Just tried it, and I can’t believe it actually worked. Very pleased. I’ve tried all the noiseless pickups, and adding a dummy like this sounds way better than any of them (using a Fender Pure Vintage 65 set). Some tips: 1) can’t use with a middle RWRP pickup, 2) you may need to try both combinations (switch which way you connect the hot and ground lead connections to the volume pot/5-way wire, or you may get it right the first time), and 3) I used a hammer and screwdriver to force the magnet off the dummy coil pickup. Good luck, everyone!
Hi Woodeso's Guitar Mods .. Congrats for your videos. I installed a dummy coil in my guitar too. I have some comments to improve it: 1. The schematic you teach is not the best. You put the dummy coil between the switch and the volume pot, however this work good only when you have a master tone knob (as shown in the schematics you used). When you have separate tone knobs like most strats do, then you end up having a lot of noise when you roll off the tone. That happens because you are filtering just the signal from the pickup, but leaving unfiltered the noise from the dummy coil. The CORRECT way is to place the dummy coil in replace of the black wire that connects one side of the switch to the other (in case of the schematic). In the case of your switch, that would be pins 4 and 5. Then you can have a regular strat wiring with separate tone knobs with no noise when you roll off the tones. 2. I used a cheap chinese pickup as a dummy coil. I removed the ceramic magnet from the back and removed the pole pieces. These pole pieces are not magnetic. However, without the polepieces, the noise reduction was insignificant. But when I put the pole pieces back, then the dummy coil really worked. So, for dummy coils made from ceramic pickups, its better to leave the poles. For alnico pickups, you have no option. 3. You guitar don't have a RWRP middle pickup and, in this case, the dummy coil will work for all 5 positions. However, most Fender strats have a middle RWRP pickup and then the dummy coil will only work for positions 1 and 5. The other positions will be noisier. In this case, you need a DPDT switch or push-pull knob to enable/disable the dummy coil. 4. For those who have fender standard alnico pickups, you can undo the RWRP pickup just by reversing the pole pieces and the wire leads. However, this only works for those pickups that have a plastic bobin, otherwise you will damage you pickups. Hope these comments will help everybody.
Thanks for the awesome videos and the dummy coil is amazing. I have a MIM tele with a non-rwrp neck pu and a 4 way switch and it hummed in all positions. Now she's dead quiet and no tone loss that I can tell. Now I have a use for all my scrap pickups. Cheers!
I'd like to try this with my Les Paul special twin cutaway loaded with P90's, do I have to use a P90 'I don't like' or will a smaller Tele or strat style pickup do the job? Do I need to match the working guitar pickups resistances?
Just put one in my roadworn Strat. Significant drop in 60 cycle hum BUT I do notice the overall output is lower. Maybe I need to get closer in omhage to my pickups. Anyways this is a legit mod IMO. Thank you sir.
longer signal wire means overall power loss, for those who perform on stage. this means that eventually you will need a buffer. But I was wandering if you use one of the two coils that the hotrails has witch is at 5.6K ohm resistance, will you get the same results?
Although I don't fully understand the humbucking myself, I think what matters is how you position the dummypickup inside your guitar. In the video you say "anywhere you have some room" but I think moving it around will change alot and can even amplify the humming ^^
Hi. Very interesting idea. I'm just wondering however. Wouldn't any kind of resister in the path of your output reduce your overall signal? Have you ever metered the output before and after the mod? I'd try but if you already did, I don't want to re-invent the wheel : )
If you wire it in parallel, you won't get a high end roll off or volume drop. If anything you might get a little more high end which you could take with an added resistor between one lead of the dummy coil and the volume knob
What it I do not remove the lead from the switch to the pot? Wouldn't you have a better signal that way, plus the dummy coil? Or would the resistance of the coil negate the current flow?
Electro-harmonix makes a pedal called the "Humdebugger" put your Strat Single coils through it and the Hum dissappears. You can see it work on CZcams. Looks like a good investment For non-Texas Specials or the ones that have the reverse wound middle pup.
What happens when there is a RWRP involved? Or how do I make this just work for neck pickup selection (which is RWRP) as all other settings are already noise cancelling. Cheers
did i miss it or didn´t you mention all the pickups got to have the same polarity if using this kind of modification? cause unfortunately it doesn´t work well if the middle pickup is reverse wound.
