Pickup mutting

[Newc]

Ok, I've been bit by the pickup hybrid bug - where you take two perfectly good (or not) humbuckers and swap one coil out for a coil from the other - i.e. JB screw coil + 59n inner coil, or otherwise combine two pickups in some way physically rather than just through switching systems.


Started off by killing two Duncan Designed SC101s

Next I moved on to a pair of Jackson J-150 singles. Took a baseplate off an import humbucker and mounted the two single coils straight onto it. Wired the singles up in what I think is Series.

This thing kicks ass! Only reads 9.3K but it's got beef and scream. Not sure what to call it yet.

Anyhoo, anyone else here do this sorta thing? Sully?

[Grandturk]

I reversed the magnet in a Duncan '59 to do that Peter Green sound in the middle position.

[sixx_ gunner]

Newc,
where can I get more info on how to do this safely?
I have a bunch of pickups in a drawer to try this with...
nothing great, but interested to hear what they may sound like.

[atdguitars]

The two biggest things for this are good soldering skills and being able to figure out the North and South windings so you know if you have them in series or parallel. I've repaired quite a few pickups and its mostly about being careful and paying attention to what you are doing. Pickup windings aren't much bigger than the size of a human hair. Wax potted are much either to work with than laquer coated. To find out the polarity of the magnet on the pickup use a kids magnet that is marked N and S. Opposites attract so the kids magnet will tell you what is what on the pickup magnet. Use a touch of nail polish to mark the pickup magnet for easy reference later.
To wire in series connect the south of the first bobbin(closest to the neck) to the north of the second bobbin. This leaves the North of the first bobbin and South of the second for wiring to your controls. I usually use North as Hot or + and South as Ground or -. Don't forget to get a good solder joint to the base for a proper shield.
To wire in parallel wire the South wire of the first bobbin to the south of the second bobbin.
Seymour Duncan has a page that tells common north and south of most pickup manufacturers that will help you reference as well.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Newc,
where can I get more info on how to do this safely?
I have a bunch of pickups in a drawer to try this with...
nothing great, but interested to hear what they may sound like.

I'm not sure what you mean by "safely" but there is no way you could damage anything except ruining the pickups or burning yourself with the soldering iron (remember, the pointy end gets hot! )

If you are concerned about ruining the pickups then I think atdguitars has it covered.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

generally speaking, A & C are North, B & D are South.

[sixx_ gunner]

Thanks for the info!

[atdguitars]

A side note to this is you will find you can coil tap any standard passive humbucker when you do this. By "mutting" the coils you can mix and match output on each coil to get a better "tapped" sound and pick which coil is actually being tapped. Find some 4 conductor shielded wire before you start experimenting on these so you have it on hand.

[Newc]

The 2 pickups I used were the old Jackson style without the tabs, which made it a lot easier. I killed a couple of Duncan Designed singles by tearing the bottom of the bobbin off and desoldering the leads from the tabs. Wound up breaking a wire in the process. I shoulda cut them off neatly instead of ripping them off with pliers

Anyhoo, since the pickups I used had the solder points on the bottom of the baseplate, it was easy to solder new leads and wire them in Series (at least I think that's how they're wired)

[Newc]

Well, as a possible final note on this pickup, I set it up for 4-conductor operation and mounted it to a Duncan TripleShot. Seems to have a different tone than before - a bit less output, namely. But it gets a great Strat tone when split to the outer coil, and I've got enough "raging monster" guitars that a "mellow yellow" in the mix won't hurt. For now.