“Enhanced string-to-string balance with increased clarity and sustain”: Seymour Duncan’s Rail Series reimagines its most popular pickups for high-gain setups
The Rail Series promises enhanced versions of some of the brand's top pickups, with a sleek design and more “clarity, tightness and sustain” for 6- and 7-string guitars
(Image credit: Seymour Duncan)
Seymour Duncan has given its most popular electric guitar pickups a makeover with the new Rail Series, which tailors the designs for high-gain guitar rigs.
The collection includes JB Rails, Jazz Rails, the Hot-Rodded Rails Set, Nazgûl Rails, Sentient Rails, and the Nazgûl Sentient Rails Set.
With this new release, the brand promises to maintain the “revered” characteristics of the originals, while adding an element of “clarity, tightness, and sustain” tailored to high-gain applications.
The Rail Series Pickups: JB, Jazz, Nazgul and Sentient meet Rail Design! - YouTube
With the JB Rails, Seymour Duncan retains the full low-end, crisp highs, and upper midrange bump of the JB Model, one of their classic pickups. What sets the Rails version apart is its design, which distributes the magnetic field across the strings, delivering what the brand calls “enhanced string-to-string balance with increased clarity and sustain.”
It’s complemented by the Jazz Rails pickup, an enhanced version of the original model's bright output, with the added boost that comes with the rail design. Together, they make up the Hot-Rodded Rail Set, which Seymour Duncan describes as “an exciting variation on our classic humbucker combination from the 1970s” with the “modern tone, feel, and look of rails.”
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(Image credit: Seymour Duncan)
The Nazgûl Sentient Rails Set(Image credit: Seymour Duncan)
Seymour Duncan 7-string Hot Rodded Rails Set (Image credit: Seymour Duncan)
The Nazgûl Sentient Rails Set reflects Seymour Duncan's focus on metal players. The Nazgûl Rails takes a page from the metal-attuned original pickup’s book, but puts a greater focus on the low-end and sustain. The Sentient Rails neck pickup is a companion to the Nazgûl Rails, delivering “exceptional clarity and harmonic range” for intricate chordal passages and lower tunings.
All pickups in the Rail Series are hand-built by the Seymour Duncan team in Santa Barbara, California. They feature an Alnico 8-bar magnet and 4-conductor lead wire for multiple wiring options, and are vacuum wax potted to guarantee a “squeal-free” performance. Additionally, they're available in both 6- and 7-string versions, with prices starting from $119.
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Janelle is a staff writer at GuitarWorld.com. After a long stint in classical music, Janelle discovered the joys of playing guitar in dingy venues at the age of 13 and has never looked back. Janelle has written extensively about the intersection of music and technology, and how this is shaping the future of the music industry. She also had the pleasure of interviewing Dream Wife, K.Flay, Yīn Yīn, and Black Honey, among others. When she's not writing, you'll find her creating layers of delicious audio lasagna with her art-rock/psych-punk band ĠENN.
