a Jazzmaster, so this tonal shift pleases me. If anything I'd describe the Hot Rail as my absolute favourite humbucker tone, which shocked me. Surely not, I mean it's a single coil sized thing with ceramic magnets, it'd suck in comparison to PAF style, right? Well I don't think so. I don't know what it is, and don't get me wrong I still enjoy a wound up SG or Paul tone as much as the next picker but there's something smoother and a little more single coil about the way this little humbucker breaks up that I just love. It seems to be a little more to my tastes when winding back the volume control (I run 500K pots in the lead circuit on my Jag, for the record, like a Gibson) and it cleans up pretty good. There's a little honk on cleans but in a band situation it helps keep the guitar cutting through. Lots of rich mids all over the place, plenty of chunk when winding up the gain and palm muting without getting destroyed by bass. You lose some brightness because these are hot pickups (DC resistance alone is around 17.6k) but the overall tone is great so you can fix with EQ/clean boost etc. So to summarise, just because you don't have a Strat or don't want to put these pickups in one, there's other options if you want to get creative. I'd highly recommend the Hot Rail in Jaguar solution if you like that guitar but want it to rock more, because Seymour Duncan builds fine pickups and it was a worthy upgrade.

Awesome pickups!

W

Gave my Strat the bite that i was looking for.

Great tone. Really transforms the neck position of my Strat Ultra

Great pickup! I would just suggest to make thicker wiring, like the ones I got from my SSL-1 pickups. Other than that, the Hot Rails has an amazing, fuller sound. It’s gorgeous with distortion and made my Strat more useful. 5/5!

Definitely a great pick for me , I went from a fat 50’s bridge p/u in my 2013 American Standard to the hot rails . I am now getting what I want for 70’s/80’s hard rock and heavier blues tones with the comfort of my Strat. No more weight of a Les Paul or neck dive from an SG. I kept the fat 50’s in the neck and middle so that I still have some strat quack. I also play through a Fender Blues Jr and occasional effects. Good luck I hope this is helpful. I almost forgot if you’re new to installing pickups it helps to do some research on you tube. When installing in a fender strat a couple wires are reversed for polarity, just pertaining to Fenders as far as I could tell.

The new bridge pickup in my 'ol 80s strat is amazing. It had 3 single coil Seymour Duncan pickups in it installed in the 80s. The new Hot Rails pickup combined with new 1 mg. pots is unbelievable. great output, clarity, and tone ! Thank you !

It is an excellent pickup, only not has sending with split diagram complete but not is a problem because discover some diagrams in the web of Duncan store now I can upgrade my guitar.

I have a Fender Mexico Dave Murray strat with the hot rails in the bridge position and wanted to swap the single coil bridge in a PRS Silver Sky SE out to a hit rails, so figured I’d but direct from Duncan. Arrived super fast, easy to install and sounds great per the website specs.

See my review on the jb jr which I have this pickup installed along with. Green HSS strat. Looks and sounds awesome.

LOVE THEM! DUNCANS ARE THE BEST!

Added cool rails in neck, vintage rails in middle and hot rails in bridge to replace the noiseless pickups that came with my strat. Lots more tone. The guitar screams in comparison. Also put in the hyper switch for endless options. I now have hot rails in 2 strats and a tele. Good pickup

Best strat bridge there is!

Product came in great condition and the pickup inside was brand new. Shipping was decent shipping after only 3 business days. My only complains is that the plastic cover shielding the pickup that’s comes off was dinged a little but that may just be because of manufacturing or something they can’t control. Nonetheless pickup sounds great and I would buy from SD again.

Straight fire 🔥 sounds amazing!

Install was very easy. I put a Hot Rail in the bridge position on my SSS stratocaster. This gave me the heavier sound I needed.

I play a mixture of soft rock and heavy metal and sometimes I don’t feel like switching guitars to get the tone I want. This fills out the heavier end of my strat’s range and makes it an all in one guitar. Beautiful tone, easy to understand diagrams, just a great pickup!

Good stuff!

Delivery was prompt and correct. Pick ups sound phenomenal in my Strat.

Hot pup definitely gets the job done

put it in a cheapo washburn sonomaster. sounds killer now. playing gigs with it. 10/10 would recommend.

Installed as a replacement pickup in Fender bass. Works great.

Awesome pickup. I put it in my shell pink strat and it sounds great. It's a mim strat so the pickups leave something to be desired. Since I mostly use the bridge I needed something to take that tinny single coil sound out. The seymour duncan hot rails did it. I might swap out the neck pickup for something similar. I can't get enough of the way my guitar sounds now. I used the stock 250k pot and didn't really have to do any adjustments to my other pickups. Blends right in. Good job on thus pickup. Couldn't ask for more. I work on other people's guitars all the time. I'm glad I actually got to work on mine for a change. Will definitely recommend this pickup to all my strat customers who want some bite to their guitar.

I have had hot rails in two American Strats now.. I usually leave the middle and neck the Fender Pickups and I use a Hot Rail bridge pickup to really light up the Marshal Tube DSL 20... The output of these Hot Rails is insane.. especially for their size..

What else can you say? Sounds great. Looks sharp. Made in USA. Hat trick when it comes to single size pick ups.

