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Post subject: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 7:43 am
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Hey all, I'm hoping someone can help out here. I recently put together a H/S/S strat from parts and I'm having some wiring woes. The neck pickup is a Fender Fat 50's, the middle pickup is an American Standard Strat, and the bridge pickup, a Dimarzio Super Distortion. Everything worked fine except for the neck/middle pickup combo was out of phase. So I thought I'd see what happened if I swapped the wires around on the neck pickup.... now there's nothing in the neck position. I'm at a loss on this one. I do have another middle pickup (a tex-mex) that I'd be happy to swap out for the middle pickup if the Am.Std is my problem.

Any suggestions?


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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 7:50 am
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JamGuy wrote:
...Everything worked fine except for the neck/middle pickup combo was out of phase....


It is supposed to be "out of phase",if the middle pup is RWRP. Any pup that you put in the middle with a RWRP will be "out of phase". If you don't want that, use a middle pup that is not RWRP, such as a CS 69. I would expect no sound if you reversed the wires on one pup. If the middle pup is not RWRP, it will not give the "out of phase" sound (noise cancelling), and again if you reverse the wires on one pup, I would expect no sound.

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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 8:35 am
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Ok then... so it must have been wired up correctly. It's just a very strange position 2 sound... very thin. Is this just the result of pairing the Am. Std with the fat 50's? Would swapping out the Am. Std for the Tex-Mex improve this or not. I'd like the next disassembly/reassembly to be the last!


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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 12:03 pm
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Ok... so I just correctly rewired things and swapped out the middle pup for the Tex-Mex, hoping it would beef up the 2nd position tone a bit. NADA... it sounds thin and honky, almost like a tele bridge pup but lacking low end. I have another H/S/S strat with 2 tex-mex singles and a SD in the bridge and the bridge and it sounds like what I'd expect it to. I'm thinking that the problem lies with the combination of the fat 50's and tex-mex middle pup. I'm still at a loss here... perhaps I need to get another tex-mex for the neck to get the pickups to sound the way I'd like them to. Maybe the ticket is to go for a non-RWRP middle pup? Hmm... I don't usually have suck wiring woes. :cry: Maybe I'll get a quick video up so you can see what I'm talking about...

Any feedback folks?


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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 12:28 pm
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Here's a short vid of how things are sounding... maybe it's the ash/maple combo that's to blame for things sounding so bright and honky? I'm curious as to the root of the problem...



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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 1:38 pm
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Hi there ..... just a couple of thoughts which may or may not help.
I may be wrong but I too think you are dealing with an out of phase issue.
Obviously using a RWRP pickup in combo with a normal pickup is ok otherwise it would never be done. As Shim mentioned this is termed "out of phase" .... note the quote marks.
Not all pickups have the same magnetic polarity as I am sure you are aware.This can easily be checked placing a compass on the poles of the pickup and seeing if the deflection is north or south.
RWRP is ok but you may (and not being there this is a guess) be dealing with a situation where the one pickup is RP but not RW compared to the other and in this scenario you will have a true phase issue. Fender has used and still does use different polarity pickups when you compare different sets. Here I am talking just pole polarity not winding direction.
You are happy with the bridge mid combo so you could try a different pickup with the correct wind and polarity in the neck position.
I'm not entirely sure what you will get if you swap the wires around on the neck pickup but that would be an interesting experiment you could try.
Hope this helps rather than adds to the confusion


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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 1:59 pm
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Quote:
You are happy with the bridge mid combo so you could try a different pickup with the correct wind and polarity in the neck position.


For sure... it all sounds great except for the neck/mid combo... thing is, I love the tone of the neck pickup and the mid pickup alone so may just leave it and consider position 2 a loss. The other H/S/S strat I have has two tex-mex and the same bridge pup so I didn't want to duplicate it. Now that I've had a taste of the fat 50's neck pickup, it'll be hard giving that up. It's a pretty sweet tone.

As far as the polarity of the pups as you mentioned, I've heard that before and suspect that's where the problem lies. I guess I just need to decide if I want to swap out the neck pickup with a tex-mex or leave the fat 50's in and forget position 2 all together. Thanks for the info.


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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 3:03 pm
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I just ordered another tex-mex for the neck... that should solve the problem. Guess I'll have to build a new strat around the fat 50's neck pickup :lol:


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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 5:42 pm
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FYI, position 2 is the bridge-mid, and position 4 is neck-mid. Position 1 is bridge, 5 is neck.

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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 6:29 pm
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Jam guy I think you should also try the fat 50 with the wires reversed. This could solve the issue .... Then again no guarantee.
Not to sound contradictory I have a lot of respect for Shimmilou and his posts but even fender swap between their selector numbering. In some diagrams the bridge is one and in the some though admittedly very few but the deluxe hss being one example the neck is one. Neck is 5 is the general rule though which always seems back to front to me! :D


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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 8:41 pm
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Yes, there are several Fender diagrams that are wrong, the majority and the earliest show the bridge as position 1. I think that this is only one of the many odd things that Fender does, maybe just to keep us guessing. :lol:

Check the first post, he already tried reversing the wires on the Fat 50s (neck) and got no sound. :idea:

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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:28 pm
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Yep fair call on all fronts Shimmilou.
I just thought maybe the op had done something wrong first time around with the wire reversal. :oops:


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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:42 pm
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It might be as you pointed out, the two different pups just don't play well together.

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Post subject: Re: H/S/S wiring troubles...
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 4:39 pm
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Howdy all...

the new Tex-Mex neck pup is installed and all's well. Here's another taste of how she sounds (though for this vid, I don't think I used the neck/middle combo... just the bridge and neck separately). Enjoy and happy Easter!



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