Added: 4 years ago
From: stevetosborne
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  • Be sure to watch the newly posted version of this video in HD. YouTube has come a long way since we originally posted. The sound is far better on the new video.

  • Looks like a Heritage H170 in the background. 

  • i have a three way switch, can work with it ?

  • @xpaulinox Yup. Buy a tripleshot mounting ring. Then you can get all 4 tones. =)

  • may we know what sound chain makes this great tone??

  • Awesome demo (great to use a "control riff" for comparison purposes instead of freeforming all over the place--wish other people understood that!). And thanks for a clear explanation of what's going on without too much techie talk for luddites.

    2 Qs: (1) do these come with ability to select series _or_ parallel wiring in humbucker mode (no biggie--just curious to see how far you guys took it)? and (2) is there an output jump from p90 to humbucker, or my imagination?

    Keep after it.

  • @superduperlouber You can get the 4 tones if you install an extra switch somewhere, or do what a lotta people do (myself included) and get somethin like a SD triple shot mounting ring. Some guitars have extra options on push-pull pots too.

  • I love the multi tones i get from my p-rails

  • I just purchased a ibanez sas32ex that someone had swapped the factory pickups out with the prails I really love the variety of tones that I get out of my pickups

  • i like the p-90 sound alot, i never really cared for them before

  • Great video, you guys should reupload in HD.

  • Sounds muddy to me. Is it all YouTube? I don't think so. I was considering getting these for my son's Epiphone SG; now I'm not so sure.

  • @themikeaustin I'll tell you this much... we uploaded this video almost 3.5 years ago now. Youtube audio fidelity has come a long way since then. This post actually proceeded the existence of even the "High Quality" option let alone HD of any kind. Keep that in mind when you're listening to these "older" demos. Decent computer speakers help, but only so much.

  • @themikeaustin i have these in my own epi sg, and i don't regret buying them at all, they're not muddy sounding either, at least mine definately aren't, you can get a range of tones from them, youtube quality just wrecks everything lol i'm getting a gibson for my 21st and i may end up switchin out the pickups for these as well. Thats just my oppinion though.

  • I was really hot on the PRails when they came out. Its a great concept, and I was considering dropping one into one of my guitars. But after hearing the Youtube reviews, Ive found that they are pretty much a 1 trick pony. Out of around 6 vids, Ive yet to hear a clip of them clean. So Im thinking they dont clean up well.

    Also, Ive noticed that despite the available selections available, the pickup still has the same tone. It doesn't do highs well. Its a darker sounding pickup.

    I guess I pass.

  • @IPushHard maybe you should try actually playing them rather than basing an opinion off of cruddy youtube videos...

  • @IPushHard /watch?v=BlvdU2gHQ4o&feature=r­elated

    This video is clean all the way through on all settings.

  • @dudemanguyguy

    Thanks for the info. Dont get me wrong folks. I know that if players want a cleaner sounding clean from these pups that SD will get them to market. Then I'll grab a set.

    Sometime I may want a set of these, but I'm into brighter cleans these days.

    I'm not basing my opinion entirely on a Youtube video (& this one is WELL DONE. Not cruddy) Some players at my guitar forum own them and they've given me feedback and sound clips.

    Trying them out? Kind of an expensive experiment.

    Thanks

  • wow i have to get some of these

  • i'm gonna put 3 of them in my next build

  • what pick ups are in the red guitar

  • Wow.  Thanks.

  • i would go with the strait up humbucker on this one!

  • @stevetosborne can you buy a switch for each pickup?

  • would i be able to put a p-rail in my neck pickup, but flip it around so the single coil is closer to the neck?

  • @MajesticJesusPirate they se;; the neck and bridge positions seperate

  • Cool I might stuff a couple of these into my PRS :D

  • just ordered a PRails set with a pair of triple shots! Can't wait to wire em up!

  • would I be able to add this to a neck of a jackson rr3 97 and a blackout ahb-2 on the bridge

  • My dream guitar setup in one single pickup O_o

  • 3 different blues sounds... but can it play metal?

  • @heminder yes it plays metal....very VERY well....it depends more on the amp tho

  • Been workin' at Guitar Center for years now, and I recommend a couple (maybe three) of these pickups to absolutely everybody out there yo! Seriously cereal!! They will make love to your ear-vaginas

  • Been workin' at Guitar Center for years now, and I recommend a couple (maybe three) of these pickups to absolutely everybody out there yo! Seriously cereal!!

