Phase Reversal switch

[cacibi]

I know...I'm full of wiring questions this week:

I have a question regarding the pickup grounds when using a toggle for phase reversal or push/pull pot.

In the Deaf Eddie diagram - I notice that the neck pickup cover ground has been seperated:

http://www.deaf-eddie.net/drawings/tele-phase.jpg

But in the Seymour duncan diagram it's not:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support...sgl_coils.html

I also thought I remembered reading in someone's post here that the baseplate ground for the bridge pickup needed to be removed.

Can anyone clarify if the pickup grounds need to be lifted from the neck cover and/or bridge baseplate for this mod?

Thanks

[Johnny Caster]

If you've seen it before, there's a wire soldered from the tab of the neck pickup's cover to the grounding wire. It needs to be disconnected. The cover, however does not have to be removed. The logic here is that the ground wire, is going to be used as the hot wire when reversing the phase, so you don't wan't a big 'ol metal object picking up signals to the hot signal. You can even still use the cover as a shield if you solder a third wire to the pickups cover then solder it to ground.

[cacibi]

Okay, so it sounds like I can wire either pickup to the phase reversal switch - as long as I seperate the ground from the cover plate (neck) or the baseplate (bridge), then - I just wire the outs from the switch to where they would normally go in a standard 3-way setup - depending on which pickup I've selected.

[Deaf Eddie]

The Seymour Duncan drawing you linked to is for a Strat pup - no metal cover, no worries.

On a Tele neck pup (or any pup with a METAL COVER), the metal cover usually has continuity with the ground/shield of the guitar.

On two-conductor Tele neck pups, this continuity is usually accomplished by a jumper from the pup's cover to the ground (coil negative) lead, right at the eyelet on the bobbin.

If you do an out of phase mod, or the Fender 4-way series mod, you need to remove the jumper that "piggy-backs" the metal cover to the pup's ground lead, and solder a new wire to act as the ground/shield lead for the cover, separate from the pickup's leads. If you do not do this step, in some of the pup combos the cover of the pickup will be on the hot side of the circuit, and this makes the combo susceptable to unwanted noise and hum.

If, on the other hand, you have a Strat pup with NO metal cover, that step is unneccesary. It is also unneccesary on four-conductor pickups, as they usually have a separate ground lead, run as the bare wire "fifth" conductor.

I understand that Fender now makes their aftermarket Tex-Mex Tele neck pups three-wire, having a separate cover ground/shield lead right out of the box.

Many Tele bridge pups have a metal baseplate that is tied to the pup's ground lead in the same fashion. As you must remove the entire bridge assemble to get at a Tele bridge pup, it is far more common to reverse the phase of the neck pup.

... as long as I seperate the ground from the cover plate (neck) or the baseplate (bridge), then - I just wire the outs from the switch to where they would normally go in a standard 3-way setup

Yup, that's the ticket...