If I'm not mistaken Peter's guitar (Greeny) wad actually a combination of the magnet being flipped and then the pickup being installed upside down. If you look a photos you can see the pole pieces are on the bottom the pickup instead of the top.
Turning the pickup around makes no difference to the tone what so ever this has been proven many times over the years. Also the magnet flip can be done on either pickup the result when both volumes are on full is the same you still get the Peter Green tone.
@@colinmcnab6145 false. for instance if i use a bridge humbucker with two coil designs the coil toward the bridge is brighter, and when i use that humbucker in the neck i turn the pickup around to make it brighter and sound as good as it did in the bridge position, i play metal , i know what i am doing dude . in 2014 inside a government facility called 'hellen ross mcnabb centers of knoxville Tn i was beheaded .
First thing to know for anyone attempting this: if your pickups are wax potted (like most non-Custom Shop Les Pauls), some of the wax will melt well before the nub of solder that holds the pickup cover in place, so be prepared for a bit of a mess. It took me about an hour and a half to do this, and like Alex mentions, the desoldering part is the most painful and frustrating. So if you've never soldered before or aren’t very good at it ( like myself), beware that this may frustrate you, and when that happens, you will likely burn/ scald your fingers, so be careful (ask me how I know 😞). Having said all that, the tonal difference is audible especially when you find the sweet spot as Alex explains, even on a stock 2021 Standard 50s Gold Top Les Paul. Thanks Alex!
@@coco-te1op Hmmm…I’m not sure what you mean when you say “re wax the pots”; to clarify- this method has nothing to do with the “pots”(I.e. potentiometers) at all. It is the pickups that are “wax-potted”, and I think the term arises from dipping them in a pot/ container/ bath filled with hot wax. However if we’re talking about the same thing, i.e the pickup coils, then no I didn’t have to re-wax the pickup. There was still plenty of wax on the individual coils of the humbucker when the metal pickup cover finally came off and I “looked under the hood”. If you’re looking for “warmth”, which to me means less treble frequencies, you do run the risk of getting disappointed as the “Peter Green mod” leads to a “squawkier”/ greater treble containing tone in certain combinations of volume and tone pot positions, that is somewhere between a humbucker and a single coil. The video explains this nuanced tonal shift well.
@@sanjeevmraman sorry what I meant was do you have to re wax the entire humbucker once the covers go back on. . . Dip the whole lot to air seal the covers
@@coco-te1op No. I didn’t have to. Also to clarify, even though I haven’t ever done anything related to pickup wax-potting etc., the way I understand it is that the 2 coils of the humbucker are immersed in hot wax, and the pickup cover is soldered to the backplate after that. So the wax potting is done BEFORE the humbucker cover goes back on.
I’ve never been big on 3 pickup Customs but I think the one exception might be doing this to the middle pickup and using a push/pull to turn the middle pickup on. You could get the neck and bridge in phase or either with the middle magnetically out of phase.
For those that don't know: you can play this (or any YT-) video on half speed, without the sound changing pitch. Click the cog ('settings') in the video and choose 'playback speed' and pick the one you think suits you the most.
@@socialmeaslesinpartnership1252 When you mean "Why would Ï do so?; some parts are sped up, and when you slow down the speed you can see better what he is doing (when you'd like or need to know when you want to do the same or do it yourself).
Thanks Alex, got the vintage tone I was looking for by flipping the magnet like you showed and easing back on the tome knobs. My SG sounds from the 60’s now. Amazing!
I've always loved Peter Green and his era of Fleetwood Mac. They are the only UK group that NAILS the sound and feel of Blues. I'm not interested in chasing Green's tone but this sounds wonderful. I swapped the magnet around and can't believe the assortment of tones that can be had! I feel this trick opens up a whole gambit of tones in the Les Paul. I'm keeping it.
Great video mate! Some seriously nice tone you're getting there... I'm gonna have a stab at re-wiring the neck pick up on my LP to be able to switch to 'out of phase' with a push pull tone pot... If it ends up sounding anything like yours, I'll be smiling
I’ve done a phase switch and there’s some pretty cool and useable tones but it doesn’t sound like a magnetically out of phase to me. It’s a shame there’s no way to make that switchable.
@@277southtombob Interesting... It figures that the only genuine way to do it is to pop the hood and flip the magnate... I will have to pluck up the courage to try it
Some pick ups can be easily reversed by reversing the leads, no need to reverse the magnets... Put a push-pull switch in there to flip one pickup and you can have a normal/out of phase option..
@@alanaizen8220 I’ve done a couple with a phase switch and it does get some interesting sounds. The advantage that flipping the magnet has is that you don’t lose as much output and it’s not quite as thin as out of phase wiring. I’ve played a couple of Les Pauls done this way to get the Peter Green, Gary Moore tone and it does sound good but personally I use the regular both pickup sound quite often and miss having it. I like using the volumes to blend more or less of one pickup and it’s a staple for me.
Wow, I learned more in this video about tone for les paul than most videos I watched in the past three months all together. Thanks a lot. Killer playing too. I wish I had a technique. Best regards.