Can i bypass the dummy coil in bridge position ? i want to install a hot rail and the guitar came stock with a dummy coil connected to the single coils
Hi man how are you .. OK!!!!!! i think i might of goofed this dummy coil im running a blender loom on a MIM strat still getting hum hope you can help Cheers From Ireland
Please pardon me if someone has already mentioned this, but isn't it kinda important that you get the polarity of the winding correct? I don't know of a better way than taking a 50/50 guess and trying again if you find out you were wrong (once you get the guitar back together). But the reverse coil is really the key principle isn't it?
arent the pickups wired so that in some postions bridge and neck for example the pickups are wired in reverse with opposite poling..then in this case, the one coil in series would be humbucking, but when connected to the other coil, it would double the hum? in other words..the bridge, neck, and middle have to be wound in the same direction with the same polarity, in order for the dummy to be wound in reverse relative to them, in order to be hum cancelling...?
So the dummy coil stays in circuit in the hum-canceling positions too? I was hoping there was a wiring strategy that engages the dummy coil only in switch positions 1, 3, and 5 but not in 2 or 4 where it's just _adding_ hum. Putting a push-pull pot in to act as a switch is the only answer I can think of, other than a hideously complicated custom 5-way switch. (Although if I were making a product out of this, I think a custom 5-way switch is _exactly_ how I'd do it.)
@Woodeso's Guitar Mods: Does it make any difference how much resistance is on the coil? Reason is most of that cheap coils I have lying around are les that 4kOhm and my Strat has around 6,5kOhm coils.
Know this an older vid, and maybe I’m wrong but wouldn’t the pickup you choose for the dummy coil need to be RWRP in relation to the regular wound neck and bridge pickup to be truly “hum cancelling”? I think if you don’t you would only get the effects of frequency cancellation of pickup and dummy coil wired out of phase to each other but not full hum cancelling. Not sure how that still all would work when magnetic pole pieces or ceramic mag and steel pole pieces are removed. In any case I’d think the direction of the coil winding in the dummy coil would be very important whether it cancels out other single coil pickup 50/60 cycle hum, or not. Seems to me it would have to be wound opposite to your bridge/neck and if your middle pickup was also rwrp it wouldn’t do anything in pos 3 of normal 5-way.
In such a solution, no one needs any RWRP. The coil does not interact with the strings - no polarity (no RP, no SP) is needed (which is why he removed the magnets). There is no RW exist, the phase of the coil is changes by changing its leads. If you do have a actual middle RWRP, it will not be hum bucked, it needs to be brought into the same state of the neck and bridge.
i got it! the hum is going to the hell right now, but i have some trouble, i found hiss noise in my strat, if i dont touch any metal part of the guitar, but if i touch metal part like string, bridge etc the noise is gone, may you have a solution for my trouble, or tips to make noise gone, thankyou
+Young Young You can't get rid of that noise. It happens cause you are the guitar grounding. That's why there is a wire from the guitar bridge to the circuit grouding. It's perfectly normal, and as long as it disappears when you touch the strings, it's okay.
I disagree on the wiring. In switch positions 2, 3 and 4 the dummy must not be active. In position 2 and 4 the middle pickup cancels the hum of the bridge or neck pickup. In position 3 - middle pickup alone - the hum would be doubled because the middle pickup works reverse, so does the dummy. One would need a wiring / switch, where only in position 1 and 5 the dummy gets active in the regular way, yet in position 3 it should get reverse active.
Though it couldn't get any easier I'm still a little confused ; ) You say the coil replaces the red wire in this case, but do I actually have to physically remove it?
Yes Take away the red wire and replace it with the pickup. Doesn't matter which end gets wire in where. All you're doing is forcing the output of the switch through your dummy coil before it hits the volume. So instead of a straight connection from the switch to the volume, you remove that entire wire, then in it's place solder in the pickup. Hope that clears it up;-)
What resistance are you looking for in the coil? Wouldn't a resistor be cheaper and smaller and do the same effect? I am not trying to be a smart ass just curious as not everyone has a spare pick up to sacrifice.
Honestly Pat, I've wondered the same thing. So much so, that I'd like to wire up a much smaller coil. Something the size of a volume or tone pot. Like the size of a thread bobbin for a sewing machine. I just need to find some sort of housing that size. As for the exact resistance... not sure what the breaking point would be to be honest. That's a good question though. I bet Will would know the answer to that:-)
Truthfully Pat, I don't know why pre-manufactured dummy coils aren't sold for modders? Like something small with just the amount of resistance you'd need to make it silent. I reckon we could find out by testing a noiseless pickup though. Some Fender noiseless pickup. It's just the same thing. A dummy coil wired into the pickup. Maybe test one of them?? I haven't been able to find the answer yet. Perhaps there's a mathematical formula to work it out?
+Woodeso's Guitar Mods That's also my take on it. Seems it would be a lot simple if one could just buy a small prefabricated coil made for just that purpose. Of course the noiseless pickup folks wouldn't like that at all.
The hum bucking effect has nothing to do with a pure resistor. It is the reactance of the coil that works for the hum bucking effect. So a resistor has no reactance and can not reduce the hum.
