Single Humbucker Possibilities

2013-11-13

On this page, I simply look at all the possible ways to connect a single humbucker, as a way of deciding which are novel and interesting enough to include on my guitar project.

Ways To Connect A Single Humbucker

Okay, let’s first look at how many ways there are to connect the two coils of a single humbucker pickup. In this table I tried to make an exhaustive list of possibilities, and note which are interesting and which are not.

The guitar icon in the table below indicates that this combination made it into my project.

ID	# Coils	Coil Cnxn	Phase	Notes
0-1	0	none	off	Not connected at all. This is one of the fundamental ways to connect a pickup!
1-1	1	south only	normal	One of the essential ways to wire a humbucker. Sound is like a single coil pickup, simple and bright. Susceptible to environmental hum.
1-2	1	north only	normal	One of the essential ways to wire a humbucker. Sound is like a single coil pickup. Susceptible to environmental hum.
1-3	1	south only	reverse phase	There’s no reason to reverse the phase of a coil when it is used by itself. This would sound the same as 1-1.
1-4	1	north only	reverse phase	There’s no reason to reverse the phase of a coil when it is used by itself. This would sound the same as 1-2.
2-1	2	series	normal	The classic way to wire a humbucker, also the loudest. Environmental hum is cancelled out. The sound is said to be a little dark.
2-2	2	series	south coil reverse phase	Sound is described as hollow, squawk, thin, inside-out, etc. To me it sounds far away or down a hallway. Not hum cancelling. Gotta love weird sounds.
2-3	2	series	north coil reverse phase	Probably sounds similar to 2-2, maybe minutely different.
2-4	2	series	both coils reverse phase	Don’t do this. Why would you make both coils reverse phase? It will sound the same as 2-1, but just be “wronger”. Shown for completeness.
2-5	2	parallel	normal	The second most common way to wire a humbucker. Environmental hum is cancelled out. Compared to 2-1, the sound is said to be quieter but brighter.
2-6	2	parallel	south coil reverse phase	Sound is described as hollow, squawk, thin, inside-out, etc. To me it sounds far away or down a hallway. Not hum cancelling. Gotta love weird sounds.
2-7	2	parallel	north coil reverse phase	Probably sounds similar to 2-6, maybe minutely different.
2-8	2	parallel	both coils reverse phase	Don’t do this. Why make both coils reverse phase? This will just sound the same as 2-5, but be “wronger”. Shown for completeness.

The table above shows all the possible ways to wire a single humbucker. For my project, I picked out six that were the most important. On the next page, I discuss how each of these six positions can be achieved with a single switch.

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