Is it possible to get humbucker and P90 sounds out of the same pickup ??

riffpowers

I  was toying with getting a les Paul jr and replace the P90 with a P90 sized super distortion.

but it seems a shame to lose the P90. I know you can coil split some humbuckers for pseudo single coil sounds , but I’ve never heard anyone do it for a P90 sound .
There’s P90 sized humbuckers and humbucker size p90’s but is there a way to get the best of both worlds ?!!
does anyone know if it’s possible or even if it’s been done ?!!

ICBM

Yes. Duncan P-Rails.

riffpowers

I forgot about those !! I vaguely remember when they came out but I’ve never heard a set , or heard of anyone getting a set , did they not take off ?!

ICBM

riffpowers said:

I forgot about those !! I vaguely remember when they came out but I’ve never heard a set , or heard of anyone getting a set , did they not take off ?!

They don't seem to have been as popular as I expected they would be. I think part of the problem is the complicated switching needed to give the full options from them, and the other part might be that one of the sounds (the rail by itself) is shit... but in fact, you can achieve two out of the three good sounds - series humbucker, parallel humbucker and P90 - with a single switch, depending on whether you prefer an 'authentic' P90 sound, or a noise-cancelling 'single coil' sound (parallel) - and as Mr Loaf said, two out of three ain't bad.

If you don't mind using an on-on-on mini-toggle you can actually get all three, using the DiMarzio 'dual sound' wiring.

Funkfingers

ICBM said:

Duncan P-Rails.

Sort of. 

Of necessity, the P90 coil of the P-Rail is of different proportions than a proper P90 coil.

The Rail coil occupies about one third of the overall string sensing length of the pickup. Thus, there is some imbalance.

Having said this, the various coil permutations are an acceptable compromise.

I have P-Rails and Hot P-Rails in a PRS SE Semi-Hollow. I have mixed feelings about the parallel mode on each pickup. The mode that I consistently dislike is the Rail coil.

riffpowers said:

did they not take off ?

There is no escaping the fact that the P-Rails pickup is unsightly. The appearance will be enough to deter shallow people from bothering to listen to them.


FACTOID OF THE WEEK
The P-Rails pickup was devised by Frank Falbo - an all round smart guy, formerly employed at Seymour Duncan Inc., now running his own guitar building business. Worth checking out.

merlin

When you aim for that level of versatility, something's going to give. I had a set of P-Rails on a guitar and I liked the humbucker and P90 sound. Despite the fact that the P90 sound wasn't a real sound, it was pretty good. Rails sounded dorky. 

Get a really good early PAF style humbucker and a P90 side by side.....the PAF was designed to emulate the P90 sound without the hum. They are different but pretty similar in many way.

Funkfingers

FWIIW, I have one SHPR-2 P-Rails Hot in the tasteful black, 49mm polepiece spread, 350mm of 4-con + shield output cable.

PM me with offers of money or pickup exchanges, if interested.

monquixote

I had a P90 Super Distortion.

It wasn't great so I swapped it back to the original pickup.

sweepy

Didn't Alegree have a pickup that did that ?

Funkfingers

Chameleon? 

Alegree

sweepy said:

Didn't Alegree have a pickup that did that ?

Yes. The Chameleon.