Humbucker in parralel with single coil = RWRP?

ThomasP

New member
Hello everybody,

If I put a Seymour Duncan humbucker in parallel with a Seymour Duncan single coil (middle position of 3 way switch), does the single coil need to be RWRP to cancel 60-cycle hum?

Thanks
 

Attachments

  • 20250608_142847.jpg
    20250608_142847.jpg
    53.5 KB · Views: 0
Hello everybody,

If I put a Seymour Duncan humbucker in parallel with a Seymour Duncan single coil (middle position of 3 way switch), does the single coil need to be RWRP to cancel 60-cycle hum?

Thanks

Hi,

If you do that, RWRP or not, the single coil will be noisy.

If you want noiseless operation with both pickups in parallel, you'll have to split the humbucker - or to pair a noise cancelling device with the single coil, or to change this SC for a noiseless pickup.

HTH.
 
Thanks, unfortunately I already did a mod with the humbucker ! (parralel or serie push/pull).
What do you mean by noise canceling device with the single coil? A mod?
 
I have found that noise-cancelling, seems to be fairly forgiving of coil mismatch. So I've never had a problem with noise when pairing a single, (RWRP or not), with a full-on humbucker.

But ideally, you'd pair an RWRP single with the screw coil, or a non-RWRP with the stud coil. (Within the Duncan line.)
 
Thanks, unfortunately I already did a mod with the humbucker ! (parralel or serie push/pull).
What do you mean by noise canceling device with the single coil? A mod?

"Noise cancelling device" was a purposedly vague name for various ways to make a single coil silent... Examples:

1-basic dummy coil: https://www.frettech.com/frettech/dummy/index.html

2-large "air coil": https://www.guitarscanada.com/threads/some-interesting-experiments-with-dummy-coils.323140/

3-active circuit (still based on a coil): https://blog.music-man.com/instruments/what-is-the-silent-circuit/

Non limitative list.

Practically, it's rather easy to change a cheapo single coil in a dummy coil killing the hum like in solution 1)... but it changes the tone, hence solutions 2) or 3) and "noiseless" pickups.

To come back to your initial question: a RWRP single coil needs to be paired with a "normal" single coil to buck the hum (or with only one of the two coils of an existing humbucker). Altogether, they form an humbucker - with the single coil giving the hum and its RWRP equivalent providing the same amount of hum, but out of phase. See there for more explanations:
https://www.fralinpickups.com/2017/...foICuZ-SKhu9TsADM2QnqBSFN6_sjyqfF5svsX5-exAKW
 
Last edited:
No, you don't need a rwrp single coil. Middle position will only be hum cancelling if you split the humbucker. And then you'd only need a standard single coil as Duncan single coils are south polarity up and humbuckers split to north as standard. For there to be hum cancellation there needs to be noise in the opposite phase from each pickup. What you're asking there would be noise from the single coil and no noise from the humbucker to hum cancel equals noise in the middle position.
 
Back
Top