Home / Essential Reads / Wiring Tips 1 What's The Deal With Pickup Polarity? © PICKUP POLARITY ° WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH PICKUP POLARITY? By: Tyler Delsack / January 23, 2017 / Essential Reads / Wiring Tips / $7 Comments you're reading this article, you probably were trying to order a single pickup. Trust us - its not too dificult to find your pickup polarity, and it’s well worth the effort. For identifying your magnetic polarity, we recommend buying one of these: Schatte Magnet Polarity Tester IMAGINE THIS SCENARIO: You just purchased a Bridge pickup for your guitar. Youre excited to throw it in and rock out. You get it installed. You plug itn. k' sounds great on its own, but when you combine the Bridge with the Middle pickup, it sounds ike crap! It seems thin, hollow, and weak. What happened? Your Bridge pickup is out of phase with the rest of your pickups. Now you have to take the pickup out, send it back to us, and pay for shipping again to get the pickup back in phase with your other pickups. Not coolWHAT IS PICKUP POLARITY? [ick potoriyis the combination of Magnetic Direction and Ce Direction Your Pickup can have either North or South pointing towards the strings, and the coil could be Clockwise or Counter-clockwise (more on this later) The ideal situation is to have your pickup In-Phase and Hum-Cancelling with other pickups. Youve probably heard the term *Reverse Wound / Reverse Polarity” (RWRP) - wel, that’s what we're talking about. We're talking about an In-Phase and Hum-Cancelling set or pair of pickups. [ There are four mportan considerations when making a plckp. Let break them down] 1, Magnetic Orientation: The top of the magnets could be South (South fo Strings, in our jargon), or North to Strings. 2. Coll Direction: Once again, there are two options: Counter-Clockwise and Clockwise. DETERMINING MAGNET POLARITY: Your pickups either have North or South aimed at your strings. you have a compass, i's easy to do: hold ‘the compass on top of your pickup, on i ‘observe which way the compass pulls. t se t Example: ‘South To Strings North To Strings side, This wil allow you t South is Closest tothe Strings North is Closest to the Strings It using a compass, North would be pulled towards using a compass, South would be pulled towards the pickup, because opposites attract ‘the pickup, because opposites attract. if North pulls towards the pickup, your pickups are “South To Strings,” or’South Up" (Opposites attract). If South pulls towards your pickup, your pickup is North To Strings. Its essential to know your magnetic polarity, as some pickups can have their col direction reversed easily For instance, Our Si Ind Steel Pale 43s can be reversed easily. However, ifyou have a traditional Strat or Tele pickup, youll need to abserve your call direction as well Tricks to find Magnetic Direction: 1, Use a compass! Opposites attract, So, Ifyou hold a compass to the top of the pickup, It will pull the ‘opposite towards it. You can get a cheap compass online or at a local hobby store. 2. Use a Magnet marked North and South Just ike the compass, youl feel and see what orientation attracts your magnet.A Checking Magnet Direction With a A Checking Magnetic Direction with Compass. This pickup is South to ‘a Magnet. This pickup is North to strings Strings. DETERMINING COIL DIRECTION: CLOCKWISE COUNTER-CLOCKWISE (FROM GROUND TO HOT) (FROM GROUND TO HOT) > +-., fH sc (00000) 7 < + A The image on the left has a Clockwise Coll Direction, going from Ground to Hot. The image on the right was wound opposite. llustrated above is where the coll starts and ends. As you can see, the coll starts on the left on Bottom To Winder, and on the right with a Top to Winder pickup, The Start of the col is always shown by aur Black lead, and the last turn is denoted by our White lead, For a real-world example, see below‘A Inthe Above Image, the Strat Pickup on the Left has a Counter from Ground (Black) to Hot (White). A Counter-Cloc ingo. The Tele Br 1und to Hot. In our, irection Is the same as Bottom to Winder, in Right has a Clocky rection, from on is Top to Winder. the Clockwise Tricks to find Coll Direction: 1. Observe! ‘The best thing to do here is to pull your pickup out and look at it 2. Send us a photo Send us a picture of the pickup out of the guitar. Ifwe can see the leads, we can denote the coll direction 3. Check with the manufacturer or look online Check with your manufacturer, or do a quick search on the internet for your exact model, This 's not always the best case because there is not alot of consistency throughout the industry. