Ask Greg and Dale.

[gregsguitars]

Thinking of starting a thread here where members can ask Greg's Guitars and our luthier Dale at SmoothStone guitars ( we are the authorized dealer) questions, Please limit your question to one item per post, we will answer questions twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays) where possible and skip duplicate questions for sake of saving time . So if possible lets limit posting to 5 to 6 questions ,let us answer them and then members can proceed with 5 or 6 more questions. Sound good? If so let the questions begin. OR....Would the forum rather us just answer random posted questions in this area? Let me know .

 

[RAILhead]

Just contribute like everyone else when you have a thought -- it's all about community.

 

[Tyler]

Just contribute like everyone else when you have a thought -- it's all about community.

There are a number of awesome (and helpful!) luthiers in this bunch of people. If you see a question or a discussion upon which you can shed some light, we'd be delighted to see it.

 

[OrangeAD30TC]

Can I have a free guitar?

 

[MarkF786]

I rely on Bob's Guitars to answer all my guitar related questions.

http://www.bobsguitars.com/

 

[9fingers]

Hey, let's try it out:
Greg & Dale,
I have a Reverend USA Slingshot Custom with 3 P90s and a Hipshot Whammy, so it does have a backplate. I want to use a Suhr/Illitch hum cancelling backplate, which requires that all 3 pickups be normal polarity. My middle pickup is RWRP. How do I turn an RWRP P90 into a non RWRP? I have heard that it can be done fairly simply. Can you give me a step-by step?
Thanks!

 

[walterw]

ooh ooh!

(i feel like hermione desperately raising her hand in class and not getting called on, but i'll refrain, except to confirm that it is indeed totally doable, and works out nicely with the backplate system.)

 

[9fingers]

Walter, If Greg & Dale don't answer this one or if you have another view & can chime in I would love to hear your method! Let's see what hey have to say for a day or 2 first. I'll keep an eye on this thread as it is a project I really need to do.
Thanks! (you have my hopes up!)

Edit to add; I already have the BPSSC on hand.

 

[9fingers]

OK Walter, have at it! It has been a couple of days. I would love to get your advice on my project.
Thanks in advance!

 

[walterw]

ha!

OK, you pull the middle P-90 out of the cavity (no need to unsolder it if the wire is long enough);

loosen the screws holding the bottom plate on, then carefully push the two magnets out; rotate them 180° along their long axes, so the opposite edges now press against the center polepieces. this "un-reverses" the polarity.

then, find the two little wires coming off the coil; one should be going to ground and the other to the center wire ("hot") of the hookup lead.

carefully unsolder and swap them; this un-reverses the "wind" part of the RWRP equation. now this pickup should be functionally identical to the other two.

wire the grounds to the backplate and off you go; i did this with the suhr-branded backplate, which supposedly wasn't "tuned" for the 10-11k P-90s, and it still worked perfectly, making the reverend i put it in nice and quiet.

...y'know, now that i think about it, the better procedure would probably be to separate out the coil's ground leads from the overall pickup grounds and run them directly to the backplate, leaving the groundwires for the metal bottom plates going straight to "regular" ground.

it was quiet the other way, but it might be quieter still doing it this way.

 

[wingwalker]

Just a side note...and I know I'm not Greg, Dale or Walter for that matter but the silent back plate system doesn't get along too well with P-90's...the stronger the pickup the less effective it is and compared to a vintage style Strat pickup a P-90 is fairly stout.

You'll notice a drop in noise but IMHO not enough to warrant the cost of the system...

Just my 2 cents.

 

[walterw]

huh;

like i said, the suhr one i put on a 3 p-90 rev worked quite well; the owner was even a high-gain shredder-type, and he was very happy with the significant noise reduction.

i think you can the ilitch versions in different "strengths" to better match various pickups.

 

[9fingers]

ha!

OK, you pull the middle P-90 out of the cavity (no need to unsolder it if the wire is long enough);

loosen the screws holding the bottom plate on, then carefully push the two magnets out; rotate them 180° along their long axes, so the opposite edges now press against the center polepieces. this "un-reverses" the polarity.

then, find the two little wires coming off the coil; one should be going to ground and the other to the center wire ("hot") of the hookup lead.

carefully unsolder and swap them; this un-reverses the "wind" part of the RWRP equation. now this pickup should be functionally identical to the other two.

wire the grounds to the backplate and off you go; i did this with the suhr-branded backplate, which supposedly wasn't "tuned" for the 10-11k P-90s, and it still worked perfectly, making the reverend i put it in nice and quiet.

...y'know, now that i think about it, the better procedure would probably be to separate out the coil's ground leads from the overall pickup grounds and run them directly to the backplate, leaving the groundwires for the metal bottom plates going straight to "regular" ground.

it was quiet the other way, but it might be quieter still doing it this way.

Thanks a heap! Just what I needed.

 

[ilitch]

Hi 9fingers,
You will need a BPNCS (Back Plate Noise Canceling System) HOT, and you can use our wiring diagram for RWRP middle pickup with it if you have a 5 position pickups selector switch. There are other options as well.
You can contact us directly with more questions.

Ilitch

Hey, let's try it out:
Greg & Dale,
I have a Reverend USA Slingshot Custom with 3 P90s and a Hipshot Whammy, so it does have a backplate. I want to use a Suhr/Illitch hum cancelling backplate, which requires that all 3 pickups be normal polarity. My middle pickup is RWRP. How do I turn an RWRP P90 into a non RWRP? I have heard that it can be done fairly simply. Can you give me a step-by step?
Thanks!

 

[ilitch]

Hi wingwalker,
Have you ever tried the system? If yes, which one?

Ilitch

Just a side note...and I know I'm not Greg, Dale or Walter for that matter but the silent back plate system doesn't get along too well with P-90's...the stronger the pickup the less effective it is and compared to a vintage style Strat pickup a P-90 is fairly stout.

You'll notice a drop in noise but IMHO not enough to warrant the cost of the system...

Just my 2 cents.

 

[gregsguitars]

Been on the road and it being Friday time to see if we can answer some questions,it looks as though Walter came up with the correct way to tackle your project. I would have missed re wiring the leads and probably just reversed the magnets myself so a big thanky to Walter for catching that step..