The hum bucking effect has nothing to do with a pure resistor. It is the reactance of the coil that works for the hum bucking effect. So a resistor has no reactance and can not reduce the hum.
@@fransvanhelvoort1083 Yes, but in his effort to make this EASY, he neglected to mention this. I know better, but to hear him tell it, all you need is a very long lead wire ... or a resistor.
For some pickups the pole pieces ARE the magnets...usually AlNiCo magnets. For some, mostly ceramic mag single coils, there is a bar mag across the bottom.
First of all I appreciate the video; I was planning to do this mod myself. But, I have been studying this pretty intensely for around two weeks and I have read probably more than I care to remember, and I don't mean to come across like a jerk, but, from what I have read, this mod will only work if all 3 pickups are wound in the same direction. In other words, if you're middle pup is reverse wound (RW/RP), which most modern Stratocasters are (from what I have read), you will not get hum cancelling in all pickup positions. Maybe he pointed that out in the video and I missed it, regardless, it is an important caveat. I have rails on all my guitars, but my Brother just bought a American Standard Stratocaster which has 3 single coils with RW/RP middle pickup, so I got curious and did some research and it showed me this mod would not work on his guitar without replacing the RW/RP pickup with a normally wound one. I told him just go buy some Fender noiseless pickups, just seems a lot easier. Just my two cents worth...
The Fender noiseless pickups are dull and lifeless. Their sound is not even close to the standard p'ups. Try some others noiseless like Zexcoil or Kinman or so... They are pricier, however they are worth every penny!
Thanks much Cream, I love the sound of single coils and nothing else comes even close, but I stopped using them decades ago; I found them way to noisy for live performance and recording. I really think it's all a matter of preference. I just acquired a new David Murray Strat with 3 top-line Seymour Duncan's, and I swear the cheap ones on my $200.00 Squire Hot rails Strat Import sound better to my ear. I have always felt technique and passion supersede the quality of ones gear, maybe that's because I ways always to poor to buy expensive gear when I was playing for a living.. I played on Fender and Carvin amps for decades. I just acquired a brand new $1400.00 Mesa Boogie and the construction, materials and features are superb, but sound-wise, I owned a Fender Twin with JBLs in the mid 70's that easily rivals it, the Twin had the most gorgeous sound of any amp I ever played on, and like a fool I sold it.
I installed one dummy coil in my guitar, but i head the same noise Before the install, the dummy has tested and works fine, i think changed the connection cable, the volume cable goes nota in the volumen, go to switch and viceversa, you can help me?
Joel Perez Is the polarity, fist able if you have a middle reverse wired pickup, inverse it to have the 3 equal, then put the (-) from the dummy to the switch and the (+) to the positive vol pot, if the hum persists or gets worst put it in reverse and boom, no hum, be sure to place the pickup facing the same direction as the others and if is posible wrap it in paper then alumn foil and paper again for insulation purposes, and has to be tight not loose in the cavity. Amen.
I have a strat with normal rwrp pups. I did very much experiments with dummy coils. Even hot rails with one blade removed and the winding's in parallel mode. The last was the best I could find. All the experiments (including this mod) gives a bucked hum! But all will give you a loss of high shimmering single coil frequency's. I have modded my strat with only one tone control for all the pups. My last attempt was to wire a dummy coil in the place of the capacitor of the tone control. Bingo! With the "tone" control (250k) wide open I have a fairly good hum reducing and no loss of tone at all!!!! When I turn the tone control the hum reduction will get better and better and the high freq. rolls off, just as a real tone control. With the tone control on zero you won't have hum anymore and a good jazz tone. Try it and you will be surprised. The only thing that happend is a slight output level loss. Easy to compensate by putting the pups a bit higher.
Interesting. From what I understand, it helps to take a lot of wire off the dummy coil. It would take quite a bit of experimentation, but the least amount of wire wraps you need to get rid of the hum is the ideal you're shooting for. This will give the least signal loss.
For what I learned from the net is the right amount of winding so much that the DC resistance of the coil is about 1/8 of the DC resistance of the pickup. When you have the specs of the coil wire and the size, you can calculate the amount of winding rounds. Such a dummy coil has to be in series with the pups.
I hope you're right. There's just so much junk information posted on the interweb, especially in stupid forums, that I don't trust any of it. Anyhow, I'm glad it's worked out for you!
Ok, I'm a pedal builder. So I know basic concepts of problem solving in relation to electronics. I know how to check continuity, and all that other fun stuff to determine what the problem is. And I thought this would be a slam dunk after watching your vids on dummy coils. Plain old squire strat. This only increases noise. I am dumbfounded.
