Polarity?

[davie_gravy]

Hi,

I just wired all new pickups in my guitar. A mix of brands (Dimarzio and SD).
Neck and bridge are Dimarzio and the middle is a hot stack. I get alot of hum even while a note is struck, I can hear the hum in the background. So my question is... I know different companies have different wiring configurations for the polarity. How can I check what is what polarity? Can I use a voltometer somehow to test to see which one I would need to switch to sync up. Do I want all the pickups to be the same polarity? I wired every pickup in series. Any help is greatly appreciated!

David

 

[Artie]

Re: Polarity?

Welcome to the forum David.

The most effective thing to do in a case like this is to just reverse the leads of the middle pup, and see if that solves the problem. I'm assuming you wired the DMZ's according to their wiring diagram. If reversing the Stack doesn't solve it, then we need to look at something else.

Artie

Edit: To answer your other question - you can test for polarity with a meter, but its a bit tricky. Here's what I do: Connect the meter leads to the pups wires. Bring a magnetized screwdriver up against the pole pieces, then yank it away. Watch to see if the meter goes positive or negative. Negative will generate a small "minus" sign.

 

[davie_gravy]

Re: Polarity?

Thank you for the welcome ArtieToo!

Yes I wired the DiMarzio's exactly to the wiring diagram. One more question to add. Do all the pickups need to be the same polarity? Does the hum come from one or more not being the same polarity as the others? Is there any benefit to reversing polarity? Also on the meter testing, this is measured in Ohms correct? Thanks for your reply!

 

[davie_gravy]

Re: Polarity?

I have a question. If the polarity is messed up on say a middle pickup in a H-S-H configuration, would you be able to tell with the switch on say bridge only. Would you still notice the distortion? I have a possible problem with polarity and I wanna make sure that's the problem before I start trying to fix the "problem." I'm getting a distorted feed when I play through every configuration in my H-S-H config guitar. Is this the symptoms of polarity? Thanks!

 

[davie_gravy]

Re: Polarity?

Polite Bump!