'56 Goldtop MOD: Out of phase pickups

[BluesZep]

Hello there

As many folks here, I like Peter green so much. So, I've always wanted to do the Peter Green mod. I don't like the idea of open a nickel covered humbucker, so I decided to do it to my Goldtop.

I did it to neck pickup. P90 pickup has 2 magnets, so I opened the pickup, and rotated both magnets. It did't take 5 minutes, and it's very easy to do. I liked the result, but I need some time to find the tones.

I've recorded a sample, a quick sample, bad played, but you can hear how it sounds now!

BluesZep - Neeed your love so bad

 

[b-squared]

There are some many tones to get with that mod, simply by changing vol/tone settings.

For the bluesy stuff, I like rolling the bridge volume down just a tad, until the sound gets sweet and percussive.

BB

 

[jessej]

Really nice tone there (and nice playing). But I didn't really understand what you had done.. 2 magnets? P90s are single coil mics, right?

I wonder if there would be any way of doing a mod like this with a push/pull pot and some rewiring so that one could have both the original and the modded sound available?

 

[BluesZep]

Really nice tone there (and nice playing). But I didn't really understand what you had done.. 2 magnets? P90s are single coil mics, right?

I wonder if there would be any way of doing a mod like this with a push/pull pot and some rewiring so that one could have both the original and the modded sound available?

Yes, P90 is single coil, but has 2 magnets. In fact, I don't know why, but has. Look at this picture, there is one magnet on each side of the screws:

I took one, rotated 180° horizontally. The magnet part that was under low E string, now is under high E string. So, I took second magnet and did the same.

 

[Christmas]

I wonder if there would be any way of doing a mod like this with a push/pull pot and some rewiring so that one could have both the original and the modded sound available?

If you want to use a switch to go from in-phase to out-of-phase, you need a four-conductor humbucker, although I'm not sure how to wire it.

Related ?: Does anyone know how to wire a four-conductor humbucker (GFS Vintage '59 in my case) without a switch so it's out-of-phase, rather than flipping the mag? (sorry for the hijack, BluesZep)

That clip sounds great, BluesZep. Really nice touch.

 

[jessej]

Very interesting... hmm hmm...
So the magnets come off easily?

 

[Sinmastah]

Very interesting... hmm hmm...
So the magnets come off easily?

Yeah they pretty much fell out of one of my pickups when I took the cover off.

 

[BluesZep]

Very interesting... hmm hmm...
So the magnets come off easily?

Yes, very easily, just using the hands

 

[jessej]

Here's an interesting interview from 30 years ago with Seth Lover, inventor of the PAF Humbucker, (among other incredible things we all use today) interviewed by Seymour Duncan. It also has the original historic story of the topic we discuss here :

Seth Lover interview 1978 vintage gibson PAF humbucking humbucker pickups guitars

 

[lifele55]

I'll be doing the mod sometime this week as well, just got the soldering iron from the gf's dad..

Thou I'm not a Peter Green fan, I do love how the pups out of phased sounds.

 

[surfer777]

What settings were you using on the amp? I don't really understand what the sound difference is with out of phase pickups. Could someone explain?

 

[Alligatorbling]

im not sure if im looking at the pic right but is the epi 56 GT RI a long tenon neck? I have never had the pups out of mine.

 

[Grand Pappy]

Do you have a sample of how it sounded before you rotated them?
Did rotating make a noticable difference?
How old are the pickups? Are they the stock Epi pickups?

 

[badform]

I did this same mod to my '06 LP DC Faded (and a few other 'bucker guitars).
The out of phase P-90 sound is very nice, tho' I can understand why a lot of people don't like it so much... lower volume, thinner "nasaly" sound. But the benefits... wow!

On a lightly overdriven amp, I can hit that middle position and get a beautiful airy, chimey clean sound without touching the amp settings. I can play rhythm parts that cut through the mix and then flip to one of the other positions for a gain/volume boost.

Oh so nice!

 

[overdriver]

im not sure if im looking at the pic right but is the epi 56 GT RI a long tenon neck? I have never had the pups out of mine.

No long tenon thats a block for the pickup for proper mounting,height thing.

 

[romeo623]

I took one, rotated 180° horizontally. The magnet part that was under low E string, now is under high E string. So, I took second magnet and did the same.

What would happen if I rotate just one magnet part? How does it suppose to sound?

 

[Dolebludger]

I had my luthier install a push/pull pot in the bridge pup volume position to put my pups in and out of phase with each other. I don't really know the details of how he did it, but it works great in conjunction with rolling off a bit of pup volume to get a variety of good tones. In this case, we did nothing to internal construction of the pups themselves, so both pups must be on to use this mod. The cost? $10, so it can't be a very complex mod.

 

[captain tightpants]

I've kicked around the idea of doing that to my old Special, I may just have to git it a try.

 

[Fuelish]

My BMG has 3 single coils wired in series, all individually switchable on and off, and has phase reversal switch for each pickup..... amazing variety of tones available. I've seen modded Teles and Strats with this same set-up .... it's pretty cool, but I still love my plain jane 'buckers in my Epi LP as well