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I just picked up Antiquity Texas Hot neck and Custom bridge pickups for my Texas Special Strat. I want to wring them out thoroughly before I consider ordering a RWRP middle pickup. Can I use one of the stock Texas Special pickups in the middle with the Antiquity Texas Hot neck and bridge? IIRC, I will have to reverse the hot and ground connections on the Texas Special, but if I use the neck or bridge pickup I should then get a RWRP set. Is that correct?

If that will work, then I'm leaning toward using the Texas Special bridge pickup in the middle because I like to set the middle pickup low, and thus a higher output pickup may be better there. Do you think this will sound OK? I should mention that I am not a big user of the middle or notch positions, so if I could get a decent tone with this setup it might end the search.

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You should take what you are going to use as the middle pickup and hold the polepieces against your neck or bridge pickup. If they attract that's good...means the middle pickup is Reverse Polarity compared to your neck and bridge pickup's polarity. If they repel, it'll work fine but you won't have humcancelling when it's combined with the neck or bridge. Lew

After switching the hot and ground wires, if he flips the magnet, will that make it RWRP?

Can't flip the magnet with a Strat type single coil. The six polepieces ARE the magnets in that kind of pickup. The wire is wound around the six magnets. You can flip the magnet in a humbucker to put it in phase with with another humbucker if needed though...that'll prevent the tone from sounding nasal and thin when two out of phase humbuckers are combined.

OK, but will I have to flip the hot and ground wiring on the Fender pickup in either case?

Thanks.


Originally Posted by KelseyOK, but will I have to flip the hot and ground wiring on the Fender pickup in either case?

Thanks.

I don't know...with the Texas Hots, I'm going to guess yes because I have to reverse the wires when I combine the Texas Hots with the Surfers. Lew

OK, thanks. I'll do some checking with a compass and ohm-meter tonight before I start tearing it apart.

Well, I installed the Antiquity Texas Hot neck and Custom bridge yesterday. I checked the magnet polarity of the Ants and the stock Texas Specials with a compass, and the neck and bridge pickups of both sets were North on top, whereas the RWRP Texas Special middle pickup was South on top. Moreover, tapping the magnets while monitoring the deflection with my digital ohmmeter (analog would have been better in this case), it appeared that all of the pickups would be in phase when wired as intended. Thankfully, the tests proved correct, and I have hum-cancelling in the 2/4 positions with the Ants and the stock Texas Special middle pickup. The 2/4 tones are very nice.

The middle tone has always been my favorite from the Texas Special set, and the Texas Hot neck and Custom bridge are a major improvement over the corresponding Texas Specials. The Ants are brighter and less chunky than I expected, but they are growing on me, so I just need some more time with them.