Duncans vs. Others (polarity)

[PFDarkside]

I just ordered the following:
SSL-1
SSL-1 RW/RP
Rio Grande Stelly

And I completely forgot to think about polarity for hum cancelling. I quickly thought that if the RW/RP DUncan doesn't cancel hum then I can swap it for the other, but that doesn't consider if RG's are the same wind direction but different magnetic polarity.

Can anyone confirm or deny if a combo of the above will cancel hum?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Duncans vs. Others (polarity)

Here's what to do:

I'd consider installing them without cutting the wires to length...just in case you need to make changes to get everything humcancelling and in phase.

Hold the middle pickup polepieces against the bridge pickup polepieces and see if they attract or repel. If they repel then use the neck pickup as your middle pickup instead and put the middle pickup in the neck position.

After the guitar is wired and back together, if you combine the middle pickup with the bridge pickup and find that the combined tone is thin and out-of-phase, then reverse the wires on the bridge pickup only: make white ground and black hot. If the Stelly has a baseplate you'll also have to move the ground wire on that baseplate to the white wire terminal on the pickup.

Maybe you won't have any trouble at all though.

Good luck!

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Duncans vs. Others (polarity)

I think Lew covered it better than I ever could.

Maybe making a list of what's compatible or not with Duncans as far as phase is concerned would be a good idea.

I'll dig up my notes tomorrow.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Duncans vs. Others (polarity)

Thanks for the tip on the magnets. I guess that thing that's more difficult about S/Cs is that on a Humbucker you could flip that magnet, but on a S/C that's a pretty difficult thing to do.

If they end up working fine I'll probably actually put the RW.RP in the neck, I love the bridge/neck combo, and with the Stelly hopefully it's a bit more tele-ish than normal.