Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Skeesix on July 17, 2011 at 6:32am

The short answer is no - to make a pickup humbucking, you have to reverse the leads and the polarity of the magnets.

Permalink Reply by alectron on July 17, 2011 at 10:47am

How could I reverse the polarity?

Permalink Reply by eric gittins on July 27, 2011 at 5:53pm

to reverse the polarity of the single coil pickup...

in short, you need to turn your magnet(s) over so the other pole faces the strings.

if the pickup is one of those cheap ones with steel slugs in the coil and a ceramic bar glued to the bottom - crack off the magnet and roll it over.

in traditional fender style magnet-in-coil pickups with flatwork, the magnets can't be removed, but it MAY be possible with a strong enough magnetic field, to reverse the polarity of the magnets while they're in the coil, as traditional alnico magnets aren't that strong, and don't get (re)magnetised until the pickup is assembled. 

If the field isn't strong enough though, you might just muck up the polarity enough to make the pup not work.  don't try this one on any 'good' pickup, just junk.

 

e

Permalink Reply by alectron on July 29, 2011 at 10:09am

I have a bass pickup where the top is the same as the bottom so could I just move the wire leads to the other side and basically have it upside down?

Permalink Reply by eric gittins on July 30, 2011 at 12:16am

yes - if you swap the wires over and turn the pickup upside down, you have indeed 'reverse wound reverse polarised' your pickup, and if the 2 pups were identical before, they are now hum cancelling together, in series or parallel.

 

e

 

Permalink Reply by alectron on July 30, 2011 at 7:06pm

thanks for the help. What about my second question though?

Permalink Reply by eric gittins on July 30, 2011 at 11:49pm

is the second question about whether it would work with the pups wired with 2 volumes and no switch?

yes it would work just like a jazz bass.

you should probably restate the particular question you want answered.

would it be constantly humbucking? no - only if both volume pots were on the same setting.

 

e

 

Permalink Reply by alectron on August 4, 2011 at 4:41pm

Thanks for all the help. I think I'll stick with a humbucker for now.