Seymour Duncan P-Rails in EBMM HSH wiring question

[woodpile]

Hey guys, been thinking about putting a pair of SD P-Rails in my HSH Silhouette. My understanding is the best control for the P-Rail is their PUP ring switch. My question is, if I install the pickups with the PUP ring switches can I also still use the 5way and get the original PUP combinations (wired like a Strat) with the center pickup? And, is this task way beyond us tinkerers?

[velorush]

Yes (get combinations?).

No (beyond tinkerers?).

 

Consider the switching as logical decision blocks.

Starting with the stock five-way, that switch decides which pickups or combinations of pickups have access to the output at a given time.  The two wires from each of the P-Rails switches will come into that switch the same way as the stock pickup wires.

Now, beyond that switch (up the chain, toward the each P-Rails) the Triple Shot rings will handle the decision of which pickup sound will be output to the five-way switch.  The five-way doesn't care what the result of the Triple Shot decision is; it will merely pass along the Triple Shot's decision on to the output circuit.   

[woodpile]

3 minutes ago, velorush said:

Yes (get combinations?).

No (beyond tinkerers?).

 

Consider the switching as logical decision blocks.

Starting with the stock five-way, that switch decides which pickups or combinations of pickups have access to the output at a given time.  The two wires from each of the P-Rails switches will come into that switch the same way as the stock pickup wires.

Now, beyond that switch (up the chain, toward the each P-Rails) the Triple Shot rings will handle the decision of which pickup sound will be output to the five-way switch.  The five-way doesn't care what the result of the Triple Shot decision is; it will merely pass along the Triple Shot's decision on to the output circuit.   

Thank you Sir for the reply. I was hoping that was the case (even the no tinkerer part). 

[velorush]

Have you played a P-Rails guitar?  I would highly suggest you give them a try before you buy.

I thought they sounded fine, but found that many choices actually reduced my enjoyment due to all of the second guessing going on ("would this sound better with the P-90 sound?" Switch... "maybe the hot humbucker..." Switch...).

In the end, I took them out and replaced them with Lollar Imperials.  It was a good lesson for me - as @murkat says, "make it a spaceship, not mission control."  After that, I couldn't agree more.  YMMV - everyone is definitely different.

My favorite sounds, though, were the P-90 and coils in parallel (i.e., low-powered humbucker) options.  The P-90s were somewhat snarly like one would expect.  The full-on humbucker was way beyond anything I'd be interested in (I don't do high gain / metal).  If you're into high output humbuckers, that might be the ticket for you.  I did find the small coil "Strat" type coils to be completely anemic and not very useful.

[woodpile]

Thanks for the input VR, I really appreciate it. I'll do some more homework. I might want to just split the humbuckers with push/pulls to start. I need one guitar that covers a wide range for the 3 piece band I'm in (lots of pressure on the guitar player). 

[velorush]

Ever try series / parallel wiring on a humbucker?  Nice change of pace that maintains humbucking and not as anemic as the single coils of some humbuckers.