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.pickups.construction...
Blues 90s, like their forebears the P90 pickup, are single coil pickups. However, they are never connected to the output of the guitar as straightforward single-coil pickups...
 | When selected individually, the pickups are connected in series and "out-of-phase" with the dummy coil - an effective way of cancelling induced hum. The dummy coil is simply a Blues 90 pickup without its magnet and pole pieces. |
| When the pickups are selected together they are connected in series (without the dummy coil) and "out-of-phase", but because the neck pickup has its south magnetic pole facing upwards and bridge pickup has its north magnetic pole facing upward, the signal is reinforced, and induced hum is cancelled. |
So do the BluesHawk's pickups hum-buck? - well... yes and no.
The pickups are not humbuckers - but the guitar produces little or no hum in any pickup selector position.
However, what is less clear, is precisely what effect connecting the pickups in series with a dummy coil has - this arrangement certainly "bucks hum", but how far it takes them into the sonic territory of true humbuckers i.e. the treble roll-off, reduced attack and other timbral/envelope changes so apparent in humbuckers, is uncertain. The blueshawk's ears tell him that they have some of the characteristics of both types of pickups - but our perceptions are distorted by what we know, or think we know.
I have recently discovered some frequency response curves which show treble roll-off when Blues90s are combined with the dummy coil.
