P-Rails wiring help?

My guess is they weren’t wired correctly. They should sound like normal pickups in their respective modes. If you do try it again just buy the right switch. Which can give you 3 modes. For heavier styles you only need the series bucker and the P90. Ideal would be series, parallel, and P90. The single by itself I could live without although I occasionally use it on the neck.

So this P-Rails installation I did was 7 months ago, and yesterday I figured out that I wired it up wrong. I was getting a humbucker sound, but then when switching to either the Rail pickup I could hear the P90 was still alive, it's not supposed to be, it's supposed to be cancelled. So I did a quick check and found out I really messed up the wiring.

The P-Rails, with a Seymour Duncan "Triple Shot" can do the following,

Pure P90
Pure Rail
Humbucker in series
Humbucker in parallel

that's a lot of options, so many in fact I'm going to buy another one for the neck.

Are these pure P 90 tones, or pure Single coil ( rail ) tones? probably not, but, the Axe 3 is so powerfully flexible I'm confident I'll get close.

Maybe not the best player, and I don't like his distorted tone at the end but, this is a good video showing how to wire up the Triple Shot and other good tips and tricks.

 
So this P-Rails installation I did was 7 months ago, and yesterday I figured out that I wired it up wrong. I was getting a humbucker sound, but then when switching to either the Rail pickup I could hear the P90 was still alive, it's not supposed to be, it's supposed to be cancelled. So I did a quick check and found out I really messed up the wiring.

The P-Rails, with a Seymour Duncan "Triple Shot" can do the following,

Pure P90
Pure Rail
Humbucker in series
Humbucker in parallel

that's a lot of options, so many in fact I'm going to buy another one for the neck.

Are these pure P 90 tones, or pure Single coil ( rail ) tones? probably not, but, the Axe 3 is so powerfully flexible I'm confident I'll get close.

Maybe not the best player, and I don't like his distorted tone at the end but, this is a good video showing how to wire up the Triple Shot and other good tips and tricks.




Been awhile since that post. I’m still a big fan of these pickups and lately I’ve been using the neck single with the volume rolled down. The bridge is still mostly on the P90 or series bucker and the neck on the P90 or single. Glad you’re getting it sorted out @Marantz. A guitar with a set of these can do a lot of things but the neck is too hot so roll it down and it comes alive. Put treble bleeds on your pots if you don’t have them.
 
Been awhile since that post. I’m still a big fan of these pickups and lately I’ve been using the neck single with the volume rolled down. The bridge is still mostly on the P90 or series bucker and the neck on the P90 or single. Glad you’re getting it sorted out @Marantz. A guitar with a set of these can do a lot of things but the neck is too hot so roll it down and it comes alive. Put treble bleeds on your pots if you don’t have them.

That's what he does in the video above at 13:25, he invokes the treble bleed with a push/pull pot.
 
That's what he does in the video above at 13:25, he invokes the treble bleed with a push/pull pot.

I may have watched that awhile back. I like that guy and think he does a good job. Does your guitar have pickup mount rings? The Triple Shots are great if you can use them.
 
I may have watched that awhile back. I like that guy and think he does a good job. Does your guitar have pickup mount rings? The Triple Shots are great if you can use them.
No it doesn't, I'll make it work somehow, it doesn't look complicated, I might have to carve-up the pick-guard some more, but that's nothing after all the hacking away I've done to my poor guitar.
 
No it doesn't, I'll make it work somehow, it doesn't look complicated, I might have to carve-up the pick-guard some more, but that's nothing after all the hacking away I've done to my poor guitar.

I seem to recall you mentioning a Strat style of guitar. I put a P-rail in my Strat bridge. For switching I used a pair of the Fender S1 switches. You can get all 4 modes that way. They’re 4 pole double throw so a pair could switch 2 P-rails. Only downside would be they would both be in the same mode but that’s not a big deal really.
 
