Please review my P-90 neck - P-Rails bridge 6-way wiring

[josip]

So, my next project is upgrading my Yamaha Pacifica 311H. Only underwhelming thing about that guitar is the bridge humbucker and I felt that P-Rails would complement the neck P-90 with another one for some P-90 goodness but also add some tonal diversity with 4 possible sounds from bridge pickup alone  I would just swap the bridge humbucker for start and keep the original neck P-90 pickup with pots and controls. My Yamaha is not with me at the moment so I have to double check if the stock neck pickup is north up but I am pretty sure it is. Next step would be maybe, changing the pots, switch, adding treble bleed and at the very end maybe go for SD Vintage P90 for perfect match in the neck.

This is the functionality idea (my go to positions are the ones with the tone pot down, other three are there for additional flexibility):



And here is the wiring:



I actually found PAC311H service manual and edited the wiring in paint. 
The only way I found to solve this setup was to connect bridge P-90 directly to output and short it in position 1 but that shouldn't be a problem (right?).

Please review and let me know if there is a more elegant solution. 

Thanks!

[newey]

Oct 10, 2022 14:48:58 GMT -5 josip said:

The only way I found to solve this setup was to connect bridge P-90 directly to output and short it in position 1 but that shouldn't be a problem (right?).

Not a problem. Your diagram checks out by me, but let's get another set of eyes on it before we say you're good to go.

As for more elegant,figuring this out with just a DPDT push/pull is more elegant than anything I could have come up with.

[josip]

Oct 10, 2022 19:53:18 GMT -5 newey said:

As for more elegant,figuring this out with just a DPDT push/pull is more elegant than anything I could have come up with.

Thanks! I was just trying to use the switch and push-pull pot that was already in the guitar. 


Also, this alternative combination, if you prefer having all P-90s in one position of the pot, can be made just by swapping two lugs on the switch:


           

[stevewf]

Hi, josip, I really like the functionality scheme, especially the first one you posted - with the push-pull down, you get the beefy sounds, and with the p/p up, you get the brighter sounds.

I do recommend getting a treble bleed, especially for using the pair of P-90 coils in series (controls=middle,down). Without a t-bleed, the tone might get pretty dark when you dial down the volume. Since we often use a volume knob to lessen the distortion and clean up the sound, and darkening can work contrary to that, so a t-bleed seems like a good idea.

In fact, I'd be tempted to over-do it and put in a bleed that actually brightens the tone a bit as the volume levels go down. Sorry, but without much experience there, I can't suggest cap/resistor values (whose effect also depends heavily on the coils themselves, I think). Luckily, the 311H looks to have rear cavity covers, which facilitates experimentation without having to repeatedly remove/re-install the pickups.

You might also look into shielding behind the pickups and in the control cavity, if Yamaha don't do that in the factory. Fat single coils like P-90 (even HB-sized ones) can be noise gatherers.