Phases

One of the things I like about the Fender Stratocaster is when the pickups are out of phase in positions 2 and 4. This hollowed out nasal sound sounds good clean and dirty. This is an electrical change by switching the leads. But if you switch the leads on a PAF-style humbucking pickup, you will make the cover hot, and add a lot of noise. Kind of defeats the whole humbucking point.

The closest that you can get to that sound is to take one pickup apart and flip the magnet around. No need to post pictures, you can read all about that process here. Also, no need to try and record what this sounds like, because you can see a demonstration here.

What I am hearing is very similar to what he has. The slight difference could be his 1965 BFDR! Man, I could be jealous of that amp. Thinking positively, since those designs are in the public domain now, I think I will just build one.

This pickup modification is usually called the Peter Green mod. Peter Green was in the original Fleetwood Mac lineup, you know, when they were a real rock band. The modification is partly apocryphal, did he just flip the neck pickup, or did he flip the magnet in the pickup. Was this deliberate, or a serendipitous accident? Since he went on an LSD trip and failed to return fully, the world may never know. Oh, but subsequent analysis of his guitar proved that the magnet was indeed reversed...

--gh