Humbucking pickups are actually 2 single coil pickups side by side with one coil
having reverse winding and reverse magnetic polarity (called "RWRP") of the other
coil. Without going into the theory, this is what makes these
pickups hum cancelling. The graphic shown below, although not drawn to scale, should give you a very good idea of the way humbucking pickups are manufactured. Humbucking pickups can have more than one magnet, but to keep things simple, let's see how a single magnet humbucker works.
![]() The magnetic strength remains constant from one end of the magnet to the other for both the top and bottom coil. The weakest part of the magnetic field runs horizontally through the middle of the magnet. This permits all 6 guitar strings to have the same volume, otherwise the inner strings (D & G) would have much less volume than the outer strings. (Also, to make the pickup louder for all strings, vertical metal bars (not shown) are attached to the 2 edges to bring the magnetic field closer to the strings.) Another reason for polarizing the edges instead of the ends is to allow each coil to have opposite magnetic polarities. This is one of the requirements for making a humbucking pickup.
If the humbucking pickups already installed in your guitar have 4 conductor wiring, that's great !!! Go back to the wiring page and proceed from there. Unfortunately, the humbucking pickups that are installed at the factory very rarely have 4 wires coming out of them but if you can gain access to the coils, you can install 4 wires to the pickup yourself. WARNING: You should be absolutely sure of what you are doing. If not, have your local guitar shop do this OR buy new pickups.
Okay, now the pickup is out of the guitar and you can see both coils. The coils are wrapped with a layer (or 2) of tape which you must carefully remove. Now you must look for a small insulated piece of wire that connects the top coil to the bottom coil, located where the blue arrow is pointing in the diagram. Now with wire cutters and applying NO tension to this wire, cut it in the middle. The next step is to remove about ¼ inch of insulation from the 2 wire "ends" you just created. You must do this while putting NO tension on either of those wires. The safest way to do this is by heating the insulation with a soldering iron, while being very careful not to let the soldering iron touch the coils. There were already 2 wires that were accessible (the red and green ones in the diagram), remove the insulation from these (the green may not have insulation) and now you have all 4 wires ready to be soldered. Shielded 4 conductor cable is available or you could make your own. Some people like working with solid wire as opposed to stranded, and 4 conductor telephone wire (the kind used for telephone installations) is very suitable for this. You'll have to shield this wire and one way is to use bare #18 stranded wire and wrap it around the 4 conductor cable. (Depending on how much room you have for running wires in the guitar, you may have to remove the sheath from the 4 wires, in order to make the cable thinner). The color code shown in the diagram is based upon what DiMarzio uses. Your 4 color phone cable can be soldered to any connections you want but just remember which color went to which pickup terminal.When all 4 wires are soldered to all 4 terminals, tape up the soldered connections, solder the bare #18 wire shield to the metal body of the pickup, then tape up the coils just as they were before you removed the tape. Put the newly rewired pickup back in the guitar and you are ready to try the humbucker wiring options.
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