MFD and Alnico Pickups in the same guitar

[tmk733]

Hey guys,

I own a G&L Legacy HB and replaced the two CLF-100 Alnico V single coils by two MFD pickups from a G&L S-500.
My motivation for that swap was to improve the balance of my setup (the difference in volume and tone between the CLF-100s and the TB-4 humbucker was tremendous).
I think I reached this goal, but I have problems with position 2 (mid + TB-4):
The volume of position 2 is way lower than in position 1 (TB-4) or position 3 (mid). The tone I get from mid+bridge is also very thin and trebly, it definitely lacks a lot of bass compared to mid or bridge themselves.

Do you think this is a result of a possible incompatibility between MFD single coils and alnico humbuckers?

FYI: It was the first time that I swapped pickups and I am by no means technically gifted. Maybe I did something wrong when soldering the wires. Could that be the problem? All the other positions (neck, neck+mid, mid, bridge) work very well.


I'd appreciate your help very much
Toby

[SouthpawGuy]

Just a wild guess, and bare in mind I'm also no whiz kid when it comes to wiring, it's possible the middle pickup is out of phase with the bridge pickup.

If I am correct in an S500 the middle pickup is RWRP to the bridge and neck ( reverse wound reverse polarity) so that when positions 2 and 4 are selected they are hum cancelling.

So I'm guessing the current pickup in your middle position needs to be the middle pickup from an S500, but you may have either a neck or bridge.

As I say just a guess on my part, I may be way off the mark.

[tmk733]

Hi Southpawguy
Thanks for your response.
The MFD pickup I installed in the Legacy HB is definitely RWRP because I took the neck + middle pickup straight out of my S-500 (forgot to mention that I'm lucky to own one ) and put them in the neck respectively mid position of my Legacy HB.
There is complete hum-cancelling in position 4. There is also hum-cancelling in position 2, but hum doesn't cancel out completely (which I expected).

[NickHorne]

Virtually certain that the TB-4 and the middle pup are out of phase with one another.
But the neck and middle are correct with one another.

So the correct answer, if possible, is to reverse the phase of the bridge pickup.
How many wires come from the humbucker?

PS you will never get total hum-cancelling @ pos 2; you have a humbucker and a single-coil together, and will hear the hum from the single-coil.
Position 4, however, will humbuck as usual; two single-coils in RWRP = a humbucker, just with coils a long way apart.

If the humbucker has more conductors than just braid-and-hot, there will be a simple solution. If it has only braid-and-hot, there are still two solutions to choose from, but both need a tech. And one who knows not to let a Weller-type solder "gun" anywhere near guitar pickups, at that.

[Craig]

See these posts for some background:

P/U volume problem in Mid position!.
S-500 MFD pickups question.

I think you will need to modify the ground plate connection on both MFD pickups to get the HB playing nicely with them.

As an alternative, you might try replacing the TB-4 with the MFD humbucker used in the bridge position of the F-100.
The split coil setting on them is great, too.

just my $0.02.