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Out of phase, half-out of phase, power-out of phase

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darkbluemurder:
Further experimentation shows that it is best for the PG tone to not have any treble bypass circuits on the volume control.

gregr:
I think as guitarists we tend to gravitate toward the tones which were recorded from yesteryear. If it weren’t for Peter Green I would never appreciate the sound of out of phase humbuckers. I read that it happened by accident.

The 3-pickup Les Paul Customs were originally wired with the middle pickup out of phase combined with the bridge pickup in the middle position. This wasn’t my bag so I put mine in phase and lowered it. The middle pickup is the stock T-Top with a Duncan Custom in the bridge. It makes for a nice clean tone without much quack as it’s mostly loading down the Duncan. This was a bit of a departure as the original bridge pickup was also a T-Top. As an aside I’ll also mention that with the stock wiring you don’t have the ability to blend controls as the middle position uses the same volume and tone as the bridge position and the neck position gets the other pair of controls. This never bothered me so I didn’t change it.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that 6.2 is a standard value in the 10% series along with 1,1, 1.3, 1.6, 2.0, 2.4, 3.0, 3.6, 4.3, 5.1, 7.5 and 9.1, in addition to the values in the 20% series. The values used in the Kinman treble bypass are 1nF and 130k IIRC. A 10% change in components is audio circuits is normally noticeable so I recommend getting them.

darkbluemurder:

--- Quote from: gregr on July 06, 2023, 12:38:54 PM ---I think as guitarists we tend to gravitate toward the tones which were recorded from yesteryear. If it weren’t for Peter Green I would never appreciate the sound of out of phase humbuckers. I read that it happened by accident.
--- End quote ---

This is true but there is conflicting information as to what exactly happened.

Story no. 1: The magnet was put in the "wrong way" from the factory.
Story no. 2: The neck pickup was broken and rewound with Formvar wire but in the "wrong direction". In a futile attempt to put it in phase with the bridge pickup, the pickup was flipped so that the screw coil faced the bridge.

Based on an interview with Jol Dantzig, story no. 1 appears to be more likely as he allegedly tested the magnetic orientation with a compass which confirmed the reversed magnetic polarity. He also said that the solder joints were untouched and the cover did not seem to have ever been removed from the neck pickup. And that was at a time when Gary Moore owned the guitar, i.e. if story no. 2 were true, the reversed magnet and reversed winding direction should have put the pickup in phase with the bridge pickup. 


--- Quote from: gregr on July 06, 2023, 12:38:54 PM ---The 3-pickup Les Paul Customs were originally wired with the middle pickup out of phase combined with the bridge pickup in the middle position. This wasn’t my bag so I put mine in phase and lowered it. The middle pickup is the stock T-Top with a Duncan Custom in the bridge. It makes for a nice clean tone without much quack as it’s mostly loading down the Duncan. This was a bit of a departure as the original bridge pickup was also a T-Top. As an aside I’ll also mention that with the stock wiring you don’t have the ability to blend controls as the middle position uses the same volume and tone as the bridge position and the neck position gets the other pair of controls. This never bothered me so I didn’t change it.

--- End quote ---

Indeed that stock wiring was unique as unlike the two pickup models there was no setting where all controls were engaged. I never played such a beast but I like what you did - more power in the bridge, better overall balance and a nice clean tone in the middle toggle position.

Cheers Stephan

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