Pickup question?

paulnb57

Im sure this has been asked before, if I had a theoretical scratchplate that would allow me to place two same output but RWRP single coils, side by side like a Humbucker would they actually perform as a Humbucker, wired correctly and be switchable to one Single Coil for true SC sound rather than coil splitting a traditionally constructd Humbucker?
The things we ponder laying awake!.....

steamabacus

Yes. Although they wouldn't sound quite the same as a normal humbucker due to the differences in construction (magnetic polepieces, etc). Seymour Duncan actually do a humbucker constructed this way (Stag-Mag) and I think Ash at Oil City does as well. Also, if my memory serves me, the old Fender HSS Strats with Lace Sensors had two single Lace pickups rather than a conventional humbucker, arranged exactly as you are imagining.

thermionic

This is what the Johnny Marr Jaguar does in the series position (although it is of course "humbucking" when both single coils are in parallel as well, like many other guitars).

Nomad

The Red Special has this as well - the middle pickup is RWRP, so combinations with that are hum cancelling.

paulnb57

My question came about from having the middle Strat pickup RPRW which gives hum cancelling in the mixed position......just wondered if it was a viable option....

olafgarten

That's the same concept as the SD Stag Mag,  OC Brassknuckle and the Zelinsky Sidekick. 

steamabacus

paulnb57 said:

My question came about from having the middle Strat pickup RPRW which gives hum cancelling in the mixed position......just wondered if it was a viable option....

There's a common Strat mod with a switch that puts the neck pickup in series with the bridge for a kind of spaced out 'humbucker'. I did this mod on a mate's guitar and then later, when he upgraded to a set of Amalfitano pickups with a RWRP 'middle' p/u, I put the RWRP in the neck so that the neck/bridge in series - his most used setting - would be fully hum cancelling. Neck/middle was still hum cancelling but bridge/middle wasn't - an acceptable compromise for him.

ICBM

For what it's worth there's a very unusual Bill Lawrence wiring scheme from the 70s or 80s which uses the three pickups in a series arrangement, and if the middle pickup is RWRP all the settings are all hum cancelling - in positions 1, 3 and 5 you get neck and middle, middle and bridge, and bridge and neck out of phase (which is a bit like the middle position on the original PRS rotary) respectively. In positions 2 and 4 you get all three pickups, 2 being all in phase and 4 being half-out-of-phase. Quite interesting, although the big disadvantage is that you can't get any standard Strat sounds.