Vintage '58 Les Paul Custom 3-Pickup Question

[MikeSlub]

I'm a newbie here, so hope that this question is posted in the right place and is not a repeat question that has been answered before....

I have a vintage '58 Les Paul Custom wth 3 humbuckers with all stock wiring. The middle position on the pickup selector switch operates the bridge pickup and middle pickup together, which are wired out of phase (everything I've read suggests that they were wired this way from the factory). The sound is thin and nasally, as with other guitars I own with out of phase wiring. The middle humbucker, as set from the factory, has the adjustable polepiece screws facing the top of the guitar (same as the neck pickup).

Another vintage Custom owner suggested that I try simply turning the middle pickup (so that the adjustable polepiece screws face the bottom of the guitar, same as the bridge pickup), without doing any re-wiring of the guitar. This immediately increased the volume and fattened up the tone and has made the middle position usable, at least to my ears.

I'm no electronics expert, but would like to know why simply turning the pickup made such a dramatic difference in tone. Any help in explaining what this did would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Vintage '58 Les Paul Custom 3-Pickup Question

Because you flipped the magnet, putting it back in phase.

I have a 3 pickup Black Beauty, and use gold Custom 5/59N/59N. Sounds absolutely great! You've got to use a neck pickup for the middle. It sounds like they accidentally put two bridges in yours, or screwed up the magnet direction on the middle.

Since the neck pickup doesn't make any contact with the other pickups.....totally separated, you can use anything there without running into phase/polarity problems.