Which way do you wind the wire onto the bobbin?

[guitarcam123]

Does the bobbin spin clockwise or anticlockwise when you wind the coil on?

Obviously one goes one way and the other bobbin goes the other way in a humbucker, but what is the standard direction?

[David Schwab]

Traditionally PAF's are wound counterclockwise. You wind both coils in the same direction.

[guitarcam123]

oh, thanks for that. I always thought one was wound the opposite way.

I guess single coils are wound counter clockwise too then?

Wait, don't you wind one of the humbucker bobbins the opposite way to the other. So one is counter clockwise and the other clockwise? Isn't that what gets rid of the hum?

[David Schwab]

Wait, don't you wind one of the humbucker bobbins the opposite way to the other. So one is counter clockwise and the other clockwise? Isn't that what gets rid of the hum?

No, you just wire them up start to start, or finish to finish. As long as they are electrically out of phase.

You can wind one in reverse if you want. It's easier to wind them in the same direction.

[guitarcam123]

Could you please explain to me how I'd wire them out of phase then?

I always though you just wound the both in opposite directions and soldered all the wires up...

[David Schwab]

If they are in-phase, then the finish of one coil would go to the start of the next. Think of it as:

(+)/////(-) --> (+)/////(-)

Out-of-phase (or more preciesly reverse polarity... phase is a time domain effect) would be:

(+)//////(-) --> (-)//////(+)

So when the two coils are out of phase, they cancel common mode signals, like noise. Because each coil has an opposite polarity magnet pole, they also sense the strings out-of-phase, and then the out-of-phase wiring makes them in phase again. Except for the noise which wasn't induced into the coils via the magnet.

So typically the screw coil's start wire is ground, and the slug coil's start wire is hot, and the finish wires are the series connection.

[guitarcam123]

Ok, I understand now.

Thanks a lot

[guitarcam123]

I've done a bit more reading here, and I've read that humbuckers are wound in a different direction to single coils.

Does that mean that single coils are wound clockwise?

[David Schwab]

You can wind them in any direction you want.

[guitarcam123]

and that won't effect the tone?

[David Schwab]

Not at all. The only reason you see some single coils would in reverse is for hum cancelation, and even then you don't need to do that. You only need to have reverse magnetic polarity and then wire it out of phase.

[Nate]

Only in the southern hemisphere. [Ducks and watches all the fans of Austrlian guitar players order reverse wound pickups for their northern hemisphere guitars]

[guitarcam123]

Thanks, David

Nate, I live in aus...

[earthtonesaudio]

Thanks for putting it so concisely David.

I wanted to make a humbucker out of two identical single coils, so I melted the wax of one, flipped the magnet, put it back and let the wax cool again. I thought the last step would then be to connect the leads start-start or finish-finish, but I was having second thoughts about whether that was the same thing as clockwise/anticlockwise.

You only need to have reverse magnetic polarity and then wire it out of phase.

This clears it up for me!

[ShannonH]

Only in the southern hemisphere. [Ducks and watches all the fans of Austrlian guitar players order reverse wound pickups for their northern hemisphere guitars]

they're called "antipodal" windings....