Hot rail doesn't clean up with volume

[Tonefinder]

Not only does the volume knob fail to clean up the gain, it hardly reduces the signal's volume. The hot rail is installed in the bridge of an American strat. Unsurprisingly, it also doesn't play nice with the (wretched) Fender noiseless PUs in the neck and middle.

Decades ago, I had a different hot rail in a Japanese strat, but I can't recall if I was using the guitar volume in those days. One thing I can say though, is the hot rail did not overpower those single coils, especially the neck PU. Switching between neck and hot rail bridge was pretty complimentary.

Basically, my searches are not revealing others who profess a similar experience, and I'm trying to figure out next steps.

[freefrog]

Hi,

Yes, a Hot Rails is... hot.

A possible solution in your case would be to wire it in parallel. It would divide its (enormous) inductance + its DCR by four, lowering its output of several dB and making its sound thinner / brighter, closer to Fender M n' N SC sized pickups.

Parallel / series wiring is easy to mount on a push-pull pot. And it's a useful tool IME: one of my main stage guitars has an Hot Rails bridge with this option and I often use it to go from dark powerful sounds to single coilish tones. Works for me.

FWIW.

[beaubrummels]

Also, I don't know if it's part of your issue, but my understanding is Duncans are reverse phase from Fenders.

[Mincer]

Also, I don't know if it's part of your issue, but my understanding is Duncans are reverse phase from Fenders.

Almost all of them are out of phase with each other, so that's an issue if you don't know this when installing them. The HR will also overpower almost any single coils it is paired with, too. And yes, it can be so compressed that the volume knob (especially a 250k one) might act more like an on/off switch.

You could try lowering the HR, or even wiring it in parallel (or with a series/parallel switch). If you'd like to post a clip of what it is doing, do that, too.

[Chistopher]

That sounds like linear taper pot behavior right there

[zionstrat]

That's pretty standard hot rail performance.. parallel to self definitely helps as mentioned above... Many times a cool rail makes more sense in place of a hot rail... There's really nothing cool about it other than it's not a hot rail.

[Clint 55]

That sounds like linear taper pot behavior right there

Good advice. Check to see if the volume pot is linear taper. Linear taper volume pots taper nice played clean, but with distortion they don't clean up til near the bottom of the sweep. Audio taper volume pots turn down faster and clean up in the usable portion of the sweep.

[jeremy]

i have a hot rails/strabro90/hot rails setup in a strat and it cleans up just fine. i used vintage taper pots from mojotone, id check your pot taper and/or wiring.

i dont care for fender noiseless pups, though some like em fine

[ArtieToo]

That's pretty standard hot rail performance.. parallel to self definitely helps as mentioned above... Many times a cool rail makes more sense in place of a hot rail... There's really nothing cool about it other than it's not a hot rail.

You beat me to it. Using a Cool Rail makes more sense, (to me), than doing an HR in parallel, (which sort of defeats its purpose).

[freefrog]

Using a Cool Rail makes more sense, (to me), than doing an HR in parallel, (which sort of defeats its purpose).

De gustibus et de coloribus non est disputandum, one man's trash is another man's gold, etc.: IMHO, series / parallel wiring reveals the potentialities of Hot Rails. :-)

Since it divides DCR and inductance by four, parallel wiring seems more logical with powerful pickups (while I'd tend to split weaker ones): above 6H, a HB in parallel starts to give convincing SC sounds. It's the case with the Dimebucker, for instance: once in parallel, it's surprisingly Fender sounding (IME).

This wiring is even more interesting with SC sized HB's, whose form factor and related magnetism reduce the gap with regular SC's... and the OP was precisely complaining about the difference of HR vs Fender PU’s.

[RAMBLING MODE ON - That's why one of my main stage guitars hosts a Hot Rails bridge PU + a Cool Rails (bridge) in neck position: when each pickup is in parallel, I have a 2H neck PU and a 3H bridge one. These inductive values are those of Fender Tele Single coils and sound accordingly.

When I set each PU in series, I obtain a 6H neck PU (same inductance than a P90) and the astoundingly high 12H of the Hot Rails: the guitar becomes a dark beefy fire breather and rivails with any of my other axes hosting 2 regular HB's.

I use this instrument to play covers of all kinds for 20 years now and I find its series/parallel wiring extremely versatile. That's the axe that I play when I don't want to take several guitars on stage... RAMBLING MODE OFF.]

FWIW : 2 other geeky cents. ;-)

[ArtieToo]

. . . one man's trash is another man's gold, etc.: IMHO, series / parallel wiring reveals the potentialities of Hot Rails. :-)

I agree. I've done it. I have three HR's in a Strat. I was thinking more in terms of a permanent HR parallel. I think that would be a loss.

[zionstrat]

I find its series/parallel wiring extremely versatile.

A second, significantly different tone that still humbucking.. why not?