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P-Rails wiring issues

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  • P-Rails wiring issues

    Gentlemen,
    I recently took delivery of 2 P-rails and one classic stack plus from Wymore guitars (Thanks john!) for use in an HSH guitar, with one volume, one tbx tone, 2 mini switches and a 5-way switch. I basically combined a bunch of diagrams, from the P-rails one vol/one tone/3way switch 2 push/pull ( http://www.seymourduncan.com/support...ils_1v_1t_tspp ) as well as 3 classic stacks 5 way/vol/tone ( http://www.seymourduncan.com/support...stks4_1v_1t_5w ) and came up with my wiring. Additionally, I switched the positions on the 5 way switch and the neck and middle pickups so I could get something resembling the strat neck + middle as well as dual humbucker sounds.

    So, what's the problem here, you ask? The middle pickups and bridge pickup work great; the P-rails in the bridge is cool, and as advertized switches pretty much as the diagram with the mini-switches describes. The neck pickup however is completely off the rails (pun har har!) The mini-switch config described as parallel sounds almost like a single coil, the single coil config sounds like a tinny, super-weak pickup, the series config sounds like a P-90, and so on, plus it hums in all mini-switch configurations. I've re-soldered all the connections, replaced the vol pot, etc, and nothing has turned the neck pickup into a winner. Anyone have any advice here? Frank? Thanks for reading on this far!

    Jeff
    Last edited by GrooveHT; 03-27-2008, 01:15 PM.

  • #2
    Re: P-Rails wiring issues

    Yeah no problem! I think I might know exactly what it is already. You're welcome to call and ask the operator for my extension, or technical/customer service, and we'll get it sorted out!

    If you'd like to talk to me directly and I'm not at my desk, go back to the operator and have me paged.

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    • #3
      Re: P-Rails wiring issues

      curiosity abounds! what was the issue?

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      • #4
        Re: P-Rails wiring issues

        now thats customer service :-)

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: P-Rails wiring issues

          Originally posted by frankfalbo View Post
          Yeah no problem! I think I might know exactly what it is already. You're welcome to call and ask the operator for my extension, or technical/customer service, and we'll get it sorted out!

          If you'd like to talk to me directly and I'm not at my desk, go back to the operator and have me paged.
          I'd so much rather you published it here, since i've got a similar guitar and could easily run into the same problem. i'd also like to see the wiring diagram that'll work correctly on these guitars. The point of these forums is to share information like this, no?

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: P-Rails wiring issues

            Well I haven't talked to Jeff yet, so I didn't put anything here. He may have spoken to Scott.

            See, we do everything differently inside the P-Rails so that you the customer don't have to figure out any complicated wiring. You can follow normal Seymour Duncan wiring codes, and they work appropriately with other Seymour Duncan Humbuckers and Single Coils.

            But inside, the pickup is very different, AND the neck is completely different from the bridge, so they'll hum cancel when used with eachother. So not only is the polarity different, but the wires are different, too. See, if you just have one push pull (which is very common) we want the normal Seymour Duncan wiring to split the pickup to a P90. That's the first difference. Normally a Seymour Duncan would split to the "slug" coil, which in this case is represented as the Rails coils.

            Anyway long story short, we've found 3 or 4 pickups out there (and caught the other few in-house) where the neck pickup Rails is flipped. All you have to do is reverse RED and GREEN to fix it. The pickup is fine, just the wire colors on the Rail were flipped.

            It sounds exactly like what happened to Jeff. It sounds like his neck Rail was out of phase with the P90. A two-wire flip and you're fixed!

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: P-Rails wiring issues

              Originally posted by frankfalbo View Post
              Well I haven't talked to Jeff yet, so I didn't put anything here. He may have spoken to Scott.

              See, we do everything differently inside the P-Rails so that you the customer don't have to figure out any complicated wiring. You can follow normal Seymour Duncan wiring codes, and they work appropriately with other Seymour Duncan Humbuckers and Single Coils.

              But inside, the pickup is very different, AND the neck is completely different from the bridge, so they'll hum cancel when used with eachother. So not only is the polarity different, but the wires are different, too. See, if you just have one push pull (which is very common) we want the normal Seymour Duncan wiring to split the pickup to a P90. That's the first difference. Normally a Seymour Duncan would split to the "slug" coil, which in this case is represented as the Rails coils.

              Anyway long story short, we've found 3 or 4 pickups out there (and caught the other few in-house) where the neck pickup Rails is flipped. All you have to do is reverse RED and GREEN to fix it. The pickup is fine, just the wire colors on the Rail were flipped.

              It sounds exactly like what happened to Jeff. It sounds like his neck Rail was out of phase with the P90. A two-wire flip and you're fixed!
              Frank,
              Sorry I haven't gotten back to you on the board here, I tried PMing you but your inbox was full.

              I did indeed talk to Scott, and he squared me away on the red/green swap. Works like a charm now, zero hum in the hum-cancelling modes which I like also The guitar kicks some names and takes some a$$ now! Thanks for taking an interest in my case here. I'll do some clippies either today or tomorrow (wife will be away tomorrow!).

              One request though, I'm utilizing the P-rails in an HSH setup, and I know people have expressed interest in using it in HSS as well. In the future when things slow down a bit (yeah I know how much THAT happens) could you post a few diagrams for 5-way switchers? Also, I found it useful swapping the neck and middle PUs on the 5-way switch so I could get neck + middle and neck + bridge combinations, so that may be an option you want to try. Thanks again!

              Jeff

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