Little '59 bridge pickup in Fender strat - green or black for phase?

[DaveDexterMusic]

Sorry for the latest in dozens of posts on the same topic, but I simply can't find a consensus. I have the Little '59 bridge pup for a Fender Strat (recent-ish, no later than 2015-16) and have read up on the phase issues, which wire to ground and which to pickup selector, etc. But there's about a 50-50 split between people saying "green and bare to volume, black to selector, that's the SD default: inverted wiring to avoid phase" and "you need to *invert* the SD default to avoid phase and end up with black and bare to volume, green to selector".

Can someone tell me with authority which it is? I'd rather not do the whole thing twice. Thanks!

 

[hamerfan]

Fender changed their magnet poling in the 60ies for no reason. SD has the original orientation of the 50ies for all his pickups. So SD and modern Fender pickups are out of phase to each other.
For you: green is hot, black with bare to ground to accommondate with Fender.

 

[GuitarDoc]

When you say "green and bare to volume" I assume you mean grounded to the BACK of the volume pot?

 

[DaveDexterMusic]

When you say "green and bare to volume" I assume you mean grounded to the BACK of the volume pot?

I do.

 

[DaveDexterMusic]

Fender changed their magnet poling in the 60ies for no reason. SD has the original orientation of the 50ies for all his pickups. So SD and modern Fender pickups are out of phase to each other.
For you: green is hot, black with bare to ground to accommondate with Fender.

Thanks. But that's where it's confusing, because I feel like post-50s Fenders are likely to be the most common guitar that players swap SD pups into, so why would their default wiring (black is hot, green and bare to ground) not apply to them? But I'm just wondering out loud. If you've personally done what I'm about to do with the same kind of guitar I'll go with that.

 

[hamerfan]

That's the thing with history.
When Seymour made his sets for Jimi Hendrix in 1968, it was just 3 years ago, when Fender changed the polarity on his new guitars.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

Use a $10 map reading compass to check your Fender pickups.

If the "points to north on the map" end of the needle points TOWARDS the single coils you have "south up" single coils and you should wire the SD pickup thus:

• Green is your ground, and unless you're doing something fancy, goes to a pot casing;
• Red and white get soldered to each other and the exposed ends should be insulated with heat shrink (best) or electrical tape acceptable but may eventually come off) or they both go to the same common lug on a push-pull if you're going in install a coil split;
• Black is your hot and goes to your selector switch or volume pot "hot in" connection;
• Bare is the baseplate or casing ground and always gets grounded on a pot casing.

With this arrangement the slug (north) coil will remain active in a coil split.

If the points north end of the compass needle points AWAY from the pole pieces you have "north up" single coil pickups and you should wire the SD humbucker in "backwards" to suit.

If you're wiring the SD in "backwards" to bring it into phase with "north up" Fender single coils:

• Green is your hot and goes to the selector switch or to the volume pot "hot in" connection;
• Red and white get soldered to each other and the exposed ends should be insulated with heat shrink (best) or electrical tape acceptable but may eventually come off) or they both go to the same common lug on a push-pull if you're going in install a coil split;
• Black is your ground, and unless you're doing something fancy, goes to a pot casing;
• Bare is the baseplate or casing ground and always gets grounded on a pot casing.

With this arrangement the screw (south) coil will remain active in a coil split.

If you have one "north up" and one "south up" pickup, one of them is RWRP. Get back to me.

 

[DaveDexterMusic]

Use a $10 map reading compass to check your Fender pickups.

If the "points to north on the map" end of the needle points TOWARDS the single coils you have "south up" single coils and you should wire the SD pickup thus:

• Green is your ground, and unless you're doing something fancy, goes to a pot casing;
• Red and white get soldered to each other and the exposed ends should be insulated with heat shrink (best) or electrical tape acceptable but may eventually come off) or they both go to the same common lug on a push-pull if you're going in install a coil split;
• Black is your hot and goes to your selector switch or volume pot "hot in" connection;
• Bare is the baseplate or casing ground and always gets grounded on a pot casing.

With this arrangement the slug (north) coil will remain active in a coil split.

If the points north end of the compass needle points AWAY from the pole pieces you have "north up" single coil pickups and you should wire the SD humbucker in "backwards" to suit.

If you're wiring the SD in "backwards" to bring it into phase with "north up" Fender single coils:

• Green is your hot and goes to the selector switch or to the volume pot "hot in" connection;
• Red and white get soldered to each other and the exposed ends should be insulated with heat shrink (best) or electrical tape acceptable but may eventually come off) or they both go to the same common lug on a push-pull if you're going in install a coil split;
• Black is your ground, and unless you're doing something fancy, goes to a pot casing;
• Bare is the baseplate or casing ground and always gets grounded on a pot casing.

With this arrangement the screw (south) coil will remain active in a coil split.

If you have one "north up" and one "south up" pickup, one of them is RWRP. Get back to me.

That's the kind of pirate tech I can get behind. Neck and bridge are south up, middle is north up. I guess this means I'm wiring the '59B with green=ground to match the current bridge... but maybe it means something else entirely. Thanks for the in-depth instructions btw, I'm not doing any coil-splitting or fanciness.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

Swap the middle and neck over, then with the new humbucker wired green = ground, black = hot, if you coil split the humbucker the regular way (leaving the north active), you'll have a north bridge and a south middle hum canceling pair in P2 and a south middle and north neck hum canceling in P4.

 

[GuitarDoc]

^ good suggestion.

 

[DaveDexterMusic]

Swap the middle and neck over, then with the new humbucker wired green = ground, black = hot, if you coil split the humbucker the regular way (leaving the north active), you'll have a north bridge and a south middle hum canceling pair in P2 and a south middle and north neck hum canceling in P4.

That IS a good suggestion, but let's assume I'm not coil-splitting - which way round do the green and black go then? Cheers.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

If you're wiring the SD in "backwards" to bring it into phase with "north up" Fender single coils:

• Green is your hot and goes to the selector switch or to the volume pot "hot in" connection;
• Red and white get soldered to each other and the exposed ends should be insulated with heat shrink (best) or electrical tape (acceptable but may eventually come off) or they both go to the same common lug on a push-pull if you're going in install a coil split;
• Black is your ground, and unless you're doing something fancy, goes to a pot casing;
• Bare is the baseplate or casing ground and always gets grounded on a pot casing.

 

[Teleplayer]

It is not only the "North up" pickups that are out of phase. AFAIK most of the modern Fender sets such as CS69, 57/63, and "pure vintage" sets have south magnetic polarity in the neck and bridge, but they are out of phase with Duncans. Fender pickups normally generate -ve voltage as the string moves towards the magnetic pole. Duncan's are the opposite if you connect them as the instructions say.

However I agree the simplest and best solution is to swap around the black and green wires on the Duncan humbucker. I wouldn't recommend inter-changing the positions of the neck and middle pickups unless you can confirm they are otherwise identical.

 

[DaveDexterMusic]

I really do appreciate all the help from everyone, even if I'm not going to do exactly as some of you might prefer Had a family tragedy a few days after my first post so this is on the shelf for the moment but I'll surely get to it as soon as I can. D