Please answer my dumbass pickup questions

[Doog]

Although I don't need these for a real reason, I was talking to JD and realised a lot of terminology with pickups still don't make a lot of sense to me. If anyone could shoot me some answers in layman's terms, that'd be awesome, thanks.

2 pickups wired in phase give a kinda clucky, fat tone, right? And wired out of phase give a thinner clangy sound, yeah?

What's the deal with reverse wound pickups? Couldn't you just swap the wires around when wiring it? Or is to do with how it works with the different pickups, in terms of hum cancellation?

What tonal effect does wiring pickups in series versus in parallel have? I gather you can wire a humbucker's coils in series or parallel with each other for a different sound? Which way is your typical humbucker sound?

[James]

Typical humbucker is series.

In phase is standard, out of phase gives cancellation at certain frequencies. The frequencies cancelled depend on the distance between the pickups and a few other things, such as where you pluck the string.

I dont know about reverse wound.

[Mike]

These aren't dumb questions, a lot of this stuff isn't well documented.

Humbuckers are two coils in series with the windings in reversed directions between them, it is the noise cancelling in two series connected reversely wound coils that creates the bucking effect. So on a Strat with a reverse wound middle/neck coil you'll get a bucking effect, it's not going to happen if you just reverse the wires on a same wired single coil.

Series volume is determined by the lowest impedance pickup and as a result won't be as loud as parallel, effectively in series your guitar has a higher impedance whereas in parallel it is lower than either of the pickups singly and louder.

[euan]

I was just researching it to find a definitive answer myself. I haven't found a good explanation of the whole in and out phase. However I do agree with Mike, but I'd add that in addition to the coils being out of phase, the pole pieces have reverse polarity. So one side is north and the other is south. Any interference picked up by the coils is out of phase, but the signal from the strings is actually in phase due to the different polarity.

If you see a single coil pickup that is reverse wound and reverse polarity and put it into your Strat then it'll be humbucking when combined with one of the other single coils. Most Strats these days are a NSN config with south pickup being a RW/RP pickup. A classic Strat however will be NNN wired, I'm not sure of the winding in middle position though.

[luke]

There's this common belief that it's impossible to have one pickup out of phase, but that's not true. The pickup produces electricity which flows out of one end of the coil, negative I think, and that goes through your components and to your amp. If it's wired the other way round, the sound's going the wrong way through and is affected. Two pickups out of phase is just way more noticeable because they kinda "clash".

[James]

There's this common belief that it's impossible to have one pickup out of phase, but that's not true. The pickup produces electricity which flows out of one end of the coil, negative I think, and that goes through your components and to your amp. If it's wired the other way round, the sound's going the wrong way through and is affected. Two pickups out of phase is just way more noticeable because they kinda "clash".

That would make it out of phase with what?

[euan]

That would make it out of phase with what?

I believe the magnet(s). There is a noticeable difference between a Mustang pickup on its own in both the on positions. In the out of phase position there is a noticeable thinning of the sound.

[luke]

There's this common belief that it's impossible to have one pickup out of phase, but that's not true. The pickup produces electricity which flows out of one end of the coil, negative I think, and that goes through your components and to your amp. If it's wired the other way round, the sound's going the wrong way through and is affected. Two pickups out of phase is just way more noticeable because they kinda "clash".

That would make it out of phase with what?

With the amplifier. If the pickup is the opposite way round from normal, it's drawing the current from the amp rather than sending it, which puts the speakers out of phase, because they're literally producing an inside out sound. It's no different from wiring your speakers up wrong and getting that out of phase sound out of them (as someone on here did a few days ago, and corrected the problem by swapping the contacts).

Having a current the wrong way round doesn't stop it working (AC, or alternating current works by flipping the direction of the current at regular intervals), but in audio examples it alters the sound very slightly.

[Mike]

There's this common belief that it's impossible to have one pickup out of phase, but that's not true. The pickup produces electricity which flows out of one end of the coil, negative I think, and that goes through your components and to your amp. If it's wired the other way round, the sound's going the wrong way through and is affected. Two pickups out of phase is just way more noticeable because they kinda "clash".

That would make it out of phase with what?

With the amplifier. If the pickup is the opposite way round from normal, it's drawing the current from the amp rather than sending it, which puts the speakers out of phase, because they're literally producing an inside out sound. It's no different from wiring your speakers up wrong and getting that out of phase sound out of them (as someone on here did a few days ago, and corrected the problem by swapping the contacts).

Having a current the wrong way round doesn't stop it working (AC, or alternating current works by flipping the direction of the current at regular intervals), but in audio examples it alters the sound very slightly.

Um. You can't change the direction of the current like that. You've got a basic assumption of electronics all wrong.

The out of phase issue Mickie had was one speaker out of phase with another speaker. Not out of phase with a guitar, which is impossible.

[euan]

Whats the chance that I was wrong as well? I was just truly just guessing about the coil being out of phase with magnets and using some of the information I got from researching humbuckers.

[Mike]

I think these sum up the issues here. My point about what Malik said is that his logic assumes that the current is what the amplifier works on. It's not - it's the voltage.

