Hey Ed Elliott or any expert on pup's........

[Mr. Bill]

Wow! Is it a refin, Bill?

I've looked at the guitar and can't tell, but I'm not a real Mosrite expert. If it is a refin, it has to be an old one, as it doesn't look recent or look like a refin for that matter. I don't remember if the neck was pulled to check for a dates or tell tale signs of a refin.

[GuyaGuy]

Danny, when I worked with Semie in '77-78 and 1983 building mostly Ventures model
reissues, all the pickups were wound the same direction, never any talk of trying to make
anything humcanceling, and out of phase was considered a bad thing that we had to fix.
Semie wanted that fuller, richer P-90-ish sound on the middle posision, not that thin nasally out of phase sound(witch I kind of like)most of the pickups then had 3 wires 2 off the coil and a ground off the magnets and pole pieces, we would just switch one of the coil wires around if one turned up out of phase,
you can't always do this with Mosrite pickups from the 60s that just have 2 leads,a black and white, like your 1964 pickup and most all 1960s Mosrite pickups the black begining wire out of the coil is soldered to a thin copper shielding plate between the coil and magnets, the nuts that hold the polepiece screws also rest on this copper shielding, when you reverse your wire on these chances are your pole piece will be hot, and when you touch them it'll sound like touchin' the end of your guitar cord.
Ed

Sorry to resurrect this old thread but I have the same issue with a Mosrite Combo that I just got--out of phase in the middle position.

Do you know if it's just a matter of desoldering the black wire from the plate and using that as the lead and then solder the white to the plate and using it as the ground? I've never seen a Mosrite pickup taken apart. The foam and resin make me hesitant. Any danger in damaging it by taking it apart to do that?

[dubtrub]

Don't tamper with anything in or on the pickup itself. Simply reverse the lead wires where they are connected usually at the switch and pot(s). That means disregarding the color of the wires as they may have been installed wrong.

[GuyaGuy]

Don't tamper with anything in or on the pickup itself. Simply reverse the lead wires where they are connected usually at the switch and pot(s). That means disregarding the color of the wires as they may have been installed wrong.

I tried that and I was hardly getting any reading on the multimeter--about .05K Ohms. I tried resoldering and got the same results. I thought maybe it was because the ground wire is wired to the internal shielding. Any other ideas why it wouldn't pass a signal if I switch the leads?

[Mr. Bill]

If the pickup is unmodified, reversing the leads should work. Seeing that you have a ohmmeter, disconnect the two wires and then check to see if there is any continuity between either wire and the polescrews or mounting bracket. Also check the resistance of the coil itself.

If say the black wire is connected to the metalwork, then there will be a zero reading from the black wire to the screws and a high resistance (the resistance of the coil) from the white wire to the screws.

If you search the forum, there are some great photos of vintage pickups that have been taken apart for rewinding. These will show you how they were constructed. Original windings will not allow you to switch the black and white lead wires internally.

[GuyaGuy]

If the pickup is unmodified, reversing the leads should work. Seeing that you have a ohmmeter, disconnect the two wires and then check to see if there is any continuity between either wire and the polescrews or mounting bracket. Also check the resistance of the coil itself.

If say the black wire is connected to the metalwork, then there will be a zero reading from the black wire to the screws and a high resistance (the resistance of the coil) from the white wire to the screws.

If you search the forum, there are some great photos of vintage pickups that have been taken apart for rewinding. These will show you how they were constructed. Original windings will not allow you to switch the black and white lead wires internally.

The pickups are 10.60K and 7.25K. The former seems about normal; the latter seems low. I'm getting continuity between the black ground wire and the pole pieces of both pickups. The reading is about 85 for both neck and bridge on the 200 ohm setting--about the same for the bridge and strings. Any other suggestions based on that info?

[Mr. Bill]

I agree, the 10K is fairly normal while the 7K seems low. Do you know the history of this guitar? Is it possible that the 7K pickup was rewound or repaired by someone not familiar with Mosrite pickups? Maybe you can start a new thread and post a few photos so that we can see what the bottoms look like. Original pickups have a fairly distinctive look about them.

The connection from the black wire to the polepieces is unusual, but not impossible. If both pickups are working I would probably want the 7K in the neck and the 10K in the bridge positions.

Another thing that you can test is the polepiece magnetic polarity of each pickup with a compass. If you do this, keep the compass away from the polepieces or you may re-magnetize the compass point and get strange readings.

[GuyaGuy]

I agree, the 10K is fairly normal while the 7K seems low. Do you know the history of this guitar? Is it possible that the 7K pickup was rewound or repaired by someone not familiar with Mosrite pickups? Maybe you can start a new thread and post a few photos so that we can see what the bottoms look like. Original pickups have a fairly distinctive look about them.

The connection from the black wire to the polepieces is unusual, but not impossible. If both pickups are working I would probably want the 7K in the neck and the 10K in the bridge positions.

Another thing that you can test is the polepiece magnetic polarity of each pickup with a compass. If you do this, keep the compass away from the polepieces or you may re-magnetize the compass point and get strange readings.

Thanks for the help so far. The 7K was in the bridge so I'd already swapped them so I have a meatier bridge pickup. I use bridge only 75% of the time anyhow. As chance would have it an eBay seller is offering an original Mosrite (standard with exposed polepieces) that is also lower output--8.5K (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-60s-MOS ... 35d38a39f5). So maybe it wasn't too uncommon. I know some magnets also lose their magnetic strength

When I had it open everything both appeared original. I should have a bit more time over the weekend to take it apart again. I'll start a thread when I've had a chance to do that. Thanks again!