Haven't tried this yet. But FYI, single coil strat-style pickups are available on eBay from Chinese suppliers for less than $3 each these days. Keep up the good work, Woodeso.
It would just make it less loud. It would not reduce noise. Resistance isn't the functional parameter. It must be a coil. It works like an antenna for noise, but it's out of phase so it cancels out. (not perfectly, but significantly) Known as common mode rejection. Same principle that makes a humbucking pickup work, or a balanced microphone cable, etc.
I did this and for me it took away way to much tone. Kinda logic when you're adding 8k's or so in resistance. I would say try it for yourself. It does take away a bunch of hum
I'm not entirely sure this is correct my friend. Watching your video intrigued me to go back to experimenting with dummy coils, which I did once for about a year with dif variables, and just got out of it. Being rust, I watched your video, and was totally confused, because it simply just wasn't working at all. The added resistance of the dummy coil wasn't even showing up on my multi meter, and then finally after about an hour, and I half, it all came back to me.......doesn't one lead of the dummy have to go to ground for this to actually work?...After I remembered this I wired it up properly with one lead to ground, and truly got the noise cancellation as well as high end loss. .....The crazy thing is when I first wired it up your way....I actually convinced myself that it was working, could not understand why I had so much trouble adjust my coils before with adding capacitors, and switches to bring high end back into the signal, and switch the coil off when it wasn't needed.....lol
+QuillPen77 Remove the cable between switch and volume completely. Then put one dummy lead to switch and the other to the volume. This is a series dummycoil connection. This will have slightly less output than normal pickup, with less treble and hum. Twice pickup resistance value. This is better for overdriven sounds, since the tone is less edgy. If u leave the switch/volume cable and ground the dummy and then attach hot lead to switch output you have a parallell dummycoil connection. This will have more treble and less volume and less hum. Half pickup resistance value. This is better for cleantones because of the treble, but unecessary since less hum is amplified in clean amps and the pickup sounds good for cleans without a dummy. Polarity of the dummy matters: if you install it wrong it will have twice the hum and needs to reverse the leads.
What is the purpose for this "dummy coil" ?? Why are you putting this on the guitar?? Are we automatically supposed to know what this is for ?? Or is it just for DUMMIES ????
He didn't really explain that, did he? He also did a terrible job on specifically what to do. He points here, but meant there. If a inexperienced guitar modder saw this, they'd have no idea.
I find myself contemplating if this could get any easier. Will report back with my findings
Infuriating!
I drank a shot every time you say "couldn't get any easier." I ran out of Jack and was unconscious by the half way point.
Hahaha yaaaaa
Just tried it, and I can’t believe it actually worked. Very pleased. I’ve tried all the noiseless pickups, and adding a dummy like this sounds way better than any of them (using a Fender Pure Vintage 65 set). Some tips: 1) can’t use with a middle RWRP pickup, 2) you may need to try both combinations (switch which way you connect the hot and ground lead connections to the volume pot/5-way wire, or you may get it right the first time), and 3) I used a hammer and screwdriver to force the magnet off the dummy coil pickup. Good luck, everyone!
Hi Woodeso's Guitar Mods .. Congrats for your videos. I installed a dummy coil in my guitar too. I have some comments to improve it:
1. The schematic you teach is not the best. You put the dummy coil between the switch and the volume pot, however this work good only when you have a master tone knob (as shown in the schematics you used). When you have separate tone knobs like most strats do, then you end up having a lot of noise when you roll off the tone. That happens because you are filtering just the signal from the pickup, but leaving unfiltered the noise from the dummy coil. The CORRECT way is to place the dummy coil in replace of the black wire that connects one side of the switch to the other (in case of the schematic). In the case of your switch, that would be pins 4 and 5. Then you can have a regular strat wiring with separate tone knobs with no noise when you roll off the tones.
2. I used a cheap chinese pickup as a dummy coil. I removed the ceramic magnet from the back and removed the pole pieces. These pole pieces are not magnetic. However, without the polepieces, the noise reduction was insignificant. But when I put the pole pieces back, then the dummy coil really worked. So, for dummy coils made from ceramic pickups, its better to leave the poles. For alnico pickups, you have no option.
3. You guitar don't have a RWRP middle pickup and, in this case, the dummy coil will work for all 5 positions. However, most Fender strats have a middle RWRP pickup and then the dummy coil will only work for positions 1 and 5. The other positions will be noisier. In this case, you need a DPDT switch or push-pull knob to enable/disable the dummy coil.
4. For those who have fender standard alnico pickups, you can undo the RWRP pickup just by reversing the pole pieces and the wire leads. However, this only works for those pickups that have a plastic bobin, otherwise you will damage you pickups.
