3 questions about humbuckers

[MichaelScottPerkins]

1. When making a humbucker, you wind one coil clockwise, and you wrap the other coil counter clockwise. How do you splice one of the coils to the other?
2. When making a humbucker, is it important to have all 12 magnets in the same polarity, meaning they all have N facing up, or S facing up, or is it part of the idea that one coil is N-facing, and the other is S-facing?
3. With humbuckers, why does one coil have fixed pole pieces, and the other row has screws with a magnet underneath them? Why not both be poles, or both screws?

 

[Clint 55]

Re: 3 questions about humbuckers

For Duncan:

1. They wind the hb coils the same direction and make it reverse wound by putting the 2 finishes together in series.
2. Neither the screw poles nor the slug poles are magnetic. The bar magnet beneath them magnetizes all of them. North to the slugs, south to the screws.
3. I dunno why they do 1 row of slugs and 1 row of screws. Maybe they think it sounds good. I love 2 rows of screws, but I didn't really like 2 rows of slugs the 1 time I tried it.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: 3 questions about humbuckers

Seth Lover actually wanted two rows of slugs and a completely smooth pickup cover, but the big cats at Gibson thought it would be more versatile over Fender (and therefore a selling point) being able to adjust string to string balance. I've also heard that McCarty thought it just plain looked better that way.

Some modern humbuckers have two rows of screws, like many of DiMarzio's pickups, or rails, like Bill Lawrence's pickups.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: 3 questions about humbuckers

A lot of inexpensive humbuckers don't have a screw coil. Also- when Seth Lover worked for Fender the Wide Range Humbucker was produced, which used twelve (magnetic) screws.

 

[AlexR]

Re: 3 questions about humbuckers

The typical humbucker only has 1 bar magnet at the bottom. The screws and slugs get their magnetism wholly from this.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

3 questions about humbuckers

1. When making a humbucker, you wind one coil clockwise, and you wrap the other coil counter clockwise. How do you splice one of the coils to the other?

1. 
   
   Normally no. But they are wired opposite.
   The reason why Fender pickups are reverse wound is to keep the start of the coil, which is in close contact with the rod magnets, connected to ground. This stops noise from being objected into the signal if you touch the magnets.
   
   But with two coils in series the second coil isn’t shielded like that.
   
   

   [*]When making a humbucker, is it important to have all 12 magnets in the same polarity, meaning they all have N facing up, or S facing up, or is it part of the idea that one coil is N-facing, and the other is S-facing?

   
   
   One coil is North and the other is South.
   

   The way a humbucker works is that because the two coils don’t sense the string in exactly the same location, each one “sees” a slightly different phase of the string. It might be going up in one and down in the other.
   
   So the two coils are wired (or wound) in opposite electrical polarity. This would normally sound out-of-phase and very thin.
   
   So the two coils also have opposite magnetic polarity. This way the coils sense the strings’ movements in phase.
   
   But interference doesn’t use the magnets to induce current into the coils, because this is magnetic field interference. So it ends up in each coil out-if-phase. When the signals from the two coils are summed together the noise cancels out. But the strings don’t... not exactly true though. You lose a little bit of the high frequencies. The distance between the two coils changes that. And the lows are reinforced, which gives the pickup a fatter tone.
   Pickups are also susceptible to electrical field noise, which is that high pitched buzz that goes away when you touch the strings. Humbucker aren’t good at bucking that. But shielding helps (such as metal covers).
   
   

   [*]With humbuckers, why does one coil have fixed pole pieces, and the other row has screws with a magnet underneath them? Why not both be poles, or both screws?

Originally two different people invented the humbucker. Seth Lover working at Gibson, and Ray Butts working for Gretsch.

Ray designed the Filer’Tron pickup. It had two rows of adjustable screws.

Seth Lover designed what became known as the PAF. Gibson wanted to compete with Fender. So one thing they did was the Les Paul, and they realized that Fender’s pickups hummed. Having a hum canceling pickup would be a marketing advantage.

Seth wanted the pickup to have a stainless steel cover. Non magnetic stainless isn’t a very good conductor, so it would be magnetically transparent (fewer eddy currents).

He also didn’t want exposed poles.

But the marketing guys at Gibson said “Fender doesn’t have adjustable poles, so we need adjustable poles!”

That’s why. They aren’t really needed.

Here’s Seth with the prototype. He stamped circles on the cover to simulate poles but the marketing guys didn’t buy it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Francois]

Re: 3 questions about humbuckers

For Duncan:

1. They wind the hb coils the same direction and make it reverse wound by putting the 2 finishes together in series.

Is it the same for CUNIFE Fender Wide Range pickups ?

 

[Zombiwoof]

Re: 3 questions about humbuckers

Seth Lover actually wanted two rows of slugs and a completely smooth pickup cover, but the big cats at Gibson thought it would be more versatile over Fender (and therefore a selling point) being able to adjust string to string balance. I've also heard that McCarty thought it just plain looked better that way.

Some modern humbuckers have two rows of screws, like many of DiMarzio's pickups, or rails, like Bill Lawrence's pickups.

Also, the P90, which preceded the humbucker, had the adjustable screw poles, so they probably wanted to continue that feature on the new humbucker pickups. Lover's intention with the first humbucker was to make a pickup that sounded like a P90 but was hum-cancelling.
Al

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: 3 questions about humbuckers

OMG, what did you do!? Your post is all over the place...difficult to follow and to even read.