Category: How Pickups Work

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Understanding the ’72 Fender Mustang Bass Pickup Design

The ’72 Fender Mustang Bass Pickup may appear to be a budget model but Leo Fender cared about his products and everything was thoroughly thought out.

A bit of history

I get to repair old pickups as well as make new ones so when I was sent this old Mustang Bass Pickup I thought it was worth taking a few pics and writing about it.

This was the last bass designed by Leo Fender before he sold Fender to CBS in ’65. This pickup shows all the thought and consideration you would expect from the great man. It’s easy to dismiss pickups on ‘budget’ guitars but there’s a lot more to this one than meets the eye.

The later version of this instrument, the Musicmaster Bass had a single coil pickup straight out of a Stratocaster – yes really. Here is more on the Musicmaster bass pickup. I make my own version of the Musicmaster bass pickup in two flavours.

The original Mustang bass pickup that I have here is a split pair, like a precision bass pickup but with a few essential design differences.

Mustang Bass Pickup

What makes the Mustang Bass Pickup great

The obvious thing is that it’s smaller, but there’s a good reason for that.

The Mustang is a short scale bass, 30″. With a shorter scale comes less string tension and a much boomier sound with less percussive highs and a fatter bottom end.

So why didn’t he just use P Bass pickup?

It’s obvious from the design of the Mustang Bass Pickup that the intention was not to just knock out a cheap student model but to make a great instrument only with a shorter scale.

'72 Fender Mustang Bass Pickup

You can see that the magnets are protruding out of the bottom of the base plate – they’re 24mm long alnico 5 magnets. P Bass magnets are around half that length. Bigger magnets means more pull on the string and more punch to the attack of the note.

The distance between top and bottom plates is greater on the Mustang than the P Bass. This gives a much taller pickup. With a taller pickup more of the windings are closer to the magnet. A P Bass’ windings can get a lot further away from that magnetic field by the time you get to the outside turns.

Windings closer to the magnet gives a sharper, more percussive mote than the mellower P Bass.

With roughly the same turn count between P Bass and mustang this means the Mustang’s footprint is smaller.

Both those factors – coil geometry and magnetic pull are specifically designed to offset the lack of definition you can hear in a short scale bass.

This was not the easiest path to take. The magnets would have to have been specially made and the flatwork (top and bottom plates) would have been made specifically for this model. Not least there would have been molds made to injection mold the covers.

It was all about getting the best possible sound from a short scale bass while make the price accessible to more musicians.

It’s a clever design.

Five years later when CBS were running Fender they introduced the same bass but with a Stratocaster (yes, 6 pole) pickup. Now that was taking the easy route. Leo Fender always did things the best way he could, working up to a standard rather than down to a price.

If you’re interested in Leo Fender read Forrest White’s book, he was there.

So back to the Mustang Bass Pickup repair

As you can see from the colour of the windings the wire has plain enamel insulation. The insulation does make a difference. Not all insulation is the same thickness. Thicker insulation means windings are further away from each other. This changes the pickups capacitance and to an extent inductance and dc resistance. Remember, we’re multiplying small differences by how many turns there are, in this case over 10,000.

It appears this coil failed due to corrosion of the magnetic pole

You can see the corrosion in this pic.

In the 70’s Fender pickups were potted in lacquer rather than wax in both earlier and later periods. The lacquer didn’t penetrate all the way to the core of the pickup and this is the result.

Before I re-wound this coil it was rust proofed and insulated – I want this repair to outlive me.

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2 String Pickup

2 String pickup NZ$139 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ $120.87

D.C. resistance 3.3 kOhms, Alnico 5

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I was contacted by a customer recently wanting a 2 string pickup. Was it for a 2 string guitar? Maybe some other instrument…

2 String pickup by MrGlyns Pickups

Why would you want a 2 string guitar pickup?

The idea behind this pickup is for it to be mounted to a conventional electric guitar for it to just ‘hear’ the E and A strings. Then that signal is sent out separately from the main guitar pickups and put through a pedal to lower it an octave. The octave down sound can be amplified separately or combined with the signal from the 6 string pickups. It’s one of those ideas that the more you think about it the more uses you find for it.

I came across this idea before back in 2014. Here is a blog post on 2 string pickups I wrote back then. The ones I made then were a little different. One was for a bouzouki and another for an acoustic guitar. The overall idea was the same. The idea is to only hear one or two strings and to lower the signal by an octave.

Design

I had a lot of questions for the customer. In the end I concluded the pure signal from a single coil pickup was needed. And that pick guard mounted mounting would be best.

So I got on the computer and designed what was essentially a cut down Strat pickup.

2 String pickup CAD MrGlyns Pickups
2 String CAD drawing

My plan was to design the pickup using a CAD program and then laser cut the top and bottom plates. It is constructed the same way as a Fender.

The advantages of using a laser cutter are simply accuracy and repeatability. The customer wanted 2 pickups and, well, I have been asked before, maybe I will again. Spending time on the CAD drawing means I’ll only have to do this once, next time it will be a lot easier.

2 string pickup laser cutting MrGlyns Pickups
Laser cutting

Pickup Construction

The bobbins have a top and bottom plate laser cut from Forbon (like a Fender) and held together with the magnets. I have my magnets specially made for me, these are the two middle magnets from ‘Tui’ pickup. As extra security I always super glue the magnets and flatwork together as well as insulate the magnets from the windings – I want to be sure. I haven’t shown that in this picture.

