It's one magnet but every magnet has two poles, north and south.
The north pole (side) of the bar magnet in the normal set up I described earlier is touching the slugs in the slug coil, giving that coil north polarity. The south pole is up against the screws of the screw coil, giving that coil south polarity. The two coils are also wound in the opposite direction from each other so that they are RWRP relative to each other and cancel hum without cancelling the signal.
Just a quick update, talked to my tech and he thought it might be out of phase with itself. Called SD customer service, they agreed on something is wrong with it. No problem on the return, even swap. I put the 498 back in and it worked like a charm. I'm waiting on the new Seth and once I get it I will install and report.
