Originally Posted by: JPetrucci1547Hey I found a compass and when i put the compass over the bridge pickup it is not pointing to the neck pickup. It is pointing in the opposite direction and the same happened with the neck pickup ...[font=trebuchet ms]Pay close attention here.
"If you have a compass, you can easily check this by holding it above the strings [u]between[/u] the pickups. The needle should be very strongly held in a line pointing from one pickup to the other."
The magnets in each pickup are arranged so that the poles at the top of each coil are opposite. One coil has all North poles at the top. The other coil has all South poles at the top. A compass held directly above a pickup will be strongly aligned in this field, and will not be affected by the other pickup.
The pickups need to be arranged so that the poles alternate in sequence. For example, if the bridge pickup coil next to the bridge has North poles at the top, the other coil of that pickup will have South poles at the top. The neck pickup must then have North poles at the top of the coil next to the bridge pickup, and South poles at the top of the coil next to the fret board.
Like: (bridge) NS (space) NS (fret board).
A compass held [u]between[/u] the pickups will have opposite magnetic poles on either side of it, so it will be strongly held in line.
The poles in your set up may be opposite to my example (South instead of North, and North instead of South), but as long as the poles alternate from the bridge to the fret board, it's good. Either way, the compass will be strongly aligned with the feild between the pickups.
If the pickups are installed with similar poles next to each other,
like: (bridge) NS (space) SN (fret board).
The field between them will not align the compass to point from one to the other. If you bring the compass in from one side, you will see that the compass points to the space between the pickups until you get close, then it will drift around as you pass between the pickups, and then spin around to point back at the space as you continue past the pickups.[/font]