If you have a guitar with dual-coil pickups, or humbuckers, you can easily modify the wiring to allow you to use just one of the coils on each pickup instead of both coils. This will give you the tone and dynamics of a single coil (and the hum too) without buying new pickups AND you can go back to humbucker configuration with the flick of a switch! There are a ton of possibilities here to configure different tones on your guitar if you care to experiment. In this instructable, I'll show how I installed a switch to make both of the humbuckers on my guitar operate as single coils at the same time, but I'll also describe some other options in detail. For example, It is possible to create a single pickup that operates as both a single coil AND humbucker with a control to blend how much of each type of sound is routed through the guitar's controls to the amp. Using a control scheme like this on all of the available pickups would create many tonal variations that can be easily tweaked during a performance. Another possibility, would be to use the pickup as 'mostly' single coil to get that single coil tone that is often desired, but use the blend control to dial out some of the characteristic hum at higher gain levels. This would take advantage of the humbuckers hum cancelling properties as much or as little as required for the current volume/gain settings. In it's simplest form this mod is very easy. If all you want is to turn your humbuckers into single coils you can pull that off in about 20 minutes with nothing more than a small piece of wire! Adding a switch will be more challenging mostly because you need to find a place to put it. You can get a push/pull type potentiometer/switch to replace your volume POT, or you may have to cut a hole in the pick guard to mount a toggle switch. If you intend to blend the two coils you will need a push/pull pot installed in addition to whatever knobs you already have, so make sure you have the necessary space for whatever new components you'll be adding before you blow the money on parts.. In my case, there wasn't much room and I didn't have a suitable push/pull POT in my collection, so I added a discrete sliding toggle switch between my existing volume/tone knobs. I had to cut a hole to fit the switch, but I wasn't modding a vintage '56 les paul goldtop or anything! I got this guitar at my local pawn shop for $60! So, take that into consideration when choosing to perform ANY modification. The push/pull volume POT is the way to go to keep this mod reversible if you have an expensive or vintage instrument and still want to make changes to it.
Posted byEastwood Coronado Deluxe9 years ago
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I just discovered today that those screws on top of your humbuckers control polarity. What can I do with this? How does changing the poles affect tone? Symphony of the night mods.
To guarantee that the two coils do not cancel out the currents generated by the vibrating strings as well, the sets of pole pieces within each coil have opposite magnetic polarities. The result is that when the secondary coil inverts the signal from the disturbed magnetic field it duplicates - instead of canceling - the electrical pulse. When the two signals are the same, they are said to be 'in phase'. When the two signals are opposing each other, they are said to be 'out of phase'.
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Strat Hhh Magnet Polarity Point
randelli
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I recently updated my Strat by replacing the stacked Humbucker with a matching Seymour Duncan SSL-1 to complete the set. Apparently when I bought the SD's in '92 I did not pay attention and ended up with the front and middle both being reverse wind / reverse polarity. Well, anyway, the new setup sounds great on the single positions, but 2 & 4 are way out of phase - not just the normal quack. I verified yesterday that all three pickups are the same polarity. If these were humbuckers I would just flip the magnet over and solve the problem. What can I do for the single coils? I assume that the poles cannot slide out and flip without doing major damage.... Any of you winding gods know a good way to reverse the polarity without damaging a great 20 year old pickup?
randelli
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I recently updated my Strat by replacing the stacked Humbucker with a matching Seymour Duncan SSL-1 to complete the set. Apparently when I bought the SD's in '92 I did not pay attention and ended up with the front and middle both being reverse wind / reverse polarity. Well, anyway, the new setup sounds great on the single positions, but 2 & 4 are way out of phase - not just the normal quack. I verified yesterday that all three pickups are the same polarity. If these were humbuckers I would just flip the magnet over and solve the problem. What can I do for the single coils? I assume that the poles cannot slide out and flip without doing major damage.... Any of you winding gods know a good way to reverse the polarity without damaging a great 20 year old pickup?