SHR-1 Hot Rail sounds thin in position 4

[kld0068]

I just installed a SHR-1 Hot Rail in the bridge position on a standard USA Stratocaster. The pickup sounds good all by itself in position 5 but the blend in position 4 with the Fender middle pickup is low volume and thin, much thinner and lower volume than between the Fender neck and middle pickup in position 2.

When I installed the pickup:

• connected the red and white wires, soldered and taped.
• per instruction sheet for use with Fender p/u connected the black wire and braid to ground and the green wire to the selector switch.
• set the Hot Rails p/u to 1/16" (4/64" per Fender) below strings the same as the stock Fender p/u

I suspect that it's a phase problem. I have not tried reversing the black and green wires yet. Before I do that I'm wondering if I need to tap one side or the other of the Hot Rails to get the out of phase sound with the bridge p/u?

Thanks!

 

[hamerfan]

Re: SHR-1 Hot Rail sounds thin in position 4

No, you dont have to tap to get a out of phase sound with the HR, with taping the out of phase will probably sound thinner. Yes, you should probably reverse the HR to get a in phase sound.

 

[kld0068]

Re: SHR-1 Hot Rail sounds thin in position 4

I did actually follow the installation instructions. For use with Fender Strat pickups should it be black to ground, green to the selector switch as described in the top of the instructions or the other way around?

 

[allstarrme]

Re: SHR-1 Hot Rail sounds thin in position 4

sounds like you need the green to ground and black to selector switch.

 

[kld0068]

Re: SHR-1 Hot Rail sounds thin in position 4

>> sounds like you need the green to ground and black to selector switch.

Maybe, but I'm not sure that is what I'm looking for. What I'd like to have is the full humbucker sound in position 5 which I'm getting now, plus the lovely nasal out of phase sound in position 4 that Strats are famous for. I'm thinking to achieve that that I'm going to need to wire the hot rail in a way that only one side of the p/u is interacting with the middle p/u in position 4.

Let me ask this question then: Is there a schematic of the Hot Rail that shows the phase of the two halves of the pickup? In particular which side of the Hot Rail has the same phase angle as a stock Fender single coil bridge p/u. Knowing that I can probably figure out a wiring scheme. I'd really rather have the info I need than guess and possibly have to rewire repeatedly.

 

[kld0068]

Re: SHR-1 Hot Rail sounds thin in position 4

OK it's been about a week and I'm still looking for an answer to this. Again here is the information that I'd like and anyone from Seymore Duncan support can feel free to jump in:

What I'd like to have is the full humbucker sound in position 5 which I'm getting now, plus the lovely nasal out of phase sound in position 4 that Strats are famous for. I'm thinking to achieve that that I'm going to need to wire the hot rail in a way that only one side of the p/u is interacting with the middle p/u in position 4.

Let me ask this question then: Is there a schematic of the Hot Rail that shows the phase of the two halves of the pickup? In particular which side of the Hot Rail has the same phase angle as a stock Fender single coil bridge p/u. Knowing that I can probably figure out a wiring scheme. I'd really rather have the info I need than guess and possibly have to rewire repeatedly.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: SHR-1 Hot Rail sounds thin in position 4

OK it's been about a week and I'm still looking for an answer to this. Again here is the information that I'd like and anyone from Seymore Duncan support can feel free to jump in:

What I'd like to have is the full humbucker sound in position 5 which I'm getting now, plus the lovely nasal out of phase sound in position 4 that Strats are famous for. I'm thinking to achieve that that I'm going to need to wire the hot rail in a way that only one side of the p/u is interacting with the middle p/u in position 4.

Let me ask this question then: Is there a schematic of the Hot Rail that shows the phase of the two halves of the pickup? In particular which side of the Hot Rail has the same phase angle as a stock Fender single coil bridge p/u. Knowing that I can probably figure out a wiring scheme. I'd really rather have the info I need than guess and possibly have to rewire repeatedly.

i wonder if it can be done... i followed a wiring diagram from Fender's web site for their HSS strats and they use the 4 wire humbucker to the switch so the Bridge Humbucker splits when used with the middle pickup together... out of phase i bet could be done... but how is another question

 

[kld0068]

Re: SHR-1 Hot Rail sounds thin in position 4

I got around to changing strings again so I rewired the hotrail. Now the green and braid are both ground and the black wire goes to the selector switch. This gives me the expected sound of the humbucker in position 5 and the nasal out-of-phase blend in position 4.

Note: this wiring is opposite what the hotrail instructions describe for use with Fender pickups (are you reading this Seymour Duncan?).

Also the sound of out of phase blend in position 4 is somewhat different than the sound of two out of phase single coil pickups. Which makes sense since the middle p/u is a single coil blended to the humbucker hotrail. I suspect that splitting the coil using the red/white pair and their black/green complements and using a "super" selector switch with more wiring options would create a standard sound in position 4.

In addition the hotrail needed to be slightly lower than the other pickups and slightly lower than the instructions recommended. This gave better balance with the other pickups.

I also noticed that having the hotrail too high caused some intonation problems probably due to the stronger magnetic field. Fender describes this problem in their setup guide. If you're having trouble adjusting the intonation the pickups are probably too high. This was particularly noticeable on the wound strings.