phantom coil

[mellowgerman]

Hi guys. I was just wondering if anyone can explain the concept of a phantom coil to me? Anyone have any pictures? How are they made?
I don't think there is already a thread on these and I'm very interested since i love my guild starfire bass, but i feel like there's room for improvement in the area of that single-coil hum. Any help/pointers would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Don't have any pics, but the function of a phantom coil/dummy pickup is to have a single coil sensing that is humbucking.

If I wanted a narrow sensing humbucking pickup, I'd use a stacked humbucker. Or an active single coil.

Regards
Sam

[mellowgerman]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

Hi.

Don't have any pics, but the function of a phantom coil/dummy pickup is to have a single coil sensing that is humbucking.

If I wanted a narrow sensing humbucking pickup, I'd use a stacked humbucker. Or an active single coil.

Regards
Sam

thanks sam. am I right in thinking that it does not effect the sound of the single coil though?
because the thing is, i love my sound exactly the way it is. I don't really want to add another pickup or switch over to a humbucker.

[line6man]

I really dont know anything about phantom coils, but from what i have heard, they are coils that do not pickup any sound, so they can be ran with a regular single coil in order to cancel hum, but still retain the single coil tone.

IME, the sound of a single coil pickup ONLY comes from a single coil pickup, so if you want that single coil sound, you have to be willing to deal with the hum. But this is just my own view, so YMMV...

[mellowgerman]

I agree completely and the hum isn't unbearable. But if I could make it go away without effecting my sound at all, why not?

[T-Bird]

Hi.

You're welcome.

The large inductance of the dummy coil affects the sound and the frequency response, so yes, Your sound will change a bit.

Back in the day I did an experiment with a Strat copy with the middle pickup magnet removed and the sound was like a mellow single coil. It wasn't bad, but IMHO not worth losing one pickup and two tones. That was a guitar though and I've never been a fan of single coils in guitars anyway, for me the Gibson humbuckers (PAFs and mini) is THE sound .

If You're handy, find a Jazz pickup with bottom bar magnets. You can remove the magnets if you like and connect the pickup in series with Your existing pickups to test it. I guess that You won't find a commercial dummy coil anyway, exept for Alembic.

Regards
Sam