A key point you forgot to mention is that the pole pieces in a humbucker are oriented north-up in one coil and south-up in the other. As a consequence, a moving string's effect on the magnetic field in one coil will be the opposite that of the other coil, but since the coils are reversed, it induces the same polarity of current in both, thus adding rather than canceling.
But his diagram isn't phase reversed, so if he tried to wire this up, it would be a weak pickup due to what you just said. In order for it to be an ACTUAL humbucker, the magnetic poles have to be as you described, and the signal has to go into the same wire on each coil, for example, the top wire on the first coil gets connected to the output, then the bottom wire of the first coil gets connected to the BOTTOM wire of the second coil. this way, the signal is going into coil number two in reverse to coil number one. then the signal EXITS the top wire of coil two. This automatically bucks inductance noise(60 cycle hum) while preserving the magnetic field disturbance (the string moving over the pickup) since the string is making the same movement on both poles, if left alone, each pole of the magnet, since flipped, would pretty much cancel out the string sound. UNTIL you flip the signal in one of the coils, at which point doing so bucks all noise the COILS picks up, and actually phase reverses the opposing polarity of the magnet so that now the resulting signal in each coil is in phase with the other, which equals a high output pickup. His description is a rookie mistake. The way he's got it wired is basically two single coils in series, with the magnetic poles actually working against him. I hope he hasn't actually tried to sell that as a humbucker, because he cheated the customer if he did.
@@bryanharrison3889 Wow, awesome explanation! I was actually kind of bummed there wasn't a recap or something of when he explains exactly how the pickups wired out of phase only 'bucks' the hum without canceling the signal entirely. I have a solid understanding in both audio and electronic engineering, so I'm very familiar with stuff like common mode rejection and whatnot. This video alone somewhat confused me and left me with a few questions. This comment definitely helped clear things up for me. Thanks again!
@@bryanharrison3889 Thanks for clarifying such an important part of the humbucker. It is highly disturbing when someone is going to really explain something, and misses the key part of the solution.
That's the best explanation of how it works! I've been going nuts trying to get my head around this. The signal enters the bottom COIL START exits the bottom COIL FINISH then enters through the top COIL FINISH and exits out the the top COIL START. The signal running different directions in each coil creates the electrical out of phase that cancels the hum. I wanted to say that to get it through my thick head 😃 Thank you!
Hi dylan My name is luiz ive 53 yrs old and im from brazil. I only found your channel now and im in love with all your content. Wonderful and awesome informations(guitar classes)about everything in a eletric guitar and how it works .(i love when you draw the images on the board) Congratulations pal. Plz make a book with all your tutorials if possible Id like to have and buy one
Dylan, love your videos! My son and I have started learning how to build our own now. I did have one question: what does it mean that in Slash’s SD Pickups they have a wood spacer?
What is the “slug“ portion of the pickup? Another pick up maker was trying to explain his pickups to me, comparing them to regular humbucking pickups. “It's conceptually similar to slug coil/full/screw coil switching in a conventional HB:” Because I don’t understand this, I searched for how do humbuckers work. Now I’m aware of more things that I don’t understand.
You say it the wire enters clock-wise and exits clock-wise. I had to dismantle and old humbucker not to lose my mind. The picture you show here is wrong. The wire must enter clock-wise and has to enter counter clock-wise to the other bobbin. The can't be electrically out of phase (opposite) if the coil has the same rotation path.
@@courgeonaute awesome! I typed up a pretty detailed reply, but I think it got taken down because I also included a link to a diagram of the magnetic field lines from a pickup. My best theory is that since the two connected pickups of a humbucker are wired in opposite polarity, they cancel out most of the magnetic field around them, EXCEPT immediately above each pickup. If you look at the magnetic field lines above a pickup, or any magnet for that matter, you can see that they are nearly straight (vertical). Since the field lines are nearly straight above the center of both pickups (meaning parallel to each other), they can’t phase each other out to a significant degree. That means that only the change in magnetic field directly above the two pickups will be perceived electrically. Fortunately, that happens to be where the stings are! Also, since electromagnetic interference is usually coming from all directions, it is mostly phased out. Of course, there should be a little bit left that is sneaking in from that 90° position where the strings are. I hope this gives you a better understanding. It definitely wasn’t as concise as my first post!
