Please explain this because my understanding is not sufficient

[eschertron]

I have a humbucker-equipped guitar, and I put a SD Pearly Gates in the bridge position. It sounded thin and underwound. Over this last weekend, I took a look at the wiring that I did do it. Here's what I found:

The SD wiring diagram shows BLK - hot, Green - ground, and Red + White soldered and taped (I do NOT have a coil tap connected). There is also a shield wire for the four-conductor. What I had in the guitar was the BLK and Green swapped, so the BLK and shield were soldered to the ground connection, and the Green wire to the switch hot. OK, yes, the pickup was out of phase with the neck PU when the selector switch combined their output. After swapping the BLK and Green as per the wiring diagram (so the shield connected now to the Green, connected to ground), the phase issue was fixed, but also the character of the pickup changed totally. It is now not nearly as thin-sounding as it was, and is also much hotter than before.

Just changing the phase of the pickup wouldn't alter its tonal characteristics, so what gives? Is there something I don't know about the shielding on that pickup? Would an iffy solder joint explain this? Thanks for any comments.

[The Dude]

Are you saying it was thin and less hot BY ITSELF (without being used in combination with the other pickup)? If so, that is odd and shouldn't be. If it was thin sounding when used in combination with the neck pickup, that makes total sense. That's what out of phase sounds like.

[big_teee]

+1 What the Dude said.
If just out of phase in the middle position then the two pickups were wired out of phase.
If It was thin by itself then you may have had a bad wire connection.
I like the Pearl Gates Pickups, good choice.
T

[soundguruman]

I have a humbucker-equipped guitar, and I put a SD Pearly Gates in the bridge position. It sounded thin and underwound. Over this last weekend, I took a look at the wiring that I did do it. Here's what I found:

The SD wiring diagram shows BLK - hot, Green - ground, and Red + White soldered and taped (I do NOT have a coil tap connected). There is also a shield wire for the four-conductor. What I had in the guitar was the BLK and Green swapped, so the BLK and shield were soldered to the ground connection, and the Green wire to the switch hot. OK, yes, the pickup was out of phase with the neck PU when the selector switch combined their output. After swapping the BLK and Green as per the wiring diagram (so the shield connected now to the Green, connected to ground), the phase issue was fixed, but also the character of the pickup changed totally. It is now not nearly as thin-sounding as it was, and is also much hotter than before.

Just changing the phase of the pickup wouldn't alter its tonal characteristics, so what gives? Is there something I don't know about the shielding on that pickup? Would an iffy solder joint explain this? Thanks for any comments.

See, eschertron is the ultimate genius of all electronics...
but he wants to know about "sound."

I was just talking about "sound" (listening) being the "other" 50% off all repairs.
First, you repair it make it work correctly. That's 50%.
Then you "listen" to it. That's the other 50%.

The phase reversal when two pickups are combined does indeed alter the tonal characteristic.
Out of phase frequencies cancel, it's changing the EQ of the output. The output level is reduced. It sounds cool, thin, and really sparkly clean.
In phase frequencies add, It's changing the EQ curve of the output. The output is increased. Probably a lot more low mid bass frequencies.
The difference between them is radical.

All along the guitar string, there are in and out of phase vibrations...
and you are amplifying two different points on the guitar string, in or out of phase.

It's cool to have a switch to reverse it, guitar players like to have that 'thin' out of phase sound available.
But also they like to have the louder bassy-er higher output sound too.

But the consideration is also hum in the audio,
two humbucking pickups in or out of phase...
or two single coil, in or out of phase.
The hum is also something to think on, if you are installing this stuff in a guitar.

You are hooking to a high gain amp, and making sure the guitar hum is minimized, hopefully.

[eschertron]

+1 What the Dude said.
If just out of phase in the middle position then the two pickups were wired out of phase.
If It was thin by itself then you may have had a bad wire connection.
I like the Pearl Gates Pickups, good choice.
T

In the out-of-phase position, it was very 'squawky'. Yes, I like that sound. Starting to miss it

But the head-scratcher is that BY ITSELF, with only the black and green wires swapped between signal and ground, the tone was quite different. Are we in agreement that the shield wire would NOT make any difference as long as it was connected to whichever wire was grounded?

If the thinner, low output signal can be explained by a cold solder joint then I will have learned something here today. Thanks!

[big_teee]

I test my hand wound pickups in my test guitar.
I use small wire nuts to connect the pickup for testing.
A few days ago I had a loose conncetion, and it sounded thin, just like your talking about.
I retightened everything and all was well!
T