BKPickups polarity

[nipper]

Hi Tim and all you guys,
I have a couple of Warpigs neck and bridge pups bought in different periods: first have both coils with hex screws, latter have only one coil with screws.  Where is the North and South polarity respectively? Is there a simple way to check it with some tool?
Thanks

[darkbluemurder]

Hi,

You can check it with a multimeter: attach the probes to the pickup leads (in case of BKP red and black) and check the reading. Touch one coil with a screwdriver, then the other. With one coil you will get a slightly higher reading, with the other a slightly lower one. If e.g. on a normal polarity pickup the slug coil has the higher reading, on the reverse polarity pickup it would be the screw coil.

You could also take a magnet or another pickup (I have an old single coil for this purpose). I always check whether the magnets start pulling together or pushing away from each other.

Unless custom ordered or specified BKPs have the same polarity as Gibsons, DiMarzios, Seymour Duncans etc. PRS neck pickup is reverse polarity on models with the 5 way rotary. Ray Gerold pickups have the same polarity if you order a set. Häeussel does it the other way around, e.g. the bridge pickup's polarity is reversed.

Hope that helps
Cheers Stephan

[nipper]

Thanks for reply,
so which coil in a humbuker set must be oriented closer to the bridge or closer to the neck is a matter of experiment...
normally the higher ones in output are closest to them?

[darkbluemurder]

I would guess so because the closer the string to the bridge the sharper the tone gets. But that is no hard and fast rule - you may prefer it the other way round.

Cheers Stephan