  • these pickups sucks!

    i spend 200 bucks & became totally disappointed.

    yes, they looks very cool, but the sound is plastic, poor & cheap. you ll get a very low output, a lot of presense, but without thickness & fatness.

    dont try to have 10 guitars in 1!

  • What are the woods used in this guitar exactly?

    Also, how different do the shpr-1 sound compared to the shpr-2?

    Thanks

  • Do those pickups look pearlescent to anyone else? Do they actually make ones like that? I can only seem to find them in black and creme.

  • Can someone please tell me if this pickup is possible to put in something other than a Fender Strat? I want to buy one for my Ibanez RG but everything I hear about this pickup is "I put this in my Strat, etc." Please respond!

  • @Sirpwnalot4321 these pickups are humbucker-sized. They will fit in any standard sized humbucker cavity.

  • @Sirpwnalot4321 i got a set of those in a rga42fm,and used the second switch in series

    thats mahogany body maple neck sounds great,,,,if i were you and wanted to feel the ibanez

    but hear the pickups it's a great combination

  • anyone ever tell you,, you look like a cleaned up sully from godsmack,, Good video, I appreciate it. Buying them now!!!

  • I would really like to hear some clean sound settings

  • I want those pickups! and the shirt he's wearing!

  • how do you switch between single, p90, and humb'er?

  • @houseband239 With a 3 way switch you have to have wired to it.

  • What kind of guitar is he playing when he starts playing the P-Rails?

  • Wish the demo included someone playing with something other than a sledge hammer approach.

    Just sounds like noise.

    SRV clone nonsense.

    This is your product development guy ?

    Yikes !

  • does it hum at all (in HB mode)? i would think that the p90 would pick up RF stronger than the rail could cancel out.

  • @Anitrop In our experience, each mode is quieter than it's single coil counterpart. The P90 is quieter than a standalone P90, and the Rail is quieter than a standalone strat single coil. The humbucker is very effective, and we don't get any complaints about the hum cancelling when the two coils are together. There are quieter humbuckers, especially active humbuckers like Blackouts, but this HB, whether series or parallel, should be very quiet.

  • @frankfalbo Hey Frank, what amp are you using in the video?

  • Definitely picking up a set for my Les Paul. I'm sold.

  • Great demo....well done!

    I think the sound is great and not poor (see comment below) but I notice a big output/gain difference in the original equipped guitars and the P-rails pick ups (P90 especially) Or did you turn up the gain?

    Thanks

    SD fan

  • Unbelievable....I WANT IT!!!!

  • Any news on the pearloid p rails?

  • hey i was wondering if i bought a three way switch, would it be possible to have the p-rail in the neck position and have the three different tones, while the bridge pickup was just on standard humbucking and unaffected by the switch . like if the treble/rhythm switch was switched to treble it would just be the bridge pickup. or if it was switched to rhythm it would just be the neck pickup, but with the extra three way switch would i be able to change between the p rails three different tones?

  • @gamari4354 Yes of course, you just wire the neck P-Rails up to the 3-way as in any of our wiring diagrams, and wire the bridge pickup's hot directly to the Rhythm/Treble switch. If you have trouble you can call Seymour Duncan Customer Service and they'll sort it out with you.

  • will the series mode sound like a burstbucker pro

  • @jelledegitaarman For that type of sound you will want to run them in parallel. Series mode is fuller and fatter, with more output than a Burstbucker.

  • will the series mode soun like a burstbucker pro

  • I got them on my tele. They are awesome. All four tones are really good.

  • he could have played some slow song with the neck single coil.. its just great, i´ve installed in my Les Paul today! Its Duncan folks...

  • what type of guitar is he playing at 3:26? thanks

  • What's the music in the begin?

  • @JyraFF just simple random bluesrock guitar riffs that guitarists commonly play when testing gear in stores and such

  • Can you use a Fernandes Sustainer system on these P-rails?

  • I just got a P-Rails SHPR-1 P-Rails in the neck position and a TB14 Custom 5 in the bridge of my ESP.... I'm such a lucky boy!!! :o)

  • It's funny a guy with Musical Youth's "Pass the Dutchie"(not bad song at all mind you)as one of the four videos on his channel calls this "booooring". That's like Richard Nixon calling John F Kennedy "dishonest".

  • emmm.. I think he should use distortion not crunch .....

  • boooorrring.....

