2 condudctor Vintage Rails?

[gtrdave]

I recently purchased a used Vintage Rails and it just came in so I'm in the middle of installing it.
First thing I noticed was that it's a 2 conductor pickup with a shield (red/white/bare) and the second thing I noticed after installing it was the tone is very thin. As in phase canceling thin, esp. in pos. 2 and 4.
I've got red to the switch, white and bare together to ground.

It's going into a Strat w/ 5 way, 1 vol and 2 tones.
Other pickups are A Fender Noiseless (neck) and Duncan Designed hb in the bridge.
The VR is going into the middle.

Should I reverse the red and white?
Is this an old VR w/ 2 conductor?

Hmmm...

 

[gtrdave]

Re: 2 condudctor Vintage Rails?

Ok, I swapped the red and white (white to switch, red and shield to ground) and all is well. :smokin:

 

[Artie]

Re: 2 condudctor Vintage Rails?

Glad to hear that you solved the problem, and yes, older VR's were 2-conductor since they were internally wired in parallel.

 

[MartinSixStringCustoms]

Re: 2 condudctor Vintage Rails?

older VR's were 2-conductor since they were internally wired in parallel.

I was not aware of that. Thanks, Artie

 

[Artie]

Re: 2 condudctor Vintage Rails?

Yeah, thats why if you looked at their DC resistance on the tone chart, they were about 2.3k. They weren't underwound, the parallel connection just cut the coil resistance in half.