Hope these comments will help everybody.
I tried this and it doesn't work.
Couldn't get any easier, sir.
This really helped me, but it affected my tone controls, I guess it is my fault , thank you very much!
You right.. dont mess with vintage pickup.. i have fat50 and cs69 dead
@@gitarbangsatchanel8036 yep... these are much harder to mod. Don't try to reverse it.
This couldn’t get any easier
Literally! could not! GET Any Easier!!!
Thanks for the awesome videos and the dummy coil is amazing. I have a MIM tele with a non-rwrp neck pu and a 4 way switch and it hummed in all positions. Now she's dead quiet and no tone loss that I can tell. Now I have a use for all my scrap pickups. Cheers!
I'd like to try this with my Les Paul special twin cutaway loaded with P90's, do I have to use a P90 'I don't like' or will a smaller Tele or strat style pickup do the job? Do I need to match the working guitar pickups resistances?
Thanks so much my friend. Strat players owe you a debt of gratitude. Game changer. God Bless!
Just put one in my roadworn Strat. Significant drop in 60 cycle hum BUT I do notice the overall output is lower. Maybe I need to get closer in omhage to my pickups. Anyways this is a legit mod IMO. Thank you sir.
But wait, could it possibly get any easier?
Thanks man it works like a charm.
longer signal wire means overall power loss, for those who perform on stage. this means that eventually you will need a buffer. But I was wandering if you use one of the two coils that the hotrails has witch is at 5.6K ohm resistance, will you get the same results?
I don;t know. I'm interested in an easier way to do this.
Let someone else do it for you?
Although I don't fully understand the humbucking myself, I think what matters is how you position the dummypickup inside your guitar. In the video you say "anywhere you have some room" but I think moving it around will change alot and can even amplify the humming ^^
Hi. Very interesting idea. I'm just wondering however. Wouldn't any kind of resister in the path of your output reduce your overall signal? Have you ever metered the output before and after the mod? I'd try but if you already did, I don't want to re-invent the wheel : )
If you wire it in parallel, you won't get a high end roll off or volume drop. If anything you might get a little more high end which you could take with an added resistor between one lead of the dummy coil and the volume knob
What it I do not remove the lead from the switch to the pot? Wouldn't you have a better signal that way, plus the dummy coil? Or would the resistance of the coil negate the current flow?
Electro-harmonix makes a pedal called the "Humdebugger" put your Strat Single coils through it and the Hum dissappears. You can see it work on
CZcams. Looks like a good investment
For non-Texas Specials or the ones that have the reverse wound middle pup.
So can I take any pickup as a dummy coil and use it on my active bass which have 3 way coil split for each pickup and the noise is gone?
What happens when there is a RWRP involved? Or how do I make this just work for neck pickup selection (which is RWRP) as all other settings are already noise cancelling.
Cheers
thanks for saving us alot of money
Does it work if the dummy coil is soldered directly on the two poles of the output jack ?
Awesomeness. Thank you. 😁
did i miss it or didn´t you mention all the pickups got to have the same polarity if using this kind of modification?
cause unfortunately it doesn´t work well if the middle pickup is reverse wound.
Are you sure it couldn't get any easier?... Sorry I couldn't help myself... Thanks for the video
Hey this was really easy!
Can i bypass the dummy coil in bridge position ? i want to install a hot rail and the guitar came stock with a dummy coil connected to the single coils
Is it not easier to just shield the cavity. All my strats are very quiet to noiseless.
Hi man how are you .. OK!!!!!! i think i might of goofed this dummy coil im running a blender loom on a MIM strat still getting hum hope you can help
Cheers From Ireland
Where's your preferred mounting location for the dummy pickup when reinstalling?
Please pardon me if someone has already mentioned this, but isn't it kinda important that you get the polarity of the winding correct? I don't know of a better way than taking a 50/50 guess and trying again if you find out you were wrong (once you get the guitar back together). But the reverse coil is really the key principle isn't it?
arent the pickups wired so that in some postions bridge and neck for example the pickups are wired in reverse with opposite poling..then in this case, the one coil in series would be humbucking, but when connected to the other coil, it would double the hum? in other words..the bridge, neck, and middle have to be wound in the same direction with the same polarity, in order for the dummy to be wound in reverse relative to them, in order to be hum cancelling...?
Is PARALLEL better than SERIES when using Dummy Coils?
I tried this and now my tone knobs adjust the amount of buzz I get... very odd. Any suggestions? thanks!
Hey Liberace, could you show an easier way?
Does this work on Jazzmaster pickups?
Very smart!
