490s to Seymour Duncans

[organictimbre]

I’ve got a gig coming up this Saturday and I am almost panicking. My guitar is a 2017 Gibson Les Paul Tribute T. I replaced the stock Gibson 490 pickups with Seymour Duncans; bridge with a 59/custom hybrid and the neck with a 59. Gibson uses the quick connects these days, so I ordered the same quick connect parts and soldered them to the Duncans. I used this color translator to get the color swap correct.

 

The result is, with the volumes maxed out and the toggle set to the middle, things sound out of phase. When I decrease the volume on either the neck or bridge pickup, it sounds less out of phase, I guess because I’m decreasing the out of phase component in the signal. What I’m wondering is, am I right in hearing that things are out of phase, and if so, how could this be possible assuming I swapped all the colors correctly? Here is a video that shows what I mean. I am playing the same riff on the neck, middle, and bridge.

https://youtu.be/1gImdZYMD-s

 

Here are pics of the wiring with the Gibson and SD pickups to show that I have swapped the colors according to the color translator chart.

[gearhead]

 

Here is what I get from that wiring diagram:

Looks like the wiring is correct.

Try turning one of the pickups around.

The magnets may be out of phase, and it will cause the problem you described.

[organictimbre]

 

Here is what I get from that wiring diagram:

Looks like the wiring is correct.

Try turning one of the pickups around.

The magnets may be out of phase, and it will cause the problem you described.

 

 

Turns out Gibson reverses the humbucker polarity for certain guitars, and this is one of those cases. I think that is a confusing thing to keep track for everyone, both inside and outside of Gibson.

[Guest Farnsbarns]

 

Here is what I get from that wiring diagram:

Looks like the wiring is correct.

Try turning one of the pickups around.

The magnets may be out of phase, and it will cause the problem you described.

 

Turning a pickup round has absolutely no impact on phase or polarity. You would have to remove the magnet and flip it over.

[kaicho8888]

If the pickups are out of phase, remove the cover and rotate the magnet on one of the pickups. The bar magnet has N and S poles on the long sides of the rectangular magnets.

 

You can tell if out of phase. If you have the toggle switch on one of the pickups and you then select the middle position, the volume goes down and it sounds more trebbly.