Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

[Lewguitar]

I think it's a mistake that some pickups from the Seymour Duncan Pickups are out of phase with each other.

For example: Antiquity Texas Hots and Antiquity Surfers are out of phase with each other. If you mix them in one guitar and wire them normally, you'll get that thin out-of-phase tone when they are combined and will have to take the guitar all apart again and reverse the black and white wires on either the Texas Hots or the Surfers to get them in phase.

Same is true for the new Stack Plus Pickups and, apparantly, standard humbuckers like the JB. The Stack Plus Pickups sound AWESOME with the JB...they are my very favorite single coil size pickups that I have ever used with the JB. But in order to make them work with the JB I had to disassemble the JB and reverse the magnet in the JB.

EDIT: I CHECKED THE CLASSIC STACK PLUS WITH SOME NEWER JB'S THIS MORNING. THEY DO APPEAR TO BE IN PHASE WITH EACH OTHER. THE JB THAT THEY WERE OUT OF PHASE WITH MUST HAVE BEEN DEFECTIVE.

Why not make all of your pickups compatable with and in phase with each other?

I think all of your pickups should be standardized and that all RW/RP middle pickups should be the same polarity and same reverse winding.

Thanks! Lew

 

[Artie]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

I gotta say that I agree. Unless there's some reason we don't know about.

Artie

 

[junior]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

I've had the same problem with my 5-2's and an APS1

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

D'accord.

 

[saladin]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

Great idea, I've had to redo wiring many times. Having to rewire a Strat is very tiresome!!!!!!!

 

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

Here's Seymour's explanation:

Hi Guys, The reason for this is because Fender during the mid 50's and start of the Strat production the pickups all had "North" polarity till 1957-58 and that's what the Antiquity (one's) are modeled after...The Antiquity II's are based on the Mid Sixties Gray bottom pickups and they were "South" Polarity...We can make Antiquities from 58-64 that are still Aged and "South" Polarity...we need to come up with a name and marketing for it...This would be Evan's area of expertise...Hope this helps you understand this better for why we make them this way...SWD

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

Thats interesting.

But one note, is there an advantage to disassembling and reversing the magnet to swapping the green for hot and black to ground? I would think you would just go the easier route. Every time I've found pickups out of phase with each other, I would just swap the hot and ground.

If you're splitting the coils, using black as ground will eliminate one coil and using green as ground will eliminate the other coil.

So if you're happy with the coil that is being left on when the humbucker is split, but you find that the humbucker is out of phase, reversing the magnet will only change the polarity and will not result in making a change in the coil that remains on when the pickup is split.

Lew

 

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

The Stack Plus should be in phase with regular humbuckers. You might've received a defective (out of phase) pickup, Lew. If so, please contact us for an RMA.

 

[Artie]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

Wasn't there a thread about a year or so ago, about a batch of JB's that got out with the phase reversed? That would be weird if Lew got one.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

The Stack Plus pickups were definately out of phase with the stock JB humbucker that a differant tech had installed in the guitar a month or so ago.

The JB was already in the guitar but it appeared totally normal. No sign of it's cloth tape being removed beforehand to reverse the magnet or anything like that.

So maybe it was from the batch that Artie is thinking of...

Lew

 

[Dirt123]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

The sounds cool. I have a JB & 2 single coils in my stratothing, I'm gonna try 2 of the new stacks as soon as I can order 'em.

BBB

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

Just flip the 'bucker magnet and all will be well.

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

Just flip the 'bucker magnet and all will be well.

Or better yet swap the green and black wires.

B

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

Or better yet swap the green and black wires.

B

Some players like the stud coil left on when split and others like the screw coil. If you're happy with the coil that's left on when the bucker is split, yet you find that the bucker is out of phase with the other pickup on your guitar, then flipping the magnet is the only choice.

Either is a royal pain in the BUTT if you've already put the guitar back together and now have to take it all apart again.

And if you're a tech who's getting paid for his work you either do it for free or charge your customer double what he or she thought the cost would be...not good!

I think all Duncan pickups should be in phase with each other right out of the box. There's just no real reason for them not to be.

It's just a useless time consuming hassle when they are not.

Lew

 

[tone4days]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

i'm with lew

can someone post a vaultworthy description of how to check polarity of a set of pickups BEFORE they are installed?

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

Swapping the green and black wires just reverses the electric flow. Thus, also by swapping the neck and middle pickups apart from the humcancelling issues when split, I don't see any problems. But anyways, you cannot expect this to be widely known.

Therefore, what you say makes sense especially for new pickups (given the historical accuracy issue which I think is very cool).

Best,

B

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

Some players like the stud coil left on when split and others like the screw coil. If you're happy with the coil that's left on when the bucker is split, yet you find that the bucker is out of phase with the other pickup on your guitar, then flipping the magnet is the only choice.
It's just a useless time consuming hassle when they are not.

Lew

Agreed, though I would much rather flip a magnet than reverse leads, partly for the coil split reason you give and partly because I've gotten so adept at flipping magnets in a completely up and running guitar that I can do it in about 5 minutes while it takes about that long just for the solder gun to heat up.

I just loosen the strings, put some rags on the guitar to avoid scratching the finish, pull the pickup and ring out, pull the pickup out of the pu ring, loosen the coil mount screws, push the magnet out, and depending on the mission, flip the existing magnet over or put the new magnet in.

If the pickup was potted, it takes a little bit to loosen the stock magnet from the wax but no problem.

Of course, if the pickup has a soldered on cover, I'd prefer to reverse the leads!!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

Agreed, though I would much rather flip a magnet than reverse leads, partly for the coil split reason you give and partly because I've gotten so adept at flipping magnets in a completely up and running guitar that I can do it in about 5 minutes while it takes about that long just for the solder gun to heat up.

I just loosen the strings, put some rags on the guitar to avoid scratching the finish, pull the pickup and ring out, pull the pickup out of the pu ring, loosen the coil mount screws, push the magnet out, and depending on the mission, flip the existing magnet over or put the new magnet in.

If the pickup was potted, it takes a little bit to loosen the stock magnet from the wax but no problem.

Of course, if the pickup has a soldered on cover, I'd prefer to reverse the leads!!

Cool!

Have you found a quick method of compressing that long spring that goes around the ht adjustment screw so you can get the screw started easily into the baseplate? I hate that part of installing a humbucker!

Here's a little tip: I often take the gray foam that comes in the box with a new Duncan humbucker and cut it to fit in the bottem of the pickup rout in the body of the guitar.

Helps keep the humbucker from tilting.

Lew

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

Cool!

Have you found a quick method of compressing that long spring that goes around the ht adjustment screw so you can get the screw started easily into the baseplate? I hate that part of installing a humbucker!

Here's a little tip: I often take the gray foam that comes in the box with a new Duncan humbucker and cut it to fit in the bottem of the pickup rout in the body of the guitar.

Helps keep the humbucker from tilting.

Lew

Good tip with the foam, though I wonder if it affects the tone by preventing the pu from vibrating. (Though I suppose the silver lining of that is that it would reduce feedback problems.)

Now a tip for you -- yes, there is a GREAT way to compress and keep that spring in place. Alligator clips. I push the spring down and just clamp an alligator clip above it and the spring stays right where it is until you release the clip.

But you do have to put the gator clip on so that the mount screw is pretty much at the back of the clip's jaws because the leverage is much better there. If you put the clip on so that the mount screw toward the end of the clip snout, the spring will kick it off.

 

[kjrocks]

Re: Suggestion for Evan and Seymour:

Alligator clips! Thats a good one,those springs get the best of me everytime.