  • I have a p-rail in the bridge, my guitar is

    s-s-h, what p/u was in the guitar for the single coil demo in the beginning if you guys remember, I need a neck and middle pick up

  • My only question would be does the humbucker setting have enough output and power for hard rock or metal? I play in a cover band and I would love to have all of these sounds right in one guitar. But all of this guys sounds are very "Strat" like, even on the humbucker setting.

  • I'm almost certain that's mainly cause he's using a fender amp, I think.

  • SHPR-1 has moderate gain. (for neck)

    SHPR-2 has even more gain than the JB SH-4. ( for bridge) (18.8K ohm)

    You could definitely play metal with the set.

  • I don't see any P-Rails with that Pearl covering on the Duncan site. What gives?

  • Those pearloid tops were hand cut, and when it came time to do the video they were so new that those were the only ones I had in house. So I used them. You can request them from the Custom Shop, (or tortoise shell, or any pickguard material really) but I don't know what the cost or lead time would be.

  • They really should manufacture them. They would look awesome on my natural finish semi-hollow guitar. GFS makes Dream 180s with that same look... but now that I've heard the P-Rails, I don't want anything less.

    Hopefully, the additional cost won't be anything crazy.

  • cant wait for the P-rails hot to come out!

  • i wonder what it feels like to be a manager in a huge company that makes something that the most of the world's population doesnt have a friggin clue about...

  • great idea SD

  • I'm going to fit these in my es-175 (epiphone) with the tripple shot mounting system, gonna be completely mad but ive always wodnered what a standard style single coil would sound in its mahogany ply body.

  • Thin weedy sound because he is using light strings. If he used 11s with a wound 3rd the tone would be far better.

  • does the wound 3rd make that much diff.. i use nickle rocker 11s plain 3rd.... just cant bend that wound 3rd right... but ive also never really listened hard to the sound of the wound 3rd

  • The wound 3rd gives a fuller more harmonic sound and a better balance. Also, if the strings are set a little higher they can vibrate better and give richer harmonics. SRV used 13s - tuned to

    Eb. The reason original Strat pups have staggered poles is to account for a wound 3rd. I teach and play as a full time job and have used 12s and 11s for years and have no problem with bends.

  • btw those strings are looking pretty solid to me... i would guess no thinner that 11s he is smackin pretty hard and they arent farting out of tune

  • Super fat and crunchy....Amazing!

    What kind of cabs are you using on this video.

    Speakers?

    What about the amp?

    Thx

  • man that is beefy. I'd love to have that in the neck of my guitar.

  • Could you put a chrome cover over this for looks sake?

  • damn, I love the way this guy plays. Those pickups are looking pretty cool, I play death metal an' I'm even considering buying them, just for the versatility they offer

  • Wow, really impressive. I dig it.

  • how are these for high gain?

  • All you Nay-sayers can rest assure these sounds are coming from one guitar and one amp - no turning buttons. I just bought a pair of these "bad boys" and what a difference it made in my guitar!!!! The band I play in wanted to switch their pickups that day!!! I'm telling ya, these p/u's do exactly what he says!!  Switching p/u's is a true pain in the ass but these were well worth it!! If you play any type of rock/blues/metal, these are the ones!!!

  • Im getting two of those! I like the idea a lot...

  • This is great. Finally someone thought of doing this. Of course it had to Seymour Duncan. I'm supposing that this can fit within the humbucker space in a guitar. You should have shown the humbuckers both in series and parallel separately, then some of those doubting thomases would have kept quiet......

  • uh... that was kinda the point. It lets you hear the same thing in the different settings so you hear what the pickup is doing not what Frank is doing... "nit"

  • I kind of agree. The guy plays ok...but...

    This guy is demoing with the same play style. Mix it up with some clean and some distorted sounds. You know....metal. Even if it aint made for it, at least we can hear that for ourselves.

    Thank you and good night.

  • There's a guitar builder, Jason Schroeder that recently put up videos of guitars he's built with P-Rails. He plays the guitar differently, focusing on each style. It's true for this video I wanted to stay within some parameters so that you could truly hear the pickup's tonal differences. Remember, when this video was filmed and released, no one had ever seen or heard of a P-Rails. I wanted toavoid any accusations that I played differently to emphasize the differences.

  • Demo videos are really just to get you to try the product on your own. Doesn't matter what he plays. Computer speakers over the internet on Youtube can't come close to the tone out of your amp anyway.

  • What´s the guitar he´s using with the cream P-90? It looks like a Les Paul, but doesn´t look as a Gibson exactly

  • It's a brand called Vintage.

