PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

[SilverBeard]

I know what you're going to say. This question has been asked a million times, but I'm not asking about a humbucker that's been flipped so the slug coil is closer to the bridge.

I am curious if anyone has ever flipped a PAF style humbucker on its baseplate, so the magnet sits on top of the coils.

I would imagine having the alnico magnet right under the strings would brighten up the tone and lend a more immediate attack, and might also focus the magnetic field like a single coil pickup and give it more of a p-90 flavor.

Thoughts?

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

I suspect that this would make the pickup radically weaker sounding. Your strings would be closer to the magnet, but further away from the coils that sense the magnetic field. Because your strings would be so close to the magnet, you would then also have to sink the pickup really far away to prevent string pull from causing weird tuning issues.

Guitar pickups tend to sound the way they sound because of the magnetic field that they're sensing. You're not actually changing the magnetic field at all by flipping it upside down. Wouldn't expect that this would make a bucker sound like a p90.

 

[SilverBeard]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

I was thinking that could be a possibility, but a bar magnet really isn't that tall, and the pole pieces would still be close to the strings. As for the extra pull from the magenet, a handful of pickups use an alnico bar magnet, like a firebird minihumbucker or a melody maker pickup. I don't know if they have to be set that much further from the strings than a strat pickup.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

It either won't work at all or you'll get a sound that is so horrible that you'll try to kill yourself for even THINKING about trying to do that.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

For one thing, you'd have to route the body really deep, even if you manage to modify the baseplate so that the tabs go the other way.

 

[justFred]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

just mount the humbucker so the top is over the strings...the vibrations tend to rise and magnetic fields fall this might give you that intensified sound...

 

[SilverBeard]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

I mean you would take the coils out of the baseplate and flip them upside down. The baseplate would stay where it is, the coils woild lay flat on the baseplate and the magnet and keeper bar would be on top of the coils. I would also flip the pole screws upside down.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

So the magnet will still be touching the baseplate? If so, that change will have an unnoticable impact on your tone.

 

[Mincer]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

Well if anyone decides to re-build a pickup like this and test it, I'd love to hear the results.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

It either won't work at all or you'll get a sound that is so horrible that you'll try to kill yourself for even THINKING about trying to do that.

Even worse, people will probably become absurdly hyperbolic.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

It won’t work since the magnetic field is facing towards the poles, and the poles magnetize the strings. That’s how a pickup works.

On the bottom the magnet is laying on its side and in contact with the poles. So it’s a closed loop on the bottom. The strings have to be over the open gap between the poles.

Single coils are different and you can flip them over, but they won’t sound any different

On a humbucker the poles are part of the tone.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TVFV]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

I know what you're going to say. This question has been asked a million times, but I'm not asking about a humbucker that's been flipped so the slug coil is closer to the bridge.

I am curious if anyone has ever flipped a PAF style humbucker on its baseplate, so the magnet sits on top of the coils.

I would imagine having the alnico magnet right under the strings would brighten up the tone and lend a more immediate attack, and might also focus the magnetic field like a single coil pickup and give it more of a p-90 flavor.

Thoughts?

My thoughts are you should just buy a humbucker sized P90.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[orpheo]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

just make it easy on yourself and get alnico slugs for one bobbin. Does just that without the weird hassle or looks of what you're thinking of.

 

[Discharged]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

I would imagine having the alnico magnet right under the strings would brighten up the tone and lend a more immediate attack, and might also focus the magnetic field like a single coil pickup and give it more of a p-90 flavor.

Thoughts?

Not in a world where nature follows the laws of physics. Sorry!

/Peter

 

[AlexR]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

Well, you'll certainly get some characteristics of the typical fender singlecoil.......namely the immense magnetic pull on the string that pulls them out of tune, and the level of wolfetone/stratitis effect will be off the charts.
The rest of the aspects......Well, by the time you lower the pickup to remove the above artefacts, you might find you get a similar tone to the typical singlecoil tone from the cheapest Wal-Mart guitar.....You know that horrible weak plinky tone that encourages you to set the guitar up for target practice on a high powered gun range.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: PAF Humbucker mounted upside down?

What David said!