kdas3
Newbie
- Messages
- 24
Hi everyone,
First some preliminaries:
[list type=decimal]
[*]A standard single coil has a magnetic polarity which is south up. A standard RW/RP single coil has a magnetic polarity which is north up. Edit: Actually, I believe these days that Fender usually (but not always!) have their standard single coils as north up, and their RW/RP as south up, so there is no convention regarding polarity with single coils!
[*] A standard humbucker has a slug coil with a north magnetic polarity, and a screw coil with a south magnetic polarity.
[/list]
A bit of an aside: I have an issue with the convention that manufacturers use to label their 4 conductor wires for humbuckers. As we know, the slug and screw coils each have a start and finish wire. Since the slug coil usually corresponds to the north coil, and the screw coil usually corresponds to the south coil, manufacturers will call the wires north start, north finish, south start, south finish (let's call this the manufacturer convention). Personally I think it should be slug start, slug finish, screw start, screw finish (let's call this my convention). My reasons:
[list type=decimal]
[*]For a person new to the world of guitar wiring, if we use my convention, it is pretty clear that the screw start and finish are the wires coming out of the screw coil. Maybe slug is a bit harder to figure out (why is it called slug?). Nonetheless, this is not obvious if you use the manufacturer convention.
[*]If you flip the magnet of the humbucker, which is extremely common these days in many modern superstrat style guitars, then the manufacturer convention no longer makes sense, as the slug coil will become the south coil, yet according to the manufacturer convention, the wires coming out of it will be named north start and north finish. Huh?
[/list]
So, this annoys me. Anyway, that was a mini rant before my actual question. In HH superstrat style guitars, there is often an inner or outer coils setting on the 5 way switch. They are humcancelling, and this is achieved by reversing one of the humbucker's magnets. I believe manufacturers usually choose to reverse the neck humbucker's magnet (e.g., Ibanez). My question is, why the neck instead of the bridge? Either choice will essentially work exactly the same.
My thoughts on why this is the case:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Players are more likely to replace the bridge humbucker, so using a conventional one there will make replacing less of a hassle.
[*] I think (not entirely sure!) standard HSS guitars come with a conventional bridge hum (north slug), and unconventional single coils. Why? Suppose on the contrary you used conventional single coils and humbucker. Then, reading from neck to bridge, you get South North North South (here on S N NS). So, the autosplit in position 2 won't be humcancelling. To fix it, either flip the bridge hum magnet, or exchange the neck and mid single coils so that the neck is a RW/RP (north up). Manufacturers seem to prefer to exchange the single coils, and I believe this is quite easy for them, as often the neck and mid are identically speced other than the RW/RP bit. The advantage again I believe is that this makes it easier for players to replace the bridge hum, and potentially swap it out with a bridge hum taken from a superstrat style HH guitar, which we just established usually has a conventional bridge hum.
[/list]
A case against flipping the neck hum magnet:
Recently (like 3 years ago) I converted an SSS guitar to HSS. You may have seen a big post I did about modifying the Suhr HSS wiring schematic on the forum. I had conventional Lollar vintage blondes in my guitar, meaning I had the setup S N S. If I were to replace the bridge single with a humbucker I would either need to flip the humbucker magnet, or exchange the roles of the middle and neck pickup in order to get humcancelling in pos 2. Now, for Lollar pickups at least, the neck and middle pickups are actually not identically wound, specifically the middle is slightly hotter. So it wasn't possible for me to exchange the neck and middle. Also, I think there could be issues with wire lengths if you were to do this. So I had to get my bridge hum with a flipped magnet, which was no issue because Bareknuckle do this if you ask them when you order this. My only gripe is...now I have HH guitars with flipped magnet neck hums, and a HSS with a flipped magnet bridge hum. So I can't exchange the bridge hums between them. Annoying...
Any other suggestions as to why the neck hum magnet is usually flipped in HH superstrat style guitars? Or cases where manufacturers actually flip the bridge hum magnet? Actually, I don't know what PRS do...
