RWRP P-pickup Question

[big_teee]

For a P-J Bass?
I would experiment with wiring the P pickup non hum canceling?
Maybe, both coils in series, South up, both coils CW.
Then try winding the Bridge J coil North up CCW.
That would give Hum canceling when both P & J are used together, and would alleviate the string binding problem.
However I don't know anyone that plays that way. Just regular and slap bass.
Also opt for better shielding.
T

[Lollar Jason]

I know this is kind of an old discussion but I rarely come by anymore. We just had this come up at the Berlin pickup panel from an audience question. It’s more exaggerated when you make a split coil where the coils are in line like a strat coil with a coil around the EAD and a coil around the GBE or like a dimarzio j bass bridge pickup. It’s because the magnetic fields are closer together than a staggered split coil- anyway if the coils are opposite winds and the magnets are opposing- north on one and south on the other if you bend the string to in between the two coils you get a drop in output because where the magnetic fields meet they cancel each other out and apparently it also demagnetizes the string. If you have the coils opposing directions and the magnetic polarity the same- south on both or north on both when you bend the string to the middle it will sound out of phase- try it.
Opposing winding direction has to do with hum cancelling, magnetic polarity has to do with phasing, having two coils wound the same direction and having one south and one north does not hum cancel- it makes an out of phase scene. If you stagger the coils or pole pieces you can lessen the degree of field cancellation or in an extreme stagger avoid it all together. Of course you can change the phase by reversing winding direction but you still have to have one coil going clockwise to ground and the other counterclockwise to ground to hum cancel I think most of us here will know that but I know its not commonly considered.
I have seen old split P basses made at the factory with alike magnetic polarity- who would have thought a bass would have its strings bent in 1957 when the split coil was designed? I would guess eventually some players complained so they changed the magnet configuration- speculation on my part.