Is having RW pups in neck and middle positions a bad thing?

[21stcenturykid]

So I'm building myself a parts-telecaster and I want to do a Brent Mason style 3 pickup thing with a 3 position switch and a blend volume knob.

BUT I want to use duncan STR52 Five-Two tele pickups in neck and bridge, and probably the SSL52 strat pickup in the middle. Only trouble is, doing this, I'll end up with RW pups in neck and middle position.... is that a bad thing? Or what will it result in if I do that? Will it be the same as if I just had two normal would pups in neck and middle. ie no hum-cancelling when those pups are on together?

I've always thought 3 pickup configs should have the only RW pup in the middle. I'm sure this is just conventional thinking and not a hard fast rule by any means.

I'm happy to be told whats, what, on this issue

[Baxtercat]

If the middle one is different than the other two, you can be 'hum free' in positions 2 and 4 [the combo positions].

In your case the neck/middle position wouldn't be humbucking, just like old Strats used to be.

[21stcenturykid]

Fair enough, but neck and bridge and middle and bridge positions still would be. Cool

Hopefully after being spoiled by my Anderson, the noise won't be too pronounced
Cheers.

[alberob]

I have 3 Lollar Specials in my Strat with the middle P/U RW and it works for me!

[jimshine]

You only get humbucking when 2 reverse oppositoe polarity/wind pickups are on at the same time. So that means in your setup Neck/Bridge and Middle/Bridge will be the only humbucking selections.

If you only run a reverse wound pickup in the middle, you gain the neck/middle humbucking selection.

[Boris Bubbanov]

Originally Posted by 21stcenturykid

Fair enough, but neck and bridge and middle and bridge positions still would be. Cool

Hopefully after being spoiled by my Anderson, the noise won't be too pronounced
Cheers.

This is not so bad an idea, anyway.

To many, the #1 problem with "Nashville" wiring is giving up neck and bridge. Many feel this sacrifice is too great.

Take a look at the schematic for the Fender Classic Player 50s Strat. If I am remembering right, it has that scheme and uses a 2 wafer 5 way.

[21stcenturykid]

That strat seems to just standard wiring from what I can see. I might be missing something though. Unless you can find what I'm missing on there?
Could I put a toggle switch in the circuit somewhere to switch the polarity of the neck pickup so it's the opposite to the middle pickup? Which i could switch off for all the other positions, that way getting extra hum-cancelling positions?

[xjojox]

RW/RP in the middle gives you hum cancelling in positions 2 and 4 as noted. If the neck and middle are both RW/RP from the bridge, you can get hum cancelling with neck/bridge or bridge/middle but not with neck/middle or any other setting.

This seems like a winning combination if you use neck/bridge combo more often than neck/middle. Most folks use bridge/middle for "strat quack", and on a Tele-style guitars the neck/bridge is combo is important, probably more so than neck/middle. Not sure how well it will work with the neck partially blended, I'll defer to someone who's actually done it, but I think this would be a cool alternative if those are key positiions.

I gave up on SC hum a long time ago, I use too many varied gain settings in places with nasty lighting to even consider anything but a noiseless pickup. My #1 strat has a Kinman Woodstock Plus set in it, and the tone is as transparent and airy as all but the finest "non-silent" single coils I've used (and I've tried most of what's out there). Don't get me wrong, no silent pickup is perfect, but if you have to be sitting by the fire playing quietly thru a little class A combo to tell the difference, that's close enough for me once I hit the stage.

Obviously, if you never use much gain, silent pickups are not a necessity.

[21stcenturykid]

Cool, I do use middle/bridge and neck/bridge a lot more than neck/middle anyway. I might even swap out to my Anderson with M's in for stratty songs anyway to be honest so it may not even be an issue. I just haven't used a guitar without silent pickups in for so long that I thought I'd better check out the possibilities just incase.

But if I can wire it to switch the polarity on the neck pickup via a toggle switch then I'd be absolutely sorted on all accounts.

[fumbler]

Originally Posted by 21stcenturykid

But if I can wire it to switch the polarity on the neck pickup via a toggle switch then I'd be absolutely sorted on all accounts.

No, you wouldn't. You'd have the dreaded out-of-phase-no-bass-oops-I-wired-my-pickup-backward sound. If you could JUST swap the pickup leads to get hum-cancelling combinations then they wouldn't need to make RWRP pickups, would they?

[21stcenturykid]

Originally Posted by fumbler

No, you wouldn't. You'd have the dreaded out-of-phase-no-bass-oops-I-wired-my-pickup-backward sound. If you could JUST swap the pickup leads to get hum-cancelling combinations then they wouldn't need to make RWRP pickups, would they?

That's fair enough. I'll have to read into it more, but the 'build your own electric guitar' book that I've got says something along those lines can be done with a toggle switch reverse wired. I may have misunderstood what it's trying to explain though (not hard to do by any means)

[jimshine]

The problem is reverse wound middle pickups are not just reverse wound, they are also reverse in magnetic polarity. The switch cannot change the magnetic polarity.