P-Rails muddy?

HeftyMetalGuitar

HeftyMetalGuitar

New member
I bought a set of P-Rails, but if and them to muddy up a little with distortion. Is it the pickup or is that inherent in the rail designs? Magnet swapping is a consideration, but the only mags that provide good definition are ceramic and A8, both too strong as I like the current output. Suggestions?
 
Re: P-Rails muddy?

Series mode is certainly muddy. Its quite high output. Try it in parallel for more open tones.......

And both A4 and A3 will provide good definition, as they will add clarity.
 
Re: P-Rails muddy?

How close to the strings have you adjusted the pickups? Also, how far out from the P90 bobbin are its polepiece screws?
 
Re: P-Rails muddy?

my prails bridge isnt muddy even in series. try lowering it from the strings a little. do you have the hot model?
 
Re: P-Rails muddy?

Bodeanicus said:
Some guitars don't like certain pickups. Try them in another guitar that's bright. Then you'll know.
Click to expand...

It's alder with a maple neck, so if anything is probably closer to the bright side.

AlexR said:
Series mode is certainly muddy. Its quite high output. Try it in parallel for more open tones.......

And both A4 and A3 will provide good definition, as they will add clarity.
Click to expand...

Parallel mode is my favorite position with these pickups. A4 is my go-to magnet but I'm satisfied with A5 in these pickups.

jeremy said:
my prails bridge isnt muddy even in series. try lowering it from the strings a little. do you have the hot model?
Click to expand...

I have the regular output model. How much distortion do you use? They're quite good for anything up to about early VH amounts of distortion but lose articulation with more saturated gain.
 
Re: P-Rails muddy?

The regular output P-Rail isn't really muddy, but it does have that "leaning". Lowering it more away from the strings or running it in parallel should take care of the muddiness. Better yet, if you want more clarity punch under distortion, just run the P-90 coil.
 
Re: P-Rails muddy?

Personally I find them "muddy" no matter what or how much gain you are using? Also, & this is just my opinion, I think P-rails were a much better idea on paper than in real world situations. They do sound alright in some guitars & awful in others, I guess this could be a materials type of thing? They def. do not work well in darker sounding guitars, so if you want to use them & act. like them drop them into a fairly bright guitar & the "Phatness" of the P-rail will help the signal sound clearer instead of hurting & muddying it up. Again, just an opinion, some guys love them! They wouldn't still be making them if not? That being said I don't know how many of my friends including myself have bought these thinking they were the answer to all our prayers & much to our disappointment we were left wanting? The good thing about them is there are always tons of used sets on eBay so if you want to try them you can do so without spending almost $200, then again if you spend "NEW" money you can exchange them for something else through Duncan even if your dealer will not honor their exchange policy, 99% of them will but buying off the net can be a P.I.A.?
 
Re: P-Rails muddy?

Another thing that really helps the P-Rail is the way it is mounted and the magnet compliment.

When they first came out I did a lot of experimenting with them and found that the greatest tonal versatility came from mounting the bridge P-Rail with the Rail coil next to the bridge (the P-90 coil toward the neck). This of course left the Rail coil very under-powered compared to the P-90. An A8 mag next to the Rail totally cured that. And for those that like a slightly less beefy P-90, an A4 next to the P-90 coil helped.

So, if you're finding the P-Rail a bit muddy, try turning it around and change the magnets.
 
Re: P-Rails muddy?

Yea, what he said! Seriously, Doc. knows his stuff when it comes to these things! His magnet swapping advice turned my SH-5 into a SH-5,000!!! I was absolutely floored! I love it now!!!
 
Re: P-Rails muddy?

Falloffthebonetone said:
What is your amp? Or where do you get your gain/distortion from? Are you using 500k pots or 250?
Click to expand...

I have a few amps, but my main ones are an SLO, XTC, and Friedman Smallbox. My main boost is a Klon KTR. I use mostly 500k pots, but some of my strats have 250k.

GuitarDoc said:
The regular output P-Rail isn't really muddy, but it does have that "leaning". Lowering it more away from the strings or running it in parallel should take care of the muddiness. Better yet, if you want more clarity punch under distortion, just run the P-90 coil.
Click to expand...

Everything about my setups are kinda medium: medium action, medium pickup height, medium output pickups, etc... I have about a dozen Warmoth strats which I built myself so I'm not bad at setting doing setups.

2manyguitars said:
Personally I find them "muddy" no matter what or how much gain you are using? Also, & this is just my opinion, I think P-rails were a much better idea on paper than in real world situations. They do sound alright in some guitars & awful in others, I guess this could be a materials type of thing? They def. do not work well in darker sounding guitars, so if you want to use them & act. like them drop them into a fairly bright guitar & the "Phatness" of the P-rail will help the signal sound clearer instead of hurting & muddying it up. Again, just an opinion, some guys love them! They wouldn't still be making them if not? That being said I don't know how many of my friends including myself have bought these thinking they were the answer to all our prayers & much to our disappointment we were left wanting? The good thing about them is there are always tons of used sets on eBay so if you want to try them you can do so without spending almost $200, then again if you spend "NEW" money you can exchange them for something else through Duncan even if your dealer will not honor their exchange policy, 99% of them will but buying off the net can be a P.I.A.?
Click to expand...

P-Rails are not ideal pickups, but I can't get rid of them because there's something different that I like about them. I have had the set for half a year so they already survived the post-honeymoon phase.

GuitarDoc said:
Another thing that really helps the P-Rail is the way it is mounted and the magnet compliment.

When they first came out I did a lot of experimenting with them and found that the greatest tonal versatility came from mounting the bridge P-Rail with the Rail coil next to the bridge (the P-90 coil toward the neck). This of course left the Rail coil very under-powered compared to the P-90. An A8 mag next to the Rail totally cured that. And for those that like a slightly less beefy P-90, an A4 next to the P-90 coil helped.

So, if you're finding the P-Rail a bit muddy, try turning it around and change the magnets.
Click to expand...

It's a funny thing that the course of this discussion led me to realize a few things. One thing I need to learn is to stop trying to get the same thing from every guitar because the reason to have a big collection is to have many personalities. Parallel mode makes me quite happy in this set so I will rest on that here on.
 
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