another mccarty pickup wiring question

[daddycam]

i wired in a SD '59 into the neck position of my mccarty per jim collins' instructions in a previous post:

For the Duncan pickup, the bare wire and the green lead go to ground. The black wire is the hot wire, and it goes to the toggle switch. The red and white leads will be tied together, and they go to the DPDT switch, on the tone pot -- the same place that the white lead of the McCarty pickup went.
the new pickup sounds good, but the middle position now seems to sound much different. i have a noticeable drop in output and get kind of a midrange honk type tone almost like having a wah pedal on. does that mean when both pickups are on they are running in parallel now instead of in series? what did i do wrong? thanks.

[Taller]

Sounds like the pickups are out of phase.
You can remedy this by reversing the black and white wires on the '59.
Make the white wire the hot wire going to the toggle and hook the black and red wires together going to the switch on the tone pot.

[Jim Collins]

Hold it. Do not reverse the black and white wires. Reverse the black and green wires.

Of course, when you do this, and you pull the tone control, the "other" coil will be shorted. Normally, pulling the control will short the slug coil, leaving the adjustable pole piece coil in the circuit. By reversing the green and black leads, pulling the tone control will short the adjustable coil, leaving the slug coil in the circuit.

When I owned a McCarty, and put a Duncan pickup in the neck (Pearly Gates), and left the stock bridge pickup, the Duncan pickup was in phase with the stock bridge, when I wired it according to Duncan specs. Did this '59 pickup have its magnet flipped?

[daddycam]

Did this '59 pickup have its magnet flipped?
The pickup was brand new in an unopened box (as far as I could tell), so I don't think the magnet was flipped. Thanks.

[Jim Collins]

If you determine, after reversing the black and green leads, that you would like the other coil to be selected when you pull the tone pot, let me know, and I'll tell you how to do it.

[Taller]

:eek: Well, there you go! Jim is infinately more familiar with pickup wiring, but I wouldn't have expressed my opinion if I thought it would harm your guitar or electronics. It might not sound right, but wiring it up the way I suggested wouldn't hurt anything.

I bow down to the wisdom of Mr. Collins!;)
On more than one occasion I've run off a copy of his advice and I've got a folder of 'tech tips' from Jim now.

[daddycam]

:eek: Well, there you go! Jim is infinately more familiar with pickup wiring, but I wouldn't have expressed my opinion if I thought it would harm your guitar or electronics. It might not sound right, but wiring it up the way I suggested wouldn't hurt anything.

I bow down to the wisdom of Mr. Collins!;)
On more than one occasion I've run off a copy of his advice and I've got a folder of 'tech tips' from Jim now.
no problem! i actually haven't even had a chance to give it another go yet. when i played in church on sunday, i just didn't use the middle position. i'm thinking of just getting some little alligator clips so that i can try the suggestions you guys gave to find out which one sounds right before i actually re-solder the wires down. as soon as i figure out which bridge pickup i want, i'm going to have to get the soldering iron out anyway. thanks.