Another Megaswitch Question

[ArtieToo]

And I'll try to remember, going forward, not to be so anal about everyone's terminology. Maybe, a new year's resolution.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

And I'll try to remember, going forward, not to be so anal about everyone's terminology. Maybe, a new year's resolution.

Haha. Nah, you're good as-is, my friend. Keep up the good work.

[Mincer]

Reading through all this...you don't have to flip the magnet in the neck? Just reverse hot and ground? I was really just after the middle position being the outside coils in parallel and hum-cancelling.

[ArtieToo]

Reading through all this...you don't have to flip the magnet in the neck? Just reverse hot and ground? I was really just after the middle position being the outside coils in parallel and hum-cancelling.

No. I mean, incorrect. If you're using a standard Duncan humbucker, you MUST flip the mag and wire as I show for humbucking with the outer coils.

And sorry. This conversation has meandered several different directions from your original post.

[Mincer]

No, I don't mind it, as I am learning about these weird requests I have. So the neck pickup *needs* to have the magnet flipped, but doesn't need to be made with the wire direction going the other way...you just wire it 'backwards'. I think I am getting it: put the order in with just a flipped magnet, with everything else the same.

[ArtieToo]

No, I don't mind it, as I am learning about these weird requests I have. So the neck pickup *needs* to have the magnet flipped, but doesn't need to be made with the wire direction going the other way...you just wire it 'backwards'. I think I am getting it: put the order in with just a flipped magnet, with everything else the same.

Yes. Remember that there are two different ways to this. Mag flip OR reverse wind. But not both. And the diagram for "reverse wind" will be different. You, are basically doing this:

P.S. If you prefer reverse wound, we can do that. But it changes the switch diagram. But no prob.

[ArtieToo]

One more quick sidenote: I may do a whole Megaswitch translation page thread, but for the moment, as I examine the Megaswitch S, it's a standard Fender 5-way just as the Mega T is a standard Fender 3-way. I don't know why Schaller tries to make these look so complex. And then suggests that you can do "more" with them. You can't.

[Mincer]

Yes. Remember that there are two different ways to this. Mag flip OR reverse wind. But not both. And the diagram for "reverse wind" will be different. You, are basically doing this:

P.S. If you prefer reverse wound, we can do that. But it changes the switch diagram. But no prob.

OK, so it is *just* a mag flip and nothing else. Got it!

[ArtieToo]

OK, so it is *just* a mag flip and nothing else. Got it!

Yup. And connecting it as per my diagram. I'll do the modified one tomorrow to reflect the better drawing of the switch.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Yup. And connecting it as per my diagram. I'll do the modified one tomorrow to reflect the better drawing of the switch.

Artie, it looks to me like the humbucker with the Mag Flip has its Green wire set up as the Hot wire. Am I interpretting that correctly? And your diagram is using Seymour Duncan wiring colors, yes?

[Clint 55]

^ I don't get it either. I would think that would reverse the winding direction like needed but then split to the slug. Errr. Maybe he'll explain it.

[ArtieToo]

I'll do this in two posts, since this new forum software still messes with me.

There's a couple things here that are making this a little confusing. Mincer wants to split to the screw coils, when stud coils are the norm. (Nothing wrong with that.) Then, also make them humbucking. Convention says that we short the red/white series link to ground to split. But it's important to note that we are actually shorting to green. Since green is usually grounded, it works out electrically to be the same thing. But now, we want to short to black, or "hot." But, since I want to stay within the convention of shorting to ground, it means we simply reverse the order of the coils. This has no sonic impact since a pickup generates an AC signal.

So, figure 1 is how we typically wire a Duncan humbucker. If we "rotate" the screw coil around to put both coils in a straight line, we get fig. 2. Now exchange the physical position of the two coils and we get fig. 3. Rotate the coil back into position, and you get fig. 4. Note that figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 are all electrically, and sonically, identical. And, all the same polarity. And also note, that with fig. 4, we can short the series link to ground to get the screw coil. This matches what I did in Mincers wiring diagram for the bridge pup. (Note post #67.)

[ArtieToo]

Now we deal with the neck pup. In order to keep it humbucking when split, and maintain the convention of shorting the series link to ground, we need to flip the mag and reverse the wiring. We bring back fig 2 from the first diagram. It's a standard Duncan humbucker with coils in a straight line. Rotate the coils 180 deg's like an airplane propeller. (Fig. 5, on paper only.) Now the pup is out-of-phase. So we flip the mag to bring it back into phase. (Polarity, actually.) Rotate the coil back around into place, (figuratively speaking), and we have fig. 6. Again, this matches what I posted in post #67. And, the series link shorted to ground will give us the screw coil. And it will be in-phase, and hum-cancelling with the bridge when both are split. (Fig. 7 is just a reminder of the bridge wiring.)

Make sense?

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Artie,

Great explanation, should be helpful to a number of folks who are unacquainted with this.

The purpose of my earlier question was a little different though. It was in regards to your earlier responses to Mincer's questions when he asked if the methods are "just" a mag flip, and you said yes. I find that curious, as i would describe that diagram as a mag flip *plus* reversing signal flow in the Neck humbucker, since Green usually goes to ground. Am I still missing something?

[ArtieToo]

Artie,

Great explanation, should be helpful to a number of folks who are unacquainted with this.

The purpose of my earlier question was a little different though. It was in regards to your earlier responses to Mincer's questions when he asked if the methods are "just" a mag flip, and you said yes. I find that curious, as i would describe that diagram as a mag flip *plus* reversing signal flow in the Neck humbucker, since Green usually goes to ground. Am I still missing something?

No, no. It was our earlier "semantics" problem. You are correct. I was mistakenly taking "reversing signal flow" to me mean reverse wind. And you clarified that's not how you meant it. But yes, one way or another, we must reverse the signal flow, along with the mag flip. And reversing the wiring will do that.

So, to Mincer, you must mag flip and reverse the wiring.