Hi Dylan! Great video! I have a question. In case of a humbucker pickup naturaly. What if I hook the two coils this way? The "first" coil's ground goes into ground and hot goes into a "second" coil's GROUND (so not to the hot as in the case of the "official" method) and the second coil's hot goes to the hot. Changing the sound of the pickup, output level or a humbucking effect anyway?
If you wire the pickups your way, you will have current flowing in the same direction in both coils. This eliminates the noise cancelling. The way he described it in the video, and the way a humbucking coil works, is - CURRENT FLOWS *_CLOCKWISE_* IN ONE HALF THE PICKUP, THEN CURRENT IS MADE TO FLOW *_COUNTER-CLOCKWISE_* in the other half of the pickup. That cancels out the humming received from an 'electrically noisy' source, like a fluorescent light, or a space heater, or another electrical appliance near the guitar. In your connection of the two halves of the coil, the current would flow the same direction in both coils (either both clockwise, or both counter-clockwise, depending on how you choose the input and output wires). You would effectively will have two coils in series, giving you one large coil, if you make current flow the same direction in both coils. And if you keep the magnetic poles as they are - opposite polarity in the top half which has 'South' magnetic polarity, and the bottom half has 'North' polarity as shown in the diagram - the guitar signal will now be cancelled. The reason the magnetic poles are 'South' in one half and 'North' in the other half is to allow the coils - when connected together in the normal, 'humbucking' way - is so that the guitar string still gets its signal through.
Very good, thankyou. I just rewired my guitar and didn't understand why the finish connected to the finish. Now the mystery is revealed. Do you have a vid explaining series and parallel, in the same way you explained this? Tx.
A key point you forgot to mention is that the pole pieces in a humbucker are oriented north-up in one coil and south-up in the other. As a consequence, a moving string's effect on the magnetic field in one coil will be the opposite that of the other coil, but since the coils are reversed, it induces the same polarity of current in both, thus adding rather than canceling.
But his diagram isn't phase reversed, so if he tried to wire this up, it would be a weak pickup due to what you just said. In order for it to be an ACTUAL humbucker, the magnetic poles have to be as you described, and the signal has to go into the same wire on each coil, for example, the top wire on the first coil gets connected to the output, then the bottom wire of the first coil gets connected to the BOTTOM wire of the second coil. this way, the signal is going into coil number two in reverse to coil number one. then the signal EXITS the top wire of coil two. This automatically bucks inductance noise(60 cycle hum) while preserving the magnetic field disturbance (the string moving over the pickup) since the string is making the same movement on both poles, if left alone, each pole of the magnet, since flipped, would pretty much cancel out the string sound. UNTIL you flip the signal in one of the coils, at which point doing so bucks all noise the COILS picks up, and actually phase reverses the opposing polarity of the magnet so that now the resulting signal in each coil is in phase with the other, which equals a high output pickup. His description is a rookie mistake. The way he's got it wired is basically two single coils in series, with the magnetic poles actually working against him. I hope he hasn't actually tried to sell that as a humbucker, because he cheated the customer if he did.
@@bryanharrison3889 Wow, awesome explanation! I was actually kind of bummed there wasn't a recap or something of when he explains exactly how the pickups wired out of phase only 'bucks' the hum without canceling the signal entirely. I have a solid understanding in both audio and electronic engineering, so I'm very familiar with stuff like common mode rejection and whatnot. This video alone somewhat confused me and left me with a few questions. This comment definitely helped clear things up for me. Thanks again!
Cool. You should make a video about it.
perfect, thx man
@@bryanharrison3889 Thanks for clarifying such an important part of the humbucker. It is highly disturbing when someone is going to really explain something, and misses the key part of the solution.
This is the easiest explanation I've seen on this. Thank you for breaking it down!
That's the best explanation of how it works! I've been going nuts trying to get my head around this. The signal enters the bottom COIL START exits the bottom COIL FINISH then enters through the top COIL FINISH and exits out the the top COIL START. The signal running different directions in each coil creates the electrical out of phase that cancels the hum. I wanted to say that to get it through my thick head 😃 Thank you!
Hi dylan
My name is luiz ive 53 yrs old and im from brazil.
I only found your channel now and im in love with all your content.
Wonderful and awesome informations(guitar classes)about everything in a eletric guitar and how it works .(i love when you draw the images on the board)
Congratulations pal.
