JJ Blair
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2011
- Messages
- 3,462
Yeah. Thanks. The reason why I ask is that I suspect my middle PUP was fudged with, and I'm trying to put this dispute to rest to people who insist that the polarity is reversed.
When I first got my LPC the middle pickup was so nasally sounding, I didn't like it. So, (since the pickup covers had already been off) I flipped the magnet.
It now sounds like a strat pickup in the middle position. Which I like a lot!
Also, how about some more pics of the OPs 58 LPC.
This would indicate that indeed your middle pickup was out of phase with the bridge pickup. By flipping the magnet, you put the two pickups in phase. That middle pickup does not operate by itself when the toggle is in the middle position. A resistance measurements before after the flipping would have shown that the middle position had a lower resistance than did the bridge position. After the magnet flip, that resistance in the middle position is a higher resistance than is the bridge position....and is likely to be quite a bit more powerful than a Strat middle pickup.
Actually, I think it is a case of one of the pickups being out of phase with the others.
It is easy to test: take a loose humbucker, hold it upside down against the pickup you're testing and line it up (slug-to-slug, screw-to-screw) and see if it is magnetically attracted or repelled. If you do this test to the 3 pickups of a PAF LPC, I think you'll get 2 pickups that attract/repel the same, and one that does the opposite.
At least it did with the '59 that I tested, though the pickups had the covers off and on over the years so I don't know if a magnet was flipped aftermarket.