wiring humbucker-vintage rails-hotrails HELP!!!

ssopek

New member
I can't find any wiring diagrams for wiring togheter a SH-9 SILVERBIRD (a discontinued Duncan humbucker that looks like the dimebucker) bridge, vintage rails middle and hotrails neck.

So, what I need is a wiring diagram for H-S(4conductors)-H:

bridge: sh-9 humbucker
middle: vintage rails (4 conductors)!!!!
neck: hotrails

1 volume
1 tone
5-way switch: POSITIONS: 1-bridge, 2-half bridge/middle, 3-middle, 4-middle/half neck, 5-neck

I've already found a scheme for 3 humuckers, 1 volume, 1 tone, 5 way superswitch, but is useless, since the vintage rails can't be split for positions 2-half bridge/half middle and 4-half middle/half neck. To split a vintage rails is a nonsense, becasuse it would pick up only three strings (look at the pic).

SDSVR-1.gif


Please, help me! Thanx!!!!!!!!
 
Re: wiring humbucker-vintage rails-hotrails HELP!!!

for the 4 conductor VR, just put red and white together and then tape it off and ignore it ... use black for hot and green for ground and treat it like 2 conductor

any ol' H-S-H schematic (w/ splits on the Hs) will do ... won't you have the same problem (i.e. half on half off) by splitting the neck hotrails?

good luck
t4d
 
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Re: wiring humbucker-vintage rails-hotrails HELP!!!

Thanx. The hotrails won't cause similar problmems since the two blades cover all the six string and are not spli like in the VR (or duckbucker).
 
Re: wiring humbucker-vintage rails-hotrails HELP!!!

The new style VR is 4 conductor, but it's worth mentioning that the coils in the old style were internally wired in parallel. Therefore, you'll want to connect the red and green to ground. Red and white insulated gives the coils in series, and while it works, was not the way the VR was designed.

As for the VR, I'm not sure how the split rails work. I thought the new ones could successfully be split. I cannot confirm that.

Good luck.
 
Re: wiring humbucker-vintage rails-hotrails HELP!!!

Hmmmm....now I'm a little confused! The only thing of which I'm certain is that VR can be split but as I mentioned in the thread it would be a nonsense, because it would work for only 3 strings at a time (3 treble or 3 bass strings). It's like the duckbucker, only that VR has 2 blades, while the duckbucker has 6 polepieces organized in two rows (3 for bass strings, 3 for treble strings).

The specificatios say that the VR is a humbucker wired in parallel to catch the vintage sound of a singlecoil but without any hum (or in series for higher output-and that's what I want!!!).

So, where am I? Give me please the ultimate answer.....please!
 
Re: wiring humbucker-vintage rails-hotrails HELP!!!

The more I think about this, the more I believe that you should be able to split a VR just fine. The pole pieces have nothing to do with the coil detecting string vibration. They only focus the magnetic field up to the strings so that the strings are a vibrating magnet. The other coils pole piece will still bring the magnetic field up to the strings, it will just be off-center by about 1/4". The coil underneath the split side will still pick up the string vibration. It just may be a bit weaker. But I doubt that a 1/4" will make much difference.

Give it a try and tell us how it sounds.
 
Re: wiring humbucker-vintage rails-hotrails HELP!!!

Mr. Scott MIller from Seymour Ducan replied to my mail:

"Hello,

Actually, you are correct. The SVR, if split, will only pick up three
strings. That is a pickup that you do not want to split. You may want
to consider swapping out the SVR in the middle for another Hot Rail
instead. That way, you can get all of the coil-split positions that you
are looking for with no problem."

So, that's it.
 
Re: wiring humbucker-vintage rails-hotrails HELP!!!

...and here is a wiring diagram for my case. The only thing that differ from the pic is:

"I have attached a diagram that is close. The only thing you will need to differently is the way the middle pickup is wired. You will need to wire the SVR pickup like this: put the red & black wires together and connect them to the 5-way switch where the diagram shows the 'middle white' wire going. Then, put the SVR green, white & bare wires to ground on the bottom of the volume pot. "

...hope it would help somebody... Thanks to all the users that tried to help me.

schematics.php
 
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