Pickups out of phase problem

[explorer11]

I recently purchased a pair of 57 classics for my orville les paul.
My orville has 3 humbuckers so i swapped the neck and bridge stock pickups for the 57s.

According to the luthier who did that for me, my middle pickup is not in phase with my 57s so he suggested that i changed the middle pickup as well or i have to deal with a really single coiled sound when the pickup switch is set to the middle.

So i have decided to purchase a new middle pup. Probably a seth lover, or another 57.
I just wanted to know if there is any way to tell if the new middle pickup will be in phase with my 57s before i purchase it.

It would be great if you guys could let me know of any possible pickup that can be in phase with the 57. Luthier told me any gibson pickup would do.

Thanks in advance

 

[dmitry_a]

You could just re-wire the pickups if they are out of phase. Just switch the wires from one of the two. Which combination is it that is out of phase? Had an issue like that with a H-S-S guitar. Bridge + mid was out, so I got it solved together with a setup at a shop.

 

[explorer11]

Tried the rewiring but it does not work. Either there would be no sound from the pickup or when i switch the wire, the sound that is produced is out of phase (sounds like a single coil more than a humbucker.)

FYI, the middle pickup is an orville PAF.

I believe the neck + middle and the neck + bridge both have issues.

Thanks for the opinion though

 

[dmitry_a]

Hmm... looks like this is something i've not heard of as I'm not familiar with H-H-H. For me, my neck-mid was ok and the sound remained unchanged after rewiring. How does your pickup selector work?

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

for pickup to be not in phase with the other, usually its a matter of the hot wire of pickup A is connected to the ground wire of the pickup B and the ground wire of the pickup A connected to the hot wire of the pickup B.

If one pickup is not in phase with the other, its a matter of switching the hot and ground wire connection(hot to hot, ground to ground) to where ever its being connected to. I believe that for the 3 pickups mentioned, its of 2 wires kinda(one hot, one ground), those kinda, is more easier to troubleshoot problem

Anyway, imho, do check through the rewiring again, if from the pickup selector when switched to a particular setting aint getting any sound, most likely it mean somewhere along the line, the hot wire path aint getting to the output jack(assuming instrument cable are fine).

It might sound obvious, but when we are looking at 3 pickup(6 wires) , pickup selector, vol and tone pot, output jack etc, the wiring can be a lot.

Do try to draw out the connection and trace individually where the signal are going. Even though it will take lotsa time, but if wanna troubleshoot yourself, thats one thing which can be tried out.

 

[Jumpin'Jellybean]

Sounds cool, getting a single coil sound from a humbucker.
Anyway, idk about troubleshooting by yourself, but if getting a Gibson like the luthier said would solve the problem, try it out... There's probably not much you can do yourself, either that, or it's gonna be troublesome, time consuming and you might make mistakes. have you tried google?

 

[ymmak]

In addition to what Patheinraindropmoe said, there are 2 things that may affect whether the pup is in or out of phase: the pup magnet polarity and the direction of the windings. I am not sure whether all humbuckers have the same direction of windings, or whether the magents polarity of the pole pieces in humbuckers are the same. If I am not wrong, humbuckers have their magnetic polarity extends side by side, as oppose to single coil which is top and bottom, if you get what I mean. Meaning that 1 row of the humbucker may be north (N) and the other row may be south (S).

For single coils, different manufacturers may use different pup polarity and direction of winding. I ever had one experience whereby the combination of polarity and winding is such that no matter how I swap the lead wires of the mid pup, the mid pup is either in phase with neck but out of phase with the bridge pup, or in phase with bridge but out of phase with neck. In the end, I solve it by switching the leads of the bridge pup instead of the mid pup, however I lost the humcancelling ability in the 2 and 4 position.

My past experience pertains to the single coil strats, but I believe your problem with 3-humbuckers guitar could be somewhat similar to mine. I am unsure whether yours work the same, but you may like to try switching the leads of either the neck or bridge and see how it goes.

Hope this may help.