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: Let's put all ofthe concepts of Pickup Polarity together with @ common example: Stratocaster wiring. With Stratocaster pickups, positions 2 & 4 of the S-way switch are both in-phase and hum-canceling. Here's why: SOUTH UP CLOCKWISE COIL (FROM GROUND TO HOT) OOO0OOOP BRIDGE IN PHASE & HUM CANCELLINGNORTH UP COUNTER-CLOCKWISE MIDDLE IN PHASE & HUM CANCELLING SOUTH UP CLOCKWISE COIL NECK (c) 2020 Fralin Pickups When the Bridge and the Midalle pickup combine, their coil directions and their magnetic orientations reverse. This cancels hum and keeps pickups in phase, The samme applies for virtually any instrument that uses Single Coll pickups: Telecasters, Jazz Basses, Mustangs, and Jazzmasters..the lst goes on. TRYING TO FIX IT YOURSELF: Ifyour pickups are out of phase, you might be able to fix it yourself, You can try to reverse the coll direction, for example, However, reversing only one “attribute” of a pickup can cause some unintended side-effects Here are sore potential problems, and how to diagnose them: PROBLEM #1: PROBLEM #2: PROBLEM #3: Both Coils are in the same Coils indifferent directions, but__Both Pickups are the same coil direction, but the magnet the pickups are magnetized the direction and magnetle direction is opposite between same. orientation, pickups, These pickups are out of phase, These pickups will be in phase, These pickups are out of phase, and when used together, will however, they will not be hurn= and when used together, will sound weak, hollow, and thin.A canceling, sound weak, hollow, and thin. A lot of midrange is lotof midrange is canceled out. canceled out. PART 2: HUM-CANCELLING PICKUPS Hur-cancelling pickups are a litle easier to ciently, as one part of the puzzle is already given to us. A Humbucker (this can be our hum-canceling P-90's, Hum-Cancelling Jazzmasters, Split Blades, ec.) has both magnetic directions already. So, you dor't need to worry about Magnetic Orientation. What you do need to know is Coll Direction. This is really easy ~ just order your pickup with Multiple Leads! white: sek are Reversible Pe White is HotBlack is Ground is Ground A 2 Conductor Lead With St ‘As you can see, Polarity can be a litle confusing, We hope this helps break it down, Ifyou have any ‘questions, give us a call! We'lldo our best to help, RELATED POSTS: PUSH PULL MODS. 5 Push-Pull Pot Mods You ieee How to Reverse Pickup How to Reverse Pickup Shout Polarity Part 2: Humbuckers Polarity, Part 1: Single Coil Pickups Written By: TYLER DELSACK Tyler Delsack is the Manager of Fralin Pickups and spends his time editing and maintaining the website, designing graphics and ads, and making pickups. He's powered by Jazz Guitar, Vietnamese Food, Hiking, and Beer. 2 © Author's Note: These blog posts are for educational and information purposes only, We do not offer custom wiring diagrams or wiring help or troubleshaoting. For this, we recommend going (0 a local luthier or tech 57 COMMENTSSteve September 26,2019 at 11:20 + A precision pickup has two separate coils, each with a different pelarity and winding direction , what is the correct way to wire them together and which magnetic polarity cal is used for the E and A strings, this is in a PJ configuration the J pickup has a polarity north against the strings? Thanks Fred Brockman Hi Lindy, ‘So what's the deal with basses? Specifically P} basses? | have a Fender P in a J configuration but the J pick up 's wrong for many reasons, which | wor't bother with here, But | want @ vintage sound, rather than the offered P] set here in your shop, plus I ove the P pickup | already have. But P pickups are split singles, so does all ofthe above still apply? And how do you even tell if your pickups are out of phase? Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups ‘August 19,2019 at 9:34 am ao Hey Fred, That's a good question about Pi) basses. The deal here is that you usually have a Hurn-Cancelling P-Bass pickup and a Single-CoilJ-8ass pickup. If your pickups are out-of-phase, you can quickly remedy this by reversing the White and Black leads on the P-Bass pickup only. ‘You can tell when your pickups are out of phase when you run beth pickups simukaneausly, Ifyou experience a thin, hollow, nasally tone, you know your pickups are out of phase with each other. Alexandre August 13,2019 at 10:01 * Hello, have a 1953/54 Fender champion lap steel pickup for a lead position in a telecaster project. This old pickup is North up polarity. Ineed