So the dummy coil stays in circuit in the hum-canceling positions too? I was hoping there was a wiring strategy that engages the dummy coil only in switch positions 1, 3, and 5 but not in 2 or 4 where it's just _adding_ hum. Putting a push-pull pot in to act as a switch is the only answer I can think of, other than a hideously complicated custom 5-way switch. (Although if I were making a product out of this, I think a custom 5-way switch is _exactly_ how I'd do it.)
@Woodeso's Guitar Mods: Does it make any difference how much resistance is on the coil? Reason is most of that cheap coils I have lying around are les that 4kOhm and my Strat has around 6,5kOhm coils.
How to mix that with a RWRP middle pickup?
rhe dummy coil needs to be the only pickup RWRP, is that correct? and thanks for this tutorial :)
As far as I know, i've been researching this myself... funny he doesn't bring this up.
I was wondering the same thing... really it would only be reverse wound, since the polarity leaves with the magnets being removed.
Yes, otherwise it will actually add noise in some positions.
Could you use an old wire wound resistor instead? I have a bunch of those.
nope.
Actually - you can, but it not will work.
Very cool
This is completely off subject but dude! Is that the Crimson nut slotting files tool I saw? It looks like it, one of the best tools ever!
Randy Schartiger YES and it works awesome!
Know this an older vid, and maybe I’m wrong but wouldn’t the pickup you choose for the dummy coil need to be RWRP in relation to the regular wound neck and bridge pickup to be truly “hum cancelling”? I think if you don’t you would only get the effects of frequency cancellation of pickup and dummy coil wired out of phase to each other but not full hum cancelling. Not sure how that still all would work when magnetic pole pieces or ceramic mag and steel pole pieces are removed. In any case I’d think the direction of the coil winding in the dummy coil would be very important whether it cancels out other single coil pickup 50/60 cycle hum, or not. Seems to me it would have to be wound opposite to your bridge/neck and if your middle pickup was also rwrp it wouldn’t do anything in pos 3 of normal 5-way.
In such a solution, no one needs any RWRP. The coil does not interact with the strings - no polarity (no RP, no SP) is needed (which is why he removed the magnets). There is no RW exist, the phase of the coil is changes by changing its leads.
If you do have a actual middle RWRP, it will not be hum bucked, it needs to be brought into the same state of the neck and bridge.
Fender Deluxe Powerhouse strats have a dummy coil from the factory.
i dont know if it could get any easier than that, but could it get any easier?
i got it! the hum is going to the hell right now, but i have some trouble, i found hiss noise in my strat, if i dont touch any metal part of the guitar, but if i touch metal part like string, bridge etc the noise is gone, may you have a solution for my trouble, or tips to make noise gone, thankyou
+Young Young You can't get rid of that noise. It happens cause you are the guitar grounding. That's why there is a wire from the guitar bridge to the circuit grouding. It's perfectly normal, and as long as it disappears when you touch the strings, it's okay.
This may actually just be static electricity!! wipe your strings down with an 'anti-static' cloth and the hum will be gone. Usually works for me...
ok so what dos a dummy coil do ? why are we doing this? dos it make the guitar sound better ?
Could this get any easier?
I disagree on the wiring. In switch positions 2, 3 and 4 the dummy must not be active. In position 2 and 4 the middle pickup cancels the hum of the bridge or neck pickup. In position 3 - middle pickup alone - the hum would be doubled because the middle pickup works reverse, so does the dummy. One would need a wiring / switch, where only in position 1 and 5 the dummy gets active in the regular way, yet in position 3 it should get reverse active.
Though it couldn't get any easier I'm still a little confused ; )
You say the coil replaces the red wire in this case, but do I actually have to physically remove it?
Yes Take away the red wire and replace it with the pickup. Doesn't matter which end gets wire in where. All you're doing is forcing the output of the switch through your dummy coil before it hits the volume. So instead of a straight connection from the switch to the volume, you remove that entire wire, then in it's place solder in the pickup. Hope that clears it up;-)
Woodeso's Guitar Mods Yes, thanks for the fast reply! I think I can do that ... maybe I'll get a Squier Classic Vibe after all.
Can you do this to a Les Paul with P90’s?
Should theoretically be the same
What if I have a humbucker in the bridge and a single in the neck?
It's actually a better technology than a humbucker as it doesn't affect your tone.
Ii think you are right! Getting the polarity right is the hard part. And with the middle pup already being reverse wound.
What about that?
What resistance are you looking for in the coil? Wouldn't a resistor be cheaper and smaller and do the same effect? I am not trying to be a smart ass just curious as not everyone has a spare pick up to sacrifice.
