I recently sold my ESP M200 for a brand new MIM Fat Strat. (I'm not rich, can't afford the American) The playability of the strat is incredible over my old ESP. But, the stock pickups in the Strat suck. My favorite band is Iron Maiden. New Maiden, Old Maiden.......doesn't matter. It's all great. I love their sound. Doing research of their setups, they use SD Hotrails and the Dimarzio Super Distortion DP100. Over last weekend, I pulled my Hotrails out of my project guitar, and installed it in the middle position of my Strat. Here's where the fun begins. When I use the Rails alone, I get the exact warm and very hot sound I expected to get. Resistance on this pickup is 13.5K. (actual measurement) When combined with the bridge pickup, the sound gets very tinny (spelling?). When switched to the bridge alone, (8.5K) I get the old sound from the stock humbucker (good drive, but not enough power). I disconnected the auto tap that was stock for position 4, and now #4 should be bridge + middle in parallel.
Could the difference in resistance between the 2 pickups be causing this irritating sound? Or did I miss something in the wiring. I did try a 500k tone pot, but it only got worse so I put the 250k back. I made sure that both pickups are wired in series, and in phase with each other. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
After dropping several hints to the wife, I hope to get the Dimarzio for Christmas........have to wait and see.
