Issue w/ vintage '63 P-90 pickups!!!

[Texsunburst59]

I picked up a '63 ES-330 a little over a month ago. It had a few issues that needed to be addressed before it could be played. Before I bought it, I did check to make sure the guitar worked in all pickup positions.

 

The pots were scratchy and was one of the issues that needed to be addressed, so as far as I was concerned, everything checked out.

 

When I went to go pickup my guitar from my guitar tech, he made me aware that the pickups were out of phase with each other. If you set the pickup selector in the middle and set the bridge and neck to same volume,

you get that thin nasaly sounding cocked wah tone.

 

Both pickups sound pretty strong on their own,but the neck is noticeably stronger. The only way to get a much better tone in the middle is to set the bridge volume on 10 and neck at about 6.5., or the reverse of neck on 10 and

bridge on 6.5. These tone are usable but don't allow me to custom mix the pickups to me liking.

 

I've been told that one of the pickups might have the magnets reversed, and that could be the reason for the out of phase tone. I did put a small paper clip on both pickups to check their magnetism and the

neck has a VERY strong pull, and the bridge has a VERY light almost non existent pull.

 

Does anyone on here know how to remedy this? I really want to be able to use the middle position to mix pickups to taste.

 

If the magnets were originally sent out from the factory with the magnets reversed in the bridge pickup, do I have to send it to a custom pickup builder to get it properly fixed?

 

Thanks for all the help in advance.

 

Here's a pic of the body of my '63:

 

 

[stein]

This is very interesting.

 

There is a rumor, or a belief, that the great T-bone Walker got his signature tone from a Gibson with P-90's that were accidentally wired out-of-phase. Of corse, no one has the guitar to confirm. But many often do a mod similar to this, OR wire one pup backwards to get that "T-bone" sound.

 

I haven't heard or known about any other guitars, or Gibson's that typically have one P-90 pup wired "wrong", or reversed.

 

So...I suppose it's possible someone modded this guitar for that sound, but I don't know if there is a way to tell. But if it IS factory this way, I would think it would be extra cool or desirable to many.

[Pesh]

I'm a bit of a noob with this out of phase stuff; not really used it before.

 

But having read something on the Peter Green LP; is it anything to do with the magnets and which way round they're placed in the pickup?

 

If someone could clarify, that would be aces.

 

Tex; you've got a lovely guitar there; congratulations.

[Texsunburst59]

I'm a bit of a noob with this out of phase stuff; not really used it before.

 

But having read something on the Peter Green LP; is it anything to do with the magnets and which way round they're placed in the pickup?

 

If someone could clarify, that would be aces.

 

Tex; you've got a lovely guitar there; congratulations.

 

 

Thanks Pesh. I'm hoping a real pro comes in here and clears this up for me.

[JayinLA]

I am not by any stretch a guitar tech. But yes that is precisely what the whole out of phase deal is. (pickups wound backward), and Peter Green did do it, and later Jimmy Page, and many other artists began doing the same. Now many Gibsons come with the "coil taps" to reverse the phasing and create that sort of spongy spacy tone. The problem then becomes that the nobs to handle the pickup volume and tone become like all or nothing roll as you pan the guitar IMO. There is less fine control, but it is one extra, pretty badass feature. As far as your '63 is concerned (killer BTW) with the Bigsby and everything, it is a players' piece. It is very possible that someone down the line set it up that way to fit their sound.