It depends on what kind of magnet the respective Hot Rails use... Strat pickups generally use Alnico (Aluminum, Nickle, Cobalt alloy) of either the II or IV variety... Hot Rails can use Alnico, Ceramic, or other mixtures of alloys as magnets which change the tone. If you want a strat'ish tone with the versatility of humbuckers in a "hot rail" or mini humbucker setup... check out the "Everything Axe" set from Seymour Duncan... my friend has them in his strat and they sound awesome... He can get any tone from Muddy Waters to Dimebag Darryl.