2 string pickup bobbins by MrGlyns Pickups
bobbins

I chose the Tui design and winding count because of its strong clear signal. The bass strings need to have a big clear chime if they’re going to be lowered an octave. I don’t want them to sound mushy or undefined.

Once they were wound I potted them in hot wax to prevent micro-phonic feedback. It’s turning out to be a really cute little 2 String Pickup.

2 string strat pickup by MrGlyns PIckups

The finished pickup

I did consider designing and 3D printing a cover for this 2 string pickup. I think it will be something I’ll do in future but there isn’t the budget for that this time. To finish the pickup off after wiring it up I taped the coil for protection. It’s ended up looking more like a mini Tele bridge pickup.

2 string pickup by MrGlyns Pickups

And there’s the perfect space on the bottom for one of my stickers.

A few weeks later I received an email from the customer saying – “It’s sounding great – I’m noticing much better string isolation then what I was getting with the cheap cigar box pup”.

He included this picture of his rather cool looking guitar:

2 string pickup MrGlyns Pickups, New Zealand
2 String Pickup

If you have a project in mind please get in touch. I’m not always going to say yes but sometimes I do.

Pickup Height

The base plate is designed with the intention of a pick guard mounting like in a Strat type guitar. There is always going to be some modifying needed to fit this pickup.

Remember, you’re aiming at a pickup height of 2mm. That’s from the top of the magnet to the underside of the string. That measurement is taken when fretting the last fret.

This diagram should help:

How to adjust guitar pickup height, Diagram pickup height.
Measuring Pickup Height

That measurement is not super critical but you need to be close. If the pickup is too far away you will not get a strong, clear signal.

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Strat Wiring – simple mod

Strat Wiring must be the most modded wiring of all. It’s not that the original wiring isn’t great, there are just so many other possibilities. When I worked as a guitar repairer I re-wired a lot of Stratocasters. There are so many options, so many things that can be changed. A lot of players have their favourite versions of wiring up these fantastic guitars.

What I did find when I as modifying other peoples guitars is they would often come back to something close to standard wiring in the end. After trying multiple switching in every combination, series, parallel, coil tapping, humbuckers … it goes on, they often returned their Strat so something very close to the way Leo Fender originally did it back in 1954. There is a lot to be said in favour of simplicity.

Here I’m simply going to show you the standard way of wiring a Strat and add one simple and useful modification – that cheeky little red wire. I can’t recall ever being asked to remove this modification to a Strat’s wiring, there’s simply no disadvantage.

Here is the diagram using the colour code for my own single coil pickups.

Strat Wiring Diagram

Strat wiring plus simple tone mod
Strat Wiring

How Strat controls work

The heart of Stratocasters is the 5 way switch. Interestingly it wasn’t until 1977 that Fender fitted them as standard. Before that it was a 3 way switch and players had to ‘balance’ it between 2 positions to get that famous in between Strat tone. We’ve got it easy these days. Position 2 or 4 on a 5 way is such an iconic Stratocaster sound – you can spot it anywhere.

That sound with 2 pickups on is often incorrectly called ‘out of phase’ – here’s a blog explaining what it really is.

Here is a Stratocaster control plate. It looks straightforward but why are there 2 tone controls? Must be treble and bass yeah? Well no, it’s a bit more complicated than that. This is a passive system (no battery) so the tones just cut treble giving your sound less highs, they can’t boost bass. The middle knob marked tone is the control for the neck pickup and the end one for the middle pickup.

With the switch in the position shown the neck pickup is selected and the middle knob acts as a tone. If this 5 way switch was 2 clicks on it would select just the middle pickup and the end tone know would be engaged.So you can pre-set a tone setting for a pickup. I guess it was considered a step up from the Telecaster’s single tone control for the whole guitar.

Strat controls
Strat controls

That’s great but it means with a standard stratocaster there is no tone control for the bridge pickup. If ever there was a pickup that needed a bit less treble its the strat bridge pickup. If you refer back to the wiring diagram you can see a little red wire on the switch connecting 2 legs together. Adding that little wire with mean that the tone control for the middle pickup will also work for the bridge pickup.

It’s the simplest of all Strat Wiring mods but a very useful one and a good place to start if you’re new to experimenting with wiring.

What is SSS, HSS and HSH?

SSS – means 2 single coil pickups so a simply a standard Strat configuration.

HSS – That’s a Strat but with a humbucker (H) in the bridge position. The reason you might want a humbucker is for a fatter bridge pickup sound. Standard Strat bridge pickups can sound a bit weedy. All the Strat bridge pickups I make have a little bit more power to offset this but a humbucker may well suit you better anyway. This makes for a very versatile guitar but retaining the simplicity of the original design. On stage there is so much going on that complicated switching options can often work against you.

HSH – You’ve guessed it – there’s a humbucker in the neck and bridge positions. This is often used with coil tapping. The idea is to have both Gibson and Fender sounds in one guitar. Usually positions 1 and 5 of the switch will give either bridge or neck humbucker on their own. Positions 2, 3 and 4 will be combinations of the middle single coil pickup and the humbucker with 1 coil switched off (coil tapping) or series/parallel etc. There are so many options and combinations possible and some spectacularly complicated wiring to figure out to make it work.

