P-Rails Orientation

[jpmct]

There was a thread a couple of months ago about flipping the P-rails in a HSH strat so that the rails are on the outside...a little closer to Fender spacing. No real conclusions from the thread, except that a lot of thought had gone into this pre-production and it was the consensus that they sounded better with the rails on the inside.

I'm considering flipping just to see what it sounds like. Anybody have any practical advice?

I have set them up with a Fender middle pickup with the electrical polarity reversed and two dpdt switches to select the individual P-Rail coil tones. I didn't fool with series/parallel switches.

 

[Sludgenutz]

Re: P-Rails Orientation

Welcome to the forum! And props for taking the time to use the search function.

The practical advice is no one will know unless you try it out for yourself! You have the right idea on that. The cool thing is, no soldering needs to take place. Just turn them 180*.

I guess the P90 tone will not change that drastically, since it is the large coil. More difference is supposed to happen with the Rails, as those coils move relativey more when turned around.

 

[soundgardener75]

Re: P-Rails Orientation

This is a good idea to try out on my Washburn N1. When I'm going to change strings, I'll flip it around and see how it sounds.

 

[Mark Le Comte]

Re: P-Rails Orientation

If you turn the P-Rails around you will lose some of the rails notch sound when using both PUPs because the rails will not be close enough together. What I really want to do is get the new pickup under discussion in the forum (single coil that does p90 and normal single coil) and put that between two P-Rails that have been turned around.

 

[chase]

Re: P-Rails Orientation

Flipping them makes a lot of sense in an HSH. The rails together will be too far apart for the classic notch sound, true, but they can be combined with the middle pickup instead, or with each other for a neck&bridge sound similar to what you'd get from a tele (or a modded strat), and that's a sound worth having too.

I'd like to do the P-Rails with the forum single coil in the middle as well. Just working out my wiring. Let us know how it goes, jpmct.

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: P-Rails Orientation

Obviously during the development of the pickup I flipped them, and it's a valid configuration for sure. The nice thing is that the P90 is so close to the center, that flipping the pickup hardly changes the P90 tone at all.

Although I haven't done this yet, if I ever make a Fat Tele I would put a flipped P-Rail in the neck. That way the Rail coil is the fake tele rhythm pickup, far away from the Tele lead pickup.

In an H/S/H Strat, I would probably use the P90's as my S/S/S Strat sound. I usually like string neck and bridge single coils in my strats. Then the "inside" rails + the middle single coil would be my ultra Hi-Fi funky strat clucking, and the P90 + middle single coil would be my fat Texas strat sounds.

But if your main objective is to keep the traditional vintage strat sounds, then flipping them is a great idea. The more distant arrangement will yield a truer Strat sound across your 5-way switch when split to rails.

As a side note, our Operations VP probably doesn't like me promoting this, but you can order P-Rails as a "Shop Floor Custom" with backwards logos. In other words, they put the bridge cover on the neck pickup and vice versa. That way a "flipped" set will still have the logos in the right places. That's what I would do in a Fat Tele.