"When 2 pickups or coils are connected in such a way that the current flows are in opposite directions and tend to cancel one another they are said to be out of phase. Position 2 and 4 of a Strat switch is not out of phase, in fact quite the opposite…they are in-phase. Out of phase sounds consist of very little bass, dominate mids and highs with a characteristic 'nasal, honky' sound and have a much lower level."

"The clever arrangement of 2 coils of a pickup to cancel hum whereby both coils produce an equal hum voltage in opposite phase (or directions) thus leading to complete cancellation. When there is residual hum the noise voltage of the coils is not equal (most regular side-by-side humbuckers)."

"When 2 coils or pickups are connected in such a way that their outputs have the same polarity. ie the forward pulse of the EMF is in the same direction. Contrary to what many understand switch positions 2 and 4 of a Strat and the Middle position of a Tele are 'in phase' sounds"

[Mike]

Series volume is determined by the lowest impedance pickup and as a result won't be as loud as parallel, effectively in series your guitar has a higher impedance whereas in parallel it is lower than either of the pickups singly and louder.

I got this completely backwards after thinking some more. Series will be the louder version since you'll get a strong additive effect ofthe voltage produced in both pickups, in parallel operation you'll get some destructive interference which will make the combined sound quieter. My impedance detailing is correct though.

[luke]

Aww, I hate it when I think I'm onto something and I'm not.

[aphasiac]

ok, all the answers on this page are still pretty hard to understand. heres everything in laymans terms.

right, so when pickups were invented, everything was just single coils. were are cool but of course people soon realised you get hum picked up from electrical items or strip lightening. which was annoying and kille teh tonez.

so this guy Seth who worked for Gibson said "hey, what happens if a guitar had 2 pickups close together, but where the wire was wound in opposite directions. if we fed the pickups directly into each other, the sound waves would cancel each other out, killing the humming. But then the guitar sound would also be cancelled out..oh wait, we'll reverse the magnet in one of the pickups, so instead of cancelling each other out, the noise picked up from the strings will be TWICE AS LOUD". And thus the PAF was born.

So yeh thats what rerverse wound pickups are - means they're wound opposite directions, and the magnet polarity is also opposite - so when combined with a regular wound pickup, you get cancellation of hum but an addition of magnetic induction.

out of phase happens when you feed a non-reverse would pickup into another non-reverse wound pickup. The 2 sounds cancell out completely, except cos the pickups are in different positions each pick up some frequencies that the other doesn't. so instead of perfectly cancelling each other out, you end up with a tiny thin sound.

Series / parallel - different ways of wiring 2 pickups. Series means force the current to go through the first pickup, then force it to go through then second one, in that order. You get big sound - this is how regular humbuckers are wired.

Parallel means force it to go through both, but wire the pickups up side by side, so the current goes through BOTH pickups at the same time. you still get humbucking, but you don't get a doubling of loudness like with series.

anyways, hope that's cleared things up, at leats a little bit.

[deadonkey]

There's this common belief that it's impossible to have one pickup out of phase, but that's not true. The pickup produces electricity which flows out of one end of the coil, negative I think, and that goes through your components and to your amp. If it's wired the other way round, the sound's going the wrong way through and is affected. Two pickups out of phase is just way more noticeable because they kinda "clash".

That would make it out of phase with what?

With the amplifier. If the pickup is the opposite way round from normal, it's drawing the current from the amp rather than sending it

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP. YOU ARE SO WRONG.

[theshadowofseattle]

Aww, I hate it when I think I'm onto something and I'm not.

haha you got busted for Frontin'

[Doog]

Thanks for all the help, dudes. I'll read it over tomorrow when I'm a bit more awake to take in all the info.

Parallel means force it to go through both, but wire the pickups up side by side, so the current goes through BOTH pickups at the same time. you still get humbucking, but you don't get a doubling of loudness like with series.

The 'buckers on my Fender Contemporary Tele halve in volume when coilsplit, but splitting coils on the Squier double fat Tele I used to have (sold to Mr Drums, in fact) has nowhere near as drastic as an effect. Is this likely to be a series vs parallel issue?

[Doog]

That would make it out of phase with what?

With the amplifier. If the pickup is the opposite way round from normal, it's drawing the current from the amp rather than sending it

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP. YOU ARE SO WRONG.

Hahaha, even I knew that sounded iffy..

[Mike]

Don't worry guys, i'll protect you from the bullshit.

[aphasiac]

The 'buckers on my Fender Contemporary Tele halve in volume when coilsplit, but splitting coils on the Squier double fat Tele I used to have (sold to Mr Drums, in fact) has nowhere near as drastic as an effect. Is this likely to be a series vs parallel issue?

probably not. All humbucker pickups come wired in series - i've never heard of a guitar manufacturer shipping a guitar with parallel wired pickups.

Parallel wiring is used for the inbetween positions of your guitars though - so switch positions 2 and 4 on your strat, or the middle switch position on your telecaster/les paul/jagstang - that's using parallel wiring to combine the pickup sounds.

So why does your fat tele not drop in output drastically when coilsplit? Probably because the coils are already massively overwound - and posisble that theyve used the inner coils for the split, which give higher output on their own.