Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Tech => Topic started by: add4 on August 21, 2012, 10:50:45 PM

Title: position of the poles on a humbucker
Post by: add4 on August 21, 2012, 10:50:45 PM

so i'm wiring an old duncan 59 humbucker in neck position. do i have to put the screws on the neck side or it doesn't matter?

Title: Re: position of the poles on a humbucker
Post by: itamar101 on August 21, 2012, 11:11:45 PM

Screws on the neck side.

Title: Re: position of the poles on a humbucker
Post by: add4 on August 22, 2012, 12:55:41 AM

Thanks!
how/why does it change the sound?

Title: Re: position of the poles on a humbucker
Post by: itamar101 on August 22, 2012, 08:31:13 AM

Quote from: add4 on August 22, 2012, 12:55:41 AM

Thanks!
how/why does it change the sound?

If you do it the other way round then the middle position will sound very weird/out of phasey.

Title: Re: position of the poles on a humbucker
Post by: Philly Q on August 22, 2012, 02:15:07 PM

Don't mean to be rude, but not true, I'm afraid.

Turning the pickup round doesn't affect the phase.  Swapping the wires around would, or dismantling the pickup and flipping the magnet over.

It will make very little difference, sound-wise, which way round the pickup is, but yes, the convention would be to have the screws facing the neck.

Title: Re: position of the poles on a humbucker
Post by: add4 on August 22, 2012, 02:54:53 PM

Quote from: Philly Q on August 22, 2012, 02:15:07 PM

Don't mean to be rude, but not true, I'm afraid.

Turning the pickup round doesn't affect the phase.  Swapping the wires around would, or dismantling the pickup and flipping the magnet over.

It will make very little difference, sound-wise, which way round the pickup is, but yes, the convention would be to have the screws facing the neck.

that's what i thought, but wasn't too sure about it.
i think maybe the position of the screws could slightly change the sound if you adjust them, they will pickup the sound 2 cms away .. but that has to be a very subtle effect

Title: Re: position of the poles on a humbucker
Post by: itamar101 on August 22, 2012, 05:29:49 PM

Quote from: Philly Q on August 22, 2012, 02:15:07 PM

Don't mean to be rude, but not true, I'm afraid.

Turning the pickup round doesn't affect the phase.  Swapping the wires around would, or dismantling the pickup and flipping the magnet over.

It will make very little difference, sound-wise, which way round the pickup is, but yes, the convention would be to have the screws facing the neck.

Ah, ok. Not rude, just correcting :)
I hadn't tried it out but something told me that I'd heard it around before...

Anyway, you learn something new everyday :)

Title: Re: position of the poles on a humbucker
Post by: Philly Q on August 22, 2012, 06:40:07 PM

Quote from: add4 on August 22, 2012, 02:54:53 PM

i think maybe the position of the screws could slightly change the sound if you adjust them, they will pickup the sound 2 cms away .. but that has to be a very subtle effect

Yeah, absolutely, there will be a subtle difference - more so if you adjust the polepieces, as you say. 

Also, if it's a pickup in which the two coils are wound differently - like a VHII bridge, or a DiMarzio Bluesbucker or D Sonic - then it will make a more noticeable difference which way round you place the pickup.

But basically, nothing major!  :)

Title: Re: position of the poles on a humbucker
Post by: gwEm on August 22, 2012, 06:50:56 PM

I've deliberately mounted the neck pickup round the wrong way to get a bit more treble, but yeah, the difference was very subtle. In the end the look was so weird I turned it back ;)

Title: Re: position of the poles on a humbucker
Post by: Philly Q on August 22, 2012, 07:05:41 PM

I was going to do that with my Cold Sweat set, not to change the basic sound but because I wanted to wire it with coil splits, arranged so that the inner and outer pairs of single-coils would be hum-cancelling.

Of course I never got round to it.  :wink: