RWRP tele mistake

[kdas3]

Hi everyone,

So...I stupidly bought a set of tele pickups from bareknuckle with stock polarity (both neck and bridge have the same polarity, not sure which as I haven't checked!). The neck came with 3 wires for a series mod, meaning the ground wire for the cover is separated. Seeing as I live in Melbourne Australia, sending the pickups back and buying a new set would probably amount to like 80AUD in shipping total. But...I think it is possible to fix this. I believe I can simulate a RWRP neck pickup by

[list type=decimal]
[*] Reversing the neck pickup polarity by passing it through a strong magnetic field generated by neodymiun magnets. I'll probably get my tech to do this, and yes this will probably kill the warranty. This will legitimately give me RP.
[*]Swapping the hot and ground wires on the neck pickup. No issues with the ground cover wire as it's already separated. This will simulate RW.
[/list]

Now with single coil pickups (at least with Strat and Tele I believe), there is often an issue with swapping the hot and ground wires, as the initial coil winds touch the magnets. I'm getting this info from the section 'Reversing the Leads' in

https://www.fralinpickups.com/2020/04/10/how-to-reverse-pickup-phase/

I believe the issue here is that, if you swap the leads on a strat or tele pickup, touching the pole pieces will create a loud hum or something to that effect. But, my tele neck pickup has a cover, so is that even a problem?

Also, I'm not entirely sure how remagnetising pickups works. Can you magnetise it to varying strengths? If so, when remagnetised, could the pickup sound different?

Lastly, Bareknuckle claim that a RWRP set of tele pickups sound worse when in series as opposed to a stock pair. Do we agree/disagree, and any idea why this would be the case (scientifically)?

 

[stratamania]

I would go with what Bareknuckle has advised and wire them up stock and see what results you will get.

 

[kdas3]

I'm actually not that interested in the series sound. I'm just putting in cause

[list type=decimal]
[*]It makes the tele switch feel a bit more like a strat switch. I don't like the long travels on a 3 way switch.
[*]Why not?
[/list]

What I really want is humcancelling when the pickups are combined, which currently I will not get, hence this post. I'm predominantly going to be using neck and bridge in parallel. The only reason I ask about the series thing is that I find the claim by Bareknuckle interesting and a bit perplexing.

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

I believe the issue here is that, if you swap the leads on a strat or tele pickup, touching the pole pieces will create a loud hum or something to that effect. But, my tele neck pickup has a cover, so is that even a problem?

Also, I'm not entirely sure how remagnetising pickups works. Can you magnetise it to varying strengths? If so, when remagnetised, could the pickup sound different?

Lastly, Bareknuckle claim that a RWRP set of tele pickups sound worse when in series as opposed to a stock pair. Do we agree/disagree, and any idea why this would be the case (scientifically)?

1.  Because the cover has a separate ground wire, that issue is eliminated.
2.  Pickup magnets are normally magnetised to the maximum possible.  That is the best way to avoid variations between each magnetic pole.
3.  BKP's claim may be possible because of the way the magnetic fields couple between the two pickups.  Both ways work, so I would not fuss about it.

 

[kdas3]

Thanks JohnnyHardtail! That's quite helpful.

 

[DuckBaloo]

You can use a rare earth magnets to reverse the polarity, not sure on strength, I expect the altered magnet might be weaker than one done with a proper (electro-magnet) magnetizer. It would take a gauss meter to confirm.

As for the RWRP and series, Bareknuckle may be right, there is often a compromise when changing things up (for instance, I feel RWRP middle PUs do not provide as good a Strat quack) but I'm willing to bet the majority of players who rave about series wiring in Teles use RWRP neck PUs.

 

[kdas3]

Thanks Duckbaloo!

My tech did say that he wasn't entirely sure what strength Bareknuckle magnetises their magnets to. I.e., they may or may not use degaussed magnets. So he said it was safest to send it back. And actually I had decided to send it back anyway since the shipping was less than I expected. Plus this way I don't void warranty..!

Actually I feel like most people who'd use the series position on a tele would have a stock polarity (non RWRP) set of tele pickups. My logic is that I believe (correct me wrong!) that most fender teles come with a stock polarity set of pickups, and I assume that most people doing this mod would be owners of stock fender teles.

In any case, I'm sure I'll be happy with the RWRP series sound! Or rather, it won't bother me if it's not as good as how a stock polarity set would sound.