Reverse humbucker wiring?

[ztevie]

Being a novice at wiring, some questions pop up as I'm gettin deeper into the whole thing.

I wonder if you can reverse a humbucker as you want really? What I mean is this, look at the below color code for Duncan humbuckers:

Black: North start +
White: North Finish -
Red: South start +
Green: South finish -

This is all clear and good, a humbucker in series would then be:
Black +
White&Red together
Green -

But I've seen wiring diagrams where they reverse the color codes in ways that I don't understand, can you do as this for a reverse SD humbucker in series:
Red +
Black&Green together
White -

Is this really right, can you even do this, and will this affect the way the bucker works in anyway?
Why I'm asking is of course that I want to split 2 humbuckers and put together the splitted coils, and want it to be hum-cancelling. So I might need to do the above when putting together 2 coils from different buckers?
THen, when using 2 different brand humbuckers, will I have to think of the winding direction(cw, ccw) and magnet polarity of each brand to get everything hum cancelling and in phase?
I've seen the above being done in a DiMarzio wiring schematic for Petrucci where they do a coil split like this.
Is it a difference regarding polarity and phase/humcancelling
if I set the 2 splitted coils in series or parallel?

Confusing stuff, I've really been searching the www, but can not find very clear information regarding this...

 

[ztevie]

Re: Reverse humbucker wiring?

OK, thanks!

Why I'm asking is because on Dimarzios site(http://www.dimarzio.com//media/diagrams/D.pdf) they do just what I describe above.
They have a 3way, that for the 3 positions has Bridge series/splitted coils from each one in parallel/Neck HB series.
On the bridge bucker they follow the Dimarzio standard color code which is:
Red +
Black&White together
Green -

But for the neck they have:
White +
Red&Green together
Black -

I just transformed the color codes for Duncan in my post above.
I guess their diagram must be correct, so it should be possible to swap the wires, letting the current go through White-Green-Red and finally through Black to ground as they did there?
They do this of course to have the south coil from the neck together with the north coil from the bridge, but they also use White as +, Red&Green together and Black as - when the neck pup acts alone in series mode...

Anyway, it can be a pain to mix two different brands when coil splitting like this, in extreme cases You would need to open one and flip the magnet to get everything right, I guess?
What I'm thinking of in my case is mixing a Tom Anderson bucker with a DiMarzio...

EDIT: I found some info on Tom Anderson and DiMarzio windings and polaritys. I wonder, Hermetico, can you tell if this will give me any problems combining a cole from each? These figures give me a headache...
I hope the below combination of the Anderson South Pole and the Dimarzio North Pole will give RWRP(Reverse Wound, Reverse Polarity) which should give me humcancellation as well as in phase?
But then I don't understand how you can combine two coils from the same brand, example Dimarzio, since both coils have the same winding altough they are different polarity?

Tom Anderson
Adjustable Pole:
Start A: Black -
Finish B: White
Magnet Polarity: South
Slug Pole:
Start C: Green
Finish D: Red +
Magnet Polarity: North
Winding Direction: B/W coil is CW, G/R coil is CW
INFO:
Green/White is series link. Anderson winds one coil opposite the other; therefore they tie a finish with a start. Both coils are slugs—no adjustable polepieces. Inspect bottom of pickup and trace colored wires to their coils.

DiMarzio
Adjustable Pole:
Start A: Green -
Finish B: White
Magnet Polarity: South
Slug Pole:
Start C: Red +
Finish D: Black
Magnet Polarity: North
Winding Direction: CCW
INFO:
Black/White is series link. Output wire always exits pickup’s baseplate under the south polarity coil.

 

[Scott Miller]

Re: Reverse humbucker wiring?

Yes---that works:

Red=hot
black + green together
white + bare = ground

I like to call it turning the pickup inside-out.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Reverse humbucker wiring?

I recall an article in either Guitar Player or Guitar World magazine in which Bill Lawrence painstakingly described every possible permutation of coil connection within a single humbucker.

BL was not advocating all of these combinations, just describing them so that modders could tell what they might have connected together wrongly. I'll have a look to see whether I still have that article.

 

[ztevie]

Re: Reverse humbucker wiring?

Yes---that works:

Red=hot
black + green together
white + bare = ground

I like to call it turning the pickup inside-out.

THanks! Doable, great to know.

I recall an article in either Guitar Player or Guitar World magazine in which Bill Lawrence painstakingly described every possible permutation of coil connection within a single humbucker.

BL was not advocating all of these combinations, just describing them so that modders could tell what they might have connected together wrongly. I'll have a look to see whether I still have that article.

That would be interesting to read.