Efilnickufesin Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 (edited) I may be jumping the gun a little here, I don't even have this guitar yet, but I'm planning on getting an Ibanez RG321MH, and was wondering something. I have a strat with a seymour duncan hot rail single coil pickup in the bridge position. I don't know how good the pickups on the Ibanez are, so I was just wondering in case I don't like them if I could switch one of them out for the hot rails. The RG has two humbuckers, and I'm pretty sure it's possible to replace one of them with the hot rails, but I wanted to know for sure, and I also wanted to know if there was anything special that I had to do. I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but I just want to be sure and I couldn't find a topic where they discuss this. Edited April 22, 2007 by Efilnickufesin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 A Hot Rails is a full-on humbucker in a smaller shape. It can't replace just one of the "coils" in that ibanez... it would replace the whole humbucker. And end up looking silly, unfortunately. Electronically, it's absolutely possible without even any muss... but aesthetically, not so much. You'd be better off shopping for an upgraded full-sized humbucker if you decide to replace the pickups. But as you suspect-- it's jumping the gun a bit. The pickups in there might be great. Don't let your brain and marketing hype fool you the way I've done in the past. I got a budget-level guitar (a Cort Pagelli model) recently, and had convinced myself that I'd be better off replacing the stock pickups (Mighty Mite PAF-style pickups) with known "legends" (Seymour Duncan Jazz and JB combo) that I happened to have in my parts drawer waiting for me to ever get back to my project. So I replaced them. Y'know? The stock pickups were just as good, and I think I even preferred the stock neck. The bridge was a bit of an upgrade, but not to the level where I was absolutely over the moon about having done the mod. It gave me a chance to clean up the wiring and shielding, too, but at the end of the day the pickup replacement wasn't the silver bullet you might think it to be. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kit Posted June 4, 2007 Report Share Posted June 4, 2007 Hi there, First post, as I was just looking for something formyself, but surely there is a simple solution to this problem; there are lots of tutorials on how to make pickups, so why don't you get your single coil and put a 'fake'single coil next to it. This way, on the surface it looks like a humbucker, whereas in reality it is just a single coil with a fake "other half" of the humbucker next to it. Regards, Kit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retro_10s Posted June 4, 2007 Report Share Posted June 4, 2007 Hey, i think you'll find the stock pickups to be quite fun, not completely balls out so to say,... but they have enough tone etc for you to get to the know the guitar... and Imo a good stock Bucker. Just to throw another spanner in the works.... you could always just add a coil tap, then you get your single coil sound at the flick of the switch. Only problem is, I can't remember if the RG in question will have the four wires you need for the tap... I'd be suprised if it didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IbanezFreak666 Posted June 4, 2007 Report Share Posted June 4, 2007 you can buy covers that fit over single pickups..they look like humbuckers but inside you can fit singles of your choice. and some stock pickups can be good. but i know iv had guitars where the stock pickups were absolutly terrible... but its still worth giving it a try first. my friend has a cheap ibanez with stock pickups and he says they sound okay. but the only other guitar hes actully played was a really really cheap strat copy with terrible pickups, and i thought my LTD stock pickups were great till i got EMGs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kit Posted June 5, 2007 Report Share Posted June 5, 2007 Hi again, Just to let you know that there's a pickup modification technique called Coil Tapping, where a humbucker is altered giving the properties and response of a single coil.. something to look into? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retro_10s Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 Hi again, Just to let you know that there's a pickup modification technique called Coil Tapping, where a humbucker is altered giving the properties and response of a single coil.. something to look into? There's Coil tapping and Coil cutting..... Coil cutting is where (using a switch) you essentially turn off one of the coils on your humbucker, leaving you with a single coil to play through. Is this what you're thinking of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted September 11, 2007 Report Share Posted September 11, 2007 Anyone aware of a link to these things... you can buy covers that fit over single pickups..they look like humbuckers but inside you can fit singles of your choice. I have occasionally thought of doing such a thing, I know I have seen P90 style pickups in HB sized covers... any ideas? pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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