Making a humbucker out of 2 jag pickups.

[gibs]

Ok, I know it’s possible, I believe copacetic has done it for one of his builds a while back and even made custom claw/cover to house the two. I don’t think I’m gonna get that fancy.

So here’s what I’d think I would need to do:

First desolder the ground wire from the pickup to the claw and make a separate ground wire I would think is necessary.

Next check polarity of the two pickups is reversed, then figure out if wind direction is reversed.

If the above is good, then wire the ground of one to the hot wire of the other, or two a cut switch. (Or in my case. Thinking a 3 way switch to select which coil is active)

If the above isn’t true, then I’d need to flip the magnets of one pickup, and then wire the ground wires of the two together if the windings are the same correct?

I’ve been looking at the Eric custom jag pickups and that’s where I got the idea for this, since there p90 jag pickup uses bar magnets, so should hopefully be a little easier to reverse magnets, as long as the epoxy isn’t too difficult to cut loose and reattach without destroying the pickup. Still seems easier than pushing the slugs through on a standard jag pickup.

Anyways the grand idea is to attach these to 3 way toggles so I have traditional jag one side, p90 (ish) on the other side, and both in humcancelling series in the middle.

Does this seem rediculous and not worth the effort? Anyone know how to tag , copacetic to get his input here?

[epizootics]

OK, here's a few thoughts.

First off, pushing the magnets through a strat- or jag-shaped single coil will 100% destroy the pickup. The wire is in contact with the magnets between the forbon flats and there is no way you will get them out and put them back in without damage. Good news is there is a much easier way to reverse polarity. Get a couple of strong neodymium magnets, put them in a vise facing each other, and run the pickup (sans claw) through them a few times. Use a compass to make sure which polarity you are getting - if you want south up, the top of the magnets should be facing the neo that indicates north. The neos have to be strong enough if you want to get a full charge, but those are very easy to get a hold of these days.

If you are using pickups with a P90 magnet arrangement, you can indeed just flip the magnets (making sure they have they same polarity facing the screws, ie. SOUTH->SCREWS<-SOUTH or NORTH->SCREWS<-NORTH).

Second. Before you commit to this you may want to give series wiring a try. It won't be the same as the pickups won't be as close to each other as they would be once assembled as a humbucker but it'll give you an idea. You can expect a pretty muddy result with a lot of output. Two full-size singles wired together are quite a bit hotter than your typical PAF. Part of the reason why split PAFs sound tinny is that they are wound to about 4kOhm per bobbin, which is quite a low turn count by itself, but makes them sound good once the bobbins are wired in series.

With all of this said, this arrangement might end up sounding pretty good in the bridge position. I would forget about having it on the neck side - too much mud. If you use fuzz and / or distortion a lot, the extra output and lowered resonance peak will work to your advantage. I actually really like the sound of JM pickups in series going through a Fuzz Face.

[mynameisjonas]

If you buy a matching set of neck+bridge pickups where one is RWRP, then you won't need to worry about any of that. Just separate the ground connection for the claw on the "upstream" pickup and you're done.

[Steadyriot.]

OK, here's a few thoughts.

First off, pushing the magnets through a strat- or jag-shaped single coil will 100% destroy the pickup. The wire is in contact with the magnets between the forbon flats and there is no way you will get them out and put them back in without damage.

Yes, good word of warning, dont try this on a Jaguar pickup!

Strat pickups though...
Many Strat pickups still come on pre-formed bobins and the magnets never touch the wire.
Tread carefully, but if the bobbins are made like this; go wild:

[ThePearDream]

I think you're thinking of me? I've made a few guitars with double Jaguar pickups in the bridge, including one with a custom cover. It's a different sound than a traditional humbucker, but very cool and with a great range of tones.

this one, owned by GilmourD now. It has Jaguar style switching for just the bridge coils.


and this one I still have. It has a three-way slide switch (series, parallel, or "neck" pickup). I've actually been considering getting those Eric Jag90 pickups myself, and replacing one of the pickups in mine.


Jonas and epizootics left you solid advice. You are on the right track, just take their advice and it should work out fine.