My guitar has this mod as I requested it when I bought it as they gave me the option. I’ve never known too much about it but this is so cool and handy. Going to use this in my college research
NICE! I always wanted a better explanation of the Peter Green out of phase setup. this has to be one of the bestdemoes of this! Thanks again Lewis. these recent videos have been absolute GOLD my man!
In order not to lose low end by the phase cancelation, but retain quackiness you need to swap the ground and positive wire from the pickup. That's the part no one mentions with the mod. Like mid strat PU. It's RWRP. Reverse wound, reverse magnet polarity. You emulate reverse wound part by swapping the wires.
Swapping ground and hot on a 2 wire PAF will make the cover and baseplate hot, introduce loads of noise and problems. Flipping the magnet shifts phase 180 degrees, flipping the wires also shifts it another 180 degrees, leading you right back where you started, in phase with the bridge pickup.
Thanks, this is the best explanation I’ve found so far, but it doesn’t seem complete. As I see it there are at least three things in play here and you only cover one. I get that the magnet is rotated 180 degrees. But on the Peter Green / Gary Moore guitar Greeny,, the neck pickup is also rotated 180 degrees, which will impact the sound as well. But you don’t do that here. Why not? If the magnet and pickup are both rotated 180 degrees, should the wiring connection to the pickup stay the same, or be reversed? Or is some other combination of the three things required?
@@AlexHamilton That is what I have never got about this mod not to nitpick. Peter Green rotated the magnet but put the pickup back upside down. Wouldn't that technically mean that the magnet is still in its original position just in an upside down casing? That the magnet itself just did a 360?
Out of phase is only with both volumes wide open... As soon as you alter either one of them the pickups don't cancel eachother out anymore and therefore no more out of phase sounds
Very interesting, i recently began to wrap-around the strings on the bridge to get more honkyness, but this method seems quite an alternative. I'll check out more, thank you!
How did the Carvins of the 1980s get the out of phase just by flipping a mini toggle? All (or most) Carvins of that era have 3 mini toggle switches. The 2 that are side by side switch the appropriate pickup to humbucker/single, and the mini toggle above those switch the pickups to out-of-phase, when both pickups are selected. I'm the original owner of a late 1984 Carvin DC160T, and own several more 80s Carvins, and yes, the mini toggle really works making the pickups out of phase.
I have a SSH configuration strat. I replaced the humbucker (bridge) and neck (single) pickups - both from the same brand. …and now I think the middle single coil is out of phase with both its neighbors. When I play each pickup individually (positions 1, 3, and 5), everything’s fine, but in the shared positions (2 & 4), the volume drops off pretty dramatically and the tone is quite thin. I clicked on the video to see if it was related and find it amusing that it’s being done on purpose. It’s not new to me, but I thought it was usually accomplished by a switch… but if you have to manually take out the magnet and reverse the poles… I’m not sure how a switch would do it.
Going to give it a try, If I don't like it I will put it back! I love the sounds other guitar greats get. I just don't want to try and be them or have their exact sound. Thank you for a great Video, B
Always found my explorer sounded a bit boring and overly punchy. Just flipped the magnet in the neck pick-up per your instructions. Instantly seems better. Excited to dial some tones in. Interestingly if I’m using the mix pickup selection and I roll one volume to zero it mutes both. Not a huge issue but an interesting outcome.
Well done Alex, well explained, concise, showing off what it can do, I have done it to a few guitars! And 1 night was messing around on a guitar I had done it to, and 1 of the quirks of that mod is, when both vols are set the the same say 6 or 7, and you drop 1 just a little to 5 and a 1/2 , or 6 and a 1/2 respectively, the volume actually gets louder! Because they are no longer in sync and the more dominant pickup is taking over? That's my understanding of what's happening!
To truly put two pickups electrically out of phase with each other, you have to flip the wires, ground and hot, of one pickup, it doesn't matter which one. Physically flipping the neck pickup (or bridge), gets the active pole pieces of each pickup closer to each other accentuating the out of phase sound. Bear in mind, the pickup which has the reversed wiring, if it has a metal cover, will cut out if the string touches the cover, also, some more hum will be heard especially at higher gain.
I had a guitar with flat tip humbuckers, after some experimentation, I found that the middle position of the guitar did not sound like it usually does. I just rotated 1 pup 180 degrees and everything is back. I didn't fiddle with the pups wires.
I flipped the neck PU around and then put in a push push knob as treble knob. Then phase shifted it on the knob. That way I can instantly get the normal setting back again. This also only sounds close to the greeny if you have old school paf alnico 2 pick up. They are darker and thus you still get the nasally sound but thicker than with alnico 5s
would just flipping the pickup upside down do the trick? curious cause i did that to mine but i didn't hear a serious change tone. Maybe i didnt change anything at all!
No happy guy it won't. When you pull the magnet out you and spin it 180 degrees, just like Alex did in the video. To reverse the polarity.... Try it again.
Thanks for showing this. I might just have to try this out. 1. Does it only affect the middle position? So it won't affect the neck pickup by itself? 2. And can I do the same with P90's?
if its done right, with both pickups on say 7 you get that sound, but that's the only time, when both volumes are the same! if you lower 1, by going from 7 to 6.5 or 6, the guitar actually gets louder, because they aren't truly out of phase volume wise!
