"Cocked Wah" Sound (out of phase?)

[CTN]

In my ibanez which now houses a Distortion trembucker and an Alnico3 modified Humbucker from Hell (comes with A5 stock), I get this very cool sounding, but weird "cocked wah" type of sound when i'm in the middle pickup position.

I'm not sure if it's because of the vast difference in resistances (16.6k for the Distortion, 5.86K for the HFH), or the vast difference in tonality (distortion has those screaming mids, while the HFH is very bright but not much mids and lows, or a difference in impedances (1meg vol for Distortion, 500K vol for HFH), or if it's because I might've mis-oriented the mags when I was swapping them in the HFH

There are no tone controls on this guitar, just two volumes and the 3-way pickup selector switch.

It sounds like I've got my crybaby engaged and with the pedal halfway down.

Did I put the A3 mag in the wrong way causing an out of phase sound when the pickups are being run together? Is that what an out of phase sound is like?

[King IzzO)))]

Yes, you're OOP, I like that sound personally I wire up all my guitars that way.

[jake_xms3_punk]

you must have put the magnet in the wrong way around. you can sort it by flipping the hot and ground wires (the green and black wires in a duncan) whatever the dimarzio equivilents are, just to see if you like it any better without taking your pickup apart.

[CTN]

I'm planning on eventually trying a ceramic mag for the HFH but I think I'll leave it alone for now. I quite like the out of phase sound. it kinda accentuates the high mids and makes a nice round lead sound without me having to do any pedalboard tapdancing...quite useful!

[lazyfinger]

HFH with ceramic would be even brighter. May be UOA5 would be more appropriate for mids.

[Strat111]

Throw in a bit of distortion, and you'll probably get close to the Brian May lead sound of Bohemian Rhapsody. A very cool sound.

[TheLivingDead]

Looooove OOP. Got a couple of my guitars wired up for that option.

[ItsaBass]

That is the best way to get middle switch positions that I actually like using. I almost never use in-between positions if they are not out of phase.

It is probably due to flipping the magnet, but I notice that it also happens a bit when one pickup is much more hotly wound than the other.

[CTN]

HFH with ceramic would be even brighter. May be UOA5 would be more appropriate for mids.

so far, while the pup was in the guitar, i tried it stock, with UOA5, with A8 and now A3.

stock A5 - nice and bright, but too much bass and no mids whatsoever. do not like.
UOA5 - quite nice, pretty much more or less the tone I want, except it doesn't sound rude enough. It's very smooth and tame and polite, and considering this is a metal axe, it needs to have attitude.
A8 - massive output really helps it match up better to the distortion trembucker. Really nice mids, but I found the high end too smooth/low end too fat
A3 - getting much closer now...it's got the bright high end detail, ample mids, and the bass is a little spongy, but not annoying. The WAY LOW output is kinda weird though, even with balls-out gain on my amp, switching to the HFH makes it like warm overdrive, not balls-out gain.

I want to try a ceramic next because I feel like it'll give me a good mix of scorching highs, fat mids and tight lows, as well as the output that I need for the HFH to stand up to the DD. The HFH is proving to be surprisingly transparent with these mag swaps

If that proves to bee too aggravating, I'll probably try an A4. If even THAT doesn't float my boat, then I'll need to grab an RCA5 and see how that goes. A2 is sorta my last resort due to subdued treble and loose bass response.

[lazyfinger]

Ceramic highs might be overbearing and mask the mids, so may be ceramic plus 250k or 300k tone pot would be ideal.

[CTN]

good call. I'll play with it and see how it goes. Either way, I need to order some mags!

[lazyfinger]

Yeah, experiment is name of the game really. I tried several pickups and magnets before I was satisfied with the combo on a particular guitar. At the last moment, also decided to change the tone pots. At times like that though when the pickup wind is great but something is not enough or too much, I'd wish most humbuckers had 2 mag combination like p90. It clearly saves having to buy more pups.

[JakeBluesRocker]

Cocked Wah?

[CTN]

yes.

as I said before, it sounds like I've got my crybaby engaged and with the pedal halfway down.

[Varg]

I can get that cocked wah sound in my Black Beauty (HHH) if I mess around with the middle pickup height. If you try raising or lowering the middle pup you may find it starts to sound normal.