I fitted a SHR-1b to my Fender Jaguar to replace the (also excellent) SJAG-3b that was fitted as I was tired of having to deal with single coil picking up mains hum in poorly shielded venues. This was about 3 years ago and I've loved the guitar more since fitting the Hot Rail than I did before! Obviously it's designed for a Strat so you have to strip the wires a bit more to make them stretch to the relevant points in the guitar (it grounds to the volume pot and the live wire goes to the lead circuit and these things are not close to each other in the body routes) however the result is more than worth the effort getting it soldered up. Big, powerful but also articulate tones that have a strong and distinctive mid that mades chords chunky and lead work searing and clear, never losing definition no matter what you're doing. The Jaguar has been my main guitar for years and has Duncan pickups in both the neck (SJAG-3n) and bridge (SHR-1b) now; I won't use any other pickups if I'm putting money down to upgrade them in any guitar.

Arrived k and in good shape.

The pu's sound exactly how I had hoped they would.

Beautiful hot pickup. It's doubled the thick sound I wanted in klmy strat and complements my middle fender pickup very well. Overall, I couldn't be happier. I have always loved SDPups!!!

I bought the complete strat set and put them...well, I got someone else to put them into my left handed Squier Affinity. The difference is amazing. I'm just at the start of my journey of tone discovery with these bad boys, but the bridge is great for gain, riffing and chords, while the middle and neck lend themselves to solos and single note stuff. I've now stopped browsing for any other guitars, because with this set I've got all the tone I need. I veer towards metal and rock, but these pickups will handle anything and sound great.

I had previously replaced my stock USA Fender Strat pickups with EMG active pickups, but I was unhappy with the sound. They sounded very thin in the mid-range. So, after reading numerous reviews, I decided to try SD Hot Rails Strat pickups... and WOW! These pickups sound great! Great mid-range, incredible sustain, and just great overall tonal quality! I expected nothing less than excellence from Seymour Duncan.

I put the bridge model in my YJM Strat and was seriously impressed with the sweet saturated tone from the Hot Rails. Both with the amp clean and distorted. Makes a Strat sound twice as mean as any Gibson or PRS. I'm going to buy two more bridges and one neck for my other two Stats. Theres no point in messing with a single coil at the bridge when this awesome alternative is available.

good 🙂

Sounds like a loud, thick humbucker and fits perfectly in a Strat bridge position! Installation was easy. I love it!

Amazing! Worth every penny!

AAA+++

Bought the complete set of hot rails to replace the stock pickups in a MIM player series strat. These were everything I was looking for. Lovely fat, warm tone with a biting edge and sustain for days. If you want a humbucker sound but don’t want to ditch your strat, these are definitely the way to go. Also, in my opinion they look very nice.

Awesome pickup! It adds a lot of versatility to my strat.

This pickup sounds amazing on my Fender Stratocaster. I would highly recommend if you are serious about upgrading your sound.

Great service and incredible pickups

I put this (neck/middle version) in a baritone (28" scale) Strat-style home-built guitar (mahogany neck and body). It's in the middle position between a Sentient and Pegasus trembucker. This pickup works really well with the extended scale and pairs nicely with either neck or bridge pickups. It imparts some of that Strat cluck but without the hum, and it just sounds great no matter what amount of gain it's driving. Love it.

It was a pleasant experience. no hiccups or issues. it came as stated. it was easy to install. it sounds great with no buzz. not having to router out for a PAF or P90 was a real enticement to give the Hotrails a try. I am very impressed.

I have a Quarter Pounder in the neck and the Hot Rails in the bridge. This has become the most dynamic and versatile workhorse in my lineup!!

Turned my strat into a beast!!! Great service easy install!!!

I have ran a Hot Rails in the Bridge of my Strat for 20+ years. When the old one started having problems it was a no brainer to replace it with a new one.

The Hot Rails bridge was exactly what I was looking for. It has a killer tone and is very versatile.

Great Pickup! Took the Hum on my strat away on the bridge and sounds great!

I got exactly what you are supposed to get. I bought the whole set and by guitar teacher put them in for me, and they sound great. They don’t do clean stuff great, but they do any sort of overdrive or distortion great. One thing to mention is just the high output the pickups produce. I have the gain on my amp on one and if I go anymore, it starts to distort. It is ready to rock when you plug in your guitar. Overall really happy. It serves its purpose well. If you want the clean, calm strat sound, I would look else where.

Exactly what I was looking for my bridge position. Great breakup and sustain, with less compression than the 16k hot rails version. Great match with standard Strat pickups in the neck and middle positions. Thanks!

Great for eliminating buzz. Hoped it would improve gain but results were marginal.

I use this pickup in the bridge position in some of my Strats. I compare it to transforming an Oldsmobile Cutlass to an Oldsmobile 4.4.2. I love the tone, the crunch, sustain. Enabling my Strat to go from Hendrix to extreme metal!! Thank you, Seymour. Keep rockin!

Fire breathing dragon!

Killer pickups! I use Hot Rails in the neck position and Little 59's in the bridge position on a few of my guitars, love the tone, great job!!

The hot rails is great, the cool rails is great, the alnico pro 2 is great, the black winter had to be sent back but I got a new one and now the black winter is great. Awesome products and awesome company.

Exactly what I wanted !!

I love these pick ups, I’ve bought many over the years and every time I get sick of Tele twang I slap one in.

I was looking for more output from my Strat. Don't get me wrong, I loved the vmod pickups, but I was playing heavier rock and wanted more punch. Man, did I get it. I installed a Hot Rail in the bridge, a Vintage Rail in the middle and a Cool Rail in the neck. They sound amazing. I just can't believe the difference. The biggest surprise was the Cool Rail. That is one loud, screaming pickup. I could not be happier.

Fantastic! Thanks !

sounds pretty great

I love a neck pickup that’s warm and full on the clean channel and a dirty maniac on the gain channel and this pickup exceeded my expectations with both. I would recommend to anyone.

Best pick up ever.