Flipping pickup?

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vanimate
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Flipping pickup?

Post by vanimate » Mon Jun 19, 2017 7:24 am

So, I have one rwrp pickup and one not. Since jm pickups are identical top to bottom (except where the leads are attached)
Is it possible to just flip the pup and switch hot to ground? Will this give me rwrp? I know the poles will be reversed, but does changing the hot to ground, ground to hot essentially reverse the wind? Or is that a physical thing that can't be changed?

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Gavanti
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Re: Flipping pickup?

Post by Gavanti » Mon Jun 19, 2017 11:18 am

You could do this, but the problem is that your lead wires will be compressed against the top of the pickup cover, and, if it fits, the pickup will be aligned at a slant under the cover. Another solution would be to use some neodymium magnets to reverse the polarity of one of the pickup sets and then swap the leads. I'm not certain if the super magnets you can buy at hardware stores are strong enough individually, though a stack of them might be.

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weatherking
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Re: Flipping pickup?

Post by weatherking » Fri Jun 23, 2017 7:51 pm

IIRC, Eric on the Fret Files podcast addressed this question -- he said rotating the pickup 180 degrees and swapping hot/ground doesn't reverse the wind. It has to do with the physical winding of the pickup.

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jimboyogi
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Re: Flipping pickup?

Post by jimboyogi » Fri Jun 23, 2017 8:28 pm

Trying to spatially conceptualise this.
If you flip the pickup upside down, you have reversed the magnetic polarity facing the strings.
If you flip the pickup, and leave the leads as they are, then they are now the opposite wind direction.
So the pickup is now RWRP to how it was.

I would try this first and see if it now makes a RWRP set with the other pup.

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Re: Flipping pickup?

Post by Gavanti » Sat Jun 24, 2017 5:09 am

Sookwinder is right (and I'm wrong above). Flipping a JM pickup upside down inside the cover should reverse both the polarity and the effective wind direction, so you shouldn't need to swap the leads. If you end up with hum in the mid position, you'll know that your pickups' wind direction was opposite to begin with, and then you can swap the leads. The fit under the cover will still be awkward, so reversing the magnets' polarity or a new pickup is still the best long term solution.

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