Reversing polarity on a Tele neck pickup?

[Damon]

I'm hoping that Ken or someone else knowledgeable about making/modding pickups can answer this for me, since 20 minutes of pouring through Google search results yielded nothing useful.

The pickups I have for my Tele are both the same polarity. I'd like to get the whole RWRP noise cancelling effect when using them at the same time, especially since I'd like to play around with the 4-way switch. So my question is this:

Could I take the neck pickup, pop the cover, press out the magent rods, flip them over and press them back in? I know that would yield the desired results (combined with swapping the leads to get the RW part), but is it really that easy? Is there anything to watch out for apart from the normal "don't be stupid and break something?"

 

[elfro89]

I'm not an expert but I don't think you can pop them out  :icon_scratch: I'm pretty sure you would destroy/damage the copper wire that surrounds it? It was my understanding that it was the direction in which the copper wire was wound that gave you the hum cancelling nature, pretty sure you can't reverse polarity by flipping a magnet upside down. Again I'm not an expert but you would need some serious strength to get them out of there!  :-\

 

[SustainerPlayer]

I'm no expert. But Bare Knuckle does not recommend RWRP with the 4 way mod:

"What is the Tele 4 way mod?

Answer: By adding a separate ground wire to the Tele neck cover it is possible to wire a Tele set to a 4 way switch which will give the additional option of both bridge and neck in 'series' (as opposed to the standard 'parallel' mid setting). 4 way switch settings are :
1. bridge
2. bridge and neck in parallel
3. neck
4. bridge and neck in series.
This mod works the best on 'stock' wound Telecaster® coils as opposed to RWRP."

http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/main/faq.php

 

[TroubledTreble]

If you wanted to flip the polarity of the magnets in the pickup, the best way is to leave the pickup assembled. Using two rare earth magnets you can pass the pickup between them to change the polarity of the Alnico poles. This process is covered on the StewMac site near the bottom of this page.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Pickups:_Parts/Single-coil_Pickup_Parts/Single-coil_Alnico_5_Magnet.html?tab=Instructions#details

There is no need to take the cover off to magnetize it. In fact you don't want to touch the Alnicos with the Neo magnet. Use two pieces of thin cardboard to keep this from happening.

You will want to run a separate wire to ground the cover as SustainerPlayer mentioned. This is the most important part of the 4way mod. This mod will work either way but the cover ground is the biggest issue.

 

[Damon]

I like that much better. Way less chance of effing something up. Thanks for the help.

As to the bareknuckles claim, I think it's wrong. Or at least it's opinion based on their tastes. The two coils of a humbucker are reverse polarity from each other connected in series start to start or stop to stop to achieve the reverse wind. That's exactly like connecting two rwrp single coils of any variety in series, so there's no reason it wouldn't work. They probably just don't like the tone as much for some mysterious reason that only they and Eric Johnson can hear. But if I find out otherwise, I'll fess up to it.