Altering pickups

I've heard about some ways you can alter the pickups (i have humbuckers) to change the way they sound. can you tell me any methods you know? i don't care how crazy it is and i know its risky so don't worry.

I've heard of taking the pups out and re-dipping them in wax.

Also, flipping the humbucker around can change the tone a bit.....

Originally Posted by: JFRICKflipping the humbucker around can change the tone a bit.....

ive never thought of that. i'll try it if there's not a better reply to try.

If a humbucker has the 4 conductor wiring, you can rewire it in parallel rather than series (typical humbucker wiring). Wiring in parallel will cut the output almost in half, as well as affecting the tone by cutting some of the bass and low-mids. It will give the humbucker slightly more of a single coil sound, while still being hum-canceling...

If you are interested in learning more, here is a good site that explains it pretty well: http://www.1728.com/guitar.htm
Go about halfway down the page under 'Humbuckers'.

I recently rewired a humbucker to parallel, but I ended up switching it back because I liked the fuller humbucker sound. Ideally, putting a switch in so you had a choice between series or parallel wiring would be the best way to go. It would be like having two completely different pickups in the guitar...

Another (easier) thing you can do is adjust the polepieces on the humbucker - that is, if your humbucker has adjustable poles. Typically, one of the coils will have screwheads on the polepieces. Adjusting the bass side polepieces (low E) will increase the bass, the middle polepieces will increase the mids, and the treble (high e) the highs. In reality, you aren't really adjusting the tone, but rather the output of the individual strings by adjusting the corresponding polepiece, ie, if you raise the low side polepieces up high, and the high side polepieces low, you will hear the bass strings more. The good thing is, it's all easily reversible...

Originally Posted by: OSdaveAnother (easier) thing you can do is adjust the polepieces on the humbucker - that is, if your humbucker has adjustable poles. Typically, one of the coils will have screwheads on the polepieces. Adjusting the bass side polepieces (low E) will increase the bass, the middle polepieces will increase the mids, and the treble (high e) the highs. In reality, you aren't really adjusting the tone, but rather the output of the individual strings by adjusting the corresponding polepiece, ie, if you raise the low side polepieces up high, and the high side polepieces low, you will hear the bass strings more. The good thing is, it's all easily reversible...

yea thanks, i've done this one before and i really liked the results. and in fact its more complicated than it seems because if you raise the screws too much, it completely flips the effect.. like if i raise the high string screws a little too high, it will become more mid-bassy than trebley.

what will happen if i flip the neck humbucker around? how about the bridge humbucker? how will it effect the tone?

Originally Posted by: pure

what will happen if i flip the neck humbucker around? how about the bridge humbucker? how will it effect the tone?

Flipping the humbuckers around really won't make much of a noticeable difference - you still have two coils wound roughly the same amount. Even if the coils were wound drastically different, you would only be offsetting them by an inch or so by flipping them. I think in general, the difference in 'tone' that people experience by doing this is from having to change their strings when they do this - and the guitar is naturally going to sound different with new strings... But hey, if you want to try it, go for it. It's easily reversible too!

hah thats true cause i just got a new set of strings today (havent changed them since march :eek: ) so its gonna sound completely different. i guess i won't change it since it wont make that big of a difference.