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Some of the common things done to humbuckers are: Make 4 conductor, change the adjustable pole pieces, change the studs, replace the studs with rod magnets, remove the covers, add covers, change the bar magnets, flip the bar magnet to reverse polarity, rewind to different specifications, calibrate the magnet(s), change the length of the adjustable…

The standard cavity routing in Stratocasters won’t allow for you to reverse the pickups in your instrument. You need to have a custom pickup builder make pickups with a reverse magnet pattern. The way you play is similar to what Jimi Hendrix did playing a right handed guitar left handed. He got the benefit of…

This can be done by reversing the two wires on one of the bobbins. This will make the pickup electrically out of phase with itself and change the sound when used in combination with others.

The easiest way is to remove all of the adjusting screws from one side of the pickup. You can also split the coil by shorting one side of the coil to ground but this also reduces the current generated by both coils. Many players have removed the adjustable poles from one side of their humbucker…

This was a design by Seth E. Lover while working at Gibson and used on Silvertone guitars. The pickups were sold OEM (original equipment mfg.) to other companies such as Harmony Guitars. This design was also used on the later pickups designed by Seth when he worked for Fender Guitars. He designed the Guitar and…

You need to use a quality heavy duty soldering iron and solder wick. The pickup needs to be firmly secured to keep from sliding around when you are working on it. Don’t clamp the pickup into a metal vice as it will act like a heat sink and keep the solder from being easily removed….

Trying to insert new magnets in a Fender style pickup will only destroy the original coil windings. It is near to impossible to replace the magnets as the coil is wound directly around the magnets with a good amount of pressure. Also earlier Fender rod magnets have small pits from sand casting and the magnet…

I have seen this done with little success. It depends on the placement and polarity of the magnet being used. The added magnet can cause interference with the stock magnet and I’ve seen them fall off inside the pickup cavity. If you are looking to add a magnet, it is best to replace the original…

Depending on the diameter of the poles and length they usually can be changed as long as some other replacement is compatible. When exchanging threaded pole pieces, it is best to use the same diameter screw with the same TPI (threads per inch) and by using shorter or longer screws can slightly change the tonality…

Putting a capacitor in series with the hot output of a pickup will reduce the amount of low frequency depending on the value of the capacitor used. Rickenbacker used this circuit on the bridge pickup of their bass and a sound made famous by Chris Squire who played in the group “YES”.