Need PAF pickups for the Green tone, not just out of phase. Makes a huge difference. Also, the most important thing to sounding like Green is to be a REALL REALLY great blues guitarist.
Thats totally correct but I always wondered how much the the backwards mounting was changing tone? Think that was more folklore and the bigger tonal change is the phase
Hello Alex, à question for you. If i flip the magnet on the neck pickups, is the standard tone of the humbucker Will stay the same as long as i am on the neck position? And the "out of phase" tone came only on Middle position ? Thank you!
Could you not achieve the same thing by just spinning the whole pick up around once it’s loosened and taken out . Awesome video as always dude , keep on rocking
@@gibsonfan159 Does the method shown here (reverse magnet) produce the same result as the push-pull switch on some modern Les Paul's (reverse wiring), or is one method preferable over the other?
@@SaxJockey Not exactly. The electric switch method loses a lot of the bass and is more nasally whereas the magnetic switch method keeps the warmth and sounds better but sacrifices the ability to go back into phase humbucker sound without a having to unscrew everything.
@@samapple490I wonder if you could use an electromagnet in place of the regular magnetic element in the pickup. Assuming I am not wildly off about how they work you could reverse the flow of charge along the electromagnet to reverse its polarity, recreating this effect and allowing for switching in and out of phase.
Great vid ! In '06, i bought a new Epi LP Std + with the thought of doing this mod (PG fan since '72 and digging Shrine '69). Found out the pickups were potted and then considered a SD HR set but finally just use a CryBaby as a filter. Not the same but the rest didn't seem worth the trouble so....I still love the guitar, tho. It's on a stand now, just played it last night.
Best way to open the door to a new tone without using the soldering Iron cos if it's not your cup-a-tea it's easy to change back...but I love that tone and the fact that playing around with the volume controls gives you so many different variations of tone. I am going to leave it now that I have rotated the magnets and see if anyone notices the difference. By the way I noticed that there is not a world of difference between the humbucker and p90 when doing this modification.
Just a heads up for anyone doing this mod! I tried this mod and while I now love my middle position, I don't like how the neck only tone is so altered, as well as its respective tone control acting very differently. I read elsewhere that you need to flip the magnet so the up facing side becomes the down - instead of changing the polarity completely by rotating the magnet as you did. Changing the phase and reversing the polarity of the neck pickup, while being 2 different phenomena, both result in the same partial cancellation with the bridge when in the middle position. However, switching the polarity of the pickup will effect the sound of that pickup by itself, in addition to the middle, which I failed to realize. when the phase and polarity is the same between pickups, there isn't that cancellation. Instead of cancelling, the 2 sound waves from each pickup combine, hence why the middle position doesn't normally lose any beef. However, when the pickups are out of phase, each pickup by itself will sound the same, but when combined produce interference which leads to the final signal being partially cancelled (due to the 2 waves from each pickup not being in sync). This is why you get a thinner sound in the middle. Flipping the poles in the pickup causes the same interference in the middle position, but it seems like you also change the phasing between the 2 coils of the neck p/u itself, which results in a thinner neck tone as well as thinner middle.
@@AlexHamilton yes sorry! 2012! No way, I own that guitar now. I take it you installed the voodoos and broke the neck? The guitar is probably the most easiest Les Paul I’ve ever played. Completely different to my 2019 R7
thanks for this have been wanting to do this mod for awhile your explanation and simple technique made it easy for me to do this and i am extremely happy with the result, have epiphone lp custom with Gibson 57 classic + gibson 57 classic plus in guitar with 50's wiring. Thank for showing the various tones this is also achievable great work, thanks
No, it doesn't matter which way round the whole pickup is, you won't get that tone. Once you flip the magnet, again it doesn't matter which way round the whole pickup is, but you will have that tone available with both vol knobs on parity
Can you just turn the whole pick up 180, and put it back in? Probably not, or I’m sure you would’ve done that. Just wondering. After years, I just got one of those magnetic polarity tester. Turns out one of my humbuckers is out of phase, or was installed improperly. 🇺🇸🎸🤘🏻
I have a Dimarzio Super Distortion (13.64k) on the bridge of my LP and a Seymour Duncan 59 (7.4k) on the neck. Can i get this effect even with the differences between the gain of this two?
Have you ever done a side by side comparison of the peter green mod verses the jimmy page mod? I'm not an expert, but I think one is magnetically out of phase while one is electrically out of phase
Great video! Lovely tone. Can I just ask, what is the advantage of doing all the work to flip the magnet, rather than just reversing the wires to achieve the out of phase sound between the 2 humbuckers?
Didn't Peter Green have his pickup backwards? I'm assuming this method is done so you don't have to have the pickup backwards or did he have the magnet inside turned and the pickup turned? Wouldn't it just be easier to install the pickup backwards?
Noooooooooo! Aw bless, there was no need to go through such a high anxiety process. I just took the two wires from the neck pickup and swapped them over and had my neck pickup out of phase in 70 seconds . 👃I want everyone to know it doesn't have to be this much effort to get the out of phase tone, to save you all from unnecessary work & potential problems.
Dude! Thank you for posting this. Curious, did you forget to rotate the pickup too? As I understand it, the mod requires you to mount the pickup upside down too.
