P-Rail conversion to standard P90 size!

[billlorentzen]

The P-Rail neck pickup has a lot of fans - and I’m one of them. I use it in the neck of most of my guitars, but 97% on the P90 coil. I would describe its sound as Strat-like highs with warm low end, and from my experience is unmatched by any other pickup except the Fishman Fluence neck P90 in position 2, which is very close (and not coincidentally co-voiced [is that a word?] by Frank Falbo, who designed the PRail). My guess is it can hit a higher peak than other Ps because the bobbin is narrower, as well as shorter, than a standard P90.

I wanted a new Warmoth guitar with a PPP layout, and thought I would just find a P90 for the neck and middle that sounds like a P-Rail. After trying several, including a Duncan Custom Shop “P-Rail wind”, a Planetone Elite Pro, a Reverend and a Duncan Vintage, none of them sounded like a P-Rail. Most were lacking the special highs that make the PRail so versatile and fun to play.

I was bummed, and faced with settling for the Custom Shop, which is close but hits a peak lower than I wanted, with the Planetone in the middle and a Dimarzio P shaped humbucker. (You may ask why I didn’t use Fluences. I have another almost identical guitar with them in it.). I also added a DMT Dual Mode Bass & Treble Guitar Tone Control, which helped for thinning the neck, but did nothing to move the peak up to PRail territory.

In a flash of inspiration, it hit me: I measured the pole spacing of a PRail, and it matched the Duncan covers. I tore the pickup down, removed the rail coil, trimmed down the rail side of the base plate, drilled out mounting holes in the plate (the coil already has them) and VOILA, a P90 that sounds like a PRail! I’m in heaven!

[Mincer]

Wow! That is quite a project! What's the P-Rail look like under the cover?

[billlorentzen]

Wow! That is quite a project! What's the P-Rail look like under the cover?

I should have taken a picture, but I didn’t. It looks like a P90 with a narrower and shorter bobbin. Maybe taller too.
Converting the PRail was surprisingly easy, a half hour job with a Dremel and a drill. I wish I’d thought of it in the first place!

[justFred]

Brilliant! Same here, use P-Rail in neck on go to using the P almost exclusively. Don't care for the rail but would really like the option of an antiquity texas hot stratocaster neck pickup...aesthetics will be terrible but having the option would be worth it.

[eclecticsynergy]

Great idea. I love P90s in neck position, but a version that's a little chimier seems like a great thing.

Brilliant! Same here, use P-Rail in neck on go to using the P almost exclusively. Don't care for the rail but would really like the option of an antiquity texas hot stratocaster neck pickup...aesthetics will be terrible but having the option would be worth it.

You might consider an underwound P90 with alnico rod mags instead of the usual bars.
I have a couple that Jerry Sentell made for me. They are noticeably more Fendery in tone and attack.
I believe they read a narrower section of string thanks to a tightly focused magnetic field.
If you had somebody make you a tapped one, you'd have a lower output option available too.

Of course, it'd be cheaper to mod a P-rails like the OP did.
I just might try that one day.

[Mikelamury]

Did you have to do anything to the wires when you removed the rail coil?

[billlorentzen]

Did you have to do anything to the wires when you removed the rail coil?

Not much. I just cut the rail coil wires and used the P coil wires of the existing wiring. It was really simple.

[GuitarDoc]

What an adventurous idea/project. Kudos!
I, like most others, find the P-90 coil the most useful in the P-Rail pup and use it about the same...about 95% of the time. I also like the P-Rail in parallel, a lot.