Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Skeesix on May 20, 2011 at 6:43am

To make a humbucker, the pickup needs to be reverse wound AND reverse polarity (RWRP). So if they're commercially made pickups of the same brand and type, if it's reverse polarity, I think you can also assume it's reverse wound. Different manufacturers might orient their magnets in different ways without reversing the windings, so that's why it needs to be the same source for the pickup.

On Strats the middle pickup is the one that is often RWRP.

If you're using cheap Strat pickups with a plastic bobbin, (in other words the magnets are not in direct contact with the magnet wire), you can remove and reverse the magnets and reverse how you connect the lead wires and get the same effect. Or if you're not sure, you can get a big neodymium magnet, and repolarize the magnets without removing them, then switch the leads and voila.

Note if you try to remove magnets from a pickup where they're directly touching the magnet wire, there's a very good chance of killing the pickup.

Permalink Reply by GARAGE HERMIT on May 20, 2011 at 7:17am

thanks,, yes they're only cheap p/u's, but i've quite a few,  i'll give it a go,,

Skeesix said:

To make a humbucker, the pickup needs to be reverse wound AND reverse polarity (RWRP). So if they're commercially made pickups of the same brand and type, if it's reverse polarity, I think you can also assume it's reverse wound. Different manufacturers might orient their magnets in different ways without reversing the windings, so that's why it needs to be the same source for the pickup.

On Strats the middle pickup is the one that is often RWRP.

If you're using cheap Strat pickups with a plastic bobbin, (in other words the magnets are not in direct contact with the magnet wire), you can remove and reverse the magnets and reverse how you connect the lead wires and get the same effect. Or if you're not sure, you can get a big neodymium magnet, and repolarize the magnets without removing them, then switch the leads and voila.

Note if you try to remove magnets from a pickup where they're directly touching the magnet wire, there's a very good chance of killing the pickup.

Permalink Reply by eric gittins on May 21, 2011 at 12:33am

with the cover off a strat pickup you can see the two coil wires running from the eyelets to the coil.  one wire will look like it obviously runs to the outside of the coil as it rounds the corner of the wiring, the other will look like it runs inside of the edge by a bit. 

the inside wire is the start, the wire on the outside is the finish.

as you say, you can determine magnet polarity, and now you can tell winding direction.

on the pic below, the wire from the white wire to the right is the finish.  you can see the wire from the black runs deeper into the coil (that's the start).

of course reversing the wind is really as easy as changing the names from Hot to Earth and from Earth to Hot too.   yes, you can make a humbucker from 2 strat pickups as you thought.

e

 

Permalink Reply by GARAGE HERMIT on May 21, 2011 at 8:23am

thanks eric,, cant really see the coil wire's in your pic, but when i go out to the garage i'll have a look at the p/u's i've got,

 

eric gittins said:

with the cover off a strat pickup you can see the two coil wires running from the eyelets to the coil.  one wire will look like it obviously runs to the outside of the coil as it rounds the corner of the wiring, the other will look like it runs inside of the edge by a bit. 

the inside wire is the start, the wire on the outside is the finish.

as you say, you can determine magnet polarity, and now you can tell winding direction.

on the pic below, the wire from the white wire to the right is the finish.  you can see the wire from the black runs deeper into the coil (that's the start).

of course reversing the wind is really as easy as changing the names from Hot to Earth and from Earth to Hot too.   yes, you can make a humbucker from 2 strat pickups as you thought.

e