Feedback re: my diagram for P-Rails/Triple-Shot project?

[krm27]

I had this old, unique Harmony neck-through Les Paul single cut style guitar, kind of a mystery as it's higher quality than what I understood Harmony Marquis to be making back in the day, looks like it might have been short run from Japan or something. Anyway, I like the body but pickups were mismatched, one had been replaced. I was looking to try a pickup project and the notion of throwing a pair of cream P-Rails appealed to me, decided to also try out Triple Shot rings. I decided to throw in new CTS pots and also try some 0.33uF capacitors which I read some people liked with P90s. I'm excited to see how it sounds when all is done.

I did not find a stock diagram for P-Rails with Triple Shot rings, so I made my own (was also a good exercise to be sure I understood what went where and why). After completing it, I realized that the stock SD diagram for "Standard Les Paul with Tripleshot" is basically identical to what i need to wire, albeit showing humbuckers rather than P-Rails in the pictures.

Well, to be sure I've sorted it all out, and in case it helps anyone else, I'm throwing up my diagram for review / feedback.

Ken

 

[Matthew Hall]

Re: Feedback re: my diagram for P-Rails/Triple-Shot project?

Erm...I am no help whatsoever, but was wondering something. Could this be adapted so that instead of the Triple shots, the selections are made via rotary switches? I can't find that diagram either, but unlike you, have been unable to work it out. This gives me a bit of a fighting chance, provided I can work out a universal rotary, not one for each pup.

Nice job though!

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Feedback re: my diagram for P-Rails/Triple-Shot project?

Rotate the pickups 180 degrees, putting the Rails on the outside. Quite a few here have expressed a preference for the tones that way.

As for the diagram, once you wire them to the TripleShot, you would follow a standard 2-conductor Les Paul wiring diagram, so no real mystery or surprise there. The TS handles all the switching for the pickup coils, and then dumps out the Hot and Ground where they need to go. The only diagram you'd need for wiring pickups to the TS is a color-code chart if you weren't using Duncan pickups, as they're pretty much self-explanatory with the color coding clearly marked.

 

[krm27]

Re: Feedback re: my diagram for P-Rails/Triple-Shot project?

I don't know about a rotary switch, but I know there are diagrams around where people use push-pull pots rather than the Triple Shot. Actually, the P-Rails come with a diagram for using a pair of push-pull pots rather than showing the use of the Triple Shot. With a pair of push-pull pots (like the two tone knobs on a Les Paul type set up) you can basically get all four options that you get from the Triple Shot EXCEPT whatever you select will go for both pickups. So you can't play with both pickups selected and one in P90 mode and the other in humbucker mode. Basically eliminates about 12 combination options you can get with the switches. Now, if you use four push-pull pots -- turning the volume knobs into push-pull, too -- I'm sure you can wire it to give you all the same options as the Triple Shot.


--- UPDATE ---


PROBLEM. Gah, I just tried fitting the P-Rails and Triple Shot rings into my guitar to check wire length & stuff, and discovered my pickup cavities are too small to fit the P-rails AND the Triple Shot connection board that has to be wired and rest in the cavities with the pups. I see two work-arounds:

(1) Chisel out a little alcove / shelf in the body to fit the Triple Shot circuit board. (1-1/2" x 1/2" x 1/4")
(2) Cut the pre-fab wire-cluster that goes between the switches on the Triple-Shot ring and the Triple Shot circuit board (a foursome of conjoined wires about 2-3" long) and then splice in some extra wire so that the circuit board reaches the main cavity, and then solder it up to the P-Rails in the main cavity and leave it there.

Initially I liked idea #3 because it should not be that hard to lengthen four wires on each Triple Shot ring. However, I'm a little off-put by the way the four wires are all connected, makes me wonder if there'd be any unforeseen difficulty separating out the various wires and lengthening them. This would also presumably screw up the resale value of these rings, which may be more than the guitar body I'm using. I'm pretty sure I could chisel out a little hide-away for the circuit board in each pickup cavity... But then again, I really hate to cut into a vintage neck-through body. Hmmm..but I don't think a small 1/4" deep insert will mess anything up. So I'll probably go that way.

My other thought is to forget about the Triple Shot rings and instead us push-pull pots, or maybe forget about the P-Rails, too, and find some humbucker size P90s (which had been my first notion for modding this guitar) and save the P-Rails and Triple Shot rings for another guitar, another day.

Anyone have strong feelings for/against splicing the Triple Shot ring-to-board wires, or carving into the cavity of this guitar?


- SECOND UPDATE -

Okay, I think I figured this out, the back of the pickups is a bit higher (over 1/4") than the metal brackets that hold the height adjustment screws from the pickup ring, and I guess the Tripleshot circuit board is supposed to be taped (it has a strip of self-adhesive tape) to the underside of the pickup. I was thinking it would be stuck along a side of the cavity which was not working. So, this problem is a non-issue, thankfully. Time to proceed with assembly...

Ken