Re: P-Rail alternatives?
I've tried just about everything except ceramic mags. But I found that even more important than the type of mag alone is the orientation of the pup. To get the most variety of tone out of the P-Rail I found the it is critical for the bridge pup to have the Rail coil next to the bridge. If you have the P-90 coil next to the bridge the Rail and P-90 coils don't sound much different (both sound very meaty). Putting the Rail next to the bridge doesn't really affect the P-90 tone, but it makes the Rail sound brighter. Unfortunately, it also reduces the perceived volume of the Rail so putting an A8 next to the Rail is necessary to boost its output. I like to keep the A5 next to the P-90, but an A4 also sounds excellent...it keeps the bite but reduces the boom and the two coils balance very well but retain very different tones and character.
In the neck, an A4 (P-90) and A5 (Rail) combination work well for clarity without boom. Again, the Rail is oriented toward the bridge (not as much difference as in the orientation of bridge pup, but there still is some difference).
But still in either pup I find that the series setting is just too beefy and muddy. Parallel sounds great in both pups. In one guitar, just for the heck of it, I put in an Oaks Grigsby 4-way switch and wired it to run both pups in series. So each pup in series and then both pups in series with each other...well, let me just say it was indeed a very meaty/heavy/middy/powerful sound which I never ended up using. So I took out the 4-way and put the 3-way back in.