Beside the magnet Flip, The neck pickup itself has to be rotated too. To be Peter Green authentic … Search the old photo’s Don’t know idee the sound will change a lot by the way. This sounds cool too
Just reverse wiring. It has been done before sooo many times. It’s not a secret. Some configurations offer a switch to go from in phase to out of phase.
Being magnetically out of phase vs electrically out of phase: there's a subtle but noticeable difference in tone. Its a matter of taste (and often practicality).
@@cgavin1 I just asked a similar question on one of the other responses. I have a LP ES (semi-hollow), changing the wiring and adding a phase switch would be fiddly (working through the f holes!). Don't really want a permanent change of magnet on that LP, but think I'll try that on another humbucker guitar.
@@SaxJockey If you want to really nail the Peter Green sound you need to get a reverse wound neck pickup. Again subtle but noticeable difference. So that's reverse wound in-phase, produces out of phase middle position. In conjunction with 50s wiring its pretty much "the tone". Check this excellent video out by Ramon Goose where he shows and demonstrates the difference: th-cam.com/video/ISlXremGXM0/w-d-xo.html
yeah, It does exactly that. I've done it by accident a few times with Epiphone pickups and it sounds just like this. For anyone reading, this only works if your pickup has separate hot and earth wires, as opposed to a pickup with braided wire like a Gibson PAF / 490 type.
If I'm not mistaken Peter's guitar (Greeny) wad actually a combination of the magnet being flipped and then the pickup being installed upside down. If you look a photos you can see the pole pieces are on the bottom the pickup instead of the top.
Turning the pickup around makes no difference to the tone what so ever this has been proven many times over the years. Also the magnet flip can be done on either pickup the result when both volumes are on full is the same you still get the Peter Green tone.
@@colinmcnab6145 It does if the coils aren't balanced
@@colinmcnab6145 false. for instance if i use a bridge humbucker with two coil designs the coil toward the bridge is brighter, and when i use that humbucker in the neck i turn the pickup around to make it brighter and sound as good as it did in the bridge position, i play metal , i know what i am doing dude .
in 2014 inside a government facility called 'hellen ross mcnabb centers of knoxville Tn i was beheaded .
Jimi Hendrix just flipped his guitar upsidedown 😂👍
@@zAvAvAz how tf do you know what your talking about if you’re literally incapable of talking after what happened in that gov facility
First thing to know for anyone attempting this: if your pickups are wax potted (like most non-Custom Shop Les Pauls), some of the wax will melt well before the nub of solder that holds the pickup cover in place, so be prepared for a bit of a mess. It took me about an hour and a half to do this, and like Alex mentions, the desoldering part is the most painful and frustrating. So if you've never soldered before or aren’t very good at it ( like myself), beware that this may frustrate you, and when that happens, you will likely burn/ scald your fingers, so be careful (ask me how I know 😞). Having said all that, the tonal difference is audible especially when you find the sweet spot as Alex explains, even on a stock 2021 Standard 50s Gold Top Les Paul. Thanks Alex!
Do you have to re wax the pots?
I'm thinking of either doing this to my epiphone Sheraton standards pick up . Love the warmth
@@coco-te1op Hmmm…I’m not sure what you mean when you say “re wax the pots”; to clarify- this method has nothing to do with the “pots”(I.e. potentiometers) at all. It is the pickups that are “wax-potted”, and I think the term arises from dipping them in a pot/ container/ bath filled with hot wax. However if we’re talking about the same thing, i.e the pickup coils, then no I didn’t have to re-wax the pickup. There was still plenty of wax on the individual coils of the humbucker when the metal pickup cover finally came off and I “looked under the hood”. If you’re looking for “warmth”, which to me means less treble frequencies, you do run the risk of getting disappointed as the “Peter Green mod” leads to a “squawkier”/ greater treble containing tone in certain combinations of volume and tone pot positions, that is somewhere between a humbucker and a single coil. The video explains this nuanced tonal shift well.
@@sanjeevmraman sorry what I meant was do you have to re wax the entire humbucker once the covers go back on. . . Dip the whole lot to air seal the covers
@@coco-te1op No. I didn’t have to. Also to clarify, even though I haven’t ever done anything related to pickup wax-potting etc., the way I understand it is that the 2 coils of the humbucker are immersed in hot wax, and the pickup cover is soldered to the backplate after that. So the wax potting is done BEFORE the humbucker cover goes back on.
Way easier to just do it electronically with a push/poll switch to put it out of phase
I’ve never been big on 3 pickup Customs but I think the one exception might be doing this to the middle pickup and using a push/pull to turn the middle pickup on. You could get the neck and bridge in phase or either with the middle magnetically out of phase.
That would be awesome... Could you do it with three P-90's?
@@BennieTarrMusic three completely different wound sounding P90's would be awesome.
For those that don't know: you can play this (or any YT-) video on half speed, without the sound changing pitch. Click the cog ('settings') in the video and choose 'playback speed' and pick the one you think suits you the most.
@@socialmeaslesinpartnership1252 When you mean "Why would Ï do so?; some parts are sped up, and when you slow down the speed you can see better what he is doing (when you'd like or need to know when you want to do the same or do it yourself).
Just wired my pickups out of phase by accident, but thinking about keeping them now thanks to your video! Great playing.
what i was thinking! why didnt he just open the switch cavity?