Honestly Pat, I've wondered the same thing. So much so, that I'd like to wire up a much smaller coil. Something the size of a volume or tone pot. Like the size of a thread bobbin for a sewing machine. I just need to find some sort of housing that size. As for the exact resistance... not sure what the breaking point would be to be honest. That's a good question though. I bet Will would know the answer to that:-)
Truthfully Pat, I don't know why pre-manufactured dummy coils aren't sold for modders? Like something small with just the amount of resistance you'd need to make it silent. I reckon we could find out by testing a noiseless pickup though. Some Fender noiseless pickup. It's just the same thing. A dummy coil wired into the pickup. Maybe test one of them?? I haven't been able to find the answer yet. Perhaps there's a mathematical formula to work it out?
+Woodeso's Guitar Mods That's also my take on it. Seems it would be a lot simple if one could just buy a small prefabricated coil made for just that purpose. Of course the noiseless pickup folks wouldn't like that at all.
The hum bucking effect has nothing to do with a pure resistor. It is the reactance of the coil that works for the hum bucking effect. So a resistor has no reactance and can not reduce the hum.
I don't know, seems hard, could it get any easier?
Curious why you couldn't just wire up a resistor, if all you are really wanting is the resistance of the pickup coil.
The hum bucking effect has nothing to do with a pure resistor. It is the reactance of the coil that works for the hum bucking effect. So a resistor has no reactance and can not reduce the hum.
arnoldinshorts if its that easy why did they ever make any other pickups EVER?
DUMMY
@@fransvanhelvoort1083 Yes, but in his effort to make this EASY, he neglected to mention this. I know better, but to hear him tell it, all you need is a very long lead wire ... or a resistor.
And what if you have two volumes puts?
you mean pole pieces? magnet are on the bottom correct?
For some pickups the pole pieces ARE the magnets...usually AlNiCo magnets.
For some, mostly ceramic mag single coils, there is a bar mag across the bottom.
it also needs to be reverse wound, yes?
Reverse the leads, winding direction doesnt matter, the circuit direction will change
First of all I appreciate the video; I was planning to do this mod myself. But, I have been studying this pretty intensely for around two weeks and I have read probably more than I care to remember, and I don't mean to come across like a jerk, but, from what I have read, this mod will only work if all 3 pickups are wound in the same direction. In other words, if you're middle pup is reverse wound (RW/RP), which most modern Stratocasters are (from what I have read), you will not get hum cancelling in all pickup positions. Maybe he pointed that out in the video and I missed it, regardless, it is an important caveat. I have rails on all my guitars, but my Brother just bought a American Standard Stratocaster which has 3 single coils with RW/RP middle pickup, so I got curious and did some research and it showed me this mod would not work on his guitar without replacing the RW/RP pickup with a normally wound one. I told him just go buy some Fender noiseless pickups, just seems a lot easier. Just my two cents worth...
The Fender noiseless pickups are dull and lifeless. Their sound is not even close to the standard p'ups. Try some others noiseless like Zexcoil or Kinman or so... They are pricier, however they are worth every penny!
Thanks much Cream, I love the sound of single coils and nothing else comes even close, but I stopped using them decades ago; I found them way to noisy for live performance and recording. I really think it's all a matter of preference. I just acquired a new David Murray Strat with 3 top-line Seymour Duncan's, and I swear the cheap ones on my $200.00 Squire Hot rails Strat Import sound better to my ear.
I have always felt technique and passion supersede the quality of ones gear, maybe that's because I ways always to poor to buy expensive gear when I was playing for a living.. I played on Fender and Carvin amps for decades. I just acquired a brand new $1400.00 Mesa Boogie and the construction, materials and features are superb, but sound-wise, I owned a Fender Twin with JBLs in the mid 70's that easily rivals it, the Twin had the most gorgeous sound of any amp I ever played on, and like a fool I sold it.
Flip the magnets in the middle pickup and reverse the wires too. you just give up the series on 2 and 4, no biggie.
What about Lace Sensors?
and what is this for again?
I installed one dummy coil in my guitar, but i head the same noise Before the install, the dummy has tested and works fine, i think changed the connection cable, the volume cable goes nota in the volumen, go to switch and viceversa, you can help me?
Joel Perez
Is the polarity, fist able if you have a middle reverse wired pickup, inverse it to have the 3 equal, then put the (-) from the dummy to the switch and the (+) to the positive vol pot, if the hum persists or gets worst put it in reverse and boom, no hum, be sure to place the pickup facing the same direction as the others and if is posible wrap it in paper then alumn foil and paper again for insulation purposes, and has to be tight not loose in the cavity. Amen.
thanks!
YEAH!!!
