Vintage Rails, Cool Rails, P-Rails and a Strat

frankencat

frankencat

New member
Hey all, I just built a cool ash bodied Strat clone. I wanted it to have a kind of beefy modern Strat sound and I loaded it up with VR's in the neck and middle and a P-Rails in the bridge but I think it's a little too bright in the neck and a little too dark in the bridge. I am thinking of swapping the neck out for a Cool Rails and maybe the bridge too. Whats the deal on the differences between the Cool Rails and the Vintage Rails?
 
Re: Vintage Rails, Cool Rails, P-Rails and a Strat

Remember that the factory recommendation for the VR is parallel wiring. You can probably give it a bit more girth by series wiring. (If you haven't tried that already.)

The Cool Rails, to my ears, has always had a distinct "snap" to its initial attack that I love. I'll probably always have a CR in at least one guitar.

Here's a song I did using all CR's. Not sure if you'll be able tell anything from this or not.

Cool_Rails.mp3

Artie
 
Last edited:
Re: Vintage Rails, Cool Rails, P-Rails and a Strat

What is the difference between Cool Rails and the Vintage Rails wired in series? And on that note, how do you wire the VR in series? I assume it's the standard R&W together, G&shield to ground and Black to hot, correct?
 
Re: Vintage Rails, Cool Rails, P-Rails and a Strat

So is there a huge difference between the VR in series and the CR? Should I just save myself some time and get the CR neck or is it worth trying the VR in series? I just want a little more beef and roundness from the neck. Thanks.
 
Re: Vintage Rails, Cool Rails, P-Rails and a Strat

I am going through the same thing. I have a mexi HSS strat have a JB in the bridge and two VR's mid and neck. Wired the vr's in paralel and didn't like them, to dead, then tryed a 500k pot, a little brighter and stronger but still not what I was wanting. So I wired them in series and they are much more alive, thicker more sustain, but now they are a humbucker so I'm not getting the neck single coil sound I was hoping for.
I am a Les Paul through a Marshall guy, my wife bought me the strat, I know the neck pickup high gain strat tone I'm looking for, havn't found it yet. I have always had a hard time getting a strat to sound good on my DSL Marshall gain channel. VR's are not doing it for me, the search goes on any suggestions welcome.
 
Re: Vintage Rails, Cool Rails, P-Rails and a Strat

I prefer stack pickups for the neck, for the single coil tone and hum cancelling. Crunch is also slightly throatier. There's classic stack plus, vintage custom stack plus, custom stack plus, etc.
 
Re: Vintage Rails, Cool Rails, P-Rails and a Strat

Finally got around to putting a Cool Rails in the neck of this guitar and it is PERFECT!! Very nice. :)
 
Re: Vintage Rails, Cool Rails, P-Rails and a Strat

hello
sh1+vintage rails+sh4
can i have all the sound?
to gary moore in neck
to "chic" le freaK IN NECK
to strat in notch positions
to strat in middle
?
vintage rails in serie is it good to have like a strat in middle position?
 
Re: Vintage Rails, Cool Rails, P-Rails and a Strat

frankencat said:
What is the difference between Cool Rails and the Vintage Rails wired in series? And on that note, how do you wire the VR in series? I assume it's the standard R&W together, G&shield to ground and Black to hot, correct?
Click to expand...

Cool Rails has more output and the sound is a humbucker sound. Vintage Rails is considerably lower in output and the sound is thinner, single coil tone. Why don't you put Hot Rails in the bridge?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top