For some of the more complicated wiring options the conventional 5 way switch just isn’t enough. There is a type of switch commonly called a ‘super switch’ that gives these extra options. It looks the same from the outside and is the same to operate but under the hood there’s a lot more going on. This switch allows you to wire up just about all the options imaginable. Maybe I’ll write more about them some other time.

Do I turn it all up full?

A lot of players do but I feel they’re missing out on a lot of tones. Try backing off the volume and tone to about 8 and setting the amp sound to that. It really is worth trying it. As you turn the volume down your sound looses a little treble. This can really smooth things out and give you an easier tone to work with. With your volume at 8 you also have somewhere to go if you need that bit extra for a big solo.

Now I’m at the end of this blog I realise there are a lot more diagrams to draw and a lot of wiring options to discuss. Not just for Strats, there are modifications that can be done on any guitar.

For more Strat stuff and a listen to my own Strat pickups here’s my YouTube Strat Pickup demo playlist.

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Understanding HSS: Guitar Pickup Configurations Explained

You often come across the terms HSS in reference to guitar pickups but what does HSS mean? And while we’re at it, What do HSH and SSS mean too?

It’s all about the pickup configuration in a guitar (usually a Strat style guitar).

Put simply it means Humbucker, Single coil, Single coil and refers to the pickup configuration in an electric guitar.

Traditionally Stratocasters had 3 single coil pickups SSS – single, single, single. But there are other options – replacing the bridge pickup for a humbucker – HSS, humbucker, single, single. Or replacing both bridge and neck for humbuckers – HSH, humbucker, single, humbucker. I’m sure you get the point.

Why would you want a bridge humbucker?

Surely Fender know what they’re doing so why mess with it?

Well, the Stratocaster first went into production in 1954 and has barely changed since. Although the guitar is the same, music certainly isn’t. Changing the bridge pickup for a humbucker can give you way more options.

What does HSS mean?
HSS Strat

What is the difference between humbucker and single coil tone?

Humbuckers are generally more powerful and have a fuller tone. They will push an amplifier into overdrive more easily. The humbucker sound is fatter and less percussive.

If you’re interested here is how humbuckers work.

This is a great configuration but for rock players the bridge pickup can be a bit thin and weedy sounding.

There is a place for every tone but a lot of players do prefer having a bit more power in the bridge position.

SSS Strat with Lace Sensor pickups
SSS Strat

What’s the solution?

With the advent of replacement pickups players started fitting humbuckers in the bridge position. It can involve some routing (not always) but it really fattens up that bridge position sound. The HSS (humbucker, single, single) Strat was born.

HSS guitars are hugely versatile. You get the best of both worlds. All the lovely clean single coil tones but with a fat lead tone when you need it. It’s like combining a Strat with a Les Paul and can really open up possibilities.

By now you’ve guessed HSH – humbucker, single, humbucker . This is another hugely versatile set up but we’re getting further away from the original Strat tones here. This is really popular with rock players from the. 1980’s on. The neck position humbucker gives those lush thick fat lead tones associated with Gibsons – think ‘Still Got The Blues’.

HSH - Ibanez RG550
HSH

With all these extra tonal options come more wiring possibilities. Humbuckers have 2 coils. That gives the option to have those coils wired in series (conventional humbucker) or in parallel- similar to a single coil tone.

There’s also the option of coil tap where one of the 2 coils is turned off.

How those wiring options sounds is going to be the subject of another blog/video.

What is a swimming pool route?

If you have a conventional Strat type guitar it does require a bit of woodworking to fit a humbucker at the bridge position.

Here is what a Strat looks like under the pickguard. As you can see a humbucker won’t fit in that small cavity.

Strat Body routed for SSS
SSS Strat Body

But some Strats have what is known as a swimming pool route. With this type of body any pickup configuration will fit. SSS, HSS, HSH, you just need to change the pickguard. It looks like this:

Strat body with swimming pool route
Swimming Pool Route

There is a school of thought though that this ruins the sound of a Stratocaster. I’m not getting into that discussion here.

So What does HSS mean?

Well, it’s simply an option for pickups on (usually) a Stratocaster type guitar.

There are so many tonal options with a Strat, so many changes you can make. if you are getting into modifying (modding) guitars then a Strat is a perfect platform for experimenting.

Here are the options for my Strat pickups. And here are my humbuckers. There are too many variables to discuss here but if you have any questions about which combination will work best for you just get in touch.

I hope this has been helpful and answered What does HSS mean?

What does HSS mean?

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Pickup String Spacing – choosing a humbucker

Pickup string spacing is something you need to be aware of when you’re buying guitar pickups, particularly humbuckers. Guitar bridges come with different string widths so pickups need to match that. In this blog post I’m going to explain what It’s all about and how to measure it.

What is a Pole Piece?

Pickups have pole pieces, think of these as magnets mounted in the pickup listening for string movement. Sometimes they are actual magnets, sometimes pieces of steel directing magnetism towards the strings. In this case they are steel screws.

Humbucker pole pieces
Humbucker Poles

This is what we mean by ‘pole spacing’ its the distance between the outer most poles, centre to centre.