Thanks Alex, got the vintage tone I was looking for by flipping the magnet like you showed and easing back on the tome knobs. My SG sounds from the 60’s now. Amazing!
I've always loved Peter Green and his era of Fleetwood Mac. They are the only UK group that NAILS the sound and feel of Blues.
I'm not interested in chasing Green's tone but this sounds wonderful. I swapped the magnet around and can't believe the assortment of tones that can be had! I feel this trick opens up a whole gambit of tones in the Les Paul.
I'm keeping it.
Great video mate! Some seriously nice tone you're getting there... I'm gonna have a stab at re-wiring the neck pick up on my LP to be able to switch to 'out of phase' with a push pull tone pot... If it ends up sounding anything like yours, I'll be smiling
I’ve done a phase switch and there’s some pretty cool and useable tones but it doesn’t sound like a magnetically out of phase to me. It’s a shame there’s no way to make that switchable.
@@277southtombob Interesting... It figures that the only genuine way to do it is to pop the hood and flip the magnate... I will have to pluck up the courage to try it
Some pick ups can be easily reversed by reversing the leads, no need to reverse the magnets... Put a push-pull switch in there to flip one pickup and you can have a normal/out of phase option..
@@alanaizen8220 I’ve done a couple with a phase switch and it does get some interesting sounds. The advantage that flipping the magnet has is that you don’t lose as much output and it’s not quite as thin as out of phase wiring. I’ve played a couple of Les Pauls done this way to get the Peter Green, Gary Moore tone and it does sound good but personally I use the regular both pickup sound quite often and miss having it. I like using the volumes to blend more or less of one pickup and it’s a staple for me.
Wow, I learned more in this video about tone for les paul than most videos I watched in the past three months all together. Thanks a lot. Killer playing too. I wish I had a technique. Best regards.
My guitar has this mod as I requested it when I bought it as they gave me the option. I’ve never known too much about it but this is so cool and handy. Going to use this in my college research
NICE! I always wanted a better explanation of the Peter Green out of phase setup. this has to be one of the bestdemoes of this! Thanks again Lewis. these recent videos have been absolute GOLD my man!
Love it. I've done it on both my LP's. I had to use a hairdryer to get the magnet out of my 95. Sounds brilliant.
In order not to lose low end by the phase cancelation, but retain quackiness you need to swap the ground and positive wire from the pickup. That's the part no one mentions with the mod. Like mid strat PU. It's RWRP. Reverse wound, reverse magnet polarity. You emulate reverse wound part by swapping the wires.
I prefer the thin sound to this though, would the adittion of low end mod take that away?
I dunno, I was hearing Alex get the tone of "Oh Well" at one point...
Gill...all the better reason to have a few more guitars😉
Swapping ground and hot on a 2 wire PAF will make the cover and baseplate hot, introduce loads of noise and problems. Flipping the magnet shifts phase 180 degrees, flipping the wires also shifts it another 180 degrees, leading you right back where you started, in phase with the bridge pickup.
Thanks, this is the best explanation I’ve found so far, but it doesn’t seem complete. As I see it there are at least three things in play here and you only cover one. I get that the magnet is rotated 180 degrees. But on the Peter Green / Gary Moore guitar Greeny,, the neck pickup is also rotated 180 degrees, which will impact the sound as well. But you don’t do that here. Why not? If the magnet and pickup are both rotated 180 degrees, should the wiring connection to the pickup stay the same, or be reversed? Or is some other combination of the three things required?
No i've covered everthing. Rotating the pickup makes no difference to the sound and i didn't want my pickup upside down. The wiring stays the same.
@@AlexHamilton That is what I have never got about this mod not to nitpick. Peter Green rotated the magnet but put the pickup back upside down. Wouldn't that technically mean that the magnet is still in its original position just in an upside down casing? That the magnet itself just did a 360?
Out of phase is only with both volumes wide open...
As soon as you alter either one of them the pickups don't cancel eachother out anymore and therefore no more out of phase sounds
Very interesting, i recently began to wrap-around the strings on the bridge to get more honkyness, but this method seems quite an alternative. I'll check out more, thank you!
What an excellent video! Great playing too. Thanks for putting this together. I think I’ll get my local guitar tech to do that to mine. 👍
Currently waiting for my 335 to be done, I'm getting a phase switch push pull knob put in. Time is going so SLOW!
How did the Carvins of the 1980s get the out of phase just by flipping a mini toggle? All (or most) Carvins of that era have 3 mini toggle switches. The 2 that are side by side switch the appropriate pickup to humbucker/single, and the mini toggle above those switch the pickups to out-of-phase, when both pickups are selected.
I'm the original owner of a late 1984 Carvin DC160T, and own several more 80s Carvins, and yes, the mini toggle really works making the pickups out of phase.
I have a SSH configuration strat. I replaced the humbucker (bridge) and neck (single) pickups - both from the same brand. …and now I think the middle single coil is out of phase with both its neighbors. When I play each pickup individually (positions 1, 3, and 5), everything’s fine, but in the shared positions (2 & 4), the volume drops off pretty dramatically and the tone is quite thin.