Plz make a book with all your tutorials if possible
Id like to have and buy one
Great video! What's the story behind the Ducati and racesuit on your wall?
Dylan, love your videos! My son and I have started learning how to build our own now. I did have one question: what does it mean that in Slash’s SD Pickups they have a wood spacer?
What is the “slug“ portion of the pickup?
Another pick up maker was trying to explain his pickups to me, comparing them to regular humbucking pickups.
“It's conceptually similar to slug coil/full/screw coil switching in a conventional HB:”
Because I don’t understand this, I searched for how do humbuckers work.
Now I’m aware of more things that I don’t understand.
this was great! thanks so much.
good, simple and short explanation
thx mate
Great Dylan. Thanks
You say it the wire enters clock-wise and exits clock-wise. I had to dismantle and old humbucker not to lose my mind. The picture you show here is wrong. The wire must enter clock-wise and has to enter counter clock-wise to the other bobbin. The can't be electrically out of phase (opposite) if the coil has the same rotation path.
Would it be possible to do a video on optical pickups
I get how it cancels the 60hz hum. But how does it not cancel the signal coming from the vibration of the strings?
I think I have a good explanation, but it may take me a minute to write. Are you still wondering?
@@mvl2468 YES
@@courgeonaute awesome! I typed up a pretty detailed reply, but I think it got taken down because I also included a link to a diagram of the magnetic field lines from a pickup.
My best theory is that since the two connected pickups of a humbucker are wired in opposite polarity, they cancel out most of the magnetic field around them, EXCEPT immediately above each pickup. If you look at the magnetic field lines above a pickup, or any magnet for that matter, you can see that they are nearly straight (vertical). Since the field lines are nearly straight above the center of both pickups (meaning parallel to each other), they can’t phase each other out to a significant degree. That means that only the change in magnetic field directly above the two pickups will be perceived electrically. Fortunately, that happens to be where the stings are! Also, since electromagnetic interference is usually coming from all directions, it is mostly phased out. Of course, there should be a little bit left that is sneaking in from that 90° position where the strings are. I hope this gives you a better understanding. It definitely wasn’t as concise as my first post!
@@mvl2468 that makes sense since humbuckers dont buck 100% of the hum
Hi Dylan!
Great video! I have a question. In case of a humbucker pickup naturaly. What if I hook the two coils this way? The "first" coil's ground goes into ground and hot goes into a "second" coil's GROUND (so not to the hot as in the case of the "official" method) and the second coil's hot goes to the hot. Changing the sound of the pickup, output level or a humbucking effect anyway?
If you wire the pickups your way, you will have current flowing in the same direction in both coils. This eliminates the noise cancelling. The way he described it in the video, and the way a humbucking coil works, is - CURRENT FLOWS *_CLOCKWISE_* IN ONE HALF THE PICKUP, THEN CURRENT IS MADE TO FLOW *_COUNTER-CLOCKWISE_* in the other half of the pickup. That cancels out the humming received from an 'electrically noisy' source, like a fluorescent light, or a space heater, or another electrical appliance near the guitar.
In your connection of the two halves of the coil, the current would flow the same direction in both coils (either both clockwise, or both counter-clockwise, depending on how you choose the input and output wires).
You would effectively will have two coils in series, giving you one large coil, if you make current flow the same direction in both coils.
And if you keep the magnetic poles as they are - opposite polarity in the top half which has 'South' magnetic polarity, and the bottom half has 'North' polarity as shown in the diagram - the guitar signal will now be cancelled. The reason the magnetic poles are 'South' in one half and 'North' in the other half is to allow the coils - when connected together in the normal, 'humbucking' way - is so that the guitar string still gets its signal through.
How many turn of magnetic wire for those pick up? Thank you in advance
Very good, thankyou. I just rewired my guitar and didn't understand why the finish connected to the finish. Now the mystery is revealed. Do you have a vid explaining series and parallel, in the same way you explained this? Tx.
Yes helpful thanks 👍🏼
I like this.
Best.
How do centerpunch humbuckers work? Actually I'm sure there's a video on that!
Thanks for your videos, they are really good. But can you please use a 35mm lens? It's distracting seeing your face distorted. Cheers!
seriously...you sound like an imbecile