Pickup String Spacing
Humbucker pole spacing

What you don’t need to know

Here’s how a pickup works. A the string sitting inside the magnetic field actually becomes a temporary magnet. When the string vibrates it disturbs this magnetic field. This creates an electrical signal in the coil of wire around the magnet.

It’s a tiny signal but enough to get through your guitar’s on board circuit and down a cable. It’s hard to imagine that such a small amount of electricity can produce such a lot of sound. Have a think about it next time you’re at a big gig. What you’re hearing is just that small amount of electricity generated in a coil of wire. It’s really cool stuff and I find it fascinating. But you don’t really need to know all that.

Pickup String spacing – what you need to know

The string needs to align with the magnet to get the best signal. Magnets are, however, not lasers, they generate a magnetic field and not a precise beam. If the string isn’t in perfect alignment it’s fine. If the slightest misalignment made a difference then string bending would cause a drop in volume. Have a look next time you bend a string how far the string moves away from the pole.

Guitar Pickup string alignment
String Alignment

As you can see, a little bit out of line makes no difference. Eddie Van Halen used a vintage PAF on Van Halen I with a Fender type bridge. PAF ‘s were 49.2mm (1 15/16″) spacing and Fender bridges are usually 52mm. If there had been a problem he would have noticed. So don’t get too hung up on this stuff. There are many more tiny details involved in guitar playing that you’ll be much better off worrying about.

Please remember that if a humbucker has 49.2mm spacing or 52mm spacing it’s outer dimensions are the same. The overall size of the pickup doesn’t change. So if you take out a 49.2mm humbucker and replace it with a 52mm it will still fit. It’s just the pole alignment to the strings that will be different.

As the poles can be further away the distance the winding wire travels to get around the bobbing is also longer. A 52mm pole spaced pickup will have a slightly higher Ohm reading than a 49.2mm spaces pickup due to this extra length. It is possible to under wind a longer bobbing to compensate for this but the result is a pickup that sounds thinner. Its the number of turns that is important not the Ohm reading. You don’t really need to know that either but it’s an interesting fact.

Guitar bridges come in various sizes giving different string spacing. A Gibson ABR Tune-o-matic your string spacing will be narrower than a Fender Strat bridge, for instance. It can get confusing when dealing with different Tune-o-Matic bridges. The older style ABR has a narrower spacing than the more modern Nashville bridge. Either could be fitted to a Les Paul. If you’re thinking of buying some Mr Glyn’s pickups and you have any doubt just email me. Yoiu can always send a pic and I’ll tell you which bridge you have.

By the time the strings get to the neck pickup the spacings are just about the same. So neck pickups don’t vary in width. We’re just talking about bridge pickups here.

Ideally we want the strings to line up as best as possible with the pickup’s poles. But we’re not getting too hung up on it.

How to measure string spacing

The measurement is the distance from the first to the sixth strings centre to centre at the bridge pickup. This diagram should help:

Strat Bridge spacing - 52mm
Strat Bridge

You can simply do this with a ruler, like I have.

As you can see this ’89 Strat bridge has 52mm string spacing. If you wanted to choose a bridge humbucker to make it a HSS Strat then choose the 52mm option.

If you’re buying a Mr Glyns Pickup and have any doubt just send me a pic of your bridge. I will be able to advise you.

What is F spacing?

F spacing simply means a wider spaced bridge humbucker – 52, 52.5 or 53mm. The F stands for either ‘Fender’ or ‘Floyd Rose’. It isn’t clear which and doesn’t really matter.

Why 49.2mm not just 49mm? You may well ask! It’s the metric equivalent of the pole spacing for a Gibson PAF. That is the pickup most humbuckers are based on. The original measurement in imperial is 1 15/16″ – which if you ask me is no less silly a number that 49.2. But we’re stuck with it.

If you a need for a new set of humbuckers you can find the Mr Glyns Pickup humbucker range here.

Here is a link to my YouTube playlist for humbucker demos.

If you have any questions about which pickup is right for you please get in touch.

Thanks for reading this blog post. Please contact me if there are any pickup based subjects you would like me to write a blog about. I’m always looking for new subjects.

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Adjusting P90 Pickups: Tips and Free Resources

Setting P90 Pickup Height is an essential part of your tone. More than any other pickup they really do like being up close to the strings. In this blog post I’m going to give you some measurements and info on how to measure pickup height. And there’s help for you dogear P90 players too. I’m going to give you some free dogear P90 height spacers.

How to measure P90 Pickup Height

The pickup height is measured from the top of the pickup pole (or cover) to the underside of the string. Make sure you are fretting the highest fret while you do this. Not easy to describe in words so here’s Roboguy demonstrating to clarify:

How to adjust guitar pickup height
Measuring Pickup Height

Here is the P90 Pickup Height I suggest. I’d like to emphasize these are not set in stone, just a guide.

P 90’s like to be close to the strings. If you prefer the sound of them further away that’s fine. Its up to you and your ears. The closer a pickup is to the strings the louder it is. More importantly, the more dynamic and touch sensitive it is. So with the pickup further away, your sound is more compressed and less dynamic. There is no right or wrong here. Especially for lead playing a P90 close to the strings gives a great sensitivity.

There’s also the matter of sustain. If the pickup is too close the magnetic field it produces can inhibit the vibration of the strings. This can reduce sustain. So it really is all about finding that sweet spot for you and your sound.