[gerardguey]

That metallic orange always has me acting up when I see it

A loong time ago in one of my first builds as a teen, I modded a first act guitar with a similar set up as the second guitar. I used 2 strat pickups, one high output and one RWRP with a lower output, but wired up like a jazz bass with just 2 volumes, a series switch and a high pass filter like a jaguar. It was a junk experiment guitar but I loved the sound of it, you could get a lot of different sounds mixing in both pickups, series/parallel, and then the strangle switch. It really ripped in humbucker mode with high gain, very unique tone from what I remember.

Damn, I might go back wiring to that for a future build...

[gibs]

OK, here's a few thoughts.

First off, pushing the magnets through a strat- or jag-shaped single coil will 100% destroy the pickup. The wire is in contact with the magnets between the forbon flats and there is no way you will get them out and put them back in without damage. Good news is there is a much easier way to reverse polarity. Get a couple of strong neodymium magnets, put them in a vise facing each other, and run the pickup (sans claw) through them a few times. Use a compass to make sure which polarity you are getting - if you want south up, the top of the magnets should be facing the neo that indicates north. The neos have to be strong enough if you want to get a full charge, but those are very easy to get a hold of these days.

If you are using pickups with a P90 magnet arrangement, you can indeed just flip the magnets (making sure they have they same polarity facing the screws, ie. SOUTH->SCREWS<-SOUTH or NORTH->SCREWS<-NORTH).

Second. Before you commit to this you may want to give series wiring a try. It won't be the same as the pickups won't be as close to each other as they would be once assembled as a humbucker but it'll give you an idea. You can expect a pretty muddy result with a lot of output. Two full-size singles wired together are quite a bit hotter than your typical PAF. Part of the reason why split PAFs sound tinny is that they are wound to about 4kOhm per bobbin, which is quite a low turn count by itself, but makes them sound good once the bobbins are wired in series.

With all of this said, this arrangement might end up sounding pretty good in the bridge position. I would forget about having it on the neck side - too much mud. If you use fuzz and / or distortion a lot, the extra output and lowered resonance peak will work to your advantage. I actually really like the sound of JM pickups in series going through a Fuzz Face.

Yea, I wasn’t gonna push the poles through, the Eric custom p90 jags are the only reason I decided to give this idea with the bar magnets. I just worry they won’t easily separate from the claw, and there doesn’t appear to be anyway to contact the builder since he only sells through eyguitar now. (Looks like he used to have a website, but it’s a 404 now).

I’ve actually got 2 guitars with series switching. A stock American deluxe tele, with an s1 switch to activate series, and a cv jag that I modded for an s1 switch for series and a second s1 to run the toggle switch through the rhythm circuit and still be able to use the rhythm circuit like a stock setup. The tele I e always loved the series option, the jm is still a bit of a work in progress, initially, it was super dark and muddy, I took from the marrguir and essentially added the series strangle switch, but just placed the .003 cap in the series link position. It’s much more useable now, but it rolls off a little too much low end, as even the bridge pickup by itself has more bass than the series option, so need to figure out which direction I need to go with cap values to have less of a high pass filter effect, I’d assume less zeros behind the decimal place.

Good point on the output level, the pickups are in the mid to high 6k range, which isn’t bad for a bridge pickup, but would be a very hot neck pickup. I think I’ve got a few ideas to get around this though, as I could do strangle mod mentioned above, to at least deal with the mud, but I could also wire the neck pickups in parallel, giving me lower output and a brighter, more single coil like tone. Which I’m not opposed to in the neck, I prefer neck singles to humbuckers, but won’t complain about getting him cancelling out of this approach.

Still thinking through this, my original plan was staple top p90s just to be different looking, but 4 jag still pickups with the claws would also be super different looking while still very offset like. Plus I don’t have a jag.

[gibs]

If you buy a matching set of neck+bridge pickups where one is RWRP, then you won't need to worry about any of that. Just separate the ground connection for the claw on the "upstream" pickup and you're done.

So I wouldn’t need the claw ground on the second pickup at all? Guess I never thought of that, just know that my tele runs a second ground wire for cover ground so that it works in series.

