hardwiring two single coils into a humbucker

[fender_mod]

okay so I have 2 SD QP single coils for bass that I want to put into a big ol' humbucker. I've tried wiring end to ends. right now I have them ground/ground but its out of phase and I think I've also tried it hot/hot with the same bad results.

can I put them into a hum-cancelling humbucker simply by wiring choices or do I have to turn one pickup upside down to do this? I figured it would be as simple as putting the pickups end to end to make them out of phase for hum-cancelling.

 

[fender_mod]

Re: hardwiring two single coils into a humbucker

okay so heres a crude diagram of whats going on. i have the pups mirrored because of those ends that jet out. could this also be the source of my problem? i dunno how the magnets in the SDs work. thanks!

 

[Rich_S]

Re: hardwiring two single coils into a humbucker

To et proper humbucking operation, you need the sound from the strings in phase, and the extraneous hum out-of-phase. The way to do this is to have one of the pickups RWRP to the other. Most matched sets of Duncan single-coils are RWRP already, but if you have two random pickups, they might be wound the same, and therefore won't work as a humbucker.

Assuming you do have an RWRP set, wire them in series, with one pickup's black going to the other pickup's white, then wire the remaining loose black/wire pair into the control cavity as you would any normal pickup.

 

[fender_mod]

Re: hardwiring two single coils into a humbucker

these are not a set. they are just two bass pickups and they are wound the same way. cuz when i put them hot/ground I get super buzz like they just make one massive single coil.

like I said i think i can pull this off if i open up one of the pickups and flip the magnets/coils around.

what do you guys think?

 

[uOpt]

Re: hardwiring two single coils into a humbucker

No, you need reverse polarity (one north down, one up) and you need reverse wind (inside of coils starts in the other direction than the other coil's inside).

Given that you can put them in series or parallel. Parallel and series will sound different but both with cancel hum.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: hardwiring two single coils into a humbucker

I have tried what you are suggesting and it doesn't work very well. If you want a humbucker that sounds like the QP get a GFS Bigmouth.

 

[fender_mod]

Re: hardwiring two single coils into a humbucker

ya i figured it was probably going to have to come down to some magnet flipping. so i flip one of the magnets and then make sure the windings are clockwise/counter clockwise to one another.

i think i can figure out the reverse winding, it should just be a matter of making sure the grounds and hots are wired opposites one the magnet is flipped.

ps. yes im insane and I love taking things apart

 

[Rich_S]

Re: hardwiring two single coils into a humbucker

ps. yes im insane and I love taking things apart

Good, because to get one of them reverse-wound, you're going to have to take off all 5000 turns of wire and put them back on the other way. Flipping magnets will just give you the "RP" part. The "RW" comes from the winding direction.

 

[fender_mod]

Re: hardwiring two single coils into a humbucker

well instead of wiring hot/ground cant i just wire the two pups hot/hot and get the same result? or flip the coils upside down?