P90 + Humbucker - Hum-canceling question

[southpaw68]

I'd like to try this combination in my next Warmoth build and I could use some help to choose the right P90 pickup here...
So, when both pickups are on, is there a significant tonal difference between a P90 RW/RP which hum-cancels with the slug coil (inside coil) of a humbucker and a 'normal' (or non-RW/RP) P90 which does not hum-cancels with the split humbucker?
I was told I'd lose a lot of mids and get a hollow sound with the hum-canceling middle position of a humbucker/P90 setup.
Is that so?
Ideally I'd like to achieve some sort a 'fat qwack' (maybe akin to position 4 of a strat, only a bit fatter) in the middle position (I'll be using a single volume push/push pot and a 3-way toggle switch btw) and I just don't know whether I should go for a RW/RP P90 or not...

[Clorenzo]

You lose a lot of mids (and bass) if the pickups are out of phase, which has nothing to do with whether they cancel hum or not. To get hum cancellation, the P90 and the active coil of the humbucker have to be of opposite magnetic polarities. As for the phase, if you get a 4-wire humbucker, which I guess you will since you plan to split it, you can always wire it so that they are in phase.

There's no standard for magnetic polarities (although most humbuckers, including SDs and DiMarzios, are screws = South / slugs = North), so if you want to install the hb in a particular position, for example the usual screws coil outer / slugs coil inner, you should make sure that the P90 you get has opposite magnetic polarity to the slugs coil of the humbucker. You can drop a line to the pu manufacturers to find out. If you're not fussy about the orientation of the hb, you could just get any P90, doesn't matter if it's RW/RP or not, and then install the hb so that the coil that attracts the P90 when you put them face to face is the one that you place as inner.

In any case you may need to swap the wires around in the hb to get the phase right, but it's quite easy to tell: try both ways and the one that sounds noticeably quieter and thinner is the out of phase one.

I've actually had a guitar wired like this and it does have a certain "fat quack" quality to it, not as quacky but in the ballpark of a Strat neck + middle, though of course the sound will vary depending on which pu's you're using, their relative outputs, how balanced the DC resistance of the P90 and one coil of the hb is (the closer they are, the better), etc.

[southpaw68]

Thank you for the reply.
I wasn't talking about out-of-phase wiring but the difference in sound between a P90 and a RW/RP P90 when wired in parallel with another pickup.
Check out this informative video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3BX0wgwypQ
It does lift a veil on some preconceptions people might have.