Reverse magnets in Stacks?

[razar]

I recently have replaced the last original single coil in my strat with SD one and now the whole set loocks like this:

STK-2B / SSL-5 / STK-2N

And I like it My question is almost theoretical: why the magnets in STK-s are reverse? And there is not a mention about it?

When I bought my first stack and placed it in the neck position, it happened to have the same polarity magnet as the RW/RP middle coil. Now, after some replacements none of my pickups is formaly marked as "RW/RP", but actualy neck and bridge have the same polarity and it is defferent from the middle - the way as it should be on strats.

I even thought I should change the wound polarity of the middle coil, but it wasn't a good idea - I got a very weak and bassless output for N+M and B+N positions as a result. So I changed the wound polarity back and enjoyed proper glassy sound for these positions.

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: Reverse magnets in Stacks?

The advantage is that if you wire them as single coils, activating only the top coils, they will cancel hum in the 2 and 4 positions.

 

[Robert S.]

Re: Reverse magnets in Stacks?

The Duncan Stack pickups are humbuckers and they have the same polarity as full sized Seymour Duncan humbuckers and the lil/jr series pickups as well.

 

[razar]

Re: Reverse magnets in Stacks?

Thanks to frankfalbo for 2 and 4 position hum cancelling idea, I'll try how does it sound. Actualy hum cancelling for 1 and 5 position is more critical to me, because it's nice to use distortion on these positions, and hum cancelling for 2 and 4 is less required. Besides the output and the resistance of the SSL-5 middle coil is almost twice as the STK-2 top coil, so the hum cancelling can be less effective because of this unballance. Yet I'll try it

And thanks to Robert S. for the answer. So that's a kind of 2 different standarts.

 

[BlueGuitar]

Re: Reverse magnets in Stacks?

Thanks to frankfalbo for 2 and 4 position hum cancelling idea, I'll try how does it sound. Actualy hum cancelling for 1 and 5 position is more critical to me, because it's nice to use distortion on these positions, and hum cancelling for 2 and 4 is less required. Besides the output and the resistance of the SSL-5 middle coil is almost twice as the STK-2 top coil, so the hum cancelling can be less effective because of this unballance. Yet I'll try it

And thanks to Robert S. for the answer. So that's a kind of 2 different standarts.

Razar:

Have you rewired the stacks so that they are not humcancelling by themselves? There is a "Power Boost" mode which is not humcancelling, and as I recall it will put the stack out of phase with another stack NOT in Power Boost mode. I ended up using a 4PDT mini-toggle switch to correct the phase problem. But you shouldn't have to deal with that if you are using the stacks in the normal series or parallel modes.


Here are the instructions that came with one of my SD stacks:

http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/_gtr/sd_390008-614revB.pdf

HTH

 

[razar]

Re: Reverse magnets in Stacks?

Yesterday I tried Frankfaldo's idea. If the stacks are splitted there is realy less hum in positions 2 and 4, but I can't apply this on my guitar. My 5-way switch is slightly different from the original fender switch described in most schematics, for instance it have 7 contacts instead of 8. So it's not possible to realize splitting like this, without a switch change:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schematics/hum_sing_hum_vol_tone_spl.html

And about BlueGuitar's suggestion - I also thought about this. I supposed I could use special potz with switches for this, so that pulling up the knobs result in power-boost for neck and bridge pup and hum cancelling in positions 2 and 4 instead of 1 and 5. But for now - I like the way it is And I think that it is better to have several useful sounds, not just a big pack of different ones I hadn't yet tried my modification with my band - that is often more critical than just sitting in front of a combo and analizing if it sounds good or not

Here are some fotos of my renewed guitar: