(Another) Hot Rails Wiring Question

[dayman]

I have an American Standard from 2013 with the Fat 50's pickups. I put a Hot Rails in the bridge position. I've read on some other forums that the Duncan's wiring suggestion of running the green wire to the switch and the black wire to ground for use with Fender pickups is wrong. Well, on my untrained ears I believe this is the correct way to wire it. I'm not quite sure what the out of phase sound should be, but it sounds a lot better in my setup with the green to the switch in position 2 (bridge and middle). It's not as thin as when I tried the black wire to the switch like many have suggested. I have a few questions regarding the hot rails.

1.) Mine doesn't quite sound like any of the sound samples I've heard when running just the bridge pickup (position 1). It still is higher pitched, but definitely more of a humbucker sound. Could this be a grounding issue? Or possibly a faulty pickup?

I was thinking about wiring the autosplit wiring as shown here:

https://docs.google.com/gview?embed...ntent/uploads/2016/05/1SCH_2S_5W_1V_2T_AS.pdf

2) Now will this wiring diagram work in my situation if I switched the green and black wires around like I need for the Fender pickups I'm using?

3) I have the bridge and middle pickups sharing the second tone control. Would this wiring still work with that configuration, or will that cause issues?

4) With the autosplit wiring above, which rail will be left active during the split? The one closest to the bridge, or the one closest to the neck? Does it matter?

 

[waltschwarzkopf]

Re: (Another) Hot Rails Wiring Question

Hi dayman,

I hope I don't reply too late. Here are some answers regarding your questions:

1) Without an actual sound sample from your guitar, I cannot say much. Have you checked all the wires? Also, keep in mind of the actual setup you have in comparison to the samples you have heard. Capacitor value, pot value, guitar woods and amp settings will affect your sound.

2) Yes, the diagram should work. Just pay attention to the manufacturers indications for connecting the pickup, grounding and splitting the coils.

3) I will not work, because if you jump the bridge and middle pickups with the tone cable, the will always be on together; it works only if the are on the second pole. In this case you are using the secondary pole for auto-splitting the humbucker, so the tone has to go directly to the pickup "hot" wire on the primary pole. I you want to auto-split, I would suggest to use one tone for the neck, the other for the middle and leave the bridge raw; that is how I have it on my HSS Strat. Exactly like the diagram you showed.

4) The pickups are usually mounted with the screw or adjustable coil pointing outwards, in this case to the bridge. Since yours is a hot-rails I assume the direction is using this reasoning and the same color convention. Therefore, the coil remaining active after splitting would be the inner coil, closest to the middle pickup. All this based on the diagram you shared. It matter if you want hum cancelling on position 2 (middle and split), the both active coils should have different polarity.

I hope I was able to help, let us know if you have more questions.


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[dayman]

Re: (Another) Hot Rails Wiring Question

I appreciate the reply and the information! How does your humbucker sound in the bridge position with no tone control? I had a no-load pot installed for tone 2 for the middle and bridge pups, and I had to replace it with a regular pot. I never tried the Hot Rails without a tone, or with the no-load, but with the single coils it was unbearable for me.

 

[waltschwarzkopf]

(Another) Hot Rails Wiring Question

I appreciate the reply and the information! How does your humbucker sound in the bridge position with no tone control?

Untamed and amazing! I like the sound of a raw bridge pickup, but it was a full humbucker with DCR if 15.4kOhms. On the neck I like them fat and bassy.

You could experiment with different capacitor values and different pot values as well until you find the "best" one. If you don't feel like soldering and unsoldering many times, run a couple of cables through the tone hole and use aligator clips to try different values. I did that when I was messing with the switches for splitting coils, saves a lot of time. When you finde the sound you like, you solder and then enjoy!


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