A question about Rails humbuckers....

[Mincer]

I like the thinner, raised Rail the best, but there must be a reason to use the other kinds. I also like the black baseplates with the triangular tabs. It looks better on wood-mounted pickups without rings.

 

[freefrog]

Raised rails have an effect comparable to staggered poles. Thinner vs thicker rails change the inductance and how the magnetic field spreads...


EDIT - OK, yet another boringly geeky contribution.

Below is the response of pickups played in chords from unfretted strings to 12th fret, direct to the board.

Bridge pickups first.
One is a vintage Bill Lawrence L500 equivalent to the current "XL": more than 9H of inductance. It has thin "raised" rails.
The other is a DiMarzio X2N: it has wide flat rails and exhibits more than 10H of inductance.
As expected, lower inductance gives less high frequencies.
The difference of bass is due partly to magnets... but still shows how thin "raised" rails contribute to focus the response and tighten the bass. No comment about the slight bump above main resonant frequency with the BL: it's due to parasitic capacitance of its 4-conductors cable...




Now, below is the response of a Wilde L500L (supposed to be loaded with AlNiCo in this case), neck position, under the response of a Seth Lover with comparable wiring.

The L500 rolls off high frequencies sooner. It's due to its 1.5 times higher inductance. But it doesn't seem to lack low mid warmth compared to the Seth...

 

[Ashurbanipal]

We should also recall that the traditional Firebird pu is also a rail type in the vintage realm, though, of course, the rails themselves are the magnets, unlike the Duncans, DiMarzios and BLs we've been discussing so far.

There's also those Railhammer pups, which combine both rails and slugs for the bass and treble strings respectively.

 

[Mincer]

The graph helps understand that it is most likely a product design choice (unless there is a patent I don't know about) that SD hasn't made PAF-sounding Rail.

 

[Masta' C]

I see a marketing opportunity...someone call Joe Bonamassa!

 

[Mincer]

I see a marketing opportunity...someone call Joe Bonamassa!

Joe is pretty traditional. I think he would believe a Rail pickup that looks like a modern shred pickup but sounds like one of his 1958 PAFs would give him seizures.

 

[gripweed]

Those posting about the Jazz Rails should keep in mind that it uses an a8 magnet. It may or may not be high output, I haven’t tried it yet. Everything else being equal, it should be at least a little hotter because of the a8 magnet.

 

[Mincer]

Those posting about the Jazz Rails should keep in mind that it uses an a8 magnet. It may or may not be high output, I haven’t tried it yet. Everything else being equal, it should be at least a little hotter because of the a8 magnet.

I am not sure if they wanted it hotter, or if they took into account the Rail design and had to make some alterations to the formula to keep it sounding/feeling like a Jazz.

 

[Chistopher]

The Jazz has never been a hot humbucker, but it's usually in the same conversations

 

[Coma]

What problem exactly is it that rails aim to solve? The only thing I've read about is that it eliminates issues of lower output when the strong isn't placed directly over the pole pieces, IE when you bend. I have never, be it with Gibson, SD, Dimarzio, EMG or even stock pickups of questionable quality come across any such issues.

The only use case I can think of would be that it would eliminate the need for different pickup widths. Which is neat, I suppose.

Am I missing something here?

EDIT: I would totally buy one just because they look badass, though...

 

[JamesPaul]

From the Physics perspective, it would change the shape of the magnetic field. I think it would be obvious how, if it were mapped out visually.

I also think, and agree with you, that is how Rails are advertised; max strength magnetic field as the string never falls outside the pole piece(s). That is also why I think there is not a lot of demand for Rails in the Vintage PAF market. There are those who would claim they can hear the difference when the string is not directly over a pole piece and those differences would be perceived as defects for the true Vintage PAF tones. Some seem to go to extremes when constructing Vintage PAF clones.

Although, maybe Mincer is considering this. Some may like the improved Vintage PAF tone with Rails.

Why are there Flat and Staggered pole piece single coils Fender pickups and why do people have preferences?

Why is there a Five-Two Tele pickup, yet not everyone uses it?

Maybe some of the great mysteries of life, errr... pickups.

 

[Mincer]

I do have a question sent to the Custom Shop about this, so perhaps we will know for sure soon...

 

[Chistopher]

What problem exactly is it that rails aim to solve?

This looks like it would make the E strings have very low volume. In the world of guitar, there is a cultural issue where a large section of people think your value as a guitar player is tied to your ability to hear little things. So if pickup makers design a pickup that claims to fix this minor "issue", a lot of people will jump on it.

Even if played clean and bending the strings to the outside of the fretboard, I don't really hear a volume drop. If you are playing higher gain genres, such as what the rails are designed for, you are not going to hear any difference at all.

 

[Artie]

To be honest, I like rails mainly for their look. But I do love the sound of the HR/CR/VR series. And I never miss an opportunity to post my Schecter Blackjack.

 

[Mincer]

Yeah, on more modern designs, they look cool. And they solve the issue of strings dropping out when bending.