What does it mean for a pickup to be out of phase? Can a lone single coil be out of phase?

Most importantly, what does it all sound like?

For a pickup to be out of phase it's either reversed in position with others magnetically or the connection is reversed when soldering it.

How does it sound? Well I tried it with single coils once and it sounder a lot thinner to me I know that ain't much of a description but that's the best word I can have for it, lacked balls and was showing too much highs for my taste unbalanced would be another way I'd describe it.

But hey who knows it might work for you or with what you have in your guitar always best to try reversing it before trashing a pickup. And if you really want to have options open you can get a phase switch on your guitar to flick between both as much as you fancy.

A lone single coil pickup cannot be out of phase. If there are other pickups in the guitar, it can be out of phase with the other pickup(s). A stacked single coil pickup (which is really a humbucking double coil) can be out of phase with itself, but a true single coil cannot be out of phase with itself.

The resulting sound would definitely be much thinner, with a 50% decrease in volume as well as bass.

quote:

---

Originally posted by dblack:
Most importantly, what does it all sound like?

---

Thin, nasally and skanky! It can be a good sound, and it can be a bad sound. YMMV. Find a Mustang and you'll be able to hear what 2 out-of-phase singles coils sound like.

First off the sound: thin, hollow, nasal, weak all have been used to describe the out-of-phase sound. The coils (pickups) when wired out-of-phase a litteraly fighting each other and canceling each other out. What is left is the thin, hollow, nasal, weak out-of-phase sound.

Second: No, one coil can not be out of phase with itself.

Third: There are three things that determine that direction of current flow in a pickup:
1. Direction of coil wind: N->S vs. S->N, clockwise vs. counter-clockwise, top->bottom vs. bottom->top
2. Magenetic polarity.
3. The direction of movement of a ferous material (guitat string) through the pickups magnetic field.
A humbucker works by having the two coils wound in oppostite directions. This has the effect that any noise pickep by one coil (it's like a big antena) will be canceled by the opposing coil. By reveresing the polarity of the magnet in one of the coils (RWRP), the signal that the string produces in the coils will be electronically in phase with each other. To make the coils out-of-phase with each other simply reverse the magnet (diffictult to do) or reverse the hot/ground leads (easy to do).

FWIW: The in-between sounds on a strat are NOT out-of-phase as many seem to think they are. The change in tone/response/timbre comes from the decrease in resitance/inductance when the coils are combined in parallel.

I think a good description of "out of phase" tone would be the guitar solo on Ricky Nelson's "Travelin Man" Thin and nasal is a good description.

quote:

---

FWIW: The in-between sounds on a strat are NOT out-of-phase as many seem to think they are. The change in tone/response/timbre comes from the decrease in resitance/inductance when the coils are combined in parallel.

---

Hmm, I'm no tech so I can't argue with what you've said. However, I've had several guitar tech say that it had to do with the spacing of the pickups. They said the vibration in one portion of the string can be out of phase with another portion of the string length. Which explains why some other two pick up single coil guitar (such as a Tele or Duo-Sonic) don't get that sound when the pickups are combined. They seemed to think it was a lucky quirk that the Strat pickups happened to be spaced just right, not something planned by Leo.

Maybe it's a combination of the two.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Blues Lyne:

quote:

---

FWIW: The in-between sounds on a strat are NOT out-of-phase as many seem to think they are. The change in tone/response/timbre comes from the decrease in resitance/inductance when the coils are combined in parallel.

---

Hmm, I'm no tech so I can't argue with what you've said. However, I've had several guitar tech say that it had to do with the spacing of the pickups. They said the vibration in one portion of the string can be out of phase with another portion of the string length. Which explains why some other two pick up single coil guitar (such as a Tele or Duo-Sonic) don't get that sound when the pickups are combined. They seemed to think it was a lucky quirk that the Strat pickups happened to be spaced just right, not something planned by Leo.

Maybe it's a combination of the two.

---

Unless you are hitting a harmonic, the full length of the string is vibrating in the same direction. If you hit a harmonic, then possibly if a node exits between the two pickups one might sense the string moving up while the other senses it moving down, but that would only happen when hitting harmonics. Since a strat quacks on open strings and fretted strings equally as well, your techs theory is not entirely correct.

Yes it has to do with the spacing of the pickups - two strat coils side by side wont quack the same. Try wiring a strat so you can combine the bridge and neck pickup - it's a different sound and less quacky than the neck/middle or bridge/middle combo. A tele doesn't quack, it twangs. The combination of two different types of pickups (the tele neck and bridge are different pickups) and the spacing makes for a different sound.