I have a strat with normal rwrp pups. I did very much experiments with dummy coils. Even hot rails with one blade removed and the winding's in parallel mode. The last was the best I could find. All the experiments (including this mod) gives a bucked hum! But all will give you a loss of high shimmering single coil frequency's. I have modded my strat with only one tone control for all the pups. My last attempt was to wire a dummy coil in the place of the capacitor of the tone control. Bingo! With the "tone" control (250k) wide open I have a fairly good hum reducing and no loss of tone at all!!!! When I turn the tone control the hum reduction will get better and better and the high freq. rolls off, just as a real tone control. With the tone control on zero you won't have hum anymore and a good jazz tone. Try it and you will be surprised. The only thing that happend is a slight output level loss. Easy to compensate by putting the pups a bit higher.
Interesting. From what I understand, it helps to take a lot of wire off the dummy coil. It would take quite a bit of experimentation, but the least amount of wire wraps you need to get rid of the hum is the ideal you're shooting for. This will give the least signal loss.
For what I learned from the net is the right amount of winding so much that the DC resistance of the coil is about 1/8 of the DC resistance of the pickup. When you have the specs of the coil wire and the size, you can calculate the amount of winding rounds. Such a dummy coil has to be in series with the pups.
I hope you're right. There's just so much junk information posted on the interweb, especially in stupid forums, that I don't trust any of it. Anyhow, I'm glad it's worked out for you!
How easy is this?
Got dizzy trying to follow so many hand moves..still confused.
Please make it easier!
Why dont manufacturers do this in the first place?
Google that shit! Love it
Are you sure it couldn't get any easier???
Easy come, easy go, hmmm could it get any easier ?
"short as pie" lmao
Ok, I'm a pedal builder. So I know basic concepts of problem solving in relation to electronics.
I know how to check continuity, and all that other fun stuff to determine what the problem is.
And I thought this would be a slam dunk after watching your vids on dummy coils.
Plain old squire strat. This only increases noise. I am dumbfounded.
If your noise increases - reverse the phase of the coil.
Wait so what does this actually do?? Sorry I'm still a novice at this :)
ThatGuyNamedScott. C It gets rid of the single coil hum
Hey man
Haven't tried this yet. But FYI, single coil strat-style pickups are available on eBay from Chinese suppliers for less than $3 each these days. Keep up the good work, Woodeso.
too bad I was wanting to hear what it sounded like...............geeeeez
Can't you just wire a resister in there? or would that just make it quieter?
It would just make it less loud. It would not reduce noise. Resistance isn't the functional parameter. It must be a coil. It works like an antenna for noise, but it's out of phase so it cancels out. (not perfectly, but significantly)
Known as common mode rejection. Same principle that makes a humbucking pickup work, or a balanced microphone cable, etc.
"Short as pie"
A short pie, that is...
Isn't there an easier way to do it?
I did this and for me it took away way to much tone. Kinda logic when you're adding 8k's or so in resistance. I would say try it for yourself. It does take away a bunch of hum
Try connecting this coil in parallel with the selector. This should have less effect on the tone.
I'm not entirely sure this is correct my friend. Watching your video intrigued me to go back to experimenting with dummy coils, which I did once for about a year with dif variables, and just got out of it. Being rust, I watched your video, and was totally confused, because it simply just wasn't working at all. The added resistance of the dummy coil wasn't even showing up on my multi meter, and then finally after about an hour, and I half, it all came back to me.......doesn't one lead of the dummy have to go to ground for this to actually work?...After I remembered this I wired it up properly with one lead to ground, and truly got the noise cancellation as well as high end loss. .....The crazy thing is when I first wired it up your way....I actually convinced myself that it was working, could not understand why I had so much trouble adjust my coils before with adding capacitors, and switches to bring high end back into the signal, and switch the coil off when it wasn't needed.....lol
+QuillPen77 Remove the cable between switch and volume completely. Then put one dummy lead to switch and the other to the volume. This is a series dummycoil connection. This will have slightly less output than normal pickup, with less treble and hum. Twice pickup resistance value. This is better for overdriven sounds, since the tone is less edgy.
If u leave the switch/volume cable and ground the dummy and then attach hot lead to switch output you have a parallell dummycoil connection. This will have more treble and less volume and less hum. Half pickup resistance value. This is better for cleantones because of the treble, but unecessary since less hum is amplified in clean amps and the pickup sounds good for cleans without a dummy.
Polarity of the dummy matters: if you install it wrong it will have twice the hum and needs to reverse the leads.
*“Takes no time at all, hopefully this video will be short as pi”*
Starting this video off with minor contradictions
What is the purpose for this "dummy coil" ?? Why are you putting this on the guitar?? Are we automatically supposed to know what this is for ?? Or is it just for DUMMIES ????
He didn't really explain that, did he? He also did a terrible job on specifically what to do. He points here, but meant there. If a inexperienced guitar modder saw this, they'd have no idea.