So start with this measurement and then find your sweet spot. I think the other important factor is that when you find what works for you, stop fiddling. It’s all about playing guitar . It’s easy to spend all your practice time adjusting things instead of playing . I’m as guilty as anyone of this.

P90 pickup height measurements
P90 Height Measurement

What about dogear P90’s?

Now, that’s all well and good for a soapbar P90 or humbucker size P90’s. What if you have a Les Paul Junior or an SG Junior with dogear P90’s it’s not as easy. How do you adjust that P90 pickup height? Dogears aren’t height adjustable but don’t worry I have a plan.

As you can see below I’ve drawn some height adjustment shims for 3D printing. They have a few different heights and the taller ones are angled at 3 degrees to match Gibson neck angles. That way your pickups are kept parallel to the strings. A set of these should be all you need for a 2 pickup guitar. So this set should have you covered.

We don’t all have 3D printers but here in New Zealand larger libraries have 3D printers. There are many businesses offering printing services. So it should be pretty easy to get things printed out. And, of course, having a mate with a printer is ideal. It’s very easy to get done and it’ a way I can help you out without the delivery costs. I’ve sent this file to players all over the World for all brands of Dogear P90’s.

In Conclusion

  • P 90’s like to be close to the strings
  • Use the height guide only as a starting point.
  • Experiment and listen – its your sound
  • Correct P90 pickup height makes a huge difference

Dogear P90 height shims for free

If you want the file just get in touch with me and I’ll send it to you, no charge. You don’t have to buy my pickups (though that would be nice), I’m just happy to help out. simply email me at mrglynspickups@gmail.com

Dogear P90 pickup height shims

P90 Pickup Height

For pickup demos head to YouTube

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updated 15 August 2024

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Understanding Guitar Pickup Phase

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.

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.

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

Pickup Phase Explained
How to test pickup phase
Test Pickup Phase
How Do Humbuckers Work?
How do humbuckers work?
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Eat my packaging
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For more blog posts https://mrglynspickups.com/blog/

Updated July 2023

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Easy Methods to Test Guitar Pickup Phase

As part of my series on How Pickups Work here is How To Test Pickup Phase – The Easy Way.

There is, of course, a hard way and that’s putting pickups into a guitar and having a listen later. That’s fine if you get it right first time but a pain if you have to re-wire the pickup again later.

In this video I demonstrate how to use a cheap test meter to identify which phase your pickup is in out of the guitar.

Its a very simple test using an analog (needle type) meter. It’s simply a case of hooking the pickup up to the meter, setting the meter to Milli Amperes and tapping the poles of the pickup with a screwdriver. The needle will “kick” to either the right or left. This indicates the phase.

Traditionally, Gibson style and Fender style pickups are in the opposite phase to each other. This is just how it is. I doubt it was done on purpose, there’s a 50/50 chance.

So it’s really useful to know how to wire your pickups especially if they have an unfamiliar colour code. In my line of work I often repair pickups. I need to send them back to the customer in the correct phase. This is the simple test I use.

Every new pickup I make is tested in this way just to make sure. Especially with humbuckers, if the final signal from the coils is out of phase the output can be tiny.

While on the subject of humbuckers it might be worth watching this video where I explain how humbuckers actually ‘buck’ hum. It’s a bit of a side track but interesting stuff if you’re getting into this whole phase thing.

The most useful application of this test is when wiring or repairing a HSS (a humbucker and 2 single coils) loaded guitar. With a HSS guitar you have to make sure the humbucker is in phase with the single coil pickups. Remember, humbuckers are usually in the opposite phase to single coils.

If it is out of phase you’ll find position 2 of the 5 way switch (bridge and middle pickups combined) sounds very quiet, thin and has an odd ‘quack’. Either bridge or middle pickups will be fine on their own but the phase really matters when they’re on together.

It is surprising how many guitar repair people don’t know about this.

I realized after making this video that I needed to make another on what guitar pickup phase actually is. So here’s a link to that one.

In this second video I demonstrate the sound of pickups out of phase so you can hear the difference which is, of course, the whole point. Although on the whole we try and avoid the sound of pickups out of phase it can be a useful tone in some situations. No sound is bad, just good for different stuff. The most famous example is the famous ‘Greenie’ Les Paul.

There is also a demonstration of the Strat ‘out of phase’ sound and how it isn’t out of phase at all – yeah really! The sound of positions 2 and 4 on a Strat are 2 pickups in parallel. I have no idea how it was ever called out of phase but we seem to be stuck with it.

Thanks for reading How To Test Pickup Phase.

How To Test Pickup Phase

Here is more about Mr Glyn’s Pickups – https://mrglynspickups.com/mrglyns-pickups/

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Telecaster Wiring Diagram

I like to support my customers any way I can so here’s a Telecaster Wiring Diagram for a standard Telecaster to help you fit your set of Mr Glyns Pickups.

Telecaster Wiring Diagram

Telecaster Wiring Diagram. By Mr Glyns Pickups.
Tele Wiring Diagram

I’ve drawn this diagram using the colour code for Mr Glyn’s Pickups.

I use shielded cable for my Telecaster pickups so not only do they hum less but by swapping the red and white wires it’s easy to reverse their phase. That’s really useful if you want to use a 4 way switch to combine the two pickups in series as a humbucker.

