Pickup phase question

I installed a SD Broadcaster in my Fat Tele. It has a DH-1 humbucker at the neck. When I installed a SD 5-2 in my 52 RI I had to reverse the polarity of the neck Pup so it would not be out of phase in the middle pos.. I have never attempted this with a humbucker. I do not want to change the polarity of the Broadcaster. This guitar also has a 5 way switch. How do I change the polarity on the humbucker? Any help is appreciated. Thanks, Larry

I think that you not only have to alter the wiring, but you also may have to turn the magnet around. You do that by loosening the base plate, carefully sliding the magnet out, turning it around, and putting it back in.

A phase switch may work, but it sounds like you want to change the whole thing, rather than just the coil that's selected when cut?

Personally, I would suggest a visit to the Seymour Duncan forum (even though it's a Fender pup); someone there will be able to explain it step-by-step.

It would be easier to change the Broadcaster....

Will changing the Broadcaster create any noticable hum increase. I was under the impression that it would. That is why I didn't want to do it. I thought the grounded chrome cover on a traditional neck pickup decreased most of the hum on a single coil when the polarity was changed. As you can probably tell I am a novice in this area and am still learning. I will check out the SD page also. Thanks

I can't find a reference to a DH-1 pickup on Duncan's site, so I don't know if this is a four conductor pickup. If it is a four conductor pickup, you need simply reverse the black and green wires to change the phase.

If the pickup has the traditional shielded cable wire -- braided shield with a single lead inside -- you'll have to flip the magnet. This is simple, provided the pickup is uncovered. If it is covered, you'll have to remove the cover.

Underneath the pickup, you'll see four Phillips screws. Loosen these screws, but do not remove them. (Loosening them about 1/8 inch is plenty.)

Unwrap the tape from around the coils. Leave the last inch or two on, as this will help when you rewrap.

Push those four screws up, to break the seal between the coils and the metal base.

Normal humbuckers are built with a single bar magnet that sits underneath the coils, between the two rows of pole pieces. (The pole pieces of the typical humbucker are not, themselves, magnets.) The north side of the magnet runs alongside one of the rows of pole pieces. With a needlenose pliers, carefully grip the magnet (which you can see, because the tape has been removed), and slowly pull the magnet out. Flip it from right to left (NOT lengthwise), so that the side that ran along the adjustable pole pieces now runs alongside the slug pole pieces. Push the magnet back in, tighten the four screws, and rewrap the tape. If the pickup was uncovered, there is no need to repot the pickup. If the pickup was covered, and you recover it, it may be a good idea to heat the covered pickup up, a bit, just to get the wax that is inside the cover to flow a little bit.

That's it.

You're right about the hum; it's because the baseplate is grounded. Here's what you do (a simple fix).

You have to change the ground wire on the baseplate, too. There are two options: a) you simply clip it, and solder a new wire from the baseplate to the yellow wire eyelet (was hot, will be ground) or b) you unsolder this wire at the black wire (your new hot) and move that end to the yellow eyelet.

It's really not that hard to unsolder it and move it, and it will look better, too. If you really want to do it right, unsolder the leads, and switch the yellow and black wires -- it won't make any difference, but it will look "more stock".

If you really don't want to do either of these, you can clip the wire, solder a new wire to the baseplate, and run it to the bridge.

It is basically the same procedure as the neck pup. I had to move the chrome cover ground to the the white wire lug on the bottom of the pup. It is a very simple task. Thanks