Humbucker Guitar Out of Phase

HNB · Post by **HNB** » Sat Mar 18, 2017 4:11 am

On my HH Squier I have a Fender neck humbucker and a DiMarzio bridge humbucker. After reading the internet it looked like I would need to reverse one of them so they would be in phase. I did and got strings on and it is out of phase. It got me thinking about my other HH guitars. The middle position on them kind of normally sound like the neck pickup alone.

Should I keep them out of phase? Are there musicians who use that out of phase sound?

weeping_moon · Post by **weeping_moon** » Sat Mar 18, 2017 8:44 am

HNB wrote:On my HH Squier I have a Fender neck humbucker and a DiMarzio bridge humbucker. After reading the internet it looked like I would need to reverse one of them so they would be in phase. I did and got strings on and it is out of phase. It got me thinking about my other HH guitars. The middle position on them kind of normally sound like the neck pickup alone.

Should I keep them out of phase? Are there musicians who use that out of phase sound?

Do what you like the best. Depends on what kind of music you play.

I dont use out of phase. I play mostley heavy, rock and such on. I use in phase only.

Concretebadger · Post by **Concretebadger** » Sat Mar 18, 2017 3:20 pm

HNB wrote:Should I keep them out of phase? Are there musicians who use that out of phase sound?

Off the top of my head, the first that I can think of is Peter Green during the early Fleetwood Mac era. A total accident apparently, but he liked the sound so much that he left it as-is.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Sat Mar 18, 2017 4:16 pm

Just reversing a pickup doesn't make it out of phase. That's a misnomer that exists because Peter Green had his neck pickup repaired and reinstalled in his Les Paul by someone who didn't know what they were doing, and they got both the magnets and the physical orientation of the pickup backwards, with the latter being the only visual clue that something wasn't right. With a vintage single conductor bucker, flipping the magnets is the only way to do it... with 4-conductor pickups you can just swap two of the wires.

BB King was the original big user of out-of-phase lead guitar sounds courtesy of his ES-345 (those had the pickups out of phase stock from the factory, with a provision to swap it on the Varitone rotary switch), though King's subsequent praise of Peter Green's tone ("the sweetest tone I ever heard" and "the only one who gave me the cold sweats") has pretty much put him ahead of BB when discussing that tone.

This is from 1965

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And this was always my fave example of Green's middle position, because of the gain/feedback and reverb during this live performance pushing it into outer space

[youtube][/youtube]

Jimmy Page is often pointed to but he didn't actually have his 2 sunburst Les Pauls' custom wiring in place during the Led Zep days, I think all the switches and push/pulls were added to them in the '80s.

HNB · Post by **HNB** » Sat Mar 18, 2017 4:31 pm

Cool sound examples. With humbuckers it does kind of sound single coil like.

sunshiner · Post by **sunshiner** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 4:18 am

So, do I just need to turn a magnet in one of my buckers to make two pickups out of phase?

HNB · Post by **HNB** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 4:21 am

You have to reverse the hot and ground on just one of the two pickups. (Keep the bare pickup base ground grounded though.)

jamba72 · Post by **jamba72** » Sat Aug 12, 2017 9:08 pm

In my Telecaster Custom I have one Alnico II neck humbucker..I wired it for middle position as out-of-phase..
sounds verrrry nice..awsome with Fuzzes,..
I will do this in my Jazzmaster, too..recommended

ah, and I have a push-pull Tone poti for HB/SC on the Jazzmaster, too..

Humbucker Guitar Out of Phase

Humbucker Guitar Out of Phase

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