Reversing neck humbucker...

[Bowtomecha]

I’m considering rewiring my guitar for humcancelling inner/outer coils for its two humbuckers. Most people just flip the magnet on one of them to do so but I’m thinking I can just do the petrucci way and reverse the neck pickup and wiring. I’m not worried about the pole cosmetics but I am concerned about how the sound will be on the neck pickup alone. I have a sentient in the neck and I’m curious if there is much difference between the slug and screw coils being reversed and how it might sound when inner and outer coils are used with the neck and bridge humbuckers.

 

[Hollywood Rock]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

That will work fine. The pole orientation and combos will change things up a little but it shouldn't cause you to dislike it.

 

[VinceT]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

Others may set me straight, but I read what you’re describing as putting the pickups out of phase with each other - that’s not the same as hum cancelling. What you’ll get is a nasal, thin tone (Peter Green’s Les Paul is oft referenced here) when you’re in the blend position - it’s usable, but not for everyone (I happen to use it a lot on my Les Paul).




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[Silence Kid]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

Others may set me straight, but I read what you’re describing as putting the pickups out of phase with each other - that’s not the same as hum cancelling. What you’ll get is a nasal, thin tone (Peter Green’s Les Paul is oft referenced here) when you’re in the blend position - it’s usable, but not for everyone (I happen to use it a lot on my Les Paul).

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What op wants won’t do that; the pickups need to be electrically out of phase to get the ‘oop sound,’ meaning you’d need to rewire (flip ground and hot) rather than reposition the magnets relative to each other physically.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

When you select a humcancelling option like one slug and one screw, the way you have to do that with the typical split setup will only work by reversing the wires on one pickup so it splits to the screw coil rather than the default slug coil.....and then flipping the magnet to get everything back in phase.
By moving the pickup 180 degrees you do nothing to get the phase sorted out......however if the goal is merely to make the slug coil read the same sort of tone that the screw coil would normally then this would work. However in this case you'd still be splitting both to the slug coil and would lose the hum cancelling effect.

 

[dystrust]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

When you select a humcancelling option like one slug and one screw, the way you have to do that with the typical split setup will only work by reversing the wires on one pickup so it splits to the screw coil rather than the default slug coil.....and then flipping the magnet to get everything back in phase.
By moving the pickup 180 degrees you do nothing to get the phase sorted out......however if the goal is merely to make the slug coil read the same sort of tone that the screw coil would normally then this would work. However in this case you'd still be splitting both to the slug coil and would lose the hum cancelling effect.

I have my Explorer wired to split the neck pickup to the screw coil and the bridge pickup to the slug coil. They're hum-canceling in the middle position with both split; no magnet flipping necessary.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

So.... I think there’s a little misunderstanding by all of us here.

I think he wants:

Split to “inners” and be in phase and hum cancelling and split to “outers” and be hum cancelling.

Usually you split to the slugs or coils, then to achieve hum cancelling on Duncans you flip one magnet, then flip the phase electrically. Rather than flipping the phase and magnet I think we wants to split to {Neck:Slug & Bridge:Screw} and {Neck:Screw & Bridge:Slug} but simulate inner/outer by rotating the neck pickup.

This will work, but my understanding is that to get the most “difference” between inner and outer you want screws or slugs since they sound different.

I might be the one with a major misunderstanding.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

I think he wants to split to {Neck:Slug & Bridge:Screw} and {Neck:Screw & Bridge:Slug} but simulate inner/outer by rotating the neck pickup.

Isn't that the ArtieToo 'coil swap mod'? A virtual HB created by pairing inner and outer coils. It's a good mod, instead of the bright, thin sound of coil split, the 'coil swap mod' gives a warmer, fuller hum-free tone at a reduced output (due to the separation of the coils). Very usable, nice when you want to back off the output a little.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

Isn't that the ArtieToo 'coil swap mod'? A virtual HB created by pairing inner and outer coils. It's a good mod, instead of the bright, thin sound of coil split, the 'coil swap mod' gives a warmer, fuller hum-free tone at a reduced output (due to the separation of the coils). Very usable, nice when you want to back off the output a little.

This is parallel, his is series.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

This is parallel, his is series.

The OP didn't say he wants them in series. Parallel IS hum cancelling too. Putting one neck coil and one bridge coil in series in the middle switch position creates other switching needs (parallel is the norm for the middle switch position).
(Or am I missing something?)

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

The OP didn't say he wants them in series. Parallel IS hum cancelling too. Putting one neck coil and one bridge coil in series in the middle switch position creates other switching needs (parallel is the norm for the middle switch position).
(Or am I missing something?)

Correct, everything I’ve understood is parallel. Artie’s mod is the series version (which is cool, but needs additional switching).

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

Oh I get it. I misunderstood what you were saying.

 

[Hollywood Rock]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

And the op is gone lol.

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

I’m considering rewiring my guitar for humcancelling inner/outer coils for its two humbuckers. Most people just flip the magnet on one of them to do so but I’m thinking I can just do the petrucci way and reverse the neck pickup and wiring. I’m not worried about the pole cosmetics but I am concerned about how the sound will be on the neck pickup alone. I have a sentient in the neck and I’m curious if there is much difference between the slug and screw coils being reversed and how it might sound when inner and outer coils are used with the neck and bridge humbuckers.

Following; i plan to do the same kind of wiring config and am also wondering how different it will sound vs the traditional practice of flipping the neck pickup's magnet and keeping its screw coil facing the neck.

 

[Bowtomecha]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

I’m just going to flip the magnet. It seems a pain to do so but it’ll be worth it.

 

[Tone Meister]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

I’m just going to flip the magnet. It seems a pain to do so but it’ll be worth it.

If you do run into a phase issue you may need to think another level deeper. I just did an HH with a 5-way and ran into a phase cancellation. Here is the thread where I sorted it out.

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?336654-Out-of-Phase-Problem-need-help

Hopefully yours will be much simpler.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Reversing neck humbucker...

I use this, and flipped a magnet to do it. I wrote a blog about it, too.