Problem with Hamer Artist Seth Lover Pickup's

[dhuber]

I picked up a used guitar. Hamer Artist and I've owned one before. I noticed the Neck pickup was flipped 180. When I got it home I put new strings on it and flipped it back 180 to where I thought it should be. The pickup's are Seth Lover and they look like they are wired according to the Seymour Duncan web site wiring diagram and correct polarity. In fact the soldier looks to be factory. The pickups sound fine by themselves. However they cancel each other out when I select both pickups and I get a Wah Pedal effect with the tone knob. I have not tried flipping the pickup back around yet, but that's going to be my next step, but I won't have time tonight. The neck pickup measures 7.5 K and the bridge 8.0 K ohms. With both pickups selected I'm reading 3.9 K ohms. Are humbuckers polarity sensitive like this or do I have another problem?

[Tele-phone man]

They are absolutely polarity sensitive. You now have them out-of-phase. Instead of flipping the pickup back around, you can reverse the hot and ground leads of one pickup, so long as the shield connection of that pickup has its own conductor to ground.

[red57strat]

Rotating the pickup did not put it out of phase and if the pickups have a traditional single lead and shield you cannot swap them.

This guitar was wired with the neck pickup mounted reversed and either magnetically of electrically out of phase, ala Peter Green.

To "correct" this, you will need to either flip the magnet on one pickup or modify the wiring at the pickup (unless the pickup has multiple leads, in which case you can re-wire it in the control cavity).

[dhuber]

Originally Posted by red57strat

Rotating the pickup did not put it out of phase and if the pickups have a traditional single lead and shield you cannot swap them.

This guitar was wired with the neck pickup mounted reversed and either magnetically of electrically out of phase, ala Peter Green.

To "correct" this, you will need to either flip the magnet on one pickup or modify the wiring at the pickup (unless the pickup has multiple leads, in which case you can re-wire it in the control cavity).

Thanks... I tried turning the pickup around and that improved the sound a little but I still had WAH effect. This is crazy! who is Peter Green and what's the point if you can't play both pickups at the same time. Unless the person who did this did not know what they were doing. I did not look at the bridge pickup but I could tell the cover has been removed from the neck pickup because of the quality of the soldier. All the soldier in the control cavity is factory.

I'll take it apart this weekend to see what I find under the cover. I've never messed with humbuckers but I'm assuming you mean the magnet without the windings. Hopefully it's just re soldiering some wires.

Thanks...

[boneyguy]

Peter Green was not a soldier but he probably knew how to solder.

[Deaf Eddie]

Before you go too crazy with it, try backing the volume down a hair on ONE of the pups, when you have them both on. This should warm the tone up quite a bit. Some people like the blend of tones that a two-volume/out-of-phase set up can give you - some not so much. It's only gonna be nasty thin with BOTH volumes on "10".

Who was Peter Green? Legendary British blues guy, was the guitarist who took Clapton's place in John Mayall's BluesBreakers (that's him on the second album "A Hard Road"), founding member of Fleetwood Mac (gone before they went all Buckingham/Nicks pop-supergroup). Dropped out of music with severe mental issues, has come back a bit lately.

One of his notable accomplishments was that early in his career, he had his guitar tech "deep clean" his Les Paul, and in the process the tech accidental installed one of the humbucker's magnets reversed, putting the pups out of phase (so the story goes...). It became rather a trademark of his, getting some sweet tones like no one else had produced (to that point) out of an LP.

[Deaf Eddie]

BTW:

They are absolutely polarity sensitive. You now have them out-of-phase...

WRONG! rotating a pup will not change its phase.

[dhuber]

Originally Posted by Deaf Eddie

Before you go too crazy with it, try backing the volume down a hair on ONE of the pups, when you have them both on. This should warm the tone up quite a bit. Some people like the blend of tones that a two-volume/out-of-phase set up can give you - some not so much. It's only gonna be nasty thin with BOTH volumes on "10".

Hey that works! I learned who Peter Green is and how to spell solder. I'll leave it like this for a while and see how it works.

Thanks!

[dhuber]

Back in phase. I removed the pickup cover and flipped the magnet.

Thanks!

[boneyguy]

Originally Posted by dhuber

Hey that works! I learned who Peter Green is and how to spell solder. I'll leave it like this for a while and see how it works.

Thanks!

Thanks for having a sense of humour.