Re: Out of phase sound in Jimmy Page wiring.
a humbucker needs to be have its coils be opposite wound and opposite magnetic polarity, so even if they dont share the same bar magnet they still need to be magnetically opposite or it wont cancel hum. also the 2 & 4 positions on a typical strat are not out of phase. they are parallel, in phase. people call it the out of phase position but thats a misnomer and incorrect.
the last part is right on the money though, you need both pups on to notice a difference
Yep!
Regular strato singles have same electrical and magnetic polarity. They are "in-phase" but not hum-cancelling.
To make them hum-cancelling we need to reverse the wound of the middle pickup, by example (this is RW/RP).
To have an "out-of-phase" effect, you need (at least) either TWO coils or TWO pickups. TWO is the number.
This grid gives you the several combinations of TWO pickups (or coils) and what to expect.
Highlighted in yellow, in-phase not hum-cancelling scenarios.
Highlighted in Green, in-phase and hum-cancelling scenarios.
Highlighted in Red, out-of-phase and not hum-cancelling scenarios (the ones that are directly related to your question).
CW - means Clockwise Wound
CCW - means Counter ClockWise Wound.
N - means North Magnetic Polarity (the upper side of the coil/pickup)
S - means South Magnetic Polarity (the upper side of the coil/pickup)
Strato singles are usually CW-S. Usually, EVERY coil is wound the same (CW). They get their magnetic polarity depending on the orientation of the magnetic rods (if singles) or over which magnetic polarity they lay (if a magnetic bar is under it).
Since every coil is usually wound CW, a humbucker has two CW coils. One lying on a South magnetic field, the other on a North magnetic field. Therefore, we have a CW-S and a CW-N coils.
But, you see that in the grid above, this corresponds to the worst scenario (not hum-cancelling and out-of-phase).
To fix the issues, we just need to swap the lead wires (start and finish) of one of the pickups, which usually is done to the CW-N coil.
Swapping the leads is equivalent to reverse the wound of such a pickup so, the CW-N coil becomes a CCW-N coil.
Now, the humbucker has a CW-S coil and a CCW-N coil and, this corresponds to an in-phase and hum-cancelling scenario.
The out-of-phaser switch is just swapping the "standard-pickup-ground" and the "standard-hot-ground" (green and black, in Seymour Duncan's pickups).
What, at the end, means:
* the screw coil that was CW-S becomes a CCW-S coil.
* the slug coil that was CCW-N becomes a CW-N coil.
* the complete electrical flow is being reversed (compared to the other "regularly wired" pickup.
You will get out-of-phase effect even if you split this pickup to any of the two coils and, you combine it (parallel or series, it doesn't matter) with the other pickup.
An odd number of coils will always give you not hum-cancelling combinations, but no necessarily out-of-phase combinations.
If the three pickups are of same type (CW-S or CCW-S or CW-N or CCW-N) you will get in-phase combos (but not hum-cancelling).
If any of the odd number of coils is different, you will get out-of-phase combos (and not hum-cancelling).