This is the standard Telecaster Wiring Diagram – there are plenty of modifications you could make to change things a little.

Changing the capacitor to one of a lower value will lessen the effect of using the tone control. A .022 microfarad cap, for instance, will make the tone control more subtle to use but it’s not great if you like using the tone as a wah wah.

I like to use a treble bleed on my Tele to avoid treble loss when using the volume control – here’s some info about it https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/09/04/treble-bleed/

Here are my Telecaster Pickup demos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOdXLT6XwMylvwTfhCDTzJjmzhq2kQbLD

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Understanding How Humbuckers Cancel Noise

So How do Humbuckers Work?

By a clever quirk of physics humbuckers manage to cancel out the hum they pick up. So how do they do it? Here’s a simple explanation with some help from Sammy the dog.

You can go to the Mr Glyn’s Pickups website to check out some humbuckers I make.

Mr Glyn’s pickups are hand made in New Zealand.

I make a few flavors of humbucker:

The Integrity

A full, clear sounding Alnico II pickups in the style of the best of the early PAF’s. Balance and clarity – a humbucker for every situation.

The Cloud Nine

A mid to hot, pickup made specifically for blues/rock players who want to push the front end of their amps. Plenty of grunt, plenty of mids and enough cut through for you to stand out in the mix.

The Attitude

A pickup for the modern metal or fusion player. Articulate and balanced, smooth and clear.

The Draig

A humbucker set designed for Doom metal.

You can dint more useful videos on my YouTube channel

How do Humbuckers Work?

How do Humbuckers Work. Mr Glyn's Pickups Roboguy
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Fender Wide Range humbucker

There’s a lot talked about the original Fender Wide Range humbucker especially now with Fender re-introducing these classics with vintage correct CuNiFe magnets.

For the full back story on what makes these magnets so important here’s a great interview on my favorite podcast with the man who brought CuNiFe back, Tim Shaw.

The Fender Wide Range humbucker was the invention of Seth Lover. He’d previously worked at Gibson and is responsible for the PAF Humbucker

In 1967 he went to work for Fender and was asked to make an equivalent to the PAF to compete with Gibson. He was still obliged under the PAF copyright (even though it was under his own name) to make something completely different and that’s what he did.

Original 1975 wide range humbucker - Mr Glyns Pickups

So why CuNiFe ?

Fender guitars are known for their percussive treble. A bit part of which is achieved by having the magnet located inside the coil unlike Gibson style pickups with the magnet outside. He was clearly keen to have adjustable poles too so that left the question of – how do I make magnetic threaded bar? The answer is CuNiFe. Other magnetic material needs to be cast where as CuNiFe – an alloy of copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), iron (Fe) – can be machined.

The primary use for CuNiFe at the time was in speedometers where this threaded magnet was used in calibration. But when the automotive industry moved on to better methods of measuring speed CuNiFe stopped being produced. So the traditional Wide Range ceased production in 1979. The re-introduced Wide Range humbuckers of the 1980’s have a Gibson PAF style bar magnet underneath the coils. They might look like Wide Ranges but they really aren’t.

Why is the Fender Wide Range humbucker so big?

CuNiFe does not make strong magnets and has quite a trebly tone. To offset this Seth needed to design powerful coils. The more windings on a bobbin the more power but also the more bass and less treble. The whole eq is shifted to the bass side. Compered to a PAF the Wide Range coils are very overwound. So much so the bobbins had to be made bigger to accommodate them and therefore the whole pickup is bigger. Wide Ranges are wound to around 10.6KOhms where as a traditional humbucker is closer to 8KOhms.

Then there’s the much ignored steel plate under the coils. Putting a steel plate under a magnet will help push the magnetic field up towards the strings creating a bit more power and a bit more bass. This works in the same way as in my Tui pickup – here’s more on that.

The result of all this is a clear, full sounding pickup loved by many.

Interesting eh.

Repairing a Wide Range

A while ago I had a faulty Fender Wide Range humbucker sent to me for repair and took the chance to take some pictures. This one is from 1975 as you can see from the last 2 digits of the serial number. From the underneath you can also see the sneaky way he used the threaded magnets fitting half of the upside-down.

1975 Wide Range base plate

With the cover off we get a good look at these unique bobbins. There’s a small metal tab at each end of them to help with connecting the winding wire with the hookup wire.

Wide Range bobbins - 1975

With one bobbin removed there’s that steel plate underneath directing the magnetic field and adding inductance to the coils. The black wire connects the 2 coils together in series and it’s tucked away between the coils when the pickup is together.

Original Wide Range repair

You can see that even though this is an oversized bobbin it’s full up with wire.

Fender Wide Range humbucker

Here’s a really interesting blog post on a Wide Range copy by Tym Guitars in Australia. You can see the difference between an original Fender Wide Range humbucker and what looks like an exact replica.

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Fender Wide Range humbucker

Head to store…

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updated 3 April 2023

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Pickup Height Adjustment

The height of your pickups is crucial to your tone. I find that the better the quality of the pickup the more sensitive they are to changes in height. Pickup Height Adjustment is an essential part of your sound, it’s worth finding out about it.

I give measurements at the end of this post but they are just suggestions. The point of writing this is to help you understand the mechanics of what’s happening. So you can make your own informed choice as to what suits you best. It’s like choosing picks or strings, not everyone likes the same thing and there’s no right or wrong.

