Question about wiring P-Rails in place of 2 humbuckers in solidbody?

[krm27]

My first question is I saw P-rails designated SHPR1 and SHPR2. Does the 1 and 2 signify bridge and neck, or is there some other difference between them, like one is a more recent version? Because I've also seen P-rails designated SHPR1B...

Now for the real question: I want to wire this without making any changes to my guitar body, which is somewhat vintage and rare. My guitar has four control knobs (2 tone, 2 volume), and I wonder if those are all converted to push/pull, that would give me...16 different combinations of up/down, which might be complicated, but ought to suffice to control the different pickup combinations (of which I think there are 15?)

A simpler option might be if I go down to one volume and one control knob, and use the holes routed for the other two knobs to wire in switches. That way, even if there is any body modification needed for the new switches it'd be pretty much hidden by the knobs if I ever changed the guitar back to stock. Actually, I read in another forum some one saying when he switched to P-rails, he gave up having a different volume / tone for each pickup, which gave me the idea. What I am wondering is, did he CHOOSE to give up the separate volume/tone controls (maybe because, like me, he did not want to mess up his guitar body) or is there something about P-Rails that you simply cannot have separate volume/tone controls for each pickup when you use these?

Thanks,

Ken

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Question about wiring P-Rails in place of 2 humbuckers in solidbody?

The 2 is the Hot version, intended for the bridge/Treble position.

To answer your real question, yes, all four pots need to be push-pull in order to obtain all of the possible coil permutations.

An alternative possibility is that the push-pull switches under one pair of pots govern the coil mode of both pickups simultaneously. The second pair of switches can then determine the phase relationship between the two pickups and whether they are interconnected in parallel (the normal situation) or in series (for extra output).

 

[krm27]

Re: Question about wiring P-Rails in place of 2 humbuckers in solidbody?

Thanks, I like the second option better, I think.

Oh, and so what's the difference between an SHPR2 and the SHPR1-B, if any?

Ken

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Question about wiring P-Rails in place of 2 humbuckers in solidbody?

Hotter coil winds. Alnico 8 bar magnets instead of Alnico 5.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Question about wiring P-Rails in place of 2 humbuckers in solidbody?

With two P-Rails there are 24 possible sounds available not counting any out of phase combinations. You can't get all of those with just 4 p/p pots. You need Triple Shot mounting rings and a 3-way pup selector switch to get all of them.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Question about wiring P-Rails in place of 2 humbuckers in solidbody?

+1

After a series of failed experiments involving P-Rails, Triple Shots, magnet swaps, pickup orientations and reversing the conductor order on one TS PCB, I have finally got my PRS SE Custom Semi-Hollow sounding as I wished.

The Triple Shots govern the coil permuations, a push-pull pot reverses the phase relationship between the two pickups. I did not bother with series/parallel interconnection switching.

In my opinion, the time, trouble and expense of setting everything up was worthwhile.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Question about wiring P-Rails in place of 2 humbuckers in solidbody?

And the hot p-rails is HOT, jalapeno hot. Probably better off just going with the regular version - the series mode is super thick if you want saturation, parallel is actually like a vintage humbucker.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Question about wiring P-Rails in place of 2 humbuckers in solidbody?

On my semi-hollow guitar, the P-Rails Hot is probably filling out the midrange, making my guitar sound much like a solidbody guitar would with the regular P-Rails fitted in the bridge/Treble position.