Broken T-Top pickup?

Re: Broken T-Top pickup?

King IzzO))) said:
Hmmm, sounds like maybe it's not wired right. Try reversing the wires from one of the coils before you give up on it.

Looking at the picture again you can see the white and black wires are in opposite places, that doesn't necessarily mean that white is start on one coil and black on the other, but your description of what it sounds like makes me think so. Try switching the wires around, it should sound anything but thin and weak compared to an ant. What mag is in it now?
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The mag in it is the original sandcase short magnet.. whatever they were stuffing in a T-top.

You know why I come here? Smart people. You suggested that the coils are reversed, so I reversed the screw coil, since I could do that in the control cavity (swapped the black and white wire).

YOU WERE RIGHT.

Now it sounds like Jimmy Freaking Page! LOL. Though I don't think he played with a 12K pickup. But this doesn't sound like a 12K pickup. Because of the imbalanced coils?

Still a problem though - the pickup is out of phase with the neck.
 
Re: Broken T-Top pickup?

Okay, I've been playing it a bit.

It's defintely in the vintage, not hot category. It's got quack - noticable quack. It's got more sparkle/chime/harmonics. Lots of clarity. A little less girth than the PAF. Maybe the T-top makes it sound more Page-like to my ears, but it definitely has that characteristic. Maybe this was somebody's attempt back in the 70's of making a Page pickup?

I have it mounted in a gibson historic les paul - I'm going to leave it there for a bit.

A GiGANTIC Thanks for the assistance in making this work!
 
Re: Broken T-Top pickup?

No worries, happy to assist. I dig the out of phase sound myself, but if you want to change it just flip the magnet like copperhead said. You can also swap the black and green wires on the ant if it's four wire. Either method will put them in phase.
 
Re: Broken T-Top pickup?

Do I flip the magnet end to end, or rotate it along it's axis?

I've been playing it non-stop, and I think I'm not really like everything about it. I'd like to try putting the A5 magnet from an 80s JB in there, to see if it picks up some girth. I'm also not crazy about how much top end it has - when I run the amp inputs high, it gets fizz on the top end. The highs sound good clean though it's still kinda quacky.

I think I'm just more of a warm PAF guy. My antiquity bridge is 8.7K, and it sounds much better to my ears.
 
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Re: Broken T-Top pickup?

King IzzO))) said:
No worries, happy to assist. I dig the out of phase sound myself, but if you want to change it just flip the magnet like copperhead said. You can also swap the black and green wires on the ant if it's four wire. Either method will put them in phase.
Click to expand...

That's not true. Magnetically and electrically out of phase are not the same thing.
 
Re: Broken T-Top pickup?

formula73 said:
That's not true. Magnetically and electrically out of phase are not the same thing.
Click to expand...

When I reassembled the pickup, I tested the magnet by finding the edge that repelled the current bridge pickup screw pole pieces. That's the edge I installed facing the screw poles in the hybrid T-Top.

I will try electronically reversing it - for which I'll have to remove it and resolder each coil reversed - rather than just flipping the in/out coils, as that would ruin the coil tap possibility for the screw coil.

So that would be:

Slug Coil: White to ground, with hookup braid, black to red
Screw Coil: Leave alone
Hookup in control cavity: Reverse the black and white to properly phase the coils again.

I'll try it and let you know!
 
Re: Broken T-Top pickup?

This did work; it's now in phase.

I can see how switching this with coils in phase/coils out of phase/pickups in phase/pickups out of phase/split/series/parallel would be very cool. This is the better of the split coils I've tried - it's a pretty convincing telecaster.

However, overall - this T-Top is too far from stock for my tastes. I might send it in to have the screw coil re-wrapped, or sell or trade it for a stock pat no. t-top.

Thanks for all your help!
 
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