reversed neck pickup. why?

johank · #1 07-11-2002, 01:17 PM

A short question that I have been thinking about, for some time, but haven't found an answer. What difference in the sound does reversing the neck pickup make? How will the sound be if I reverse the reversed pickup?(hmm, strange sentence...)

kennydoe · #2 07-11-2002, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johank

A short question that I have been thinking about, for some time, but haven't found an answer. What difference in the sound does reversing the neck pickup make? How will the sound be if I reverse the reversed pickup?(hmm, strange sentence...)

as far as i know it's reversed so that the outer coil (closest to the fretboard) is on when split with the middle. The ideal spot for a neck pickup is where the 23-24th fret are on a 24 fret neck. Reversing it puts the coil a little bit closer to that 'sweet spot'.

~K

Vaibanez · #3 07-11-2002, 01:55 PM

In the JEM/RG line, the neck pickup is reversed to allow the inner coils of the humbuckers to be used with the single coil when in position 2 & 4 on a standard 5-way.

If you were to install it re-reversed, your position 4 location would give you the neck-side single coil of the neck humbucker combined with the single coil.

Hope this helps

kennydoe · #4 07-11-2002, 02:00 PM

Alright....who's going to settle this.....
RICH!!!!!

johank · #5 07-11-2002, 02:00 PM

Ok, so sound is only affected in the split positions?

JESTER700 · #6 07-11-2002, 02:05 PM

On a JEM, yes. If you had a splitter so that the humbucker could be used as a single coil by itself, which coil is used will slightly change the sound.

Rich · #7 07-11-2002, 02:05 PM

I'm not the one to settle any question about wiring, my weakest subject and I know it [even though that's what I have a degree in!!LOL] I do doubt you'd have enough lead on the pup to reverse it anyway

EKG · #8 07-11-2002, 02:06 PM

It is affected in the split coil configuration as mentioned above, but I was under the impression that pups were balanced specifically for the bass and treble sides respectively. That's why Hendrix had a "different" sound. Playing a right handed guitar with the strings reversed.....

Lonely Raven · #9 07-11-2002, 02:47 PM

Bah! You're all only holding part of the answer! Each one of you is
correct in part of what you say. Especially Rich. LOL

When the pickup is in humbucker mode, it will sound the same right side
up, or up side down. That's NORMAL humbucker mode. Some pickups
might be designed with two different coils for each half of the humbucker,
those are the rare exception. Also, if I'm not mistaken, the Neck pickup
is Right side up, and the bridge pickup is the one that's up side down.
As stated before, that's so when you coil tap the humbucker, the live
single coil will be the one towards the middle of the guitar.

Now, a slight change in this general rule is phasing. You can run the
phasing (which direction the electricity is pulsing through the coils)
opposite of the other pickups, but the change in tone would only be noticed
when the reverse phased pickup is used with ANOTHER pickup. Without
a second pickup activated, there is nothing for a single lonely humbucker
to be out of phase with! Often you well see single coil pickups offered
in reverse phase. This helps if you have say a strat with three pickups...
You can have the middle one out of phase for a different tone, or a
psudo humbucker when combined with the neck or bridge pickup,
depending on how it's wired (series/parellel).

Some pickups, particularly single coils have fixed (pre adjusted) pole
pieces set to a specific height. That absolutly does effect the tone of
the pickup, and flipping a pickup with fixed pole pieces will effect the tone.
Part of Jimi Hendrix's very original tone was derived from the fact that he
was using a left handed strat, right handed. Or was it the other way
around? I don't recall. But again, on a humbucker, unless you have
adjusted those pole pieces (which you can just readjust again), it will
sound the same right side up, or upside down. Again, the exception being
special design humbuckers where the two coils are different by design.

That's all I can think of right now...I'm at work so I had to type this up
at super speed so I can get back to work. I can try and clarify things
later when I get home from work. I can clear things up if you have more
questions.

I do hope this helped out some. Wiring a guitar non-standard can be a
daunting task. Not because it's hard to figure out, but because you have
so damn many options!! LOL

JESTER700 · #10 07-11-2002, 04:21 PM

I think the biggest difference in Hendrix's sound (at least that had to do with the axe being upside down) is that the bridge pup slanted the opposite direction from normal. So using that pickup, the bass strings would have slightly more bite, and the treble ones slightly less.

Vaibanez · #11 07-11-2002, 06:39 PM

Here ya' go...the tie breaker:

http://www.ibanez.com/guitars/guitar.asp?model=RG550

Put your mouse on the "Pickup Switching" link.

Same here:

http://www.ibanez.com/guitars/guitar.asp?model=JEM7VSBL

neener.....neener....neener...

EKG · #12 07-11-2002, 06:41 PM

I understand the 5 way selector, and reading it tells me to reverse the neck pup, correct?

Lonely Raven · #13 07-11-2002, 06:56 PM

I think I missed something.

I thought we already agreed that having the coil tapped on the neck or
bridge humbucker gives you the coil closer to the middle of the guitar.

Let me go do some research on DiMarzios and Seymore Duncans sites
and see if I can get this straightened out.

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....

EKG · #14 07-11-2002, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lonely Raven

I thought we already agreed that having the coil tapped on the neck or
bridge humbucker gives you the coil closer to the middle of the guitar.

Yes....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lonely Raven

Let me go do some research on DiMarzios and Seymore Duncans sites
and see if I can get this straightened out.

Cool....

Quote:

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....

Interesting!

Lonely Raven · #15 07-11-2002, 07:06 PM

Some refrences:

http://www.dimarzio.com/install/w_d_4_conductor.html

And Proof that my tired old memory still has some *ROCK* left in it!!

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

I'll post more later as I refresh my memory.