Can a single coil be out of phase with a humbucker?

[bnjp]

I'm working on a Squier 51 that has a humbucker in the bridge, and a single coil strat pickup in the neck. I had the pickups wired normally and the middle position sounded kind of thin, so I thought..."out of phase". So I reversed the leads on the neck pickup. Now it sounds fuller in the middle position, but it seems to favor the neck pickup more now. In other words, the middle and neck positions sound very similar to one another.

Then I started thinking that it might be impossible to be out of phase with a humbucker anyway since there are two coils in the humbucker. That's of course IF I understand all that correctly.

 

[Valvey]

A single coil pickup can be out of phase with a humbucker. You now might have to raise/lower the pickup positions to get a balance between them in the middle position.

 

[morroben]

Yes it can...I just had this problem last weekend when I put a Duncan pup in the bridge spot on my '72 Custom RI. I ended up flipping the magnet on the humbucker and now everything sounds great. Switching wires didn't seem to help as much in my case.

 

[robt57]

Yes it can...I just had this problem last weekend when I put a Duncan pup in the bridge spot on my '72 Custom RI. I ended up flipping the magnet on the humbucker and now everything sounds great. Switching wires didn't seem to help as much in my case.

RP, but not RW eh? Now that is very interesting... I'd like to have heard the before and after on that move.

 

[bradpdx]

Any pickup can be out-of-phase with another, it doesn't matter what type they are.