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Dummy coils

tweed

Asked by tweed,

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tweed Inner Circle

tweed

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  I've got a Stratocaster I picked up earlier this year and got a chance to play out with it, but was so noisy (not so noisy at home but then again, not so loud either). Since I'm a DIY'er and like to tinker, instead of buying noisless pickups I thought I'd take a shot at making a dummy coil. But the video sites I've seen so far never mention if it's a neck or bridge single coil. Does it matter? Can I also use a middle position coil and flip the leads? Since I'm working on a parts build now, thought I'd experiment a little with the 60 cycle hum before doing surgery on the Strat.  So, any pointers, did anybody here ever make one?

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Jeff R Veteran HFCer

Jeff R

Posted
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I have been meaning to experiment with this but I haven't had the time yet and no requests to push my priority buttons.

To fundamentally create humbucking activity, you need coils that are opposite wind direction and opposite magnetic polarity. My first thought is that you need a Strat using a vintage-style three way (neck pickup, middle pickup, bridge pickup), all of the SAME wind direction and polarity, and put a RWRP dummy with output equal to the middle pickup in the circuit path so it "reacts" with each pickup as it is engaged.

My assumption is that each switch position will create and act like a series humbucker, aka boost output AND hum cancel. Emphasis on "assumption" at this point. My gut tells me if this was so easy, so ideal, so utile and so badass, it would be more commonplace in the market. Like I said, I'd see more examples cross my repair bench, and I'd get more requests for it on my upgrades bench. I don't.

 

Jeff R Veteran HFCer

Jeff R

Posted
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Also, assumption #2, aka I could be wrong but a note for the mental checklist ... because magnetic polarity is a directional thing, I'd suspect the position of the dummy coil relative to the under-string coils would make a difference. If the three Strat pickups are all south poles up, I'd want to position that dummy coil inside the guitar north poles up in relation, wherever it sits. 

mudshark Veteran HFCer

mudshark

Posted
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I had a set of the Bill Lawrence 280/290 pickups in a Frankentele that utilized dummy coils, and they were dead quiet, sounded good as well. They make them for Strats, too, though I've never had them in a Strat. They're easy folk to talk to and great about answering your questions.
https://www.wildepickups.com/

 

Biz Prof Veteran HFCer

Biz Prof

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Posted
15 hours ago, Dutchman said:

Instead of dummy coils I can highly recommenend the Mojotone Quiet Coils. I had the 58?? Set. They sounded great!! And dead quiet! I think they have a 69 set also. I have not tried those.

https://www.mojotone.com/Mojotone-58-Quiet-Coil-Strat-Pickup

Quasi-related:  I finally installed a set of Mojotone '56 Quiet Coil P-90s in my '93 Special.  After one gig and a couple of rehearsals, I must admit that they do the trick.  Not a 100% tonal facsimile of an old P-90, but pretty damn close and dead quiet.  And much better for the kinds of music I'm playing than the ridiculously overwound "Hot" Duncans that were installed in that guitar in Arlington Heights. 

Jakeboy Veteran HFCer

Jakeboy

Posted
Posted

Go to the TDPRI site (Tele forum}  and search on Rob DiStefano. He posted a how-to years ago on doing this. IIRC correctly, he called it “Dummy up Yer Strat.”

JGravelin Inner Circle

JGravelin

Posted
Posted

Lots of good stuff from all the previous posters!

I've wound a few of these for people if they insist. An inexpensive, bottom of the barrel ceramic mag strat pickup $15 +/- is all you really need. Remove the ceramic mag(s), push the slugs out of the plastic bobbin, and there you have it. You might need to swap/reverse the hookup wires or maybe not depending on the wind direction: just switch them around until it's quiet. If all coils are wound in the same direction with same magnetic polarity, the hook-up is so simple and there's a boatload of info on how to do it on the internet from direct and inline wiring to using switches. If you've got a RWRP middle, there are ways to make it work only on pos 1, 3, and 5 while keeping 2 and 4 untouched and humcancelling.

5.6k - 6.8k or so is ideal for standard Strat winds: up to a 30% discrepancy with resistance will still make for very quiet coils. My advice would be to keep the dummy coil on the lower resistance wind if implemented with the standard 42 awg wire for best results.

JGravelin Inner Circle

JGravelin

Posted
Posted
On 11/17/2022 at 9:14 AM, Jeff R said:

To fundamentally create humbucking activity, you need coils that are opposite wind direction and opposite magnetic polarity.

Reverse wind is what cancels hum. Reverse polarity applies only to phase. With a dummy coil that is hidden under the pickguard or in the body somewhere and not part of the string sensing aspect of what a normal pickup does, magnetic polarity makes no difference at all.

On 11/17/2022 at 9:14 AM, Jeff R said:

My assumption is that each switch position will create and act like a series humbucker, aka boost output AND hum cancel. Emphasis on "assumption" at this point.

The added resistance of the dummy coil will bleed off some treble content but because the coil-form isn't magnetically loaded or interacting with the strings in any way, the inductance of the combined coils is only a tiny bit higher than the single coil on it's own and with less of the mid-boosted sonic artifacts that would naturally result. Again, it's the wind that is being reversed here and not a magnetically charged coil interacting.

Output gain is defined mostly by the magnets used. The resonant peak of a pickup depending on the wind of a single coil or combined result of 2 coils together, depending on how it's all done, shifts the frequencies put forth: could be a "scooped mids" with a lighter wind and Alnico 5 - or a bump in the mids, if more wire is added. Or a different gauge of wire. It's an aural trick that more mids at the right frequencies is more output gain but actually, that's not really true. It just sounds like it. :)

 

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