Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

[Guitar Rod]

I have a set of CS WLH that I love, but I'm going through a Peter Green phase and so instead of buying an out of phase set I'd like to just swap the neck wires on these. But I've heard some pickups can get a little thin and low volume in the middle position when doing this. I'd love to hear experiences from posters who have run WLH out of phase on how they like it and how well it works.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

most well balanced pups sound thin when out of phase, out of phase means that the two pups cancel out a bunch of frequencies. the "magic" of out of phase happens when you have independent volume controls for each pup. not my favorite sound but it can do some cool things. i have one guitar with a phase switch and i use it from time to time

 

[Davii]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

I've a couple of guitars than can flip either the neck, or the middle pup, but find it only really works for either when overdriven, and clean when flipped.

Middle position isn't actually OOP though I thought, just that's how it gets referred to(?)

 

[jeremy]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

typical strat wiring is parallel in phase, people call it out of phase but its not. typical gibson wiring is the same, parallel in phase. peter greens les paul had the magnet in one pup flipped so the two pups were out of phase, the pup also was rotated 180 degrees so the screw poles were closer to the bridge rather than the normal way but that has nothing to do with phase.

 

[Davii]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

That's more/less what I thought. I've not got a WLH set to test with, but if I flip the Slash neck with a SNS bridge on my Mockingbird, the center position is full/thick sounding. In the normal position is thin, has a lot of quack, and great for a screaming OD lead sound. Come to think of it, I've wired that guitar for indipendent volumes, so I'm now off to fiddle :

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

This has nothing to do with phase, but I'm amused at the name "Whole Lotta Humbucker" since the song Whole Lotta Love was played on a Tele! Lol
But that's marketing for ya! [emoji12]


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[Securb]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

This has nothing to do with phase, but I'm amused at the name "Whole Lotta Humbucker" since the song Whole Lotta Love was played on a Tele! Lol
But that's marketing for ya! [emoji12]

Yeah, but was made iconic on a Les Paul with Seymour's pickup

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

Yeah, but was made iconic on a Les Paul with Seymour's pickup

But not the studio recording. Most of the guitar on the first three albums was a Tele.


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[AlexR]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

And he didn't have any of Duncan's offerings in the guitar for the whole time he was in Zep.

 

[vinnie1971]

Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

Listen to Snowy White's bird of paradise - that a nice clean out of phase tone. Or nearly any Peter Green recording where he plays the Les Paul.

I have 2 humbucker guitars with out of phase and do it using a phase reversal switch, as I like the clean in phase middle position as well.

When I play out of phase it's either clean or low gain.
And independent volumes its great to fine tune the out of phase.
In my strat that's got out of phase switching, I use a blend pot to fine tune my out of phase switching. But that's another story.


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[vinnie1971]

Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

Here's my El Maya with out of phase in the main lead guitar, the incidental in neck pickup and rhythm guitar in neck.

All clean tones - with out of phase both pickups wide open for full nasal sound. I don't think it sounds thin at at.
(Sorry not WLH, but gives a flavour of what to expect , both pickups DCR is 8k +/- 10%.)

https://soundcloud.com/vinnie-irvine/final-flicker


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[vinnie1971]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

And this is when the El Maya had APH1s in. The incidental lead guitar is out of phase both pickups wide open. All clean tones, I don't think it sounds thin at all
https://soundcloud.com/vinnie-irvine/falling-rain


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[Guitar Rod]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

Thanks for the info guys, and thanks for the samples vinnie1971. Very nice playing, and a nice OOP as well.

 

[vinnie1971]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

Thanks for the info guys, and thanks for the samples vinnie1971. Very nice playing, and a nice OOP as well.

When using OoP on a 2 volume guitar if you have both pickups fully open you get the most signal cancellation ( and volume loss) - rolling one pickup back to 9 (the other on 10) gives the best balance between signal cancellation and tone without so much signal loss. As you roll back more there is less cancellation, the OoP tone becomes more subtle but volume increases.

For recording I have both pickups in 10 the manager the volume loss on the amp- bumping up the middle tone control in the amp,using a small amount of gain and turning up the volume.




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[AlexR]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

You can also roll back on one pickup vs the other and get different sorts of OOP effect.

Plus if you roll both to 9 or 8 vs 10 say....the OOP tone changes too.....and then rolling one or the other pickup back from there makes things different too.

There are endless ways of manipulating the controls.

 

[Guitar Rod]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

Excellent info. Thanks. I hope to do this soon to find out myself.

 

[Guitar Rod]

Re: Whole Lotta Humbucker out of phase

A necro-bump, but I FINALLY reversed the wires on the neck pickup. Only took two and a half years. That's some fine procrastination! Thought I might as well update.

I'm really digging it. Never really used the middle setting, so this makes the LP much more versatile. It's a bit thin/hollow as expected, though still sounds great. But as some in this thread have said, the magic comes from slightly rolling back either volume knob. Roll back the bridge volume ever so slightly (just above 9, you can hear it focus right in and sound full all of a sudden) and it gets an almost position 4 Strat tone. Roll the neck volume instead to just above 9 and it gets a position 2 Strat tone. Just a bit more nasal, which I like.

So for the record in the thread, Whole Lotta Humbuckers do the OOP thing splendidly.