Pickup Height Adjustment – what you need to know and some stuff you don’t

What do I mean by pickup height adjustment? It is setting the distance from the top of the pickup to the bottom of the string. It’s like how close to the microphone you’re singing. But it doesn’t just change how loud your guitar is – there’s a lot more to it.

There is, of course, no correct distance from the string. The measurements I’ll give you are a guide and a great place to start. I recommend you set your MrGlyn’s Pickups to these heights when you install them. But please feel free to tweak them to your own taste after.

In this article I’d like to arm you with a starting point. To give you enough information and the confidence to find your own correct pickup height.

What is the principle of Pickup Height Adjustment? The closer to the strings the pickups are the louder and more dynamic the sound. Further away is more compressed and quieter.

So what does that mean?

Imagine someone whispering in your ear. This is like a pickup close to the strings. It not only sounds loud and clear, you can hear every detail of the sound. You are very sensitive to and variation in volume, its very dynamic. Then imagine if the voice is the other side of a room. The voice is less dynamic, you aren’t as sensitive to slight changes in volume, it’s more compressed. Keep that in mind when setting your pickups.

Shall I set the pickup as high as possible?

But there’s another factor. Pickups work by magnetism, if a pickup is too close to the string the magnet will attract the string. This can cause a strange wobbly sound called a wolf tone. This is much more pronounced with single coil pickups and on the bass strings on the higher frets. These ‘wolf tones’ are sometimes called ‘Stratitis’.

The pickup height is measured from the top of the pickup pole (or cover) to the underside of the string. You must be fretting the highest fret.

How to adjust guitar pickup height
Measuring Pickup Height

Are all pickups the same?

This is where it gets really interesting and I’ll introduce you to a new word – ‘Stratitis’

In general humbuckers can be set closer to the strings than single coil pickups. By single coil pickups I’m thinking mainly of Strats.

A Strat pickup has rod magnets running vertically through them. They’re usually South up, North down. This creates a magnetic pull on the string. It actually makes the string into a temporary magnet but lets not over complicate it.

If the magnet is too close to the string it starts to change the way the string vibrates. There are various names for the sound of this but Stratitis is the common one.

To save writing hundreds of words I’m going to make a video.

The aspect of pickup height I didn’t cover in this video is feel. The guitar reacts quite differently and feels like a different instrument with the pickups are set hight. The extra dynamics and sensitivity can steer you in a direction you might not go in with a pickup set low. Try it, it’s worth finding out which you prefer.

Humbuckers have one coil with North polarity and the other with South and to an extent they cancel each other out so as not to pull on the string in quite the same way. Humbuckers are way less susceptible to stratitis than single coils.

Tele neck pickups

Just a sidenote – Telecaster neck pickups are inside a cover. When adjusting the height just remenber you’re thinking of the distance from the magnet to the string and not from cover to string. The reality is you can usually set them as high as possible without the string hitting the cover. It can make a huge difference to how they perform.

Humbucker pole adjustment

With standard humbuckers there is usually a row of six pole screws that can be height adjusted. It isn’t usually necessary to change the height of these. If you do decide there is an inballance between your individual string volumes the first thing to do is put a fresh set of string on. In nearly every case it’s the strings that are at fault. Adjusting individual poles is a fiddly business and best left alone.

Strat pole height

I’ve come across quite a few Strat pickups where the poles have been pushed in because people have wanted to change the vintage stagger profile. Please don’t try this it will kill the pickup. There are a few lower quality Strat type pickups with plastic bobbins that you can do this on but you need to be 100% sure before trying it. I might save this one for another blog.

P90 height adjusting

For Soapbar P90’s just follow the basic idea of height adjusting. Dogears are a little different – to raise them you need shims – check out this blog post for more info:- P90 Pickup Height – it’s a pretty comprehensive look into P90 height. If you need shims I can supply you with free drawings for 3d printing (you don’t have to buy a pickup), just email and I’ll send it to you. P90’s generally like to be close to the strings.

P Bass Pickup height

Precision basses with the split pair of coils making up one pickup are slightly different to adjust. Treat the two coils as seperate pickups. So set the bass sise coil to be an even distance from the E and A strings and the treble side to be an even distance from the D and G strings. You’ll find the 2 coils wont end up looking flat across all of the strings but they will sound even.

Like with most Fender pickup types be aware of Stratitis (see above) when setting them, it isn’t just a Strat thing.

General principle of pickup height adjustment

There are plenty of pickups out there without recommended heights. The general principle of setting them is to get them as high as possible and listen to how they sound. Be aware of what Stratitis is and sounds like. If you hear stratitis lower them. By ear is the best way. Not all magnets are of the same strength, you’ll be able to get a lot closer to an alnico 3 than an alnico 5.

Once you’ve found your height have a good play of the guitar, do a bit of tweaking and fiddling and a lot of listening.

Pretty soon you’ll find the spot that sounds best for you. Then forget it. You can spend more time fiddling with guitars than playing them. If you’re really not sure about any of this stuff take your guitar to an experienced luthier and trust them.

Pickup Balance

It’s worth having a think about pickup balance. By that I mean the relative volume of each pickup.

Instinctively you might think that having pickups with the same volume but with different tone would be the best. That is true for a lot of situations but it’s worth thinking if that’s true for your situation and not just following the norm.

