Hello dear forum members,
Some time ago I bought a set of P-Rails, which I've soldered into my Yamaha Pacifica using two Push-Pulls based on the wiring diagram from the SD website:
https://www.seymourduncan.com/images/wiring-diagrams/2PRail_3G_1VppSPL_1TppSPL.jpg
I followed the diagram and color codes exactly but had a very thin and cr*appy sound when I switched to the Bridge Pickup, no matter mode was selected. I searched the forums here and found a solution from another user who described the exact same sound issue with Triple Shot Rings. So I followed the proposed solution in that particular thread and switched the red and green wire for the bridge pickup, leaving the rest of the circuit as-is and got a wonderful sounding, versatile guitar. See my post here: https://forum.seymourduncan.com/for...059563-p-rails-sound-issue-with-bridge-pickup
Fast-forward half a year. I had an ESP LTD EC-50 lying around and decided to move the P-Rails to that guitar with the same wiring using Push-Pulls. Even though I basically copy-pasted the wiring from my old guitar to the new one, I again had very bad sound issues. I did not have a multimeter in that time, so I couldn't really figure out what the issue was, so I gave the guitar to a luthier here in Munich where I live - bad mistake as I found out. They had another ESP guitar for repair there and mixed up the orders and totally messed up my wonderful P-Rails by wiring them up in a completely stupid series/parallel circuit, ignoring the P-90 and Rail completely. Futhermore, they ignored my comments about the red-green swap so one of the pickups turned out to be super loud while the other one is almost silent.
And on top of that, they cut the pickup cables super short. So short, that there's no chance for me to change the wiring. So I ordered a new 4-conductor wire and I disassembled both P-Rails now to re-solder the longer wires to it.
And that is where I ask you guys for help. I've opened up both Pickups now. I can somehow not post pictures here due to a "503 Error", but I will try to describe what I see:
The Neck Pickup is wired as follows:
[TABLE="border: 1, cellpadding: 1, width: 300"]
[TR]
[TD]Coil wire color[/TD]
[TD]4-Conductor Color[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]P90 BLACK[/TD]
[TD]BLACK[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]P90 WHITE[/TD]
[TD]WHITE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rail BLACK[/TD]
[TD]GREEN[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rail WHITE[/TD]
[TD]RED[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The Bridge Pickup is wired as follows:
[TABLE="border: 1, cellpadding: 1, width: 300"]
[TR]
[TD]Coil wire color[/TD]
[TD]4-Conductor color[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]P90 BLACK[/TD]
[TD]WHITE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]P90 WHITE[/TD]
[TD]BLACK[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rail BLACK[/TD]
[TD]GREEN[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rail WHITE[/TD]
[TD]RED[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
From my previous experience with these Pickups, I can surely say that the neck worked well, so I guess that that one was wired correctly out-of-the box. And as we can see, the Bridge Pickup had the Rail coil wired in the same way as the neck, so I assume that this is the issue. If we compare the both wirings, we see that the black and white cables are switched for Neck and Brdidge, but the Rail wiring is actually the same. So from that I assume that I have to solder the Brdige together with the Rail wiring swapped, so that the Rail BLACK goes to RED and the Rail WHITE goes to GREEN of the 4-conductor wire in order to be able to use the wiring diagrams as they are supposed to be.
Is my assumption correct?
Best Regards,
Alex
Some time ago I bought a set of P-Rails, which I've soldered into my Yamaha Pacifica using two Push-Pulls based on the wiring diagram from the SD website:
https://www.seymourduncan.com/images/wiring-diagrams/2PRail_3G_1VppSPL_1TppSPL.jpg
I followed the diagram and color codes exactly but had a very thin and cr*appy sound when I switched to the Bridge Pickup, no matter mode was selected. I searched the forums here and found a solution from another user who described the exact same sound issue with Triple Shot Rings. So I followed the proposed solution in that particular thread and switched the red and green wire for the bridge pickup, leaving the rest of the circuit as-is and got a wonderful sounding, versatile guitar. See my post here: https://forum.seymourduncan.com/for...059563-p-rails-sound-issue-with-bridge-pickup
Fast-forward half a year. I had an ESP LTD EC-50 lying around and decided to move the P-Rails to that guitar with the same wiring using Push-Pulls. Even though I basically copy-pasted the wiring from my old guitar to the new one, I again had very bad sound issues. I did not have a multimeter in that time, so I couldn't really figure out what the issue was, so I gave the guitar to a luthier here in Munich where I live - bad mistake as I found out. They had another ESP guitar for repair there and mixed up the orders and totally messed up my wonderful P-Rails by wiring them up in a completely stupid series/parallel circuit, ignoring the P-90 and Rail completely. Futhermore, they ignored my comments about the red-green swap so one of the pickups turned out to be super loud while the other one is almost silent.
And on top of that, they cut the pickup cables super short. So short, that there's no chance for me to change the wiring. So I ordered a new 4-conductor wire and I disassembled both P-Rails now to re-solder the longer wires to it.
And that is where I ask you guys for help. I've opened up both Pickups now. I can somehow not post pictures here due to a "503 Error", but I will try to describe what I see:
The Neck Pickup is wired as follows:
[TABLE="border: 1, cellpadding: 1, width: 300"]
[TR]
[TD]Coil wire color[/TD]
[TD]4-Conductor Color[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]P90 BLACK[/TD]
[TD]BLACK[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]P90 WHITE[/TD]
[TD]WHITE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rail BLACK[/TD]
[TD]GREEN[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rail WHITE[/TD]
[TD]RED[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The Bridge Pickup is wired as follows:
[TABLE="border: 1, cellpadding: 1, width: 300"]
[TR]
[TD]Coil wire color[/TD]
[TD]4-Conductor color[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]P90 BLACK[/TD]
[TD]WHITE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]P90 WHITE[/TD]
[TD]BLACK[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rail BLACK[/TD]
[TD]GREEN[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rail WHITE[/TD]
[TD]RED[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
From my previous experience with these Pickups, I can surely say that the neck worked well, so I guess that that one was wired correctly out-of-the box. And as we can see, the Bridge Pickup had the Rail coil wired in the same way as the neck, so I assume that this is the issue. If we compare the both wirings, we see that the black and white cables are switched for Neck and Brdidge, but the Rail wiring is actually the same. So from that I assume that I have to solder the Brdige together with the Rail wiring swapped, so that the Rail BLACK goes to RED and the Rail WHITE goes to GREEN of the 4-conductor wire in order to be able to use the wiring diagrams as they are supposed to be.
Is my assumption correct?
Best Regards,
Alex
I just swapped the red ang green on the Rail Pickup internally and left the P90 as it was. I've put everything together and it works fine now.