I clicked on the video to see if it was related and find it amusing that it’s being done on purpose. It’s not new to me, but I thought it was usually accomplished by a switch… but if you have to manually take out the magnet and reverse the poles… I’m not sure how a switch would do it.
Going to give it a try, If I don't like it I will put it back!
I love the sounds other guitar greats get. I just don't want to try and be them or have their exact sound.
Thank you for a great Video,
B
Always found my explorer sounded a bit boring and overly punchy. Just flipped the magnet in the neck pick-up per your instructions. Instantly seems better.
Excited to dial some tones in. Interestingly if I’m using the mix pickup selection and I roll one volume to zero it mutes both. Not a huge issue but an interesting outcome.
My LP mutes both in the middle position if you turn the volume all the way down on one and it's in phase.
I love your playing bro. Spot on for the green tone!
Well done Alex, well explained, concise, showing off what it can do, I have done it to a few guitars! And 1 night was messing around on a guitar I had done it to, and 1 of the quirks of that mod is, when both vols are set the the same say 6 or 7, and you drop 1 just a little to 5 and a 1/2 , or 6 and a 1/2 respectively, the volume actually gets louder! Because they are no longer in sync and the more dominant pickup is taking over? That's my understanding of what's happening!
What’s the acoustic blues song that plays while you flip the magnet? So so good. I want it!
@@danstaification it's one of mine. Every about my band and my music is on the website www.alexhamiltonguitar.com :)
The biggest factor in this besides the great gear and cool out of phase setup is that you are a helluva player with great feel.
Woah! Thats a good sounding les paul😊
To truly put two pickups electrically out of phase with each other, you have to flip the wires, ground and hot, of one pickup, it doesn't matter which one.
Physically flipping the neck pickup (or bridge), gets the active pole pieces of each pickup closer to each other accentuating the out of phase sound.
Bear in mind, the pickup which has the reversed wiring, if it has a metal cover, will cut out if the string touches the cover, also, some more hum will
be heard especially at higher gain.
I had a guitar with flat tip humbuckers, after some experimentation, I found that the middle position of the guitar did not sound like it usually does.
I just rotated 1 pup 180 degrees and everything is back.
I didn't fiddle with the pups wires.
I have an early 80's Hamer Special that was wired from the factory for "the Peter Green sound", as they called it. #1 in the arsenal.
Not doing a before and after comparison was a missed opportunity I think but otherwise a good video that sounds lovely
well done
The main reason for my comment about the plywood cap is that the guitar sounds great, so much talk about what makes the "tone" of a guitar.
Maybe the best guitar demo vid on YT
Thank you for this 👏👏
An absolutely SUPERB demonstration (!)
I flipped the neck PU around and then put in a push push knob as treble knob. Then phase shifted it on the knob.
That way I can instantly get the normal setting back again.
This also only sounds close to the greeny if you have old school paf alnico 2 pick up.
They are darker and thus you still get the nasally sound but thicker than with alnico 5s
I think this is the first video I've seen that detailed the procedure so precise...thank you!
I dont know how i exsisted w/o flipping my magnets, very helpful ty great playing....
Incredible job on the vid and great playing too! Excellent!
Cheers!
Just did this to me Greenie copy! Video was so helpful. Got my Gibson Wildwood Select Greenie copy perfect now!
Pleases forgive my apparent ignorance, but why not just turn the entire humbucker 180 on the horizontal plane for the same effect? Just asking.
Good point!
would just flipping the pickup upside down do the trick? curious cause i did that to mine but i didn't hear a serious change tone. Maybe i didnt change anything at all!
That doesn't change the polarity.
No happy guy it won't. When you pull the magnet out you and spin it 180 degrees, just like Alex did in the video. To reverse the polarity.... Try it again.
@@telerooo5213 Thankyou. I switched the magnet the other way the other day so now I have Peter green tone down quite well. Thanks for the help
Like you said ! You nailed it all. And ....... It's all about the volume controls
Thanks for showing this. I might just have to try this out.
1. Does it only affect the middle position? So it won't affect the neck pickup by itself?
2. And can I do the same with P90's?
It only affects the middle position.
Yes you can do this with any combination of pickups. P90s will work in the exact same way. 👍
Love what you wrote on the pad to your left
if its done right, with both pickups on say 7 you get that sound, but that's the only time, when both volumes are the same! if you lower 1, by going from 7 to 6.5 or 6, the guitar actually gets louder, because they aren't truly out of phase volume wise!
Need PAF pickups for the Green tone, not just out of phase. Makes a huge difference. Also, the most important thing to sounding like Green is to be a REALL REALLY great blues guitarist.
Thats totally correct but I always wondered how much the the backwards mounting was changing tone? Think that was more folklore and the bigger tonal change is the phase
Thanks for this very informative video. Can this be done successfully on a H S Telecaster?
Hello Alex, à question for you. If i flip the magnet on the neck pickups, is the standard tone of the humbucker Will stay the same as long as i am on the neck position? And the "out of phase" tone came only on Middle position ?
Thank you!
Yeah the neck humbucker will sound the same on its own 😎
Could you not achieve the same thing by just spinning the whole pick up around once it’s loosened and taken out . Awesome video as always dude , keep on rocking
That doesn't change the polarity.
