Flipping Humbuckers Around.....

[Butch Snyder]

Is there a real tonal difference? I bought a PRS Swamp Ash Special. Nowadays, they come with the neck pickup flipped so the screw side is towards to the bridge. Is there a discernable difference? My ears can't tell.

 

[beaubrummels]

I hear a difference in the bridge position, but it's slight. Haven't really tested it with the neck.

 

[idsnowdog]

I flip the neck if it only has one set of poles so they face the bridge. If I radius the poles to match the neck it makes them brighter and less muddy. I'm rarely happy with a neck position.

 

[GuitarStv]

Maybe if the coils are wound differently/not matched it would be worth doing. If you're talking screws vs slugs there's not a huge sound difference (although you can make it greater by playing with the screw height).

 

[jeremy]

i find there is a subtle difference, unless the coils are wound differently

 

[Mincer]

Honestly, by the time I loosen the strings and flip it around, I don't hear it (or don't remember).

 

[freefrog]

Short answer is what fellow members said: slight difference. Example with a neck pickup : https://youtu.be/r9L8om-TXIo?si=5ESAss6g1yy8vEKa&t=195

Elements of a longer answer were shared here:

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/for...de-down-affect-the-tone?p=6272954#post6272954

Ironically, even a pickup with totally symetrical bobbins can sound different when flipped, if it has a 4-conductors cable introducing a capacitive mismatching between coils. But it's a random effect (due to parasitic capacitance, impossible to predict and to master totally) and it's normally subtle since it only affects the comb filtering of harmonics...​

 

[Sam SG]

My O'Hagan shark has a 70s DiMarzio dp103 paf in the neck that is backward. Sounds fine

 

[Chistopher]

A lot of DiMarzuos sound fairly different backwards.

 

[Sam SG]

A lot of DiMarzuos sound fairly different backwards.

With the pickup turned around, everything I play cones out of the amp backwards.:lmao:

 

[jeremy]

A lot of DiMarzuos sound fairly different backwards.

the ones with dual resonance for sure, makes a big difference when you have one coil with 5k turns of 42 and one with 5k turns of 43

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Not too noticeable for symmetrically wound humbuckers (which includes nearly all Duncans).

Maybe detectable if you know a particular guitar really really well and listen carefully with a focus on trying to hear the difference.
Not a difference I'd notice unless I was looking for it - probably not even then.

Pretty sure PRS only flips the neck hum so that when split, you'll be using the coil nearest the neck instead of the inner one.
IME neck coil vs inner coil can be a noticeable difference.