the_insomniac
New member
I flipped my humbuckers out of phase (aka the "peter green les paul mod") for fun the other day, so i thought, why not take some pics so everyone can try.
What is the Peter Green mod? Basically you're flipping the magnet of one of your humbuckers to reverse the polarity. So when you select both humbuckers, one will "cancel" out some frequencies of the other. But whats left is this very interesting out of phase sound, sort of like a clear, honky stratocaster in-between position 2 and 4 sound with very nice high end. Quite cool for a les paul style guitar which tends to get muddy. Jimmy Page uses it quite a lot. Here;s how the Peter Green mod sounds like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6qkF_6LNPA&feature=related
Anyway its reversible so you can try for fun, just be careful not to destroy your humbucker. Here's a step by step of how to do it..
(I did it on a 335 but its the same for an LP)
STEP 1
Unscrew the humbucker from the guitar body and remove the plastic housing that attaches the humbucker to the guitar. This should be whats left. I wrapped the body of the guitar with cloth, to protect it from scratches or burns.
STEP 2
The baseplate of the humbucker is fixed to the nickel cover of the humbucker by these 2 solder joints (see the red arrows). You can use a soldering iron to soften the solder, and when its soft enough, you can use a razor or a penknife to slice open the solder. But solder is a soft material anyway, so if you're persistent, you can just use a penknife and try to slice it away, just don't damage the pickup or cut off your finger
STEP 3
Once the solder is gone, sometimes you can just lift the cover. Sometimes the cover is stuck shut cos the insides are all waxed together against the cover. I used a hairdryer on my cover, which softened the wax very quickly. COver just pops off. You can still see the excess wax on the cover in the pic.
STEP 4
Ok now you have the bare humbucker. YOu need to push out the rectangular thing in the pic -- thats your magnet. Again, it will prob be stuck thanks to the wax. So you can use a hairdryer on it again, just to loosen stuff up. You can also loosen the 4 screws that attach the humbuckers to the baseplate. Anyway, once you push out the magnet, flip the magnet ACCORDING TO THE ARROW in the pic and push it back in again (i.e. flip it breadth wise, not lengthwise). Tighten everything up, replace everything, reassemble, resolder if you want, pot the pickup in wax if you want. DONE! Now you have a Peter Green modded out of phase tone when you switch to the middle position.
What is the Peter Green mod? Basically you're flipping the magnet of one of your humbuckers to reverse the polarity. So when you select both humbuckers, one will "cancel" out some frequencies of the other. But whats left is this very interesting out of phase sound, sort of like a clear, honky stratocaster in-between position 2 and 4 sound with very nice high end. Quite cool for a les paul style guitar which tends to get muddy. Jimmy Page uses it quite a lot. Here;s how the Peter Green mod sounds like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6qkF_6LNPA&feature=related
Anyway its reversible so you can try for fun, just be careful not to destroy your humbucker. Here's a step by step of how to do it..
(I did it on a 335 but its the same for an LP)
STEP 1
Unscrew the humbucker from the guitar body and remove the plastic housing that attaches the humbucker to the guitar. This should be whats left. I wrapped the body of the guitar with cloth, to protect it from scratches or burns.
STEP 2
The baseplate of the humbucker is fixed to the nickel cover of the humbucker by these 2 solder joints (see the red arrows). You can use a soldering iron to soften the solder, and when its soft enough, you can use a razor or a penknife to slice open the solder. But solder is a soft material anyway, so if you're persistent, you can just use a penknife and try to slice it away, just don't damage the pickup or cut off your finger
STEP 3
Once the solder is gone, sometimes you can just lift the cover. Sometimes the cover is stuck shut cos the insides are all waxed together against the cover. I used a hairdryer on my cover, which softened the wax very quickly. COver just pops off. You can still see the excess wax on the cover in the pic.
STEP 4
Ok now you have the bare humbucker. YOu need to push out the rectangular thing in the pic -- thats your magnet. Again, it will prob be stuck thanks to the wax. So you can use a hairdryer on it again, just to loosen stuff up. You can also loosen the 4 screws that attach the humbuckers to the baseplate. Anyway, once you push out the magnet, flip the magnet ACCORDING TO THE ARROW in the pic and push it back in again (i.e. flip it breadth wise, not lengthwise). Tighten everything up, replace everything, reassemble, resolder if you want, pot the pickup in wax if you want. DONE! Now you have a Peter Green modded out of phase tone when you switch to the middle position.
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