What colour wires to use to get out of phase sound

[Joe3334]

My bridge humbucker has 5 wires.
Individual black wire (5-way switch)
Green and bare soldered together (volume pot)
Red and white wires soldered together (connected to the first DPDT switch?????)


Now for my middle position hot rails (single coil sized humbucker) which has 4 wires
Individual black wire (5-way switch)
Individual white wire (volume pot?????)
Red and green wires soldered together (connected to the second DPDT switch?????)

Are the red and white wires on my humbucker and the green and red wires on my hot rails pickup the correct wires to use when wiring to two individual DPDT switches that will activate the out of phase sound?

[WeirdBits]

Out of phase or split? The two wires connected together are usually the series link combining the two coils of a rail or humbucker, so shorting that to ground or output with a switch allows you to split to a specific coil. Which coil you want to split to depends on the brand of pickup and potentially what other pickup you're wanting to combine it with.

Changing the phase usually refers to reversing the connections of a pickup (or coil) when combining it with another pickup (or coil) to get that nasally out of phase sound, and often happens accidentally when usually two different types/brands of pickups in a build.

Need a bit more info about what you're trying to do etc. before I can give you a more specific answer.

[Joe3334]

Out of phase or split? The two wires connected together are usually the series link combining the two coils of a rail or humbucker, so shorting that to ground or output with a switch allows you to split to a specific coil. Which coil you want to split to depends on the brand of pickup and potentially what other pickup you're wanting to combine it with.

Changing the phase usually refers to reversing the connections of a pickup (or coil) when combining it with another pickup (or coil) to get that nasally out of phase sound, and often happens accidentally when usually two different types/brands of pickups in a build.

Need a bit more info about what you're trying to do etc. before I can give you a more specific answer.

Hey Weirdbits, I'm wanting to make the pickups out of phase at the flick of a switch. I have two on/on DPDT switches installed on my pickguard and I'm wanting to wire the humbucker to one of them and the middle pickup to the other, I'm just confused as to what wires I'm supposed to use to connect the pickups to the DPDT switch. I know what the wiring itself on the switch will look like but various diagrams on the internet use different coloured wires based on brand? The image attached shows the same wiring configuration but with different coloured wires as each brand has their own colour code.

[WeirdBits]

Ok, so you're wanting to switch the phase of the bridge and middle pickups relative to the other pups. What brands are the bridge and middle pickps?

For the bridge humbucker the black is hot, green is ground, bare is the shield, and the red/green pair is the series link between the coils. Your Seymour Duncan diagram works for this. Separate the bare wire and connect it to ground (back of a pot etc) then connect the black and green to the DPDT switch as shown. The black wire leaving the DPDT then connects to your pickup selector or volume etc.


Your middle rail appears to use different colours: red/green as the series link, which makes the white and 'black' as the hot and ground respectively (probably). I have a feeling the thick 'black' wire is actually a black wire and a bare covered in heatshrink, which would be your ground and bare shield pair. If you can peel back just a little of the thick black wire's covering from the soldered end and see if it is the black and bare pair. If it is, then you'll need to separate them and connect then bare to ground/pot back, then connect the white as hot and black as ground to your other DPDT switch. Make sense?

[Joe3334]

My bridge pickup is Chinese and is a no-name brand and the middle pickup is a BQLZR branded pickup.

So from what you've told me in regards to the bridge pickup, the bare wire that is currently soldered together with the green wire now needs to go to ground (back of volume pot), the green and black are soldered to the DPDT switch in their correct positions and the black wire leaving the DPDT switch can go to ground (so back of volume pot?) and the red and white remain soldered together and not directly connected to anything? I should put tape around the red and white as well?

Now with the middle pickup, if the black wire does turn out to be a black wire and a bare i should connect the bare to ground (back of pot), the white and black is to be connected to the DPDT switch in their correct positions and the red and green wires that are currently soldered together are to remain that way? With tape around it.

If I have successfully interpreted what you have said than thanks a whole heap Scott. It's really appreciated.

[WeirdBits]

Yep, the red & white (bridge) and red & green (middle) just need some tape on the tips to insulate them and then leave them alone. The 'bare' wires are the shield for the pickup so need to be separated and connected to a ground point like the back of a pot. Reversing the phase of a pickup means reversing the + and - so the shield needs to be separate so it's not part of the signal path.

... and the black wire leaving the DPDT switch can go to ground (so back of volume pot?) ....

The black wire coming from the DPDT will be your new hot and go to the pickup selector switch or volume in depending on what controls you're running (not sure which kit you have).

[wazkelly]

Hi Guys, I may be wrong but on the 4 wire PUP (2nd photo) that black wire looks very thick and suspect it is the ground and white may be the Hot one?
Under that heat shrink does it look like more than one wire core?

[Joe3334]

I haven't got around to peeling back the heat shrink to find out if there's an additional wire. Will check later today.

[Joe3334]

Yep, the red & white (bridge) and red & green (middle) just need some tape on the tips to insulate them and then leave them alone. The 'bare' wires are the shield for the pickup so need to be separated and connected to a ground point like the back of a pot. Reversing the phase of a pickup means reversing the + and - so the shield needs to be separate so it's not part of the signal path.



The black wire coming from the DPDT will be your new hot and go to the pickup selector switch or volume in depending on what controls you're running (not sure which kit you have).

I'm using a gotoh 5 way switch and 2 gotoh 500k pots, 1 vol 1 tone

[Joe3334]

Ok so after peeling back the heat shrink it appears there is an individual black wire along with a bare wire so Scott was on the ball.