  • the camera change made me suspect, never tone switching during the same camera can this be an edit trick? YES

  • You're kidding, right? Steve and I recorded the whole thing as one long take with two cameras, and then he cut everything together and took out dead air and flubbed speech. No one touched any knobs. Was the moon landing done in Hollywood, too? :)

  • so, what do you think..

    JB (Bridge) and this one (Neck)

    would that be a good combo? ^^

  • getting this in an epi dot , good idea ??

    anyways, i may xD

  • "man up...and call me...we can discuss how they were designed..."

    Frank, you're the man. You guys have a great product...the only pickups I'll ever use. Glad to see a company obsessed with quality, working to give the consumer different angles to meet their need, and then standing behind it.

    Refreshing indeed

  • im putting 3 on my strat, each pickup has 3 individual controls, strat/p90/humbucker, 7 way pickup selection. cant get any better than that

  • i'm getting these in a custom made iceman with a wilkinson tremolo bridge :D

  • this is electric sex for the ears...

  • These and a Triple Shot in a Les Paul with a Bigsby would ROCK!

    Oh, and Frank is awesome!

  • What does the parallel humbucker tone sound like?

  • I an want it all and I want it NOw!!

    Would you recomend that I get a

    ESP LTD PB-500 ELECTRIC GUITAR?

  • The sound quality of the recording is really poor,it's brittle like the mic is picking up too much of the speaker coil or either amp is set too low so we hear the strings acoustically.

    I love the idea behind the pickups but maybe I'll wait until I can actually try them in a music store.

  • you should listen to the demo on SD's website. Youtube has always been notorious for having crummy audio.

  • Yeah,I didn't find any audio samples on the web site.Thanks anyhow.

    If you paste this

    TOP HAT SUPER DELUXE- Boynton Pro Audio TV

    on youtube search and here you'll find a nice audio sample..even with youtube's less than stellar audio it's not brittle,no treble razor blade.

    I'm sure the PU is better than a youtube sample though,I'll keep my eyes open in my area.

  • I think what he means is to watch the video demo on the SD website, because the audio is better.

  • exactly what I meant...

  • Wow, sounds great... one of the most impressive 'tone' vids I've seen on the 'tube

  • The pickups are designed to be versatile, not magical. Mounted in a strat, the single will sound more authentic. As is, all of the sounds are totally usable. Of course you also seem to think that all Peavey amps sound bad, so you're pretty clearly an armchair expert who doesn't know dick anyway. Of course I'm sure you're going to tell me about all of your hit records and world tours now. Save it; all anyone needs to know is that you're an idiot with a tin ear.

  • ANY "multitasker" is a shitty stand in for the real thing. Be it a POD or swiss army knife guitar pickup which this thing tries to be. Most Peavey amps do sound bad, compared to the amps they emulate. The tweeds they did in the early 90's sounded decent. But I go back to the 70's when everything they made sounded like shit. Im sure you're a humbuckin' high gain freak and love to hide in the din... So with that said, please go plug your Kramer into your Peavey and wank till you die.

  • No, you're an idiot stop it. The fact that a stand-in doesn't sound exactly like the original doesn't mean it can't sound good. And while 80s Peaveys have vile solid state distortion (which industrial and noise players are fine with) they have a very neutral clean that handles pedals and other instruments very well. And no, I don't play anything "high gain". I play clean or with mild to medium overdrive. I just evaluate gear based on actual merit instead of bullshit arbitrary standards.

  • So you've played them I assume? The P90 is no stand-in. It's real. The humbucker tones are getting rave reviews from owners, "thick but with clarity" and sure, two rails will always be a "stand-in" for a Strat, but many people love them. Way closer than coil cutting a normal HB. I'm sorry you're so convinced just from a few minutes of my noodling. If you'd like, you can man up, use your real name, or call or email me and we'll talk about how they were designed, magnetism, wire gauge, etc.

  • would it be possinle to put these in a Gibson SG-3?

  • Sure. They should fit in any standard HB route.

  • thank you mate

  • I have a coil splitting tone knob, could I wire one of these into my bridge whithout any other changes to just get the humbucker and p-90 sound? (my middle has a dual rails pickup that I like when split and I don't want another rails sound)

    also how much do these cost

  • Hi, where can I get the white (pearl) variant? I found just the black.

  • White ones are just now available. To get pearl, you'd have to go through the custom shop.

  • sounds like a good AC/DC tone

  • no way dude, that's SRV warmth.

