Gibson pickups out of phase

[Supernautilus]

Hi guys. I’m installing an old set of Gibson 4 conductor humbuckers in a project guitar, and I’m confused about the wiring. Red is hot and black is ground. But if I wire them both that way, they are out of phase. I had to swap the red/black leads on one to fix it. Problem solved, yes. But I’m curious about why this is happening. I’ve never had this issue with SDs. The SD colors are always the same in a 2 hum installation, aren’t they?

Is this just how Gibson pickups are wired? Or is there something funky going on here? Thoughts?

 

[Artie]

I know that Ibanez does this on some of their humbuckers also. My Jetking pups were that way. It's so that when they're split to inside coils, they remain humbucking. In other words, they factory flip the magnet, then reverse wire one pup. (These were Super 58 pickups.)

 

[beaubrummels]

Were these pickups pulled from a particular guitar model?

 

[Supernautilus]

Were these pickups pulled from a particular guitar model?

No, they are a set of Tony Iommi signature pickups I bought separately, in the early 00s I believe.

 

[beaubrummels]

Must have come from the factory that way, for some reason. Those are epoxied in, so I don't think anyone could have messed with them to change them. But typically Gibson wire colors match. The only time I'm aware of Gibson pickups ever not matching is in a guitar model that has all kinds of switching options, similar to what Artie mentioned.

 

[Supernautilus]

Hey guys. I'm having another issue wiring up these pickups and I was wondering if I could ask for some more assistance. This one is a little more complicated. I have both pickups wired to a 4 way rotary switch. I'll post the diagram below showing the position functions. Operationally, everything seems to be working fine.

The issue is when the pickups are in series, there is a horrible buzzing whine when I touch the neck pickup cover, as if there's some kind of grounding issue. Which really sucks as these pickups are in a bass and that's usually where I rest my thumb for finger plucking. I've never wired two humbuckers in series before so I don't know if it has something to do with that. Or if it's something to do with the out of phase leads like I mentioned in my original post. But I've double checked the diagram and everything is wired up right. So I'm at a loss.

Anyone have any ideas what the problem could be? Thanks in advance. ​

 

[freefrog]

Hey guys. I'm having another issue wiring up these pickups and I was wondering if I could ask for some more assistance. This one is a little more complicated. I have both pickups wired to a 4 way rotary switch. I'll post the diagram below showing the position functions. Operationally, everything seems to be working fine.

The issue is when the pickups are in series, there is a horrible buzzing whine when I touch the neck pickup cover, as if there's some kind of grounding issue. Which really sucks as these pickups are in a bass and that's usually where I rest my thumb for finger plucking. I've never wired two humbuckers in series before so I don't know if it has something to do with that. Or if it's something to do with the out of phase leads like I mentioned in my original post. But I've double checked the diagram and everything is wired up right. So I'm at a loss.

Anyone have any ideas what the problem could be? Thanks in advance. ​

Hello,

If the pickups have coaxial 2-conductors cables (with center wire for hot and grounded shield), the grounded side is usually soldered to the baseplate, as is any metallic cover. By putting such pickups in series, one puts the baseplate and cover right in the signal path for the "hot" signal. Hence the buzz.

The only solution is to separate the wires connected to the coils from the baseplate/cover assembly (and to add a separate ground wire for these parts). It requires a 3 or 4 wires cable.

Or put something non conductive over the covers...

HTH. Good luck in your mods.

 

[Supernautilus]

Hello,

If the pickups have coaxial 2-conductors cables (with center wire for hot and grounded shield), the grounded side is usually soldered to the baseplate, as is any metallic cover. By putting such pickups in series, one puts the baseplate and cover right in the signal path for the "hot" signal. Hence the buzz.

The only solution is to separate the wires connected to the coils from the baseplate/cover assembly (and to add a separate ground wire for these parts). It requires a 3 or 4 wires cable.

Or put something non conductive over the covers...

HTH. Good luck in your mods.

Hey thanks for the response.

Well the pickups are actually 4 conductor with a fifth wire for the ground. But I’ve just been soldering the negative lead to the ground and wiring them together. Do I need to separate the ground wire and run it to ground by itself?

 

[jeremy]

yes, you should separate the bare and coil wire. the bare wire should go to ground, the coil wire to the switch

 

[freefrog]

Hey thanks for the response.

Well the pickups are actually 4 conductor with a fifth wire for the ground. But I’ve just been soldering the negative lead to the ground and wiring them together. Do I need to separate the ground wire and run it to ground by itself?

What Jeremy said. Thx Jeremy.

 

[Supernautilus]

Yup, that was it. I isolated the bare ground wires and that did the trick. Gotta love an easy fix hehe. Thanks for the assistance guys, much appreciated!

 

[jeremy]

glad you got it sorted!

 

[hamerfan]

Did you check the magnetic orientation on the pickups? If you narrow the pickups screw side to screw side and slug side to slug side they should repel each other.