ShortScale.org

I'm thinking of bidding on this for my Mustang project if it doesn't go stratospheric. Only trouble is it's 5.54k and the neck pickup I already have measures 6.06k.

I think Mustang pickups traditionally read about the same (?), and I know for sure that it's usual to have a hotter pickup in the bridge than the neck, but can anyone tell me whether standing that convention on its head is likely to cause me significant problems?

My question still stands even if I don't win that one as I would then possibly resort to another SC pickup I have lying around which reads about 5.9k.

One more thing: can anyone tell me how to tell whether a pickup has North or South polarity?

It doesn't matter whether one is north or one is south, it matters if two are opposites. That's easy to tell. Just put the two pickups facing each other. If they're the same polarity, they'll repel, if they're reverse, they'll stick together.

If you absolutely want to know whether something is north or south, you have to test it with something whose polarity you already know. It can be a magnet, of course. If your pickup attracts to the North side, it's South, and if it attracts to South, it's North. Or if you have a branded humbucker lying around, like a Seymour Duncan for instance, most humbuckers are North on the slug, South on the screw side. So by testing your pickup against the slug or the screw, you can see its polarity.

Anyway, with these AlNiCo pickups it's hard to reverse the polarity yourself. With humbuckers and P90s and ceramics, it's usually pretty easy.

Why can't you put the hotter pickup in the bridge, then? Mustang pickups are not staggered after all, so there should be no harm done.

Thanks for the answer. Yes, I could use the neck pickup in the bridge, but it's already wired to the switches and I tend towards the path of least resistance where possible.

My main concern was about the slight difference in resistance, but it's been suggested elsewhere that it shouldn't be that noticeable.

You could just raise the bridge pup higher anyway.

Well, the neck will overpower the bridge. That tends to happen with most vintage-type guitars anyway. But 6.06k bridge vs 5.54k neck would probably end up with the neck being louder anyway, so I don't know if that matters to you.

And it's pretty to relocate a pickup on a Mustang, since the two leads are just right there. Don't be lazy!

honeyiscool wrote:It doesn't matter whether one is north or one is south, it matters if two are opposites. That's easy to tell. Just put the two pickups facing each other. If they're the same polarity, they'll repel, if they're reverse, they'll stick together.

Okay, so I ended up buying a hand-wound Mustang pickup off a Canadian eBayer. It's rated at 6.15k....so far so good.

Trouble is I completely overlooked the whole polarity issue and it's the same as the neck pickup - i.e they repel each other when pushed together.

Does this mean I absolutely can't use them as a pair, or just that they'll be out of phase in the middle position, or something else I haven't thought of?

That means they will not be noise canceling in the together position. They'll sound fine, though.

The cool thing is that the out of phase position is nicer with non-RWRP pickups.

Ah, okay, thanks. I guess I can live with that. Unless I happen to find a vintage bridge pickup before I put it all together.

If you want to make a bit of a project out of it, you could pick up some rare earth magnets and reverse the polarity yourself.

LINK

Interesting idea, but I don't have any old hard drives lying around....or a vice....

i love the dragsters

ahh when youre on it put a sd - hot rail in bridge so it gives something.