ES-335 reversed neck pickup

[Dave Fershin]

I saw a video of blues man Kirk Fletcher playing a 335 with the neck pickup reversed (like the Greeny Les Paul) has anyone tried this? How are the tonal differences? 
I’m new to 335’s and was wondering if it’s worth doing on my next string change

[IanHenry]

Hi Dave and welcome to the forum.  I've never tried it on my 335, but I have done it on one of my Les Pauls, so here's what I discovered.

Just changing the orientation of the pickup won't get you the out of phase, but it will change the sound of the neck pickup it's a tiny change though.

To do the job properly you need to remove the magnet from the pickup and reverse it, to do that you obviously have to remove the pickup, loosen the pole screws and the four screws holding the base plate on, then if you are lucky you will be able to slide the magnet out, but most likely you will need to remove the base plate.

Of course, the out-of-phase thing only works with the selector in the middle position and with the volume controls at the same level.

What I found was that when I put the pickup selector into the middle position the volume drop made it unusable, I wanted to use the out-of-phase sound f or lead playing ala Peter Green

but the loss of volume made that impossible, the juggling of the two volume knobs really was a total pain.

After a couple of weeks I changed everything back to how it started out.  Of course it's up to you, but I would advise against it. 

[10PoundLester]

3 hours ago, IanHenry said:

Hi Dave and welcome to the forum.  I've never tried it on my 335, but I have done it on one of my Les Pauls, so here's what I discovered.

Just changing the orientation of the pickup won't get you the out of phase, but it will change the sound of the neck pickup it's a tiny change though.

To do the job properly you need to remove the magnet from the pickup and reverse it, to do that you obviously have to remove the pickup, loosen the pole screws and the four screws holding the base plate on, then if you are lucky you will be able to slide the magnet out, but most likely you will need to remove the base plate.

Of course, the out-of-phase thing only works with the selector in the middle position and with the volume controls at the same level.

What I found was that when I put the pickup selector into the middle position the volume drop made it unusable, I wanted to use the out-of-phase sound f or lead playing ala Peter Green

but the loss of volume made that impossible, the juggling of the two volume knobs really was a total pain.

After a couple of weeks I changed everything back to how it started out.  Of course it's up to you, but I would advise against it. 

I found this exact scenario myself. I did the magnet-reversal on my LP and at first I liked it then after a while I realized that the difference was not to my liking. The Green pickup has other things going on - I believe it not only had the magnet reversed but was also wound in a reverse direction like they do to modern Strat middle pickups.

[mihcmac]

On 3/31/2023 at 6:07 AM, 10PoundLester said:

I found this exact scenario myself. I did the magnet-reversal on my LP and at first I liked it then after a while I realized that the difference was not to my liking. The Green pickup has other things going on - I believe it not only had the magnet reversed but was also wound in a reverse direction like they do to modern Strat middle pickups.

Note that Strat pickups are single coil and will not react the same way as a humbucking with a reversed magnet and one out of phase coil.

Strats with the center pickup in reversed polarity and reversed coil are setup for hum-canceling when used in conjunction with the neck or bridge pickup on 5-way switch position 2 and 4. 

[10PoundLester]

1 hour ago, mihcmac said:

Note that Strat pickups are single coil and will not react the same way as a humbucking with a reversed magnet and one out of phase coil.

Strats with the center pickup in reversed polarity and reversed coil are setup for hum-canceling when used in conjunction with the neck or bridge pickup on 5-way switch position 2 and 4. 

Yup. I'm aware.