Phase Switch And Metal Humbucker Cover

[IPA or death]

I put a humbucker in neck position of my telecaster and added a dpdt switch to go in and out of phase. When the switch is flipped and the pups are out of phase, I can touch a string to the metal HB cover and the sound goes dead. No output at all. In addition, you can scratch your fingers over the pickguard and get a noisy, static-y, scratchy sound which just doesn't work for me at all (to say the least). Switch it back and no scratchy sound. I'm puzzled.

What I wonder is whether the metal cover has anything to do with this and what can be done. All the wiring is correct so that isn't an issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[AndrewCE]

I put a humbucker in neck position of my telecaster and added a dpdt switch to go in and out of phase. When the switch is flipped and the pups are out of phase, I can touch a string to the metal HB cover and the sound goes dead. No output at all. In addition, you can scratch your fingers over the pickguard and get a noisy, static-y, scratchy sound which just doesn't work for me at all (to say the least). Switch it back and no scratchy sound. I'm puzzled.

What I wonder is whether the metal cover has anything to do with this and what can be done. All the wiring is correct so that isn't an issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

in normal wiring, the metal cover is assumed to be grounded. that way, when you touch the strings(which are also grounded) to it, there is no short circuit between hot and ground. That is exactly what is happening in your pickup. you touch the two together, and all the electric signal goes straight to the earth, through the strings instead of going to your amp.

one option is to make the metal cover isolated from both wires of the pickup, but then you lose the sheilding, and it gets a bit noisier. The other option is to rewire the switches so that when you phase switch the pickup, the metal cover gets connected to the other wire.

i dont have any schematics for that, though, you'll have to find some yourself

[psw]

The answer is to add a thrid wire that connects only to the cover. So the phase switch is only reversing the coil and the other is connected directly to ground. Alternatively, you could phase the bridge pickup as this is the same effect...the phase sound will only occur when both pickups are selected...

pete

[AndrewCE]

The answer is to add a thrid wire that connects only to the cover. So the phase switch is only reversing the coil and the other is connected directly to ground. Alternatively, you could phase the bridge pickup as this is the same effect...the phase sound will only occur when both pickups are selected...

pete

right. that way is much simpler than going get a multipole switch like i wouldve done. Just solder the metal cover straight to the bridge or something.

[IPA or death]

Thanks guys, I'll try to add a wire and see what happens. But I thought that the bare stranded wire on a 4 conductor pup was meant to do just that.

[psw]

See...you neglected to tell us that it was a 4 conductor HB with a bare wire. Generally the bare wire connects to the cover...the others to the two coils.

Test that it is by seeing if there is any resistance to the bare wire to the cover...and the other wires to the cover for good measure. If the bare wire is the only thing connected to the cover, there's your "third" wire! What it needs to do is be connected to the bridge or common (back of a pot ground) so it is always ground. What is happening is that when you reverse the pickup, the cover is becoming hot, and if the strings touch it shorts out. Well...most likely, unless you have the bridge ground hot, but you would be getting a lot of noise, so I doubt it!

good luck...let us know how you go

pete

[IPA or death]

Oh, I see. You want details . I don't know what I was thinking not telling you guys that it was a 4 conductor with bare wire. I guess I was too focused on the symptoms to think about the details.

Well, the bare wire is soldered to the phase switch and then it runs to the back of a pot. So I guess the problem is that: the ground is fine when the circuit is completed by the switch and screwed when the switch is engaged. So I'll run the bare wire to the back of the pot first then link it to the switch. Would that likely do it?

Thanks so much for the help.

[IPA or death]

Well, the bare wire is soldered to the phase switch and then it runs to the back of a pot. So I guess the problem is that: the ground is fine when the circuit is completed by the switch and screwed when the switch is engaged. So I'll run the bare wire to the back of the pot first then link it to the switch. Would that likely do it?

Or I could take out the additional wire which completely grounded the pup and just have it actually work right

Thanks for the advice and explanations guys.

[psw]

Well, the bare wire is soldered to the phase switch and then it runs to the back of a pot.

Take the bare wire off the phase switch!!!!

By reversing the phase, you are also reversing the ground I suspect when you switch things so that the cover alternates between hot and ground. You only want to reverse the ground of the coils in the pickup, not the cover.

pete

[IPA or death]

Well, the bare wire is soldered to the phase switch and then it runs to the back of a pot.

Take the bare wire off the phase switch!!!!

By reversing the phase, you are also reversing the ground I suspect when you switch things so that the cover alternates between hot and ground. You only want to reverse the ground of the coils in the pickup, not the cover.

pete

The bare wire is now off the switch but that's what Seymour Duncan's site has, so I don't know about it.

Seymour Duncan