Bought this to put in the middle position of my superstrat. Wired it in parallel. The tone is still definitely strat, but it's now a bit fatter, and no hum. Also picks up better harmonics. Produces a wonderful strat quack tone when used along with one of the coils of the SD Screamin Demon I have on the bridge - excellent funk rhythm tone is effortless. The only con I could find is that the mounting screws are big, so I had to widen the pickguard holes in order for the height adjustment to work.

Having owned this pickup for only a couple months, I can't tell you about long term issues, but I can tell you that it is great for just about everything. It can nail a good blues riff, metal alt rock, or even acoustic. I got this for the bridge pickup of my MIM strat, but I would instal in on anything up to a Stevie Ray Vaughan strat. the tone controls can change it from screaming lead to calm, almost acoustic levels. It looks awesome, would be great in a gig, and can sound raw and vintage, like an ideal strat should.

I was looking for a pickup to put in the middle position of my American Strat that would remove that awful 60 cycle hum but not detract from the crisp tone Strats are known for. I must say that I adored the stock Fender pickups and I was leery about changing them out. I was going to put in a set of noiseless Fender pups, but I decided to check out the SD rail selection and listen to the samples on their website. The Vintage Rails blew my expectations out of the water. It's CLEARER than the original pickup and has a very rich and velvety tone all throughout the spectrum, especially in the clean tone. Whoever said that bends are caught better through rail pickups was dead on- the level of sound is totally uniform. You get the benefit of a humbucker without sacrificing what you love about a single coil.

i love this pickup. I have a frankenstein strat that only has a stock neck and body. when i first got it i put vintage guild single coils in the whole but i couldnt get the right sound out of the bridge position when using high but i wanted a vintage tone. i messed around with a couple options and eventually chose this i love. im getting one for the neck position to.

Put this little bucker in a tele I was building in the neck. Matched with a Duncan Little 59 Bridge pu.4 way switch.Clear great sound on its own. Mixed with the bridge it sounds great and switching between series & parallel You can really get some Nasty overdriven growl at high gain. Completly satisfied with my combo of Duncans on this axe.Playing through a Fender Blues Junior NOS

I already have a Seymour Duncan HotRails pickup in my Strat that I'm thrilled with, so when I decided it was time to replace my stock single-coil neck pickup with a humbucker stack, I immediately decided to see what SD had to offer. I was looking for that classic ringing "quack" but without all the hum that comes with a single-coil. After checking out the audio samples on the Seymour Duncan website, I narrowed it down to either the Vintage Rails or the Duckbucker, which is wired almost the same way but with pole-pieces instead of rails. I finally decided on the Vintage Rails, as I've found rail-based pickups seem to have a consistent signal even when bending. I'm happy to say it was the perfect choice: the Vintage Rails in the neck position definitely has the clear, chiming tone I wanted, but is much more punchy and powerful than the single-coils - and without the dreaded hum. I just ordered another one to replace the middle single-coil pickup as well. Very highly recommended.