Charvel PM DK22SSS without Hot Rails in Bridge

[mshadow]

Hi…I picked up a used DK22SSS (2020 Serial Number) from Guitar Center - after I got it, I realized that it did not have the typical Hot Rails humbucker single in the bridge. The bridge pick up is a Seymour Duncan (I haven’t figured out which model yet).

Two questions -
1) did Charvel ever make the DK22 without the Hotrails? I searched through GC, Reverb, etc and found a couple of listings without the hot rails.
2) Any one ever swapped out their Hot rails for a standard single coil? Why?

Thanks!

[ed]

Maybe they just didnt like the sound and decided to change it. Pickup swapping is a very common thing. You should see some signs of the swap if you open up the control cavity.

[mshadow]

Maybe they just didnt like the sound and decided to change it. Pickup swapping is a very common thing. You should see some signs of the swap if you open up the control cavity.

Thats what I assumed but I was curious if it was common for folks to not like the Hot Rails in the DK. I have a hot rails in one of my Strats and like it

[metalhobo]

people like all kinds of different things. the hot rails is regarded as a fine sounding pickup but it's a humbucker. someone who wants a single coil tone would swap it out.

I bought an ltd with a hot rails neck pickup. it sounded good but I wanted a single coil sound so I swapped it for something else

[mshadow]

I popped the pickups out - the prior owner has installed a stand SSL-6 in the bridge position.

[metalhobo]

ssl-6 is a great pickup for bridge position. fat strat tone, no ice picky highs like vintage strat pups might have in that position. the lack of magnet stagger works well for guitars like this, too. if you're looking for that humbucker type of tone, tho, you'd probably want to go back to the hot rails