Hot Rails Bridge and Stock Middle No Longer Noise Free

[fenderlover]

I just installed Hot Rails for the bridge position of my MIA Strat and it sounds great!! The problem is, the #2 position (Bridge and Middle) are no longer hum-free! What did I do wrong (the middle pickup is a stock single coil)? How can I correct this problem?

[Jan]

Re: Hot Rails Bridge and Stock Middle No Longer Noise Free

The main trick is to load your guitar with a reversed single coil in the middle position. That works on SSS guitars (humbucking-effect).

Otherwhise try an humbucker in single-coil-size in the middle position. E.g. the Duncan Coolrails or Vintage Rails. So there will be less (almost no) hum int he middle and in between positions.

[Farkus]

Re: Hot Rails Bridge and Stock Middle No Longer Noise Free

The main trick is to load your guitar with a reversed single coil in the middle position. That works on SSS guitars (humbucking-effect).

Otherwhise try an humbucker in single-coil-size in the middle position. E.g. the Duncan Coolrails or Vintage Rails. So there will be less (almost no) hum int he middle and in between positions.

The dude already has the RWRP middle pickup. That's why it was humbucking before but now that the bridge isn't a single the combo hums.

I'm not sure what the best solution to your problem is. I would ASSUME if you coil tapped the correct coil on the HR, the middle-bridge combo would be hum canceling again. But I'm not sure about doing that with the stock Fender pup in the middle...though it is RWRP that coil tapping business may yield an out of phase result. I'd e-mail tech support or try to post on here a with a more descriptive title. I'd be interested in the info, too.

BTW, welcome to the forum you two!!

Farkus.

[fenderlover]

Re: Hot Rails Bridge and Stock Middle No Longer Noise Free

Thanks for the welcome. As for your advice, I was suspecting something similar to that after reading a lot of the FAQ's on Seymour's site. I just can't see how you can cancel hum with a humbucker (HR) and single coil combo unless you do something like splitting the humbucker so that you activate only one such that it becomes a single coil. Either way, the #2 position is not something I'm too concerned about: I usually only use b or neck.

[Farkus]

Re: Hot Rails Bridge and Stock Middle No Longer Noise Free

Thanks for the welcome. As for your advice, I was suspecting something similar to that after reading a lot of the FAQ's on Seymour's site. I just can't see how you can cancel hum with a humbucker (HR) and single coil combo unless you do something like splitting the humbucker so that you activate only one such that it becomes a single coil. Either way, the #2 position is not something I'm too concerned about: I usually only use b or neck.

Yeah. That's what I was saying about the coil splitting. If you seach Duncans support page, you'll find diagrams to split coils in various ways. I'm considering the 'dial-a-tap' mod which allows you to convert one of your tone controls to a volume knob that effects only one of the coils of your humbucker, so you can 'blend' in the coil...with this control at zero, you have essentially coil tapped. So this might work for you too, if you're interested.

Farkus

[Simon_F]

Re: Hot Rails Bridge and Stock Middle No Longer Noise Free

I'm giving this a bump. Where's Robert? He'll know the answer!