Humbucker question

[chansencc]

I have looked quite extensively, but I can't seem to find the answer to my question... perhaps I not looking in the right places. Why do some humbucker pickups have screws for the second bobbin while others have magnets on both rows.

The first pic is of a bassline p/u the second is just the stewmac diagram of their kit. is the Bassline still technically a humbucker or are the two coils wired differently? Series vs. Parallel?


Thanks! I'm quite new to this but I really did try to find the answers first!

Christian

[Chuck H]

I'm pretty sure the answers you want are online somewhere (though I'm not going to look for them myself). Most pickup MFG sites have a description of the purpose and benefits of "adjustable pole pieces" (screws). They are for raising or lowering the magnetic field as it relates to each string. IMHO it never was a great solution. Thats probably why many modern pickups don't bother with them. With the exception of old school guitar humbuckers like the designer models made by DiMarzio, Duncan, etc. That could be more about maintaining an accepted appearance than actual function. Don't get me wrong, they do work. And I faithfully adjust them on all my guitars. But the actual improvement can seem imaginary at times because it's so small.

A notable exception to my experience with screw poles in humbuckers is the old "staggered" pole single coil strat pickups. If you try use modern guitar strings with a plain G the staggered pickups can make the G notably louder than the other strings.

As for the wiring of other types of two coil pickups...If it says it's a humbucker, it's a humbucker. And sometimes even if it doesn't Some pickups are wired to function as either a humbucker, single coil or even halfway in between. It can get pretty trick. Again, this is especially true with bass pickups. What I can tell you is that no self respecting modern bass pickup MFG that wants to stay in business is going to make a noisy pickup. There are a couple of ways to make a pickup "buck" hum. Not all are humbuckers. But I'd bet that most, if not all, of the modern industry accepted bass pickups are "noisless" or "low noise" in some way.

Modern pickups, especially for bass guitar, are wired in many ways to achieve tonal variety. I'm not familiar with the Bassline pickup so without a diagram I can't say if it's a humbucker. That info should be available on their site or through a distributor.

You may want to re ask this question in the pickup forum here. They're nice guys and they don't mind noob questions. You will likely get some opinions that contradict mine and someone there may be familiar with the Bassline pickup.

Chuck

[chansencc]

Thanks Chuck, that helped me a lot. I think I am starting to understand a little better here. I did post this question on the other thread which was also a big help. Thanks!

[EffectsGuru]

the answer to your humbucker question..

OK, the reason that some have the screws is so you can adjust the height of the magnetic field, which adjusts the sound, but they should all come pre-calibrated, and I think most today in humbuckers are non-functional, I can tell you with certainty that the old dog ear P-90 Pickups (which were invented BEFORE humbuckers) used the screws for height adjustment as the P-90's were surface mounted onto the guitars top, so the only way to adjust how close the magnets were to the strings was by adjusting those screws, but with modern humbuckers that isn't necessary, because of the way they are mounted you can adjust the height of the 2 screws outside of the pickup (the screws that are in the pickup ring). So pretty much I beleive it just carried over from the P-90's design to the humbucker when Seth Lover invented it.