Best way to achieve Greenie 'Out of Phase'

SimpleSimon

Id like to mod a dual humbucker LP Style guitar with an out of phase sound, what is the 'best' way of doing this and should I bother to retain the original sounds by getting one of these supers switches with multiple positions or just stick with a stock three way? Im not against changing the pickups to BK PG blues etc but realise I don't have to - just to achieve the out of phase sound. From what I know about Greenies sound the volume and tone pots are equally as important on influencing how much of the out if phase sound bleeds through? Should I just get a Vintage PGM Lemon Drop and save on the hastle?

stickyfiddle

You can get close just by switching the phase of one pickup (you need 4-conductor wiring, or at least a separate ground wire from the cover to do it). IIRC the actual greenie LP has a magnet flip instead of coil, but it's close enough.

As for volume & tone, it's just that the honky sound only works when you have the 2 volumes within 1 of each other on their dials (ie both on 10, one on 8 and the other on 7 etc). If you turn one down too much there aren't enough of the out of phase harmonics from the quieter pickups to impact the sound of the other one.

ICBM

Either flip the magnet if the pickup is easy to get into and it only has single-conductor wiring, or swap the hot and ground if it has four-conductor wiring. If it has 4-conductor you can make it switchable with a push-pull pot, for the least invasive means. You can reverse the neck pickup so the polepieces are closer to the bridge as well, but this affects the look more than the sound . (And has no bearing on the phase.)

'50s' wiring helps with the interactivity of the tone and volume controls - move the tone cap from the pickup to the switch terminal on the volume pot.