You may want a louder bridge pickup to push through in a band situation, for instance.

There are a lot of factors to consider whith pickup height adjustment. I think the point I’m trying to make is find what’s right for you by experimenting. It’s easy to adjust pickups so have fun mucking about with them.

Pickup height measurements

Here I have some ideas for pickup heights. Remember, these are not set in stone.

Consider them maximum heights and remember that these are measured from the bottom of the string to the top of the magnet or pole piece when holding down the last fret. They may seem a bit close but the istances will be more when playing around the middle of the board.

Telecaster Pickup height adjustment. Mr Glyn's Pickups NZ
Stratocaster Pickup height adjustment. Mr Glyn's Pickups NZ
Humbucker Pickup height adjustment. Mr Glyn's Pickups NZ
P90 Pickup height adjustment. Mr Glyn's Pickups NZ
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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xA

updated 19 May 2025

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Treble Bleed – quick 101

Mr Glyns Pickups website – https://mrglynspickups.com/

With a few models of my pickups I give a treble bleed. It makes such a difference to how the volume control works. They aren’t for everyone but it’s worth experimenting and finding out if it works for you.

Treble bleed diagram

Treble bleed diagram
Treble Bleed Diagram

Pretty simple eh, it just straddles the ‘in’ and ‘out’ legs of the volume pot. Easy to fit, completely reversible and cheap – what’s not to like? Let’s take a deeper look.

A brief explanation of how a treble bleed circuit works and why you need one

With some help from Sammy the dog

Here’s a more wordy explanation: 

Have you noticed that as you turn the down your guitar volume you sound gets muddy? Some of the high frequencies are lost.

As the volume goes down so does the clarity. This can, of course, be useful. Quite often you’ll want to be able to take some sparkle off the sound especially with single coil pickups. But with humbuckers for many of us they just get too wooly and undefined at lover volume.
So here’s the solution, it’s cheap and simple, easy to fit and makes humbuckers so much more versatile. It doesn’t take anything away from the full volume sound. I’m talking about treble bleed circuits.

What is a Treble Bleed Circuit?

It’s a simple device that retains treble frequencies. As you turn your volume down some treble can still bleed through.

What do capacitors do?

For our purposes this is all you need to know about capacitors (caps for short). – They allow treble frequencies to pass through them but block bass. The frequencies involved depend on the value of the cap. That’s all we need to know to understand what’s going on here. They’re more commonly used in tone circuits but that’s another story. It can get very complicated, this isn’t the place for that.
The volume control (potentiometer or pot) on an electric guitar looks like this:

volume pot. Mr Glyn's Pickups

It’s a fairly simple device, As you turn the volume down the resistance between the ‘in’ and ‘out’ leg increases. This makes it increasingly harder for the signal from your pickups to get through. Less signal means quieter. That’s what happens when you turn your volume down. It’s very simple and works well except for that treble loss. On some guitars less treble can be a useful (Strats for me) but not always.
 Here’s the same thing with our cunning little circuit added:

Where do you put a treble bleed?

Guitar Treble Bleed

This one has the ‘Orange Drop’ treble bleed which has a resistor added to it. This resistor softens the treble as you turn down making the effect more subtle.

What does it sound like?

A you turn down the volume and the the resistance increases there’s an alternative path for the signal. Through the cap. But, as we know, the cap will only let treble through. This means your sound not only gets quieter but also thinner from the treble sneaking through the treble bleed.

As you turn the volume down you’re also turning the bass down. As a result you have a usable single coil (ish) sound when the volume is low. If you’re overdriving an amp the result is cleaning your sound up. So with a high gain amp and your volume at about 1/4 you get a bluesy breaking up sound. Crank the volume on the guitar and you’re rocking.

Treble Bleed values

This really is something worth playing around with. There are a few variations on the circuit but the idea is the same. If you want a less subtle effect just use a 0.001micro farad cap on it’s own. To soften the effect add a 150KOhm resistor in parallel. These values are just common values, play around with them, these are cheap components. You can try a resistor in series too, there are lots of options.


On most of my guitars I prefer a simple treble bleed, no coil taps or series parallel. Just the volume control. This isn’t a mod to use on every guitar, I find with Strats I welcome some tone roll off. But with a 2 volume control set up it may be worth treating the neck and bridge pickups differently.

Then there’s the matter of the 50’s wiring circuit in Les Pauls. With this wiring a treble bleed does very little. The difference between the 50’s wiring and modern wiring is just in how the tone control is wired. It is possible to use both systems on the same guitar. With a Les Paul the neck pickup can be wired with the ‘modern’ circuit and the bridge to 50’s wiring. A treble bleed can be added to the neck pickup to retain treble.

There really are a lot of options here and a lot of experimenting to be done. Remember there really is no right or wrong way to do this despite what you might read on the internet. If you come up with anything fantastic be sure to let me know.

So with a most models of my pickups I give you a bleed circuit or two. If I think it works with that pickup I’ll pop one or two in the box. I know a lot of manufacturers give sticker or a guitar pick for free with their pickups but I give a more practical little gift. It’s great if you use it, quite a few of my customers have tried one for the first time and liked it but even if it isn’t your thing maybe you have a Mate who’d be interested.

If you have any ideas or subject matter for blog articles please let me know.

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updated July 2025