  • I don't know if a rail is going to sound like a vintage single coil. I used to have a rail humbucker tapped and it was nothing like a single coil strat tone. I pulled it and put in a real single coil. The P-90 section probably gets something like the right tone. The humbucker tone could sound like very unbalanced coils but meh. This is high on my list as a neck pickup P90/Humbucker for my Godin Freeway SA. It's stock pickups sound like shit. I bought it only for SA but I'd like to Duncanise!

  • the first riff he plays, what style is it? just blues?

  • from what I can see, it's mostly in pentatonics, so yeah mainly blues.

  • Anyone know if the Humbucker sound is full and meaty like a regular one, or is it affected by the weird construction of the P-Rail?

  • Angus young gets a unreal sound out of the P90's,it appears he uses no effects other than amp,anybody know what his setup is ?

  • Doesn't Angus use his SG's humbuckers?

  • I read where he plays[most of the time]a couple of 1968 SG Gibsons with the stock P 90's.But I you can't always believe what you read.I guess you would consider them humbuckers,though different from the new SG Humbuckers.

  • I have seen Angus mostly with SG Standards with Stock humbuckers but he also has SG Specials and SG Junior which use P-90's. You are never going to get good hum cancellation with these but the Rail tone could be MORE Strat like as these us Alnico mags. I like one coil of Hot Rails a lot though not dead on STRAT sounding, so this should be closer.

  • I wonder what these pick-ups would sound like on an old Telecaster.

  • It would sound pretty much the same. What gives a tele its tone is the bridge pickup, the maple necks (the only tele's worth playing are ones with maple necks), and the fact that the pickup is strapped to the bridge. If you dropped these in a tele you would be destroying the tele... In my opinion. Unless it was one of these new tele's with humbuckers and a typical fixed bridge. Those are retarded. So these pickups would actually make it sound better. Just my thoughts.

  • Does anyone know if you can drop a mini toggle in place of one of your tone controls without modification? I'm not a big fan of drilling holes in my guitars... Besides, I'm playing a Gibson and one master tone control would really be enough for me...

  • get push/ pull knobs

  • I want them.

  • i'll put 1 of those into my ibanez s series!

    they're killer!

  • These would be perfect in a PRS CE24.

  • Nice video. Whats the name of the guitar with the p-rail?

  • It's a Heritage H-170... made in Kalamazoo.

  • ESP LTD makes a guitar that comes with P-rails in it..

    anyways these sound really awesome..

  • Have you tried that guitar at all? Is it any good?

  • might sound odd but would they be good for hard rock and metal?

  • Nice. Now a new shoot with clean tones...

  • that would be nice

  • Agreed.

  • SUPER PICKUP---GREAT VALUE--GREAT PLAYABILITY----I disagree with you on using both pickups to get the Best Sound---I just got done installing a neck pickup in a Peavey Reactor-(Tele Style Guitar) and it is A W E S O M E ---When using your pickup with a VanZandt Bridge True Vintage Pickup---It's the best Combo I have ever used and heard----Rated 10 All the way!!!!

  • Absolutely genius, it's amazing that so many tones can come from just those two pickups.

  • Now that's a KICK ASS DEMO 5 Stars.

    I am gonna grab a set of those and run like hell.

  • how do you change the tone? (humbucker, P-90, Rails)

  • you need to have a DPDT on-off-on mini switch added to your guitar. I'm totally gonna get the pair...friggin AWESOME

  • I'm pretty sure it would be on-on-on, wouldn't it? P90-HB-Blade?

  • for one reason or another, i've heard its on-off-on

  • That is a trip to hear that sound coming from a humbucker style guitar

  • Does anyone know that Frank designed these things? I think he deserves at least some credit for them. haha..

  • quote from tim mills "When a coil is scatterwound, the wire isn't as close or even, layer on layer, as with a machine and this lowers the distributed capacitance that exists between the turns of the wire. Lower capacitance allows more top end through, the resonant peak increases slightly and the pickup has a flatter frequency response across its range. The result is a clearer, more open sound that has the impression of being louder purely by the amount of extra detail and dynamics present."

  • got it. but handwounds cost a shitload!

  • what is that guitar he plays when he demonstrates the P-90s?

  • seem to be a les paul special tv yellow 1958 reissue

  • ephramtherabbit, thats a Heratige guitar, hand made in Kalamazoo Michigan at the old gibson factory.

  • Wouldn't surprise me if it's not a reissue. I believe it's one of Seymours guitars.

  • it is a re-issue! :-)

  • then do u know if those p90s he has in there are Seymour Duncan or original?