[gibs]

I think you're thinking of me? I've made a few guitars with double Jaguar pickups in the bridge, including one with a custom cover. It's a different sound than a traditional humbucker, but very cool and with a great range of tones.

this one, owned by GilmourD now. It has Jaguar style switching for just the bridge coils.


and this one I still have. It has a three-way slide switch (series, parallel, or "neck" pickup). I've actually been considering getting those Eric Jag90 pickups myself, and replacing one of the pickups in mine.


Jonas and epizootics left you solid advice. You are on the right track, just take their advice and it should work out fine.

Totally was you, thought I saw this pick on IG, and since I follow copacetic there, and non standard is the name of the game for what he does, I must’ve just thought it was him.

I’m thinking the range of sounds would be great especially with the p90 style and standard jag pickups and a coil selector, so I can use both single coil tones. Kinda like those novak gold foil humbuckers that are dearmond style on one coil and guyatone on the other. So if I do this I’m definitely planning on a north/series/south coil switching system for these. Im guessing you haven’t tried this with a neck position at all to inform me if it’s a muddy mess or not when in series?

How bad was the cover to make, just 3d print? Did you have to modify the claws at all?

How would you describe the sound? I’m imagining something brighter than a PAF, but with less midrange given how jag pickups sound.

This makes me think I’ll like just putting 2 jags in tandem in looking at your personal guitar, I wasn’t sure how that would look but it looks good on yours.

[ThePearDream]

I think you're thinking of me? I've made a few guitars with double Jaguar pickups in the bridge, including one with a custom cover. It's a different sound than a traditional humbucker, but very cool and with a great range of tones.

this one, owned by GilmourD now. It has Jaguar style switching for just the bridge coils.


and this one I still have. It has a three-way slide switch (series, parallel, or "neck" pickup). I've actually been considering getting those Eric Jag90 pickups myself, and replacing one of the pickups in mine.


Jonas and epizootics left you solid advice. You are on the right track, just take their advice and it should work out fine.

Totally was you, thought I saw this pick on IG, and since I follow copacetic there, and non standard is the name of the game for what he does, I must’ve just thought it was him.

I’m thinking the range of sounds would be great especially with the p90 style and standard jag pickups and a coil selector, so I can use both single coil tones. Kinda like those novak gold foil humbuckers that are dearmond style on one coil and guyatone on the other. So if I do this I’m definitely planning on a north/series/south coil switching system for these. Im guessing you haven’t tried this with a neck position at all to inform me if it’s a muddy mess or not when in series?

How bad was the cover to make, just 3d print? Did you have to modify the claws at all?

How would you describe the sound? I’m imagining something brighter than a PAF, but with less midrange given how jag pickups sound.

This makes me think I’ll like just putting 2 jags in tandem in looking at your personal guitar, I wasn’t sure how that would look but it looks good on yours.

I have actually done something similar in the neck position, just with strat pickups. This did involve removing the magnets from the plastic bobbins, and putting in new ones, like epizootics touched on, (cause I'm a wild and crazy guy). It was not especially muddy. Still very Strat-like, but with more mids. It's not unlike a WRHB in that it also picks up a wide area of string, using magnetic poles. They definitely split better than a PAF. I think of them as humbuckers for single coil lovers. Great clean sounds when split, but they combine into a ~13k humbucker, and work awesome with gain.

I've thought about doing a build with a double Jag neck pair, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I think it would be kind of like a Tele Custom.



All three have 3D printed covers, which are available at my shapeways shop. If you can do 3D modeling though, pickup covers are pretty basic forms to model. The orange one required filling down the claw teeth where the claw is hidden by the cover. The green one has special covers for pickguard mounting Jaguar pickups.

[mynameisjonas]

If you buy a matching set of neck+bridge pickups where one is RWRP, then you won't need to worry about any of that. Just separate the ground connection for the claw on the "upstream" pickup and you're done.

So I wouldn’t need the claw ground on the second pickup at all? Guess I never thought of that, just know that my tele runs a second ground wire for cover ground so that it works in series.

