Bridge HB for P-rails, and coil swap help needed

[Fikealox]

Hey guys,

A while ago I got an SG Faded and loaded it with a Bareknuckle Nailbomb set. They're good pickups, but they're not quite working for my style. I want a bit more bite and crunch in the bridge (so I'm thinking a ceramic pickup), and more articulation in the neck (so I'm thinking a lower output pickup or a p90 - or prails, for both).

I'm not sure which high-output ceramic pickup will be best. I want a bridge sound which is still fat, but which gives me a bit more crunch and more aggressive treble than the 16k A5 bridge I have at the moment; but I also want it to match reasonably well with the p rails neck. I'm a newbie to p90s, and I've never used p-rails, so I'm at a bit of a loss.

I'm planning on some funky wiring, too: a master volume; a "woman tone switch" for the neck (ie, switch off and there's no effect, switch on and it's like the neck pickup has a tone pot fully rolled off); a three-way for the p-rails; and Artie's coil swap mod.

I'm not sure of the best wiring to use, and I'm not sure what effect the coil swap mod will have on my bridge pickup selection (ie, will the mod work better with more dissimilar bridge and neck pickups?)

I like my idea of the "woman tone switch" because that is basically all I ever use a tone pot for, so it seems like the simplest and most convenient way to achieve that purpose (more so than a tone pot, even). I'm not totally set on that wiring configuration, but I basically want to get more usable tones while also keeping things simple. Any suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks heaps for whatever help and suggestions you can provide!
-Liam

 

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Re: Bridge HB for P-rails, and coil swap help needed

there was a 'woman tone' switch position on my Mk III when i got it; on that gui the neck p/up was connected to 2 contacts on the 5way, one stock and one having a big cap across it IIRC. it wasn't as dramatic (sounded way better IMO) as a .047 500K tone being rolled right off, it kept more of it's upper mids and just rolled the extreme high end off.

if you're interested i can find the parts tomorrow and get back to you re what gibson were using, i'm not going home tonight though...

was definitely an interesting tone, it could work very well with p90s too IMO. put it on both positions, yeah?

can't help with anything else in your post tho ; ]

whereabouts in syd are you btw?

 

[Fikealox]

Re: Bridge HB for P-rails, and coil swap help needed

Oh, thanks man, that's really interesting. I hadn't realised Gibson had beaten me to the punch on the woman tone switch. Don't trouble yourself finding the components they used - I'll just use a mini-toggle and experiment with caps until I find the perfect value for the p-rails

I'll definitely hook it up so that it affects the neck pickup in all modes, but I'll probably not hook it up to the bridge pickup, as I've never experienced anything good from rolling the tone off the bridge pickup.

I'm in Berowra, actually - so probably pretty close to you, I guess!