RW/RP neck pickup with an RW/RP bridge pickup

No need to apologize. This stuff can be confusing. RWRP is not a single "thing". You can only say that a pickup is RWRP in comparison to another known pickup. "Reverse wound (RW)" and "reverse (magnetic) polarity (RP)" means both are opposite to the wind/polarity of another pickup. So that's why GFS says "Reverse Wound/Reverse Polarity to create a hum cancelling effect when in parallel with any of our GFS bridge pickups." Unfortunately they don't say if the Pro 52's magnetic polarity is north up or south up.

In order for a pickup pair to be RWRP they must first have opposite magnetic polarities, eg one north up and the other south up. If you already have both pickups, you can bring the tops towards each other - opposites attract, which is what you want (if they repel, they are same-polarity and your options to get RWRP are limited).

If their polarities are opposite, you then just connect the hot and ground the 'right' way round to give you an in-phase pairing. There are ways to test for the 'right' way before installing (with multimeter 'screwdriver' test), or you can just try one way and see what you get. If the result sounds out of phase, you then flip the hot and ground wires on one pickup (if you need to flip and the ground is shared with the cover/metal, you will need to add a separate ground wire for that).

 

Tim's right on there for ya.


10th post here goes into it:

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/setting-up-single-coils-as-humbucking-wiring.1049976/#post-10177778

 

I know you are trying to save money but the SD JD Bridge pickup you have is perfectly paired with the SD Alnico Pro II neck pickup. I do recall something about SD pickups being wound differently than other manufacturers when using single coils. The GFS may not be a perfect match up for the SD JD pickup you have. Good Luck

 

> but if they repel wouldn't that mean they are both RW/RP in the same way? < YUP

First, with that, drop the RW- what is being done with that deal is seeing if TWO pickups are either the same, or opposite top polarity. You can use a compass too.

OPPOSITES ATTRACT.

My thread on the link explained the deal.
▼
Short version.

If a person wants the noise reduction, one of the two pickups, needs to be opposite in polarity.

If they are opposite, then one of the two needs to be CONNECTED in reverse of the other (so then as the little electric Gommers run around the coil, direction positive to negative is opposite of the other pup).

If both pickups are the same POLARITY, then you just have to get them connected to the switch in the same fashion, that being which hot (positive) lead is the same on each one based on the wind.

Out of phase is a weak, thin, tinny tone. Basically sounds like your amp might as well be a metal garbage can

 

No problemo

As they say, the only dumb question is the one not asked.

Now answers, they can be dumb, I know, I've thrown out a few in may days

 

There is no standard polarity or winding direction, so when a manufacturer talks about rw/rp is only ever in relationship to another pickup being sold in that set.



If you're mixing sets, don't worry, there's a 50% chance it'll be in phase. If it's out of phase (thin nasal sound), you just swap the leads (while making sure any metal cover or plate is grounded separately), and you'll be fine.