Guitar pickup phase is simply the direction in which the wave form moves first.
When the strings are played that vibration is ‘heard’ by the pickup. The pickup converts the movement to electricity. The waveform of that electrical signal is roughly a sine wave. If the sine wave moves up first it is called positive phase.
If it’s first movement is down it’s called negative phase.
If you have a guitar with just one single coil pickup, like a Les Paul Junior, this makes no difference. But if you are combining more than one pickup like a HSS Strat then phase can be important.
Imagine a guitar with 2 pickups. Then think these 2 pickups are in the opposite phase to each other. The 2 signals are out of phase so will cancel each other out. This is how noise canceling headphones work. But the signals are not identical. The pickups are listening to different parts of the string vibrations. So the signal isn’t completely lost, it’s just greatly reduced. What you are left with is a thin quaky tone.
The convention is for humbuckers to be in positive phase. Single coils (at least Fender types) are in negative phase.
So what happens if you want to convert your Strat to HSS. Maybe add a humbucker to the neck position of your Telecaster. that’s where 4 conductor humbucker wire comes in. It’s a simple case of swapping two wires.
All Mr Glyn’s Pickups single coil pickups come with 3 conductor wire – positive, negative and earth. That way its easy to change the phase of your P90 without a problem.
Table of Contents
I use a Strat to demonstrate the ‘out of phase’ sound and how it would sound if it really was out of phase. There’s no maths, no diagrams. Just a simple explanation with a guitar to demonstrate.
In this short video I look at what guitar pickup phase is, what it isn’t and why you need to know any of this.
Guitar Pickup Phase Explained
Busting the Out Of Phase myth
Positions 2 and 4 on Strat switches are often referred to as ‘out of phase’ when they really aren’t. Those positions are the sound of 2 pickups in parallel (a humbucker is in series). Out of phase is quite different as you’ll hear in this video.
There is another video in this series explaining how to test phase – the easy way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lhnCf4JIyw&t=3s
Pickup Phase Explained
For more blog posts https://mrglynspickups.com/blog/
Updated July 2023
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