Anyone tried the "Green Magic" set?

ThreeChordWonder

New member
300 bucks a set for the nickel cover ones.

Worth it or just take my regular 59 Classic or Burstbucker neck humbucker and flip the magnet / wire it in backwards?
 
I gotta admit, as much of a Duncan fan I am, I don't "get" the Green Magic pups. You can take any pup in the Duncan line, and reverse black and green wires. Or, if it's 2-conductor, flip the mag.
 
I hadn't tried them to see how different they sound individually from other PAF types. But for about $260, you get not only out of phase but a reverse coil configuration, too. It might not be worth it for the sound, but some people really dig that look in an LP.
 
You can also get the reverse coil configuration by simple spinning the pickup around so that the screw coil is to the neck.
 
Worth it or just take my regular 59 Classic or Burstbucker neck humbucker and flip the magnet / wire it in backwards?

I'd expect you'd need an unpotted Antiquity, or at least a Seth, to get closer?

You can also get the reverse coil configuration by simple spinning the pickup around so that the screw coil is to the neck.

That's not the same thing. That won't give you the out of phase tone that Greenies are all about.
 
You can also get the reverse coil configuration by simple spinning the pickup around so that the screw coil is to the neck.

If you mean reverse polarity, then nope. All pickups spin the neck around. It doesn't change polarity. Pickups respond to fore and aft string vibration. Not left or right. It's one of those funny things that Seth got wrong.
 
You can also get the reverse coil configuration by simple spinning the pickup around so that the screw coil is to the neck.

Nope.

It's all to do with the polarity of the magnet and the relative direction (clockwise or anticlockwise) the coils are wound or the way the wires are hooked up, e.g.start = ground, finish = hot, or the other way around. Orientation relative to the planet makes no difference.
 
All of the following is up for discussion / correction.

First of all I want to say the pickups are only one part of the equation to that sound. The guitar itself ( a 59 with a really fat neck if my research is correct), amplifier, speakers, tuning, strings, whatever pedals were around in the late 60ls, Green's fingers, etc. etc. all also factor in.

Peter Green's LP was, if my short research is correct, a 59 with PAFs. It is said Green flipped the magnet, thus changing the polarity, and put it in backwards so that the slug coils were nearest the neck. The photo on Wikipedia seems to support that last statement.

PAFs were made on four different winding machines, two of which didn't have auto-stops, so there were widespread variations in the number of turns on each. 59. PAFs used Alnico 2 magnets if my research is correct.

So what we have is a "regular", meaning probably not particularly "regular", PAF bridge and a phase flipped put in (not wired in) backwards PAF in the neck, both Alnico 2.

Electronically, the screw coil, which would be a "south" on a normal PAF, is now a "north", the slug coil is now a "south", and the slug coil is nearest the neck. That's different to just wiring the thing into a guitar north finish = ground south finish = hot because the pole pieces are different.

Physically, the slug coils are nearer the neck.

I have a set of 4-wire Gibson 57 classics and two sets of 2-wire Epiphone Burstbuckers. All three sets have metal covers so it will involve de then re- soldering the covers. I don't want to mess with the Gibson units, but the Burstbuckers aren't worth sh-sh-sh-Sherlock secondhand, so I might be tempted to attempt surgery on one of those. Easy enough to add a push-pull to bring the flipped pickup back into phase too.

But I still wonder if just wiring in the neck pickup with the wires reversed or using a push-pull to phase flip, and mounting it in slug poles nearest the neck will get me there without taking a pickup apart.

250220-71_(Cropped).jpg
 
PS the lineage of the guitar is unknown other than

Gibson >> someone else (I doubt he bought it brand new) >> Peter Green >> Gary Moore >> numerous private collectors >> Kurt Hamnet. I doubt Moore did any, sorry, more, mods, what private collectors did no-one will ever know (but I doubt anything was done), and Hamnet sure as Sherlock has the brains to leave it alone. Unless, however, Hamnet allows a full forensic examination, we'll never know every detail. Both Green and Moore, and I suspect those at Gibson and the first owner, have all gone off to the great jam session in the sky.
 
But I still wonder if just wiring in the neck pickup with the wires reversed or using a push-pull to phase flip, and mounting it in slug poles nearest the neck will get me there without taking a pickup apart.


It is possible that the pickups are close enough together that flipping one magnet re-shapes the overall magnetic field (for either pickup selected) in an audible manner.

Personally I think Strat pickups are close enough for that to happen, but not humbuckers in a 2-config.
 
I doubt it.

Magnetic field strength diminishes with radius squared. So I very much doubt the magnet in the bridge pickup has any perceivable effect on the neck pickup. Coils within the same pickup, certainly.coils in different pickups, probably not.
 
You can also get the reverse coil configuration by simple spinning the pickup around so that the screw coil is to the neck.

Oops! My bad... serious brain fart. "Spin the pickup *magnet* is what I thought I'd written." Spinning the neck pup is the other part of the Greenie equation. Sorry!
 
flip magnet, flip pup and you are there. its a cool sound but honestly, i prefer to have the oop option on a switch. the coil orientation does change the tone a bit but i find that is preference more than anything else.

ive read stories of the neck pup being rewound with formvar wire due to a broken coil and thats when the tech put the mag in backwards and flipped around. who knows. i think the oop thing is the big part and it only has a big effect when both pups are on. hate oop on a strat but with independent volumes (as per greens lp) you can get some awesome tones by rolling one pups volume back a bit
 
flip magnet, flip pup and you are there. its a cool sound but honestly, i prefer to have the oop option on a switch. the coil orientation does change the tone a bit but i find that is preference more than anything else.

ive read stories of the neck pup being rewound with formvar wire due to a broken coil and thats when the tech put the mag in backwards and flipped around. who knows. i think the oop thing is the big part and it only has a big effect when both pups are on. hate oop on a strat but with independent volumes (as per greens lp) you can get some awesome tones by rolling one pups volume back a bit

I tend to agree. My Epi LP, fitted with WLHs, has a push pull to flip the bridge pickup's phase. I really don't think it matters which pickup is flipped, just that one has to be out of phase with the other. I haven't gone as far as to rotate the pickup as a whole in its mounting though.
 
I think in the end, it will be most likely bought by PG Les Paul enthusiasts that don't care (or know) that it is possible to achieve with a normal set. Personally, I am not an out of phase guy, and I don't get why that sound was ever popular, but I am not the target audience here.
 
If they are good sounding PAF style pickups, it would be easy to flip the magnet for players who prefer a more conventional setup.
 
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