@@gibsonfan159 Does the method shown here (reverse magnet) produce the same result as the push-pull switch on some modern Les Paul's (reverse wiring), or is one method preferable over the other?
@@SaxJockey Not exactly. The electric switch method loses a lot of the bass and is more nasally whereas the magnetic switch method keeps the warmth and sounds better but sacrifices the ability to go back into phase humbucker sound without a having to unscrew everything.
In a nutshell no! Turning the pickup around does nothing.
@@samapple490I wonder if you could use an electromagnet in place of the regular magnetic element in the pickup.
Assuming I am not wildly off about how they work you could reverse the flow of charge along the electromagnet to reverse its polarity, recreating this effect and allowing for switching in and out of phase.
Great vid !
In '06, i bought a new Epi LP Std + with the thought of doing this mod (PG fan since '72 and digging Shrine '69).
Found out the pickups were potted and then considered a SD HR set but finally just use a CryBaby as a filter.
Not the same but the rest didn't seem worth the trouble so....I still love the guitar, tho.
It's on a stand now, just played it last night.
Best way to open the door to a new tone without using the soldering Iron cos if it's not your cup-a-tea it's easy to change back...but I love that tone and the fact that playing around with the volume controls gives you so many different variations of tone. I am going to leave it now that I have rotated the magnets and see if anyone notices the difference. By the way I noticed that there is not a world of difference between the humbucker and p90 when doing this modification.
What a good video, wow. Dude you are a siiiiiiick player too…freakin lit, and ablaze sir…
I flipped just the neck pickup . Works Well ! Why your neck pickup is the same position ?
Just a heads up for anyone doing this mod! I tried this mod and while I now love my middle position, I don't like how the neck only tone is so altered, as well as its respective tone control acting very differently. I read elsewhere that you need to flip the magnet so the up facing side becomes the down - instead of changing the polarity completely by rotating the magnet as you did.
Changing the phase and reversing the polarity of the neck pickup, while being 2 different phenomena, both result in the same partial cancellation with the bridge when in the middle position. However, switching the polarity of the pickup will effect the sound of that pickup by itself, in addition to the middle, which I failed to realize. when the phase and polarity is the same between pickups, there isn't that cancellation. Instead of cancelling, the 2 sound waves from each pickup combine, hence why the middle position doesn't normally lose any beef. However, when the pickups are out of phase, each pickup by itself will sound the same, but when combined produce interference which leads to the final signal being partially cancelled (due to the 2 waves from each pickup not being in sync). This is why you get a thinner sound in the middle.
Flipping the poles in the pickup causes the same interference in the middle position, but it seems like you also change the phasing between the 2 coils of the neck p/u itself, which results in a thinner neck tone as well as thinner middle.
I’m thinking my LP Classic came stock with this. The tone pot for the neck pickup is push pull for out of phase
Does it really work like that? I have a classic as well and I thought about doing this mod but if that's the case ill probably do it to my sg instead
@@Mrmeatandfish1 I think so.
Awesome tones. I'm braking out the tools right now ... AWESOME!
Is this sonically different than out-of-phase wiring? As in swapping the hot and ground leads of one pickup?
Just came in on this one...
Would the same effect take place if the magnet was turned over ("rolled over") 180°?
nice tones!
no wire swapping was done? just flip the magnet?
works on either ceramic or alnico mag humbuckers?
Is there a difference in sound between swapping the magnet or using a push/pull pot and wiring change? Thanks
Hi mate, little random. Did you own a 1957 Gibson Les Paul gold top reissue (2007)
That had out of phase and voodoo pickups?
Sounds similar! It was a 2012, headstock repair? Yes to the voodoos for sure
@@AlexHamilton yes sorry! 2012!
No way, I own that guitar now. I take it you installed the voodoos and broke the neck? The guitar is probably the most easiest Les Paul I’ve ever played. Completely different to my 2019 R7
That's the one! God I put a lot of mines on that guitar. There are gouges in the fretboard 😂 Keep in touch, keep me in mind if you ever sell!
th-cam.com/video/NhMrnwWmDLc/w-d-xo.html
Great explanation for the magnet flip and some tasty licks as a bonus.
thanks for this have been wanting to do this mod for awhile your explanation and simple technique made it easy for me to do this and i am extremely happy with the result, have epiphone lp custom with Gibson 57 classic + gibson 57 classic plus in guitar with 50's wiring. Thank for showing the various tones this is also achievable great work, thanks
Instead of flipping the magnet would you get the same tone if you just put the humbucker in backwards? Thanks
No, it doesn't matter which way round the whole pickup is, you won't get that tone. Once you flip the magnet, again it doesn't matter which way round the whole pickup is, but you will have that tone available with both vol knobs on parity
Flip the wires.
Wow him doing this to my tobacco LP. That's incredible
Thanks for this awesome demo, I'm really thinking to do this mod as well, getting that Snowy White's tone
You do this on both pickups or just the bridge? Will this work on burstbuckers or just on vintage pupus?
Question: Is this the same sound you might get by switching the leads on one of the pickups, instead of flipping the magnet?
So too kinda sum it up in order to achieve his out of phase tone just roll the bridge volume a bit higher then neck in middle position?
