Out of phase middle pickup

[Andy43]

Hello, I'm having an issue wiring an HSH guitar. I recently installed a JB/Jazz set in the neck and bridge, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the pickups in phase and hum cancelled in positions 2 and 4 with the middle single pickup. I tried swapping the hot/ground wires on the single coil and this put the positions in phase, however now only the neck/middle position is hum cancelled and not the bridge/middle position. I'm open to purchasing a new single coil if needed, just not sure what to purchase. The current single pickup is a Roswell S74-C. Any help is appreciated!

I currently have it wired like so:

 

[Ascension]

Split to the other coil in the bridge pickup it's an easy fix. Been a while since I have done this but think it should be Green ground white hot and Red and black connected to split to the opposite coil. Somebody check me on the codes here. Had to do this on my Washburn MG 120 as put the RW RP SSL1 in the middle and had to flip the coils on the JB in the bridge to get it to hum cancel but it's been a while. Always use the standard wind single not a RW RP if your going to run it with a humbucker split and want hum canceling.

 

[Andy43]

What if I want to use both the inner coils? Will I need a new middle pickup to do this?

 

[Ewizard]

You need a middle pickup with a different magnet polarity. You need to know if your current middle pickup is south up or north up. Once you know that, then you can get a different version, or swap the magnet over if that is an option.

 

[jeremy]

both stud coils (for example) should be the same polarity (north for duncan) so youd want a south up single. if you are getting humcancelling splitting one duncan, you should be able to get it with both

 

[Andy43]

Yeah that's why I'm really confused, why is position 2 hum cancelling but not position 4? Also by switching the leads on the middle pup I'm getting a reverse grounding issue which I want to avoid.

 

[jeremy]

new jb and jazz i assume? do you have a loose single coil pup layin around? just wanna use it for some quick polarity testing

 

[Andy43]

Yes I do

 

[jeremy]

go coil by coil, putting the top of the loose single coil to each coil. screw neck bucker, stud neck bucker, current single, stud bridge bucker, screw bucker, and see where you get attraction vs repulsion. itll be stronger on the single coil but you should still get a good result on the bucker coils

 

[Andy43]

Okay, not sure if these are correct polarity's (N vs S) but here are the results:

Neck: screw N, slug S
Middle: N
Bridge: screw S, slug N

 

[jeremy]

id flip the magnet in the bridge pup. something is weird. without digging too deep into what is actually wrong, that should fix your issue

 

[Andy43]

Interesting, so just for verification, should the screw and slug coils be matching polarities on the neck and bridge pickups?

 

[jeremy]

yes. stud coils of duncan pups are north from the factory. there are cases where youd want to flip one magnet (old prs style wiring for example) to get humcancelling in all positions

 

[Andy43]

That's so weird, I bought the pickups used so I'm guessing someone flipped the magnet? Kinda sucky they wouldn't mention that...

 

[jeremy]

yes but easy to fix too

 

[beaubrummels]

I would just swap the black/green wire connections on the neck Duncan Jazz and call it a day.

 

[Andy43]

I went ahead and flipped the magnet. Wasn't difficult at all. Do I need to re-melt the wax?

 

[Ewizard]

Technically yes, you should. But if it doesn't sound microphonic, you may not need to? If you have a heat gun you can usually heat the area up you need enough to reflow the residual wax. You can also take a regular old candle and melt it onto the pickup as well if need be. Focus on the bottom side away from plastic parts. Try and not get any hotter than is needed to melt the wax. You really only need it to reflow between the base, the magnet, and the bobbin. The coils are not really of concern.

 

[jeremy]

no, dont bother. just make sure the base plate is snug. i never reheat the wax after a mag swap.

 

[Mincer]

I don't reheat the wax either. The coil should still have enough wax.