Rich_S
HomeGrownToneBrewologist
I was on the phone a couple weeks ago with somebody at Fralin (not Lindy). I was asking questions about whether the Blues Special Strat pickups I got off FleaBay would phase correctly with my Duncan QP. While we were talking, he said something about wiring a pickup one way being noisier that if I swapped its leads. (We're talking about normal single-coil Strat pickujps here).
I was scribbling some notes at the time and didn't catch all of what he said, but I took it to mean that the outside wraps on a pickup coil act as shielding for the inner wraps, and therefore should be wired as the "ground" side of the pickup. That would mean the "hot" signal is buried in the middle of the coil, shielded by the grounded outer wraps.
It made sense to me, but then I started looking at the pickups I had lying around (the pair of Fralin Strats, and a pair of '05 MIM Tele pickups.) I can see the coil wires leaving the eyelets, and can tell which way each end of the coil goes - either in toward the center, or at a tangent to the outside of the coil.
ALL of these pickups have the black wire going to the center, and the white wire on the outside of the coil. Since black is supposd to be ground, that makes all four of these pickups backwards from what I understood the Fralin guy was trying to tell me.
Did I misunderstand him? Did I get what he was trying to tell me backwards, or did I mistakenly come away thinking that shielding inherently provided by wind direction was imporant, when it really isn't?
Let's not get off on a tangent about magent polarity, RWRP, etc. I understand all that. Please limit this thread to a discussion of whether wind direction on its own has a bearing on how noisy an individaul pickup is.
I was scribbling some notes at the time and didn't catch all of what he said, but I took it to mean that the outside wraps on a pickup coil act as shielding for the inner wraps, and therefore should be wired as the "ground" side of the pickup. That would mean the "hot" signal is buried in the middle of the coil, shielded by the grounded outer wraps.
It made sense to me, but then I started looking at the pickups I had lying around (the pair of Fralin Strats, and a pair of '05 MIM Tele pickups.) I can see the coil wires leaving the eyelets, and can tell which way each end of the coil goes - either in toward the center, or at a tangent to the outside of the coil.
ALL of these pickups have the black wire going to the center, and the white wire on the outside of the coil. Since black is supposd to be ground, that makes all four of these pickups backwards from what I understood the Fralin guy was trying to tell me.
Did I misunderstand him? Did I get what he was trying to tell me backwards, or did I mistakenly come away thinking that shielding inherently provided by wind direction was imporant, when it really isn't?
Let's not get off on a tangent about magent polarity, RWRP, etc. I understand all that. Please limit this thread to a discussion of whether wind direction on its own has a bearing on how noisy an individaul pickup is.
