P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

T

telekaster78

New member
Hey people I'm new to the forum here, and am hoping a wiring guru here can help me out. I've got a Nashville Tele that I'm converting to a two-pickup guitar (I know, I know!). I found a P-Rail neck pickup for cheap on Ebay and have a question...
With the existing 5-way switch, are there some wiring options that I could assign to the soon-to-be vacant lugs? I realize I'll have to slap some mini toggle switches on the control plate, but I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas that could help out. Anything at all, really...
 
Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

What I want in a tele is:
SSH
Tapped tele bridge pickup
a vintagy strat middle
Prails N, reversed intallation.
5 way switching bridge, bridge+neck, neck, neck+middle, middle
i.e. first three are 'tele' positions, last two are 'strat' positions when using the rail of the prails.
Two push pulls that work as follows
vol down, tone down, prails series bridge full i.e. hard rockin tele custom
vol up, tone down, prials p90 bridge full i.e. p90 tele
vol up, tone up, prials parallel bridge tapped i.e. classic rock tele custom
vole down, tone up, prails rail bridge tapped i.e. classic tele (and strat positions)
 
Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

Welcome to the forum, '78. What kind of configurations are you looking for out of your tele? I assume that you have a standard strat-type 5-way now. Before you start thinking about mini-toggles on the control plate, you should consider replacing your existing 5-way with a 4p5t switch (aka superswitch). That should allow you to pick any 5 of the following pu configs:

1) P90
2) Rail
3) Bridge PU
4) NeckHB(series)
5) P90/Bridge PU (parallel)
6) P90/ Bridge PU (series)
7) Rail/Bridge PU (parallel)
8) Rail/Bridge PU (series)
9) SeriesHB/BridgePU (in parallel)
10) SeriesHB/BridgePU (in series)

I may have missed some here, and I've not included any out-of-phase configurations (although they are do-able). One thing you may notice from the above list is lack parallel on the P-Rails pu. I'm not saying that that's not possible, but a solution doesn't immediately spring to mind for me. If you had one more pole on the switch (ie 5p5t) it would be no problem.
 
Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

Dunno about "proper" Teles, but there's no way a SuperSwitch would fit into the control cavity of my ASAT.
 
Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

I guess I'm looking for a way to make use of the existing 5-way switch, and possibly add an SPDT for a series/parallel option. I am not sure that a superswitch fits in a Tele cavity. Because I'm a cheap bastard, I'm trying to keep the cost down ($60.00 pup, $14.00 pickguard, etc.)
Thank you guys very much for the response, more is always welcome!
 
Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

Triple shot ( TS-1 ) trim ring will give your humbucker the option of;
Series
Parallel
Coil Tap (adjustable coil on)
Coil Tap (slug coil on)

all with your 5 way switch sitng still
a single ring being at about 30 bucks sound like a deal

or at least it did for me

mine should be here next week

EHD
 
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Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

I too have an existing 5 way switch I am trying to figure out what to use it for


oops
 
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Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

telekaster78 said:
I guess I'm looking for a way to make use of the existing 5-way switch, and possibly add an SPDT for a series/parallel option. I am not sure that a superswitch fits in a Tele cavity. Because I'm a cheap bastard, I'm trying to keep the cost down ($60.00 pup, $14.00 pickguard, etc.)
Thank you guys very much for the response, more is always welcome!
Click to expand...

With a P-Rail, I would think it would be more important to be able to isolate P90 and Rail (as single coils) as well as the P-Rail as a Humbucker (series coils). For that, a single pole, ON-OFF-ON toggle switch is what you need (no HB/parallel though).
 
Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

Sporky McGuffin said:
Dunno about "proper" Teles, but there's no way a SuperSwitch would fit into the control cavity of my ASAT.
Click to expand...

I don't know much about teles. Where won't the switch clear? Is the control cavity route not deep enough, wide enough, or what?
 
Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

I'm old. To avoid hurting my shrivelling brain, I would wire up this kind of Telecaster circuit with a three-way pickup selector switch and mount the P-Rails via a Triple Shot surround to take care of all the mode possibilities.

If you must use a five-way selector, get the 12-contact single wafer type (as used in the US James Burton signature Telecaster). This would allow you to address the two coils of the P-Rails as if they were individual pickups.

If you follow the Fender JB Sig T schematic diagram, the selector switch would offer the following sounds;

1 = Tele bridge only
2 = Bridge + Rail (kinda Tele middle position)
3 = Bridge + P90 (kinda Mike Bloomfield)
4 = Rail + P90 (in parallel)
5 = P90 only

This circuit does not offer Rail + P90 in series unless you add a mini switch. The downside to doing this is that, in series mode, selector switch positions 2, 3 and 4 all become Tele Bridge + "humbucker". Position 5 becomes "humbucker" only. There is no way to selct the Rail by itself.

If you go with my 3-way selector and Triple Shot suggestion, you get a Telecaster that is easy to operate but which offers several "flavours", depending on the mode that is selected on the P-Rails.

One other advantage of this suggestion is that it keeps open the possibility of reinstating the central Stratocaster pickup.
 
Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

I have to agree with Funkfingers on this. A set of triple shots and an ordinary 3-way switch is probably the cleanest solution. That's the setup I have on my LP, and I love it. $50 for a triple shot set seems very reasonable to me, and a lot easier to deal with than a bunch of push-pulls, toggles, etc. If you get much more exotic than that (ie superswitch), you have what's pretty much a dedicated studio ax. You'ld have to keep a notebook handy just to keep track of your favorite setups.
 
Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

mudpuppy said:
I don't know much about teles. Where won't the switch clear? Is the control cavity route not deep enough, wide enough, or what?
Click to expand...

Not wide enough - the SuperSwitches mostly hang out from one side of where the switch blade is and the cavity is symmetrical.

I don't know for sure but it's possible that the Ibanez version (the VLX-91, I think) is a bit more symmetrical and therefore worth a look.
 
Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

Another possibility is Triple Shot mounting ring + Tele 4 way switch. Triple shot takes care of P-Rail options and the 4 way gives you: 1. bridge, 2. bridge + neck (parallel), 3. neck, 4. bridge + neck (series)

P.S. 4 way should fit into the Tele control cavity
 
Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

By, Jove. He's got it! ;o) Sanford has the right idea.
 
Re: P-Rails in Tele neck w/ 5 way switch

Thanks for the replies guys! I've got it wired up, and it sounds awesome, but I'd like to know how I can combine the P-Rails with the bridge pickup. I've wired the P-Rails to a SPDT on-off-on switch, and wired that to the neck pickup tab. I've still got the 5-way switch in, so the middle position is basically a kill switch. How can I combine the bridge with any of the P-Rail positions? A DPDT? Any ideas (and I swear I've searched the whole Interweb for this answer, so I'm not being lazy here!) Thanks a million, guys...
 
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