Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

ElUnoAstuto

ElUnoAstuto

New member
Alright guys, I figured I'd have another go at my Hot Rails bridge in the bridge position of my Fender Strat. My Strat has the "Quieting the Beast" deal from Guitar nuts, so everything's star grounded to one terminal. How the hell do I get this thing to work!? I've tried 250k and 500k pots, just wiring the Hot Rails up by itself, I've probably spend a total of 30+ hours kneeling over that damn guitar trying to figure it out. I either get a ridiculous amount of hum, or weak, twangy, completely unusable tones from the bridge position. If somebody could do up an idiot proof diagram, I'd greatly appreciate it!
-JJ

Edit: And before it's said, I've tried switching the green and black wires with lackluster results. Am I missing something?
 
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Re: Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

I don't think so, I'm pretty sure it's my faulty wiring!:rant: I'm just at my wits end. I don't like the asthetics of HSS, and the Hot Rails seems to be the pup to fit the bill for me, but I can't wire it up! If it helps, I'm trying to wire it up for 2 volumes, one for neck and one for bridge, and a tone for bridge. I could care less about the middle pickup. I really only use neck, neck/bridge, and bridge. As long as I can get that, I'm happy!
 
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Re: Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

A pic of what you have know would be helpful. Other than that I guess we start with the basics. Red and white soldered together and taped off. Green/bare to the ground point and black to the switch. Make sure anything that needs to be insulated to avoid an accidental ground out is insulated. This is especially important with a shielded, conductive cavity that you have.
 
Re: Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

Haul out the OhmMeter and see what the deal is.

My vote is that it's the pickup.
 
Re: Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

check to make sure both coils are working before you drive yourself nuts
 
Re: Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

Alright guys, I'm gonna' dig out the multimeter and get back with you.

Edit: Which leads do I hook this sucker up to?
 
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Re: Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

ElUnoAstuto said:
Alright guys, I'm gonna' dig out the multimeter and get back with you.

Edit: Which leads do I hook this sucker up to?
Click to expand...

You can hit it with either. You're just measuring resistance to see if you're getting an amount which you should be. The idea is to see if there's a break anywhere that even if hooked up correctly to the instrument would cause the problems you're describing.

For the record...I don't do a swap without one anymore. I check them going in, coming out, one step above, one step below and before I close everything up.
 
Re: Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

ElUnoAstuto said:
Alright guys, I'm gonna' dig out the multimeter and get back with you.

Edit: Which leads do I hook this sucker up to?
Click to expand...

Start by touching one probe to black and one to white to test one coil alone, Do the same for red and green. Which probe you connect each one to is not important. As long as you get a reading from each coil (each should be about half the expected DC resistance of the pickup), the pickup is working. If you have the red and white soldered together, probe the black and green. A working pickup will give you close to the expected DC resistance. If you don't get a reading from that, try disconnecting red and white and trying each coil seperately.
 
Re: Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

Skarekrough said:
For the record...I don't do a swap without one anymore. I check them going in, coming out, one step above, one step below and before I close everything up.
Click to expand...

Ditto. Saves a lot of frustration.

Just thought i'd add that I also use the multimeter to get a reading from the cable i'm plugging into the guitar, just to make sure i've wired the switch the right way around, and check for other funny business.

Just do it :fing2:
 
Re: Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

ElUnoAstuto said:
I either get a ridiculous amount of hum, or weak, twangy, completely unusable tones from the bridge position.
Click to expand...

Hum sounds like single coil operation. Weak, twangy, completely unusable tones sounds like the coils are out of phase with themselves (e.g. red to black or green to white).
 
Re: Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

Well I just wired the damn thing straight to the jack, white/red together, green/bare grounded, black to jack, and jack grounded. Weak, ridiculously twangy, trebley terrible tone. This leads me to believe that one of the coils is dead, for lack of a better word.
 
Re: Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

Sorry to hear. Just to confirm, set your meter to 20k ohms, leave the red and white wires together, put the hot probe of the meter on the black wire and the ground on the green wire. You should get a reading of the total impedance of both rail coils together. If it's half, one coil is definitely dead.
 
Re: Hot Rails in a Strat frustration!!! ARGH!

ElUnoAstuto said:
Well I just wired the damn thing straight to the jack, white/red together, green/bare grounded, black to jack, and jack grounded. Weak, ridiculously twangy, trebley terrible tone. This leads me to believe that one of the coils is dead, for lack of a better word.
Click to expand...

I was gonna draw a diagram, but that sounds like a bad pup. A Hot Rails definitely isn't weak and twangy. Thats too bad. An HR is rockin' pup.
 
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