73 Telecaster Deluxe--pickups sound out of phase

[Pete Halliday]

I just picked up a 1973 Tele Deluxe and it sounds like the two pickups are out of phase with each other. Individually they sound great, but together nasally and weak. As they are single conductor pickups with a braided shield/ground, I'm not sure how to fix that. Any suggestions?

[Mark Swanson]

The pickups are those big Fender humbuckers? The only way to fix phase issues with those is to take one of them apart and re-wire it to reverse its phase.

[Pete Halliday]

I was afraid of that. It just seems hard to believe that the guitar would have been set up like that for 40 years.

[Mark Swanson]

Sometimes they just sound that way, and can fool you. There is a way to check the phase, if you want to try it...it's kind of a neat trick. You need an older, analog type of Voltmeter. Connect it to the output of the guitar and turn all controls UP all the way. Turning on one pickup at a time, tap the pickups one by one. Don't put the switch in the center, just have each pickup on by itself when you do this....while tapping, watch the meter closely. You'll see the needle move just a tiny bit one way or the other. When the pickups are in phase, the needle will move in the same direction for each pickup- out of phase, they will move opposite.

[David King]

Wouldn't it be as easy to flip the magnet(s) as you can on an humbucker? Not sure what's inside these things.

[Pete Halliday]

If I understand correctly, the pole pieces are magnetized and there is no bar magnet to flip.

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

I had a chance to work on a couple of these guitars and was greatly impressed by the sound of the pick-ups, once I got past the fact that the guitar was neither a a "telecaster" nor a "les paul".

If I am not mistaken, the pole pieces are machined magnets (CuNiFe I believe) and were expensive to produce. You could attempt to reverse the polarity of one pick up by reversing the pole pieces (all 12 of them). You would need to dismount the pick-up to get to the pole pieces that are concealed. I might start by checking the polarity of each pole piece to make sure they are all the same. There are 12 chances to make a mistake. Both Curtis Novak and Jason Lollar are making reproductions of these pick-ups (as opposed to what Fender is currently making which seem to be pretty standard humbuckers with different covers) so you might ask them which pick up is correctly polarized, so you can get the guitar to "factory".

Also, the pick-ups I saw all had broken (as opposed to undone) solder joints holding the covers. I attributed this to the shape of the covers which seemed to stress the joint. I mention this because It might be easier to reverse the leads inside the pick-up rather than reversing all those magnets.

I've never personally run into a guitar that had a pick-up built incorrectly, but that means less than nothing. From what I understand, the Peter Green LP has a pick up out of phase from the factory.

Let us know what you find.

[Pete Halliday]

Joshua, I will try that tonight. You're right that it should be very simple to simply reverse the magnets. I was being kind of dense here I think.

[David King]

Are these the infamous threaded magnets? I would certainly check for correct polarity. If some of them are incorrectly magnetized then I'd straighten that out with a magnetizer. Then swap leads as necessary.

[Pete Halliday]

Yes, they are the threaded CuNiFe magnets. And Joshua, you nailed it--that took care of the issue. For future reference, the poles on the neck coil are supposed to be north up in their original positions. I just made sure that the two pickups were the same but did not check absolute polarity. Thanks for the help.

[Mark Wybierala]

There would have been someone who appreciated the nasal tone. I get requests for it. ...different strokes...

[Pete Halliday]

I could see it being useful for some sort of funk rhythm playing and maybe it was done intentionally. Just not my idea of good tone.

[Jedi Clampett]

I would suggest just buying pickups that do what you want and saving the old pickups for the next owner.
No doubt SD or someone makes identical looking pickups. Likely would have to change just one of them

[Pete Halliday]

The point of buying this for me was that it's an original '73 (like me). Anyhow, the issue was resolved by using Joshua's suggestion.