So I ordered a set of Prails today, the only set on the web I could find! They're for guitars with tremolo bars and are white so they'll match up with my pick-guard nicely. The cream p-rails I have doesn't look right, and a set of them come to about $100 more than I pay for only one, I noticed the same with the Triple shots, only 1 is $100, a set of 2 is $140, might as well go for it. My guitar currently looks like this, I'll keep the 3 pickup setup mostly the same with an additional tone control. I keep the single coil in the middle for now and figure out what to do with it down the line.
20230331_145646.jpg


These are specs for the Pickups.

prails specs.jpg


I'm going to go with 1 volume ( Push Pull ) and 2 tone controls. I want to replace the current pots I have with something half-decent. I looked through Stew Mac and they had a choice between a long-shaft push/pull pot and a short shaft, I'm guessing I need short shaft pots for volume and tone controls based on what's already in my guitar. Are CTS pots any good?

20230331_114815.jpg


I also want to put in a decent switch from switch craft ( 5 position ) The Ibanez switch seems unique to Ibanez.

Ibanez Guitar Lever Switch 3SWLSP5​

2023-03-31_153635.jpg


I want a more durable after-market switch and was wondering if any 5 position switch would do the trick ... like the following, an Oak Grigsby 5 position switch.
oak.jpg


and finally some wire I have that I have ordered from amazon. (30 Feet (10-white/10-black/10-yellow) Gavitt Cloth-covered Pre-tinned 7-strand Pushback 22awg Vintage-style Guitar Wire)

20230331_154749.jpg


Hopefully the wiring and better quality pots and switch will make a difference.
 
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If you’re keeping all 3 controls, look at the Fender S1 pots with push push switches. It would be an easy way to switch your pickups. Push pull will do the same but I like the S1 switch. All labeled volume though, Strat style knob only and linear taper instead of audio, which I haven’t found to be an issue.

https://reverb.com/p/fender-006-125...ios-share&utm_campaign=csp&utm_content=113115

I'm going to keep all 3 controls ( volume knob, tone knob 1 and tone knob 2 ) plus the 5 way Fender style switch. The 5 way switch is how I'll be switching, so position 1 ) the Bridge Prails, in whatever configuration I have it in via the Triple Shot, 2) position 2, the typical blend between the humbucker and middle single coil ( an out of phase sound ) 3) position 3, pure single coil, 4) position 4, a blend between the single coil middle pick-up and the neck pick-up and whatever configuration it may be in due to it's Triple Shot setting, and 5) position 5, the neck pickup.

I don't understand how I'd get to positions 2 and 4 without using the 5 way fender switch. The Fender S1's are interesting and I found this video which may be of interest to you, but at this point this is way over my head.

 
Those Triple Shots will fit under the strings? I was just saying that since your guitar already has pickguard electronics, then you could use the S1 switch/pots in place of your volume and 1st tone. Wire the P-rails to the new switches and the 5 way. It would be the easiest way to go about it.

Edit: if the triple shots fit then use them. Just hope you get it running right.
 
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I have a P-Rails Hot in my in my Hello Kitty Strat. It super beefy and nice and balanced frequency wise in its humbucker mode.
 
Glad to see P-rails in some Strats. I had a set in my LP guitar and couldn't bond with them. I flipped them backwards, and put them in my Strat with the Tripleshots, and now I love them.
I was an electronic technician for 20 years, but I put Tripleshots on all of my humbuckers. Because it's so much easier than wires and switches, and.....why not?
 
Glad to see P-rails in some Strats. I had a set in my LP guitar and couldn't bond with them. I flipped them backwards, and put them in my Strat with the Tripleshots, and now I love them.
I was an electronic technician for 20 years, but I put Tripleshots on all of my humbuckers. Because it's so much easier than wires and switches, and.....why not?
  • With a Tripleshot on a humbucker, you get series in phase (normal humbucker), parallel in phase, and what, series out of phase?
  • How are they ergonomically in the heat of a set? Reasonably convenient and quick, or fiddly and annoying?
 
  • With a Tripleshot on a humbucker, you get series in phase (normal humbucker), parallel in phase, and what, series out of phase?
  • How are they ergonomically in the heat of a set? Reasonably convenient and quick, or fiddly and annoying?

You can get split to either coil plus series and parallel bucker. Not out of phase. It’s easy to switch modes on the triple shots. It’s easy to knock them out of position too. For the bridge I had to sand the switches down a bit so now no problem. Depending on picking hand style this might not be an issue for most people.
 
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