a rythm telecaster pickup but | am nat sure what polarity is needed ? Thanks alot Alex Dick Mial ‘August 2, 2019 at 5:50 pm ° nave a 1953 Epiphone Zenith archtop. I want to have a pickup - either single coll or humbucker - attached to the end of the fretboard. Imm not thinking about having a volume control or anything else attached to a pickguard (which | dor’t have). [want the pickup connected to an endpin jack and control volume and tone with a pre-amp. Looking for an old DeArmond sound, or something similar to the old gold foil pickups that used to be on Harmony guitars. Any thoughts about whar's available that could come clase to what | want?AH August 2.2019 at 6:57 am ° You write: Pickup polarity is the combination of Magnetic Direction and Coll Direction. Your Pickup can have either North or South pointing towards the strings, and the coll could be Clockwise or Counterclackwise (more on this later). Both the magnets and call options equate to a 2586 chance that your pickup will be in phase if you take a guess when ordering.” Polarity in this context should refer just to the magnet - nothing else, Using it to refer to the combination gets to0 confusing - you then have to explain that the "polarity" in "RWRP" just means the magnets’ (relative) polarity, Since RWRP is so widely used, reserve polarity for how itis used there, for the ragnet(s) only. Other ‘manufacturers do that, So their material (and other published information) explains things in ways that contradict yours, [And there is not a 25% chance that a pickup will be in-phase. Firstly @ SINGLE pickup is neither in-phase NOR ‘outof-phase. Phase only relates to two pickups - and they are either in-phase or out-of-phase with EACH OTHER, So any pickup has a 50% chance of being in-phase (or out-of-phase) with any other pickup. Engineers wil stil understand the nuances without you confusing the average player. Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups August 14,2079 at 11.51 am Hey AH, ‘These are good points here, and we'd lke (o clarify our argument: 1) Lindy refers to Polarity as a combination of the Magnetic Polarity (he says orientation, but we understand that magnets have ‘poles? as well as wind direction. He mainly thinks of polarity as a ‘combination of the two, We understand where you are coming from! This could be a simpler way of describing it, or understanding it 2) The 250 n this scenario refers to being both in-phase AND hurn-cancelling, which is the best-case scenario. When you factor in two pickups, each with a magnetic orientation (polarity) and wind dicection, atts simplest form, yes there's a 259 chance that you'll achieve both hum-cancelling and being in phase. Hope that clears up our position! Jason Lewis ‘uly 16, 2019 at 1:25 am ° What if| were to go with HS, the single coil being RWRP and the humbucker being 4-Conductor, could | have Neck/Neck+Split Humbucker/Humbucker and still have the middle position be hum canceling? Gary Heimbauer Jul 13,2019 at 859 pm, °Hill have a 2 pickup jazzmaster with a Gibson burstbucker in bridge and the middle seems 0 I need a new pickup to get middle in phase or is it wired wrong? Thanks Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups July 18,2079 at 10:40 am Hey Gary, Thanks for your question, Your pickups are out of phase with each other. Ifyou have muliple leads on your Burstbucker, you can resolve this. Youll need to reverse white and ground to change the coil direction. rm not 100% familar with Gibson Burstbucker Wiring, however. Please note if you have Gibson Braided lead, you cannot reverse the humbucker. You may be able to revers he leads of your neck pickup, but, you risk having thot’ magnets Jan Miller ‘luly3, 2019 at 10:27 arm * What about a situation in which the guitar has two four wire humbuckers connected to a col spitting DPDT switch? The configuration is one volume, one tone, and a three way pickup selector (neck on, both on, bridge on). I bought this single cutaway solid body guitar because | love how it plays, but it has been “modded” with high ‘output hum buckers and the coll split switch The pickups have their screw sides facing opposite directions (neck side screws face neck, bridge side screws face bridge). In all switch positions, the pickups sound weak and thin lke they are out of phase. Could it be that the hot wires need to be reversed on both pickups at the DPDT coil split switch, or could the direction the pickups face cause the problem (currently in opposite directions)? Nathan June 20,2019 at 2:42 pm + Hi, thank you for all the info! | fin this article as well as so many others on this ‘amazing, so | appreciate &. This erticle cleared up a lot of questions for me about phase and polarity, but also made re question humbuckers even more than I was before, Correct me ifm wrong, but a humbucker is usually essentially two single cols that are in phase and hum- cancelling, so they are “Reverse Wound / Reverse Polarity" (RWR), right? ‘So how is this achieved if humbuckers only have one magnet? And how does this come into play when combining two humbuckers together? Are there any articles that go into detail about this that you can point me to? Thank you very much!Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups June 21,2019 at 12:08 pm + Hey Nathan, You're correct in your thinking that a Humbucker is two single cols that are in phase and hur cancelling. You're able to achieve two magnet orientation by using one bar magnet. One side of the Bar magnet (let's say the Screw Side is North, the back of the magnet would magnetize the Slug Side South. ope that clears it up! Mike Ginesi June 28 Zam ° at Hi have an American Tele with twisted Tele in neck and custom shop vintage in the bridge. | would like to put a P92 in neck position... will hat work? do | need to change cap? polarity? Love the sound of P92 Mike Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups June 30,2019 at 235 pm ae Hey Mike, ‘Thanks for your question. All you would need to do is order your 2-92 with 2-Conductor With, ‘Shield lead. This will allow you to reverse the phase if you need to, Joe May 23,2019 at 5:2 Hello, 1am currently doing a Mustang bulld with a Seymour Duncan J2 Jr in the bridge. | was looking atthe Fralin Mustang Vintage pickup for the neck but after reading the polarity article have some concerns. What would you advise? Thanks! Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups ‘May 28,2019 at 10.05 am a6 HeyJoe, Polarity should be no issue with these if you order your pickup with "3-Wire” configuration. The 3 Wire configuration allows you to reverse the phase. When you order 3-Wire Configuration, youll get a White, Black, and a Blue, The Blue is chassis ground’, and should remain grounded, White is normally hot, and Black is normally ground, However, if you're out of phase in the middle position, you can reverse this (white goes to ground, black is hot) and youll be in phase.Tyler cyrus May2.2019 at 406 am * Hello What ifwe have HSS 7? Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups a6 May 2,2019 at 928 am Hey Cyrus, The only issue there is col direction from your humbucker since humbuckers have both magnetic directions. That being said, if you have a humbucker where you can reverse the entire coil direction (2 Conductor with Shield, 3-Conductor With Shield, 4-Conductor with Shield), youll be good no matter what. you choose to put in the Neck and Middle. Keep in mind that Gibsor-lead humbuckers cannot be reversed, Hope that helps! Tyler Chris Mayall pr25,2019 at 3:35 am Bit of a unique case here. tr building a steel-string Kora, with 2 x sets of 8 strings 25mm apart from each other. IF1 use one pickup in the middle of these two sets of strings, one set of strings will be picked up by the South/Clockwise side of the pickup, and the other willbe picked up on North/anticlockwise side, Any idea if this would work at all, and iso would it sound terrible? Thanks, chris Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups April25, 2019 at 7-49 am + Hey Chris, This situation will work fine. Irs the sam Strat). As long as the “hots” go to the output, and “blacks” go to ground, youll have traditional Parallel Wiring, and hurn-canceling. ing as a Strat or a Tele when in posttions 2 (or2.& 4 on a Hope that helps.yer Jonathan November 20,2019 at 12:16 am Hi. huge fan of many fralin pus. my current problem HSH strat. fralin p90 humcancel pair in bridge and neck, middle s vintage split rail Sbuncan. all sound great in their solo 1,3,5 positions, Super thin in 24, can j reverse the wires in the SD vintage ral to get an In-phase sound on 2,4 switch position? Ralf Glaser ‘pel 17,2019 at 2:52 am + Interesting article, thank you, What about che “rule of thumb" It indicates that pointing the thumb to north direction and doing the “hitchhiker” gesture the other four fingers would indicate the direction of the magnetic field and so the direction of the current inducted into the wire. Following that Id think that the ideal winding direction of a north pickup would be counterclockwise and clockwise on a pickup pointing south. Do you consider that or doesr't that make a difference? Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups Apt Hey Ralf, Yes, its true that the “right-hand rule" Is how a signal generates in the pickup, However, it doesn't ‘matter which call direction or magnetic direction is combined - it still generates a signal either way. Also, in order to have a hum-canceling pair, you need one of each. Great question! Tyler Joe 12,2019 at 10:03 am Is it okay that | mixed a Fralin Stock Tele at the bridge, and a Fralin Stee! Pole 43 at the neck on my telecaster? Nothing has sounded out of the ordinary since installing them a while back, but | just want to make sure. Ryan Martinez n15,2019 at 44a + ApolS, 2019 at 311 am Hi was actually ordering some pickups off amazon and neither of these sets have multiple leads, and it doesn't tell me what direction they were wound in, m building a three humbucker guitar from scratch, It's my first guitar and quite 2 big project, so Iwas wondering how one might adapt if they were coiled oppositetiple leads. (Double Coil humbucker se: ;Ad a mini humbucker ses) Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups Aprils, 2019 at 901 am @ Hey Ryan, IF ies 2 traditional humbucker design, you can flip the magnet to reverse the phase of the pickup. If you were doing a Humbucker Set and a Mini Humbucker Middle, you'd have to flip both the Neck and Bridge ‘magnets, This would reverse the phase of the entire pickup, putting it back in Phase with the other pickup, Hope this helps, et me know if you have any other questions, Tyler Steve Misener h3*,2019a1 212. om Hey Tyler, | have a beautiful American Deluxe Tele that | want to turn into a Nashville Tele. | pulled up the pick guard When installing a set of your Blues Special pups a few years back and found it was already routed for a 1 Blues Special Tele Pups thave already installed. typically play country lead guitar. Any ather Fralin pup suggestions to go with my Blues Specials | would greatly appreciate, Thanks in advance. ‘middle pup. | wanted know if a middle position Blues Special Strat Pup will work wit Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups ‘AprilS,2019 at 909 a Hey Steve, Putting a pickup in between a set of Tele pickups is alittle more complicated, polarity-wise. Right now, you have a RW/ RP Neck pickup, compared to your bridge. Adding a Middle Pickup in between the two same polarity as your Bridge, reversing the coil direction and magnetic orientation. You would have to purchase a Reverse Wound Neck and a Strat. would require the Neck Pickup to be converted t Midalle Pickup. Also, we've changed the way we do Telecaster Polarity since 2078. If this set is pre-jan 1 2018, we would have to custorn make a Middle Pickup as well. Feel free to cal for more detail. Tyler Robbie) * arch 13,2019 om IF have 3 strat pick-ups and neck and bridge are south facing and middle is north facing and all lead hot wires are on same side, let's say left when looking from bottom, all grounds on the right, can I just swap theane oc an grout we Thanks! Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups March 14,2019 at 957 arn ao Robbie, ‘You should be able to - that's the concept! However, if you have the chass's ofthe pickup grounded through the black lead, then you'll want to try to reverse it. If you have a 2-Conductor lead, with a White, Black, and Shield (Bare), you will have no issue performing ths. Tyler Robbie J March 4.2019 a 1202 pm * ound out more info and hooked therm up on an old pick guard last night. They are all Fender pickups. The neck and bridge are pure vintage 65's with a white and black wire. The middle Isa RWRP Fat 60 with a yellow and black wire. My buddy says he thinks the fat 60's are wound ‘opposite of most Fender pickups. Seems to be correc so far Just switched the hot for ground and visa versus on the middle and 2&4 are quiet. Iwill swap out into the gultar in the next few days as that wll be the only true test. How wil | know if phase is off If that's the correct terms. | read itwill sound weak per your article? Thanks John November 1 what would the consequences be ifn the scenario above (with two conductors), the colls were ALL reverse wound (counterclockwise), Would reversing the leads on the riddle pickup stil work? The magnets are NSN, top facing from neck to bridge, | nave a P90 strat style guitar. It has 3 P90 pickups although they suck and the middle is out of phase. | would lke to upgrade these to 3 new P90’s with the middle being reverse wound. Can you recommend a set? These are the normal P90's that screw into the body from the two riddle screws (Not dog ear). Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickupsctszoienizen a6 HeyJenn, Sure thing - our P90 Set would work fine, and you would just need to order (2) Necks and (1) Bridge. In the "Notes" field on the checkout screen, you can say these are a 3-P90 Set, and welll get you straight! David Shilharvey bruary 14,2079 at 2.54 Hialltve been researching adding a Vintage Strat bridge pickup to my contig now that has a Fat50's neck land Squire pups in middle and bridge. When we installed the Fat 50s neck position | had to have the tech reverse polarity of them to getitrignt, Would | have to do that when adding your Vintage Strat bridge pup? PS Big fan of your work as | already have your pups in my Tele and other Strat with SSHB config. Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups ebruary 15, Hey David, Ie impossible to tell without more information. I could work, but there's a 75% chance it wort. I would recommend finding the magnetic polarity and coil direction, and we can make a pickup to match. Tyler Le Chevalier Noir January 23,2019 at 1028 am ° Some noiseless bass pickups have 1 magnet by chords and 1 coil for 2 magnets and 1 colls in oposite direction for the 2 other magnets. Commected togethe included, Great, But | see also this Kinf od pickup for string bass. How are they doing? Thank you forks as a single coil with humm cancellin function Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups January23, 2019 at V1 26 We've only seen “stacked versions of the 5-String azz Bass pickups, which have never impressed us. That being said..we are working on a 5-String Split Blade for Jazz Bass, for this year! TylerMaraia Ceraia 9 Hello, nave a circular compas. The needle has a green mark. But..the compass itself I can turn it 360 degrees. This means that when | hold N near the pick-up magnet and the needle is pulled towards the magnet, it does not tell me ifitis north or south, because the needle is always attracted to the magnet,equal which letter of the compass is attracted by the magnet, also when I turn the body of the compass in equal which direction JOW: when | hold the compass with the letter W close to the magnet, the needle shows E This means that a North: South magnet is always correct. With a compass you first need to calibrate the compass to the north-pole of the earth, and after that moving the pick-up towards the compass. Larry McCoy January 8.2019 at 9:51 pm ° nave a "The Loar" archtop with a single P90 in the neck pasitian. The pickup has 48mm pole spacing for some dumb ass reason. the Guitar in that spot has 52mm string spacing. So... Ineed a neck position, 52mm pole spacing P30. Can you do that? | can find lots of $2 mm but are all bridge wound pickups. Not sure what that would work tke Tony Blair December 1, 2018 at “7.01 om ‘Goad evening, if feel the magnet attracting to the pole piece, do use that side to charge or the opposite side (retracting) to charge pickups? And vice versa, if |feel the magnet retracting (attracting away) do i use the opposite side of the magnet to charge? Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups December 2, 2018 2 820 am é Hey Tony, IF were talking about our Remag kit with the Neodymium Magnet, then you are 100% correct. Don't let the magnets repel - that will demagnetize the pickup’s magnet, Make sure everything is attracting Thanks for your question! Roger Cloud October 25,2018 at 1039 pm IInave about a dozen electric guitars with a whole host of different pickups that produce a great variety of sounds, but | don't have or have | ever had a guitar with a P-90 pickup, a PAF pickup, a lipstick pickup, or any of several other different ‘off the beaten track" types of pups. | would lke to put together some sort of hybrid electric that has perhaps three such pickups, starting from a body style "TBD" (| have a lot of Strat and Tele types, and want something different, maybe from Warmoth, AllParts, or the like, but don't know what | want yet). Tentatively, m thinking P-90 (my only *definite* choice), probably in the bridge position ~ but the lury still out on the other two choices and their positions ~ and, of course, I want to optimize my tonal nenenerte with thes puch nite andfar ewitchee $0 what ce unit ieeret lice in neter tn niin retonal variety! | don't care at all about conventions, and do want some eclecticism but without thinness ~ your suggestions? Paul E. Daddario Whats the proper high output noiseless or lower noise p90 dogear to replace the slug dogear in my gibson Ip ier Scott Garrett July 25, 2018 2 7am | want to put a PLA. in the bridge position of my road worn fender stratocaster. It has fender custom shop 669 p/u's in it now and I plan on leaving those in the neck and middle positions. | play mostly blues and hard rock stufflike SRV and AC/DC no metal or anything, Just looking for a litle extra "bee? for lead work with the blues and some extra punch for the rock n roll. want a nickel cover and it appears to me that people use neck pick ups for this mad? Please help so | can order the correct pick up. | like to measure twice and cut ‘once, Thanks! Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups July25,2078 at 9:24am Scott, a6 Iesounds like you want a 8.2K Pure PAF. bridge with 3-Conductor Lead, Make sure you get that lead as you wan't have any polarity problems if you do. Tyler Matt Boren June 12,2018 at 10:40 am ° My name is matt boren. | have an old kramer with the angled bridge humbucker and two single coils 'm going to gut al of that out and order just a bridge position pure paf @ 8.2k. Im going to also order a split shaft $00 k pot. tm only going to run the bridge pickup, and ineed a 52 mm pole spacing. Ina single humbucker application do i need 3 or 4 lead? Also i have no idea what direction north or south or does it ‘matter in a single pickup? Also | want itw black bobbins and no cover. My phone # is 843-729-5723 Ken Behrens fareh 22, 2018 at 216 am ‘Apologies, Now I need to retract my previous comment, because: The north pole of a compass needle is a magnetic north pole, tis attracted to the geographic North Pole, Which is a magnetic south pole (opposite magnetic poles attract).Ken Behrens March 22,.2018 at 2:08 am No No No. Wrong, ‘A compass north always points to the North Pole, So the compass North will point to the north polarity of ‘any magnet. Basic physics. The compasses north pointy end (usually red) has been magnetised asa south polarity, ‘otherwise it wouldn't point north, John Hefelfinger September 4, 2018 at714pm_ The earth’s north pole is actually a magnetic south pole, A compass’ north pole is, in fact, a north magnetic pole Dorothy February 16, 2018 at 628 pm This info is worth everyone's attention. How can find out more? Doug, May:20.2017 at 2:53pm Excellent descriptions, Ty. And you used one of my favorite expressions, “pop the hood! | just said it today! + Josef Aprl4,2017 at 3.24 om | got this site from my buddy who shared with me concerning this site {and now ths time | am browsing this web site and reading very informative articles or reviews at this time. James Harper ‘pel2,2017 at 3:10 om | Tm considering adding a dummy coil for hum cancelling to my rig. The wiring for this 's apparently quite simple, My question Is, !have an old pickup from a Mexican Strat that I want to use for the dummy coll! have pulled off the bar magnets, and measured the resistance at 6.85 ahms. This appears to be a bit more ‘than most vintage style pickups. | have a Callaham prewired pickguard assembly, with the H/SRV special wind Lindy Fralin pickups. Will this work, or will [need a lower resistance dummy coil? Ihave read that the dummy coll needs to be $09 to 80% of the pickups. Thanks in advance.Christopher W Aston February 14,2019 at 4 Hi, | have 2 Gibson ES-175 with two humbuckers. | want to replace just the neck pickup with one of your hhumbucker-sized P90s. Is polarity going to be an issue? Since the bridge humbucker will remain a noise- canceling pickup will gain any noise canceling from the P90 when the selector switch is in the riddle? To match the output volumes would an underwound or overwound P90 be preferable? Any other considerations? Thanks in advance, Tyler Delsack - Fralin Pickups February 15, 2019 at 952 am Hey Christopher, Ifyou're purchasing the Single Coll P90s, then yes - but, all you need to order is 2-Conductar With Shield lead for reversing the coil direction, You will notice a significant drop in single coll hurn when in the middle position, but it wont be 100% hum cancelling. I would probably go with the Stock output ar a +5% Overwind just to be safe! LEAVE A REPLY Your email address will not be published, Required fields are marked * Comment. Name * Email WebsitePOST COMMENT SITE LINKS BLOG CATEGORIES Home Wiring Tips ‘The Workbench Guitar Mods Contact Us ON LINDY'S WORKBENCH CONTACT 2015 W, Laburnum Ave, 2nd Floor ‘5 Push-Pull Pot Mods You Should Know Richmond vA 23227 | (804) 358-2699 | April 18,2020 info@tralinpickups.com © 2020 LINDY FRALIN PICKUPS, LLC