matizadomrb
New member
Hey guys!
So I've been considering the P-Rail Hot for the bridge of my Strat and even for one of my Teles, so that I can have HSS Strat and Deluxe Tele sounds (humbuckers at bridge) and at the flip of a switch go back to regular config (Rails) or play around with a P-90 in there. The P-Rail will be positioned outwards so that the Rail coil is closer to the bridge.
A question has come to my head then, as to whether the fact that the coils of the P-Rail will be positioned in a "straight" angle (typical humbucker style) will somehow affect the familiar tone of the bridge pickup of a Strat or Tele considering the angle on those is slanted so that the pole pieces for the lower strings are further from the bridge while the pole pieces for the higher strings are closer to the bridge.
I've been doing some reading on this subject and apparently Leo Fender came up with the slanted bridge pickup because the strings don't vibrate with a great deal of energy closer to the bridge, so if the single coil was straight at that position the treble frequencies would overpower the bass frequencies. Therefore by angling the pickup, the bass strings can get a little more oomph.
This makes sense to me, and I guess this will affect the tone somehow by making the bass strings sound a bit warmer and the treble strings a bit brighter (although the other way around might actually be more useful... I've always heard that part of Hendrix's particular tone with his white Strat was due to the fact that the bridge pup was slanted the other way because he was using a right hand guitar strung for a lefty), so it kinda sounds correct to consider slanting the angle of the P-Rail Hot so that when in Rail mode I can have a closer tone effect to that of a regular bridge single coil.
But the problem is that I'm not sure how this will affect the Humbucker and P-90 options. If you slant a pickup that wasn't designed with that angle in mind, the problem is that the position of the pole pieces might not match the strings. I've read that with a Humbucker this shouldn't cause much of a difference because of the magnetic field created by the two coils together but with the coils individually it might be significant, so unless the pickup is designed in a way that the pole pieces in each coil match the strings (like on a Rio Grande Twangbucker http://www.warmoth.com/Options/images/pickup_routing_twangmount.jpg ) one of the two coils will be slightly off.
Now, considering the P-Rails are made out of a P-90 (which has six individual pole pieces) and a Rail (which has precisely a rail pole piece instead of the six individuals for each string) I'm guessing this problem might be minimized if, when slanting the pickup, the angle is such that the P-90 pole pieces are matched with the strings as much as possible leaving the Rail slightly off (on the high E string mainly... Remember the P-Rail is outwards with the Rail facing the bridge) due to the magnetic field of the rail pole piece which doesn't requires any specific match with the strings (in the sense in which individual pole pieces do I mean).
Do any of this makes sense to you guys? I'm speaking in a strictly theoretical sense because I haven't experimented with something like this before, and such a mod will unfortunately require the decision to be made in advance without experimenting first because once you carve the wood and pickguard in one manner there's no turning back.
Truly my first impulse is to place the P-Rails with on the regular straight angle (HSS style) but still I have seen a lot of artists like Eddie Van Halen (Frankenstrat) and Billie Joe Armstrong (Blue Fernandes) slanting bridge humbuckers so I'm guessing there's gotta be a reason beyond aesthetics (which to be honest I think looks quite ugly... But that's just my taste of course). Is the difference in tone really that noticeable?
Some examples:
HSS position (straight angle)
http://www.fender.com/products/searc...tno=0119102700
BJA Blues Fernandes (slanted angle)
http://www.gibson.com/Files/aaFeatur...9/bja-blue.jpg
EVH Frankenstrat (slanted angle)
http://stevebowden.net/media/frankenstrat_template.jpg
Any option is the same to me since I have to carve holes in the guitars and the pickguards anyway to place the P-Rails Hot, so I wanna know what would be the best option tonewise to retain as much as possible the original sound of the stock single coil bridge pickup when in rail mode on the P-Rail.
What are your thoughts?
Cheers!
So I've been considering the P-Rail Hot for the bridge of my Strat and even for one of my Teles, so that I can have HSS Strat and Deluxe Tele sounds (humbuckers at bridge) and at the flip of a switch go back to regular config (Rails) or play around with a P-90 in there. The P-Rail will be positioned outwards so that the Rail coil is closer to the bridge.
A question has come to my head then, as to whether the fact that the coils of the P-Rail will be positioned in a "straight" angle (typical humbucker style) will somehow affect the familiar tone of the bridge pickup of a Strat or Tele considering the angle on those is slanted so that the pole pieces for the lower strings are further from the bridge while the pole pieces for the higher strings are closer to the bridge.
I've been doing some reading on this subject and apparently Leo Fender came up with the slanted bridge pickup because the strings don't vibrate with a great deal of energy closer to the bridge, so if the single coil was straight at that position the treble frequencies would overpower the bass frequencies. Therefore by angling the pickup, the bass strings can get a little more oomph.
This makes sense to me, and I guess this will affect the tone somehow by making the bass strings sound a bit warmer and the treble strings a bit brighter (although the other way around might actually be more useful... I've always heard that part of Hendrix's particular tone with his white Strat was due to the fact that the bridge pup was slanted the other way because he was using a right hand guitar strung for a lefty), so it kinda sounds correct to consider slanting the angle of the P-Rail Hot so that when in Rail mode I can have a closer tone effect to that of a regular bridge single coil.
But the problem is that I'm not sure how this will affect the Humbucker and P-90 options. If you slant a pickup that wasn't designed with that angle in mind, the problem is that the position of the pole pieces might not match the strings. I've read that with a Humbucker this shouldn't cause much of a difference because of the magnetic field created by the two coils together but with the coils individually it might be significant, so unless the pickup is designed in a way that the pole pieces in each coil match the strings (like on a Rio Grande Twangbucker http://www.warmoth.com/Options/images/pickup_routing_twangmount.jpg ) one of the two coils will be slightly off.
Now, considering the P-Rails are made out of a P-90 (which has six individual pole pieces) and a Rail (which has precisely a rail pole piece instead of the six individuals for each string) I'm guessing this problem might be minimized if, when slanting the pickup, the angle is such that the P-90 pole pieces are matched with the strings as much as possible leaving the Rail slightly off (on the high E string mainly... Remember the P-Rail is outwards with the Rail facing the bridge) due to the magnetic field of the rail pole piece which doesn't requires any specific match with the strings (in the sense in which individual pole pieces do I mean).
Do any of this makes sense to you guys? I'm speaking in a strictly theoretical sense because I haven't experimented with something like this before, and such a mod will unfortunately require the decision to be made in advance without experimenting first because once you carve the wood and pickguard in one manner there's no turning back.
Truly my first impulse is to place the P-Rails with on the regular straight angle (HSS style) but still I have seen a lot of artists like Eddie Van Halen (Frankenstrat) and Billie Joe Armstrong (Blue Fernandes) slanting bridge humbuckers so I'm guessing there's gotta be a reason beyond aesthetics (which to be honest I think looks quite ugly... But that's just my taste of course). Is the difference in tone really that noticeable?
Some examples:
HSS position (straight angle)
http://www.fender.com/products/searc...tno=0119102700
BJA Blues Fernandes (slanted angle)
http://www.gibson.com/Files/aaFeatur...9/bja-blue.jpg
EVH Frankenstrat (slanted angle)
http://stevebowden.net/media/frankenstrat_template.jpg
Any option is the same to me since I have to carve holes in the guitars and the pickguards anyway to place the P-Rails Hot, so I wanna know what would be the best option tonewise to retain as much as possible the original sound of the stock single coil bridge pickup when in rail mode on the P-Rail.
What are your thoughts?
Cheers!
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