Neck Pickup, Reverse Wound Reverse Polarity

[burgie49]

I had a pair of single coil pickups installed in a guitar. There were supposed to be a Rio Grande Fat Bastard in the bridge position and a RWRP Bastard in the neck position.

The shop erroneously put a non-RWRP Bastard in the neck position, and the two pickups are out of phase when both are switched on.

Is it possible to correctly remedy the out of phase problem by rewiring the neck pickup to have the hot go to ground and the ground go to hot? Will this have the same tonal quality as replacing the neck pickup with a proper RWRP Bastard? If not, what is the difference? Would it be a significant difference or an inperceptible difference?

If it was your choice, would you insist upon the RWRP Bastard, or would you be OK with rewiring the neck pickup that is in there?

Thanks very much for your response and help!

[lovekraft]

My take: if that's what you requested, that's what you should have. Hold their feet to the fire until they do it right. There won't be much, if any, audible tonal difference between the standard pickup and the RWRP, but the RWRP will definitely quiet the noise in the middle position, even in a well-shielded axe! Make 'em fix it!

Edited November 2, 2004 by lovekraft

[frank falbo]

Right. The sound doesn't change because the electrons don't care which way they flow through the coil. It's all about the hum cancellation. It's all the shop's fault and it's unacceptable. It also demonstrates a level of incompetency that should have you looking for another shop, or learning how to do all this yourself. Even if Rio Grande mislabeled them, the shop at least should've caught it when they tested the instrument. They need to replace it for free.