Rails wiring?

Dr.K

Dr.K

Formerly Active Member
Sup guys? It's been a long time since I've been on here.

Anyway, I've got a Charvel that I've got a Cool Rails for the neck, Vintage in the middle and Hot in the bridge. I can't for the life of me find a diagram to give me the option to split each pup individually. It's typical Strat, two tones, a volume and 5 way switch. I'm thinking I can just do three push pulls. I'd dig to do a bright switch option on one of the push pulls. I'm willing to give up the HHS switching. I'm kind of ignorant when it comes to developing my own wiring diagrams. Thanks in advance for your help!
 
Re: Rails wiring?

If you split the VR only three strings will work.

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Re: Rails wiring?

Yeah, you can't split a Vintage Rails at all. A Cool Rails might sound better in parallel than split.
 
Re: Rails wiring?

You've come to the right place for diagrams. If only three of the strings are going to work on the vintage rail which is an already incredibly low output pickup a lot of the wiring mods won't do much. But this does give me an idea.

which kind of switch do you have? I've got a lot of time to kill with this long weekend and used to do a few strat wirings very similar to what you're after and this gives me an excuse to open photoshop. Is it the 8 inline import type or 4x4 USA type

Option 1
coilsplit all 3 pickups like you want. The approach to use both rails is quite simple. Use a 1.2k (1k2) - 2.2k (2k2) or similar low valued resistor. Make sure the resistor is not in just ohm for instance 2.2 ohms. It has to be 2.2k (2200 ohms) if there is such a thing as 1 ohm resistors do exist. I made this mistake years ago building a pedal and had to wait 2 or 3 more weeks for the right stuff to arrive. Alright so how do you use it. The bottom contact one half of the resistor to the push pull pot, one half to the ground of the pot. It's similar to the spin a split mod.

parallel on all 3 pickups can work. Not a big fan of how low output the vintage rail will become honestly. If not for a 3rd push pull pot. Putting a blower/brightness switch to bypass all the electronics as out of phase is a love hate relationship with people.

What I'd suggest
master volume - neck pickup parallel
neck tone - bridge pickup parallel
bridge and or middle tone - blower/brightness switch
5 way blade

if you want things in a different order let me know


but back to " option 1 "Notice the resistor on each push pull pot. Lower output pickups like the vintage rail I'd use the 1k instead. This is an example of how they used resistors online. Not my diagram and far from what I'm suggesting but to give an idea.
View attachment 101398
 
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Re: Rails wiring?

Hey thanks for setting me straight guys. I geuss I thought it was with four conductor wires. I think I'll exchange it for a different middle pickup. Cool rails bridge maybe? I'd still like to get them all split and do the bright mod switch option with no HHS.
 
Re: Rails wiring?

Shadowfire90, thanks bro! I'll switch out that VR. Doing the full split and staying out of HHS. A push pull for neck and middle in single, a push pull for bridge in single and a push pull for the bright mod. What do you think?
 
Re: Rails wiring?

Dr.K said:
Shadowfire90, thanks bro! I'll switch out that VR. Doing the full split and staying out of HHS. A push pull for neck and middle in single, a push pull for bridge in single and a push pull for the bright mod. What do you think?
Click to expand...

This is probably the best way to do it. For the middle, I'd suggest a Classic Stack.
 
Re: Rails wiring?

I remember getting into guitar wiring and pickups and one thing I tell people is not to be afraid of using the same pickup in more than one position. Otherwise no Kirk Hammett EMG 81/81 setups or Dean ML the 1979 one with two super distortions which this person I knew we probably did that type of setup on at least two of his guitars in a very short period of time.

Now if you do a combination of the bridge/neck on one push pull and middle on the other you'll get the most sound options. It's around 14 sounds as a lot of the stuff you'd be missing out on going neck/middle for instance you'd lose out on. My 2 cents anyways as I put a similar harness together for people all over when I used to ship wiring out when I needed some spare cash. One of the other wiring mods that is simple is the 7 way mod but I've never been a fan of it. It would turn the outer 2 or all 3 pickups on.


This would be your first request. I'd move the bridge coilsplit with the neck which is one solder different but this is your current request. Wasn't sure if you wanted an import or USA 5 way blade. Import ones are 8 inline. But use this as reference. The brightness switch I juggle between 3 names. No load, blower and brightness but either way this is a cool mod to bypass all the electronics. If you've got a USA 5 way blade I highly recommend the 1950s switch mod too.

On Imgur (image hosting site) I posted about 5 "!4 sound" diagrams using this format. Some use 2 push pull pots. Some use 3 and parallel instead.


View attachment 101409
 
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Re: Rails wiring?

Dude! I can't thank you enough! That's awesome, just what I wanted. My five way looks just like your diagram so I guess it's USA? I'd love to try the '50s mod in there if it didn't change much. Thank you so much!
 
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Re: Rails wiring?

Not a problem. I spent a night making all the older Seymour Duncan images they use to do diagrams as blank and easy to work with as possible so these only take a few minutes to draw out. I would often get more understanding out of a certain wiring out of it myself which was great because now I can just pick up a few different colors of pen and paper if i got an idea and put something together.

For your question yeah you've got a USA style switch so you're set. Premier guitar did an article on 1950s style wiring on a strat or similar. I'm sure there are some good youtube videos before and after. Pretty much you know how you get the brightness out of a strat in the bridge position as there is no tone control? This way you get your cake and eat it too as all 3 pickups get brighter and dare I say slightly louder. It's an easy mod to get rid of if you're not a fan. But totally optional at the end of the day.
https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Gibson_50s_wiring_on_a_Stratocaster

to do it. I'm not even joking it's like 2 wires changed around. This is their diagram on the page they used
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Re: Rails wiring?

I'm not following not following which two wires to switch on your diagram. The jumper wire on the switch is throwing me off. Sorry and thank you!
 
Re: Rails wiring?

i forgot all about that this is how you would do the 50s wiring with the brightness switch , i just simplified it to the wires on the main harness that change. In retrospect I'm thinking of this now it's better to stick with that exact wiring above as the third push pull is more effective without the 1950s switch mod. But for reference

View attachment 101419
 
Re: Rails wiring?

Thank you Shadowfire90! You're cool to hook me up!
 
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