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Tag Archives: humbucker
Fine-Tuning the Adjustment of Passive Humbuckers
It’s been said that the best things in life are free, and I find that saying is never more true than when applied to getting a better tone from our guitars. With so many products on the market that claim … Continue reading
Posted in The Tone Garage
Tagged adjusting pickups, adjustment, advice, beginner, bobbins, coils, db meter, electric guitar, guidance, guide, help, hex poles, how to, humbucker, output, passive, pickups, pole pieces, screw poles, string balance, waveform
14 Comments
What Makes The Hybrid Tick?
I’m a member of the Seymour Duncan User Group Forums; many great ideas originated from the user forum such as the Custom 5, the idea of swapping magnets and the popularization of making ‘hybrids.’ The 59/Custom Hybrid humbucker is even a ‘forum … Continue reading
Posted in Tips and Tricks
Tagged hum, humbucker, hybrid humbucker, resonant frequency, Seymour Duncan User Group Forum
4 Comments
How To Replace a Pickup’s Four-Conductor Lead
The four conductor lead found on most humbuckers is a very handy thing. It enables us to get many tones from a single pickup (series, parallel, split, and more). If you want to make a wiring change, just cut the … Continue reading
Posted in The Tone Garage
Tagged DIY, four-conductor cable, humbucker, pickups, repair, Soldering, wiring
3 Comments
Tinkering with Pickups 103 – The “Vintage” Modification
In Tinkering with Pickups 102 we looked at swapping magnets in humbuckers to change some of the tonal characteristics of a pickup. In this entry we are going to look at what I’ll call a “vintage” modification for humbucker pickups. As per the warning the previous entry, the following modification also carries some risk of damage to your pickup if you are not careful. Continue reading
Posted in The Tone Garage
Tagged DIY, high output, hot, humbucker, mod, modification, Vintage
2 Comments
The P-Rails Wiring Bible, Part 3
If you’ve read the other two articles in the series, hopefully by now you’ve got a good understanding of the different ways we can wire P-Rails pickups. Let’s take a look at some of the more common configurations. Continue reading
Posted in The Tone Garage
Tagged DPDT, humbucker, p-90, P-Rails, parallel, series, single coil
3 Comments
The P-Rails Wiring Bible, Part 2
The three most-used modes for the P-Rails pickup are series humbucker, P-90 mode and rail mode. If these are the only three modes we want to use, the wiring is quite simple. Continue reading
Posted in How, The Tone Garage
Tagged DPDT, humbucker, p-90, P-Rails, single coil, triple shot
1 Comment
The Philosophy of the Fat Strat: Single Coils and Humbuckers At Peace
Some people call them HSS Strats. Others call them Fat Strats. Some people don’t care for them, others don’t know what they’d do without them. Either way, you can’t deny the appeal of a guitar that combines the feel and mechanics of a Strat with the chunky kick of a bridge position humbucker. Continue reading
Posted in The Tone Garage
Tagged Custom staggered, Full Shred, Hot for Strat, HSS, humbucker, PATB-1, Pearly Gates, Quarter Pound Staggered, Sh-1, Sh-4, sh-5, SH-6, single coil, stratocaster
9 Comments
The P-Rails Wiring Bible, Part 1
The P-Rails is one of Seymour Duncan’s most versatile pickups. It’s a humbucker, a P-90 and a single-coil rail pickup in one. However, to access all these sounds it’s necessary to do some more complicated wiring then you might do if you’re just putting a normal humbucker in your guitar – even if you’ve already wired a coil split before. The fact that some players go for a fourth sound – both coils wired in parallel – only adds to the potential for wiring confusion. Continue reading
Humbucker History: The SH-55 Seth Lover Model
The humbucker as we know it traces its history back to a design by Seth Lover, who invented it while working for Gibson in 1955. His Patent Applied For (P.A.F.) design has served as the launching pad for innumerable pickups in the nearly six decades since, and these days original examples of those early humbuckers change hands for some pretty impressive figures. But there’s an easier way to tap into that historical tonal mojo, and it’s currently catching the light as I type this and drawing my eye to my Gibson Les Paul: the Seymour Duncan SH-55 Seth Lover humbucker. Continue reading
Posted in Pickup Reviews
Tagged humbucker, Les Paul, p.a.f., seth lover, Seth Lover model, seymour w. duncan, SH-55
3 Comments
Installing P-Rails and Triple Shot Mounting Rings
A brief summary: P-Rails are a special pickup design that incorporates two different pickup types: a P-90 and a rail single coil. The Triple Shot Mounting Ring incorporates two 2-position switches per ring, that allows either the P-90 alone, the single coil alone, both coils in parallel and both pickups in series, like a traditional humbucker. Combined with a 3-way pickup switch, that is a lot of sounds! Continue reading
Posted in The Tone Garage, Tips and Tricks
Tagged diagram, humbucker, install, p-90, P-Rails, single coil, solder, steinberger, triple shot, wiring
2 Comments
