single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

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rawpowerocks

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I have a guitar that I had built for me.
The guitar has a Humbucker with vintage 2 core and also a Telecaster single coil with base plate.
The pickups sounds great when selected on their own but sound a bit weird on the middle possition on the pickup selector (which is a 3 way).

So it is when both pickups are selected togther it sounds a bit weedy.
I have been told that this is because the single coil and humbucker are out of phase which each other.
Can I do anything to the pickups so I can get them to work properly together without altering how they sound when selected on their own?
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

you need to flip the phase on one of them and its probably easier to do so on the tele pup since you dont have to open it up. you will need to move the ground wire on the baseplate.

the pups will sound the same by themselves but will sound much better when combined.
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

SCREWDRIVER OPTION
If your humbucker is coverless, loosen the baseplate, slide out the bar magnet, reinsert the magnet the opposite way up.

SOLDERING OPTION
On the Telecaster pickup, desolder the two output conductor wires and the baseplate jumper connection from the soldering eyelets on the fibreboard baseplate. (Make a drawing of what went where before starting.)

Connect the baseplate jumper to whichever soldering eyelet was originally the output. Connect the ground conductor cable to whichever soldering was originally the output. Connect the signal conductor cable to whichever soldering eyelet was originally the ground.
 
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Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

ok well re-soldering the Tele bridge pickup plate seems to sound not to difficult if thats what is needed.

I have been looking around on the net and I have noticed that the Fender Signature Albert Collins Tele has the same set up but Im using a Gibson '57 Classic Humbucker. So in his signature Fender guitar would the middle possition be out of phase as well like mine currently is or would they have rewired the bridge pickup base plate?
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

the neck pup would have been in phase, not out of phase.
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

Albert Collins used a Gibson Humbucker in the Neck (so the internet tells me lol) with his Fender Bridge pickup so how would he have got it to work. Would he have done this bridge plate re-solder trick?
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

I would try switching the lead and ground wires on the bridge pickup. finding which setup is the right phasing option can require a bit of trial and error sometimes.
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

I have tried switching the cables over on the switch and earth and that does not work either.
I guess what im trying to find out is did Albert Collins ever use the middle position on his Tele and if so was it out of phase or not?
Or did he actually bother to re-solder the base plate of the Tele pickup for it to work in phase?
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

albert frequently used both pups on and they were in phase. i cant tell ya if it was rewired or if the pups were already in phase but they were.

when you flipped the two wires, was the tone thinner?
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

Ive been having a quick look on youtube. I can't seem to find any of him using the middle postiton. It always seems to be the bridge or neck. I might have just missed them though. Also it is the same for Keith Richards who has the same set up on his Tele's. I can't find any vids where he uses the middle position. I can find vids of him using the neck and bridge but never middle position (Apart form a sunburst Tele he has that has a uncovered humbucker). I am just wondering that might be because they also are out of phase and thats why they never use that position?

As for my situation I changed over the wire that goes to the switch and to the earth on the pot from the single coil bridge and it didn't seem to alter the tone (still sounded weedy) it just caused alot of humming. So it looks like the only way to make it work in phase is by this re-solder of the base plate?

Im just finding it weird why my pickups (Fender and Gibson) are out of phase with each other when loads of of people have Teles mixing single coils and humbuckers
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

For the Fender Albert Collins signature model, Fender probably bought in the humbucker in regular spec. Assembling a Tele bridge/treble pickup with the appropriate magnetic polarity and/or coil winding direction would have been well within the capabilities of the Fender factory. The DC resistance of the Collins signature pickup may have been a custom value also.
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

the fact that the tone didnt change when you switched the wires is odd to me. the humming makes sense cause of the base plate being hot
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

could my problem have something to do with the fact that I have got a resistor from where the bridge pickup lead goes on the pickup switch then going to the top of a pot to make the pickup think the pot is 250k as I am using 500k pots? Maybe that is interferring in some way. I don't know enough about how this all works to have a clue really
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

rawpowerocks said:
could my problem have something to do with the fact that I have got a resistor from where the bridge pickup lead goes on the pickup switch then going to the top of a pot to make the pickup think the pot is 250k as I am using 500k pots? Maybe that is interferring in some way. I don't know enough about how this all works to have a clue really
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that isn't your problem. not all pickups are made with the same polarity so your two pickups from different makers are different and out of phase. not all 2 pickups are out of phase, not all 2 pickups are in phase. just because yours are out of phase doesn't mean keith richards were.
What I would do is flip the magnet of the humbucker, I've had to do it before when using a duncan with something else (can't remember what the other pickup was) its easy to do and only takes 2 mins. is your humbucker covered?
 
Re: single coil and humbucker out of phase problem

I think you need to take out all the "extra" wiring. Something's screwing up the sound more than just out-of-phase.

A resistor to make a full-open 500 Kohm pot behave like a full-open 250 Kohm pot will be a 500 Kohm resistor simply across hot and ground ("shotcutting" the pickup, or the while guitar). If you have the wrong value in there that would kill things all right.
 
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