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3 P-90s

I don't like rotary switches for changing pickups, it's harder to just change something on the fly and also harder to see what setting you are currently at. I had one in my PRS but took it out after about 2 months...
 
Just to be clear - humbucker coils are not out of phase from each other, neither are normal strat single coils. The reason that two strat pups together sound "quacky" and two tele pickups don't, is because the signals from the two strat pickups are so similar that 'phase cancellation' happens in certain frequencies. This does reduce the overall volume a bit, but not nearly as much as actual "out of phase" pickups. The tele pickups produce quite different sounds, so fewer freqs are phase cancelled. To experiment, take your strat and wire the + and - of the middle pickup backwards and see what kind of sound you get in 2 and 4 when it actually is "out of phase".
 
it also has a bit to do with the location of the pickups, parallel humbuckers don't quite have the same effect as the harmonics are almost always in phase. put some space between them and some harmonics are not in phase and others are giving a filtered effect.
 
tfarny said:
Just to be clear - humbucker coils are not out of phase from each other

180 degrees out-of-phase is part of what makes it humcancelling, the other part being the reversed polarity.  Series or parallel don't matter for humcancelling only output and therefore sound.
 
ok the use of certain terms can be confusing. the output is in phase. the interference is out of phase.

dont get that confussed with out of phase wiring where the output is out of phase to get a different sound.

the out of phase interference comes from the relative winding direction. the coils dont need to be wound onto the bobbin in opposite directions, they typically aren't in a humbuckers but are in single coil pairs designed for humcancelling when paired. if they are wound in the same direction as in many humbuckers and you wire them in series you wore start to start and one finish is the ground the other is the output, or the finishes can be wired together and one start is ground the other is hot. in parallel one start goes to the finnish of the other pickup and vise versa. this works out to an in phase signal when the magnets are of opposite polarity. for paired single coils you must ensure that the magnets are of opposite polarity, then find the winding direction first to determine how to wire it. if the winding is the same direction one must have the polarity(phase) reversed. if it is reverse wound and reverse magnetic polarity you just hook it up as is.
 
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