reversed neck pickup. why?

[EKG]

Originally Posted by Lonely Raven

Some refrences:

http://www.dimarzio.com/w_d_2_2.html

And there we have it!! Raven is the man!

[Vaibanez]

Originally Posted by Lonely Raven

Oh, and I thought of something while I was driving home from work. I don't think you really have to flip the pickup over to get the coil closer to the middle to be active during coil tap. I think you can simple do that by switching which wires you split....

hmmm....

You are correct. In fact, that is how JohnJohn has his wired. The JPM models use the special switch, but I have been able to duplicate the wireing using a standard 3-way switch. My LNG replica has this and it works great.

If anyone is interested in this, let me know and I'll get a schematic off to you.

[JESTER700]

Originally Posted by Lonely Raven

Oh, and I thought of something while I was driving home from work.
I don't think you really have to flip the pickup over to get the coil
closer to the middle to be active during coil tap. I think you can simple do
that by switching which wires you split....

hmmm....

True. But to get a humbucking effect when combined with the middle pup it must have opposite magnetic polarity. One coil does, one doesn't.

This only matters if the middle pup is a true single; a stacked humbucker makes the point moot.

When I spoke with DiMarzio's Steve Blucher 12 years ago (I was amazed I actually got to TALK with him), he said yes, the "neckmost" coil is more like true strat placement, but the other coil sounds better in combination anyway. I dunno if he just wanted to give me a simple answer or not. He DID agree that my H2 stacked bucker would sound better if I used it as a true single, taking the bottom "dummy" coil out of the circuit. I recently learned Eric Johnson does the same thing ;-)

[Lonely Raven]

But you can also wire the stacked single coil in series and basically make
it a super single. But that can often be muddy. Depends on the guitar
and pickup placement.

[JESTER700]

But it isn't really "super", is it? The bottom coil doesn't generate nearly the signal the top one does, because the magnets only go as deep as the first coil. Thus, the added resistance muddies up the tone (as you mention) without adding appreciable signal. It's really designed just as a dummy coil to cut hum. Now, that's all theory. Did you try it and find it increased output?

If I were after a solution like that, I'd probably go with a SD lil' 59, Carvin TB, or similar side by side bucker in single coil size.

[johank]

Well, I guess this was a little more complicated than I thought it would be... But hey, you never know until you ask, right...?