First some preliminaries:
[list type=decimal]
[*]A standard single coil has a magnetic polarity which is south up. A standard RW/RP single coil has a magnetic polarity which is north up. Edit: Actually, I believe these days that Fender usually (but not always!) have their standard single coils as north up, and their RW/RP as south up, so there is no convention regarding polarity with single coils!
[*] A standard humbucker has a slug coil with a north magnetic polarity, and a screw coil with a south magnetic polarity.
[/list]
A bit of an aside: I have an issue with the convention that manufacturers use to label their 4 conductor wires for humbuckers. As we know, the slug and screw coils each have a start and finish wire. Since the slug coil usually corresponds to the north coil, and the screw coil usually corresponds to the south coil, manufacturers will call the wires north start, north finish, south start, south finish (let's call this the manufacturer convention). Personally I think it should be slug start, slug finish, screw start, screw finish (let's call this my convention). My reasons:
[list type=decimal]
[*]For a person new to the world of guitar wiring, if we use my convention, it is pretty clear that the screw start and finish are the wires coming out of the screw coil. Maybe slug is a bit harder to figure out (why is it called slug?). Nonetheless, this is not obvious if you use the manufacturer convention.
[*]If you flip the magnet of the humbucker, which is extremely common these days in many modern superstrat style guitars, then the manufacturer convention no longer makes sense, as the slug coil will become the south coil, yet according to the manufacturer convention, the wires coming out of it will be named north start and north finish. Huh?
[/list]
So, this annoys me. Anyway, that was a mini rant before my actual question. In HH superstrat style guitars, there is often an inner or outer coils setting on the 5 way switch. They are humcancelling, and this is achieved by reversing one of the humbucker's magnets. I believe manufacturers usually choose to reverse the neck humbucker's magnet (e.g., Ibanez). My question is, why the neck instead of the bridge? Either choice will essentially work exactly the same.
My thoughts on why this is the case:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Players are more likely to replace the bridge humbucker, so using a conventional one there will make replacing less of a hassle.
[*] I think (not entirely sure!) standard HSS guitars come with a conventional bridge hum (north slug), and unconventional single coils. Why? Suppose on the contrary you used conventional single coils and humbucker. Then, reading from neck to bridge, you get South North North South (here on S N NS). So, the autosplit in position 2 won't be humcancelling. To fix it, either flip the bridge hum magnet, or exchange the neck and mid single coils so that the neck is a RW/RP (north up). Manufacturers seem to prefer to exchange the single coils, and I believe this is quite easy for them, as often the neck and mid are identically speced other than the RW/RP bit. The advantage again I believe is that this makes it easier for players to replace the bridge hum, and potentially swap it out with a bridge hum taken from a superstrat style HH guitar, which we just established usually has a conventional bridge hum.
[/list]
A case against flipping the neck hum magnet:
Recently (like 3 years ago) I converted an SSS guitar to HSS. You may have seen a big post I did about modifying the Suhr HSS wiring schematic on the forum. I had conventional Lollar vintage blondes in my guitar, meaning I had the setup S N S. If I were to replace the bridge single with a humbucker I would either need to flip the humbucker magnet, or exchange the roles of the middle and neck pickup in order to get humcancelling in pos 2. Now, for Lollar pickups at least, the neck and middle pickups are actually not identically wound, specifically the middle is slightly hotter. So it wasn't possible for me to exchange the neck and middle. Also, I think there could be issues with wire lengths if you were to do this. So I had to get my bridge hum with a flipped magnet, which was no issue because Bareknuckle do this if you ask them when you order this. My only gripe is...now I have HH guitars with flipped magnet neck hums, and a HSS with a flipped magnet bridge hum. So I can't exchange the bridge hums between them. Annoying...
Any other suggestions as to why the neck hum magnet is usually flipped in HH superstrat style guitars? Or cases where manufacturers actually flip the bridge hum magnet? Actually, I don't know what PRS do...