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You buy them from SD or Dimarzio and you find the muddy with even 500 ohm potentiometer. I cant find a decent sound with my Peavey valve king 4×12. Is it my amplifier or my effects or just the amplifier? Ive tried to get a decent sound with that amplifier for almost 3 years. Or does single coil humbucking pickups sound muddy?

4x12 would be hella muddy at lower volumes. whats it sound like through other amps?

as for pots, yeah 500k minimum. you should try 1meg pots instead though.

George wrote:4x12 would be hella muddy at lower volumes. whats it sound like through other amps?

as for pots, yeah 500k minimum. you should try 1meg pots instead though.

Sounds really good with my small amp. Have to crank it up then. 1 meg if that dosent work.

I think that is just how Hot Rails are. Have you tried winding down the guitar volume to clean up the sound?
When you say 'muddy' do you mean lacking clarity and bassy?

There is an old mod for Les Pauls which helps keep treble clarity when you wind the guitar volume down. You wire in a cap between the volume and tone pot. It may help. If you search 'treble bleed mod for les paul' it will find variations of this. Its easy to do. Just apply it to your guitar.

What everyone else here said. Alternately, you could try wiring them parallel instead of series. It'll drop the output, but it cleans up the muddiness a bit and retains the humbucking aspect. I had my Jackson wired with a series/parallel switch, and you could definitely tell the difference.

[quote="Fran"]I think that is just how Hot Rails are. Have you tried winding down the guitar volume to clean up the sound?
When you say 'muddy' do you mean lacking clarity and bassy?

Muddy and bassy

Try 1 meg pots, I use them in one of my guitars as I found the humbucker tone too thick, makes the coil splits sound awful and tinny though unfortunately.

I'm actually stunned at the amount of hate in this thread. I run a SD hot rails in the bridge of my strat, and it's one of the cleanest sounds I've ever heard. On top of that you can get the chug necessary for super high gain stuff, then turn your volume down and get the honky strat snap. It's really awesome. I can't speak for the Dimarzio though. I've never owned one.

I'm actually stunned at the amount of hate in this thread. I run a SD hot rails in the bridge of my strat, and it's one of the cleanest sounds I've ever heard. On top of that you can get the chug necessary for super high gain stuff, then turn your volume down and get the honky strat snap. It's really awesome. I can't speak for the Dimarzio though. I've never owned one.

Its not hate just a problem with the Peavey amp.
With my other amp no prob.

no hate against hot rails

just a dark amp

Try wiring the humbucker in parallel to add brightness. Usually works like a charm for dark pickups.

Do an JB Jr with 1megs. Cuts like a knife without getting icepicky.

paul_ wrote:Do an JB Jr with 1megs. Cuts like a knife without getting icepicky.

Have done that to 1 guitar with 500 ohms pots, bright as hell already!