Sorry, I worded that poorly. I meant running a separate ground for the claw, as you described.

[GilmourD]

I think you're thinking of me? I've made a few guitars with double Jaguar pickups in the bridge, including one with a custom cover. It's a different sound than a traditional humbucker, but very cool and with a great range of tones.

this one, owned by GilmourD now. It has Jaguar style switching for just the bridge coils.

I can confirm that this thing has tonal options for days from JagJangle™ to so much girth you might not walk straight afterwards.

I'm also working on a couple different versions of JagBucker™ covers, including one that I need to massage to get working in a Jazzmaster pickguard with no other mods.

[gibs]

I think you're thinking of me? I've made a few guitars with double Jaguar pickups in the bridge, including one with a custom cover. It's a different sound than a traditional humbucker, but very cool and with a great range of tones.

this one, owned by GilmourD now. It has Jaguar style switching for just the bridge coils.


and this one I still have. It has a three-way slide switch (series, parallel, or "neck" pickup). I've actually been considering getting those Eric Jag90 pickups myself, and replacing one of the pickups in mine.


Jonas and epizootics left you solid advice. You are on the right track, just take their advice and it should work out fine.

Totally was you, thought I saw this pick on IG, and since I follow copacetic there, and non standard is the name of the game for what he does, I must’ve just thought it was him.

I’m thinking the range of sounds would be great especially with the p90 style and standard jag pickups and a coil selector, so I can use both single coil tones. Kinda like those novak gold foil humbuckers that are dearmond style on one coil and guyatone on the other. So if I do this I’m definitely planning on a north/series/south coil switching system for these. Im guessing you haven’t tried this with a neck position at all to inform me if it’s a muddy mess or not when in series?

How bad was the cover to make, just 3d print? Did you have to modify the claws at all?

How would you describe the sound? I’m imagining something brighter than a PAF, but with less midrange given how jag pickups sound.

This makes me think I’ll like just putting 2 jags in tandem in looking at your personal guitar, I wasn’t sure how that would look but it looks good on yours.

I have actually done something similar in the neck position, just with strat pickups. This did involve removing the magnets from the plastic bobbins, and putting in new ones, like epizootics touched on, (cause I'm a wild and crazy guy). It was not especially muddy. Still very Strat-like, but with more mids. It's not unlike a WRHB in that it also picks up a wide area of string, using magnetic poles. They definitely split better than a PAF. I think of them as humbuckers for single coil lovers. Great clean sounds when split, but they combine into a ~13k humbucker, and work awesome with gain.

I've thought about doing a build with a double Jag neck pair, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I think it would be kind of like a Tele Custom.



All three have 3D printed covers, which are available at my shapeways shop. If you can do 3D modeling though, pickup covers are pretty basic forms to model. The orange one required filling down the claw teeth where the claw is hidden by the cover. The green one has special covers for pickguard mounting Jaguar pickups.

Ooh, nice, you got a link for the Shapeways thing? I’m thinking of direct mounting, but at the same time, a pickguard mount is tempting, as the guitar build I’m working I fee will be my experimental instrument, so I may do different pickguard layouts for different pickups, having it mount to the guard would make it more modular.

[gibs]

I think you're thinking of me? I've made a few guitars with double Jaguar pickups in the bridge, including one with a custom cover. It's a different sound than a traditional humbucker, but very cool and with a great range of tones.

this one, owned by GilmourD now. It has Jaguar style switching for just the bridge coils.

I can confirm that this thing has tonal options for days from JagJangle™ to so much girth you might not walk straight afterwards.

I'm also working on a couple different versions of JagBucker™ covers, including one that I need to massage to get working in a Jazzmaster pickguard with no other mods.

That might come in handy for me, as it’s a semi hollow JM that I’m thinking of doing this jag bucket layout in. If you have some link to follow your work on this that would also come in handy.

[gibs]

Oh also, PearDream, did you make that plate for the purple sparkle guitar? I was originally gonna do a faction electric xii plate for this build I’m working on, but thinking of just doing a jag plate, but that one looks pretty cool that you’ve got there on your purple guitar.