Can you just turn the whole pick up 180, and put it back in? Probably not, or I’m sure you would’ve done that. Just wondering.
After years, I just got one of those magnetic polarity tester. Turns out one of my humbuckers is out of phase, or was installed improperly. 🇺🇸🎸🤘🏻
I have a Dimarzio Super Distortion (13.64k) on the bridge of my LP and a Seymour Duncan 59 (7.4k) on the neck. Can i get this effect even with the differences between the gain of this two?
Have you ever done a side by side comparison of the peter green mod verses the jimmy page mod? I'm not an expert, but I think one is magnetically out of phase while one is electrically out of phase
Yep
The magnet out of phase is the easiest and somehow more "honky" Bb king ish on my BUrst buckers
Than the Electrically oop Whole lotta buckers
Thanks Dude - always great to find a concise and well presented video with just the info I was actually looking for
Great video! Lovely tone. Can I just ask, what is the advantage of doing all the work to flip the magnet, rather than just reversing the wires to achieve the out of phase sound between the 2 humbuckers?
There really isn't any, this way is just the"traditional"method
Didn't Peter Green have his pickup backwards? I'm assuming this method is done so you don't have to have the pickup backwards or did he have the magnet inside turned and the pickup turned? Wouldn't it just be easier to install the pickup backwards?
I thought we could have Greeny sound in the middle position at every VOL and tone level ? It is true ?? Want to do the mod…thanks for your help 🙏😉.
I just keep coming back for the great playing...lol..
Thanks man!
Very good vid. Also.......what a serious serious player.
Bro how do you play so good and where did you learn those cool blues licks?
When you had your pickup removed I could see that the body cap looks like plywood is that the case?
Noooooooooo!
Aw bless, there was no need to go through such a high anxiety process. I just took the two wires from the neck pickup and swapped them over and had my neck pickup out of phase in 70 seconds .
👃I want everyone to know it doesn't have to be this much effort to get the out of phase tone, to save you all from unnecessary work & potential problems.
Bless you too! You've now got a noisey, buzzing neck pickup 🙏
The neck pickup in the neck position will have the same sound as before? only the middle position sound changes?
You can do the same fliping just the magnet in the bridge nd not in the neck pickup?
ConStratulations!
Dude! Thank you for posting this. Curious, did you forget to rotate the pickup too? As I understand it, the mod requires you to mount the pickup upside down too.
Beside the magnet Flip, The neck pickup itself has to be rotated too. To be Peter Green authentic … Search the old photo’s
Don’t know idee the sound will change a lot by the way. This sounds cool too
Turning the pickup around makes no difference to the tone what so ever that was proven long ago.
The bridge pickup has to be louder than the bass pickup so turn down the volume slightly on the bass pickup and you've got the sound
Just reverse wiring. It has been done before sooo many times. It’s not a secret. Some configurations offer a switch to go from in phase to out of phase.
@@issamchabaa45 taters gonna tate
Sounds great.. all Les Pauls should come from the factory like this! is there any benefit in doing this over changing the wiring ?
Being magnetically out of phase vs electrically out of phase: there's a subtle but noticeable difference in tone. Its a matter of taste (and often practicality).
wozzlepop cheers 👍🏻
@@cgavin1 I just asked a similar question on one of the other responses. I have a LP ES (semi-hollow), changing the wiring and adding a phase switch would be fiddly (working through the f holes!). Don't really want a permanent change of magnet on that LP, but think I'll try that on another humbucker guitar.
@@SaxJockey If you want to really nail the Peter Green sound you need to get a reverse wound neck pickup. Again subtle but noticeable difference. So that's reverse wound in-phase, produces out of phase middle position. In conjunction with 50s wiring its pretty much "the tone". Check this excellent video out by Ramon Goose where he shows and demonstrates the difference: th-cam.com/video/ISlXremGXM0/w-d-xo.html
@@cgavin1 Thanks for that. Had noticed that video but not yet watched it. Interesting stuff.
that was amazing! thank you so much Alex.
Nice vid. Very informative. Great playing. Thought at around 5:20 you were gonna kick into "Oh Well"??? Not to be so...'oh well'! ✌♥️
Does this just change the tone when both pickups are on or also just the neck pickup?
Will be doing this to my Gibby really soon. Thanks for this video
I tried this with a Rothwell and a Gibson pickups and could not melt the stuff holding down the base plate!
The factory solder normally has a really high melting point! A high wattage iron with a big tip is the easiest way. Weller make some affordable ones 😎
What kind of pickups are in your LP?
Are they burstbuckers? Cheers Pal
Wouldn't just flipping wires give you the same result?
yeah, It does exactly that. I've done it by accident a few times with Epiphone pickups and it sounds just like this. For anyone reading, this only works if your pickup has separate hot and earth wires, as opposed to a pickup with braided wire like a Gibson PAF / 490 type.
Nice video, what pickups are in your guitar ?
AThose asre sigils, right? i have Stephens design in my my LP they sound very simular. I heard sigils were good..
Sunbear, rather....very vintage sounding....
I got the same effect by rotate 1 pup 180 degrees, without fiddling with a soldering iron and a magnet.
Question can just turn the pickup wrong way to get the phase sound ?
Nope, you have to flip it or wire a push pull pot.