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Author Topic:  out of phase
Rick Winfield


From:
Pickin' beneath the Palmettos
Post  Posted 20 Sep 2011 8:24 am    
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How is this "out of phase" sound accomploished?
Would it be as simple as switching the "hot & ground" wires around ?
thanks
Rick
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Bryan Daste


From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
Post  Posted 20 Sep 2011 9:15 am    
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Out of phase with what?
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Buddy Castleberry

 

From:
HAWKINSVILLE GA USA - R.I.P.
Post  Posted 20 Sep 2011 9:21 am    
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RICK IF YOUR USING 2 SPEAKER CABS SWITCH THE HOT AND GROUND ON ONE SPEAKER. JOHN HUGHEY PLAYED THIS WAY FOR YEARS.WHEN HE STARTED USING THE MPX1 LEXICON
HE WENT BACK TO PLAYING IN PHASE
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Rick Winfield


From:
Pickin' beneath the Palmettos
Post  Posted 20 Sep 2011 9:28 am    
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Brian : out of phase pickup sound i.e. pentad
Bud : I think you've answered this for me
thanks
Rick
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Georg Sørtun


From:
Mandal, Agder, Norway
Post  Posted 20 Sep 2011 9:58 am    
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There has to be (at least) two coils at play to get "out-of-phase" sounds. Changing the two wires on a single coil around just reverse the phase with hardly any audible effect since it has nothing to be out of phase with.

Reversing wires on one coil on a humbucker works to a degree, but it won't be a good humbucker when you do.

Reversing one PU on a two-PU instrument will produce "out-of-phase" sounds, that may or may not be useful.

A single coil PU with taps can work, if the tap gets grounded and the two end-wires are both connected as "hot". Usually the tap-point is not half-way on the coil, so who knows what a given PU may sound like until it is tested.

All the working two-coil circuits can be "enhanced" by introducing resistors and capacitors of certain values in series and or parallel with one or more coils, and one can play around with "passive phasing" until one finds some "good-sounding" combinations.
As an example: my old Les Paul (copy) guitar has switches and reversed potmeters for each PU, and produces many good-sounding "in-and-out-of-phase" sounds with no external effect-units. Took me a long time to find the good combinations though.


You can of course also reverse polarity on one speaker in a two-speaker cab for "out-of-phase" sounds. Effect depends on distance between speakers and the cabinet, and the effect is static.


Easiest, and usually best, "out-of-phase" effects are achieved using an "electronic phaser" gismo in one form or another in the sound chain.

Note that all types of equalizers, filters, flangers, wah-wah units etc, work by mixing out-of-phase signal(s) with in-phase signals, so even the cleanest/purest PSG->effects->amp set-up produce static or dynamic "in-and-out-of-phase" signals over the frequency range covered by a steel guitar. If it is static we call it "voicing", if it is dynamic we usually call it "effects".
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Rick Winfield


From:
Pickin' beneath the Palmettos
Post  Posted 20 Sep 2011 10:35 am     Georg
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This is very informative, and gives me a lot to play around with
thanks Rick
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Benton Allen


From:
Muscle Shoals, Alabama, USA
Post  Posted 20 Sep 2011 11:30 am    
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Another thing to remember is that if your mixing JBL speakers with any other of the major brands, and have them all wired the same way, the JBL will be out of phase account they have always been wired internally the opposite way of other speakers. I found this out a few years ago when something just didn't sound quiet right with the out front sound. I ended up speaking with a JBL engineer who enlightened me. I made the switch and BINGO!.
Cheers!
Benton
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