Installing a single coil upside down?

[leftyaxeslinger]

As a lefty, I get tired of waiting for lefty pole piece stagger strat pickups and recently got hold of a righty stagger to install in the bridge of a lefty strat.

2 questions - Is there any problem installing the pickup upside down in order to get the correct stagger and if I do install it the "right" way, what shortcomings can I expect in the tone? I know Jimi dealt with this just fine, but he had volume and TALENT to make up for it!

Thanks!

[908SSP]

Install all three pickups upside down and you won't have any issues. Otherwise I think it throws off the phase but I am not sure about that.

[Jim Collins]

Phase is not related to how the pickup is installed. Make a fist with your right hand, and point the thumb outward. Your thumb represents magnetic north, and your fingers represent the direction of current flow relative to the magnetic field. No matter how you move or orient your right hand, the relationship between the thumb and the fingers stays the same. So it is with a pickup.

[cpsdawg]

i did it in my lefty strat and works great. however the body obviously does have to have the "swimming pool" routed pickup cavity.

[RvChevron]

That or flat polepieces pickup.

[leftyaxeslinger]

Ok, I tried it. When I installed the bridge pickup upside down with the others right side up (the neck and middle are flat poles) I did get a weird out of phase sound in positions 1 & 2. Gonna flip it right side up...

[RvChevron]

Ok, I tried it. When I installed the bridge pickup upside down with the others right side up (the neck and middle are flat poles) I did get a weird out of phase sound in positions 1 & 2. Gonna flip it right side up...

Not questioning what you said but that'd be very strange.

The polarity of the magnets/polepieces stay the same either way you mount it.

Also if you just use the bridge pickup alone, there shouldn't be any out of phase issue. It only happens when two or more pickups are hot at the same time.

Is this a standard strat single coil? Also did you happen to reverse the hot and ground wires of the bridge pickup? The hot and ground should stay the same as before even if you mount it the other way.

[geekocaster]

why not just re-position the pole pieces? On the majority of strato pickups I have come across, you can push the magnet in and out. Even on the ceramic MIM pickups with gobs of glue, you can still reposition the magnet stagger

[3 Mile Stone]

I'm not really even sure what you mean by upside down (that to me means poles facing the body and the bottom of the pickup facing the strings???) and Jim is right it should not effect the phase of the elelctronics at all. Are they all the same brand pickups? If not then that should not happen. Hendrix's pickups would have been "backwards" too, sure didn't hurt his tone, so if you get it to do what you are going for then :AOK. Or just buy a Lindy Frailn Steal Pole 43 with adjustable poles. Done.

[leftyaxeslinger]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, they are "backwards" as opposed to "upside down". I had no idea you could remove the pieces and put them in the other way to reposition the stagger. Any trick to doing that? Do they just pull out?

It could be my wiring. I get confused looking at the diagrams for righty. The out of phase sound is definitely there when the bridge and middle are on together. I need to mess with it more later...

[fuzzz]

One simple thing you can do to fix the magnet stagger,is as Geekocaster suggested,gently push the(taller) magnets downwards,to even out the overall level of your polepieces...simple and safe(I've done it many times,for the "G" string pole usually).But don't take the magnets out!!This can be safe only when the coil is NOT in direct contact with the magnets(as in fender american standard pups for example,or some di marzio single coils,as far as i've seen).In most cases of vintage style singles,the coil is wound directly on the magnets-polepieces and you may get those out with no damage,but inserting them back in will probably result to coil breakage!If the pup's structure allows polepiece swapping,apart from stagger modifications,other nice mods can be also done,like reversing the pups polarity(by inserting the magnets upside down)

[geekocaster]

Good call Fuzzz, probably not the best idea to remove the magnet and put it back in, but i've moved the pole pieces up and down to suit my taste, gotta do it gingerly :AOK

One simple thing you can do to fix the magnet stagger,is as Geekocaster suggested,gently push the(taller) magnets downwards,to even out the overall level of your polepieces...simple and safe(I've done it many times,for the "G" string pole usually).But don't take the magnets out!!This can be safe only when the coil is NOT in direct contact with the magnets(as in fender american standard pups for example,or some di marzio single coils,as far as i've seen).In most cases of vintage style singles,the coil is wound directly on the magnets-polepieces and you may get those out with no damage,but inserting them back in will probably result to coil breakage!If the pup's structure allows polepiece swapping,apart from stagger modifications,other nice mods can be also done,like reversing the pups polarity(by inserting the magnets upside down)

[leftyaxeslinger]

What's the best way to do without pushing it down too far?

I may just leave it as is if it sounds OK after I get my wiring straightened out.:AOK

[RvChevron]

Pushing the polepieces is not recommended and it's not a correct or normal adjustment even though many do it.

Warning: You can move/damage the coil inside and make it microphonic or simply bust the pickup especially if the pickup has thick/tight wax potting.

Push the polepieces at your own risk. It's pure luck, good or bad.

[leftyaxeslinger]

Thanks for the warning. I usually botch stuff like this so I'll probably leave it alone.

[leftyaxeslinger]

Ok, so I've been doing some experimenting and I cannot get pos 2 to sound in phase. For some reason, the middle and bridge are out of phase. I can put the bridge pickup backwards with no problem; it sounds fine on its own. The middle pickup sounds fine on its own as well, but together, no dice. Any advice?

[geekocaster]

if it's not a matched set the middle may not be rwrp from the bridge? i had that problem mixing some GFS pickups with others.

[leftyaxeslinger]

yeah it's not a matched set. The neck and middle are flat pole Lollar Blackface pickups, the bridge is a Fralin Blues shielded with a base plate. Any way to fix this besides re-winding the middle pu?

[RvChevron]

Ok, so I've been doing some experimenting and I cannot get pos 2 to sound in phase. For some reason, the middle and bridge are out of phase. I can put the bridge pickup backwards with no problem; it sounds fine on its own. The middle pickup sounds fine on its own as well, but together, no dice. Any advice?

Try reversing the hot and ground wire of the bridge pickup alone. Also make sure there are no shorted exposed parts/wire inside.

[monstermike]

Yeah, you need to reverse the hot and ground. With a baseplate, you should also clip the ground wire from the Fralin's baseplate and solder a new wire from the baseplate directly to ground (back of the volume pot).

[leftyaxeslinger]

Awesome. Thanks guys. I will try that tonight.

[leftyaxeslinger]

hmmmm....no luck. I reversed hot and ground and got no sound at all. I'm think I'm going bail on this and just get a pro to wire this up for me. I hate being lame at this stuff.