Fender/Duncan compatibility questions

red_trochee

New member
Hey guys. I'm new to electric guitar and electronics/wiring in general, so please bear with me.

I recently bought an HSS Player Stratocaster. I wasn't a big fan of the stock humbucker, so I had a guitar tech swap it with a Pearly Gates when he was setting it up.

I've since found out about the compatibility issues between Fender pickups and Duncan pickups. Apparently, when you pair a Fender single coil with a Duncan single coil, if you don't do anything else, they will be out of phase. That leads me to my questions:

1. Pickups will only be out of phase if they are both single coils, right? However, there is still the potential for a humbucker to be out of phase with a single coil if the intermediate position splits the humbucker. On the HSS Player Strat, position two splits the humbucker and pair the inner coil with the middle pickup. Hence, unless something is done, the Duncan humbucker will be out of phase with the middle pickup. Am I understanding this correctly?
2. I'm new to electric guitar, so it's hard for me to tell, but I really don't think the Duncan humbucker is out of phase. If so, do y'all have any idea what the tech might have done to make it work?
3. If I wanted to replace the neck pickup with a Duncan single coil without replacing the Fender middle pickup, is there a way to do that and have both positions 2 and 4 working?

I really did try to find info on this topic. I think I understand the main ideas, but a lot of the detail is going over my head. I hope someone can help me get clear about this.
 
Re: Fender/Duncan compatibility questions

Welcome.

Any pickup can be out of phase with any other pickup, be they single coils or humbuckers.

Your tech likely flipped the hot and ground on your Pearly Gates to get it to be in-phase with your Fender singles.

If the mid and bridge pickups in your strat were out of phase, you'd have a thin, honky tone with no bass. If you have good low end, you're likely in phase.

To wire up a Duncan single in the neck of your strat along with the mid and bridge that are in there now, you'd just have to solder hot to back of pot and ground to switch (white in Duncan single coils) to get all 3 pickups to be in-phase with each other.
 
Re: Fender/Duncan compatibility questions

Welcome to the forum!
Benji gave a solid answer. Any tech these days would know the phase relationships between most Duncans and modern Fenders. You would think something was wrong with your guitar on position 2 if the tech didn't account for this. Some people like that sound (sickies).
 
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