3 Pickup Phase Question

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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mijmog
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3 Pickup Phase Question

Post by mijmog » Wed Nov 15, 2017 3:57 am

I'm sure I know the answer to this but I'm having a mental brain fog induced black-out whilst attempting to fix my old Firebird with 3 p90s.

On Gibson guitars with 3 pickups, with the middle pickup on its own blend volume control - for example the LP/SG Custom and 3 pickup Firebird - is the middle pickup wired electrically out of phase or just reverse polarity magnetically speaking (compared to the other pickups) or a combination of both? I presume its just the same as a Strat, i.e RWRP?

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RuffiansFC
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Re: 3 Pickup Phase Question

Post by RuffiansFC » Thu Nov 16, 2017 5:37 am

for humbucker guitars, the middle pickup is just a regular humbucker in parallel and in phase. that is not to say you can't change it, but there is nothing special going on since they already buck the hum. for p90s, newer gibs and epis have a RWRP middle like a strat. not sure if the same is for you, but it's an easy fix to flip the magnet.

FWIW, I like to have a RWRP neck pickup with 3 single coil guitars. I'm not a fan of the quacky bridge+ middle combo, so having hum free bridge+neck and bridge+middle is right up my alley.

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