Modifying Pickups

[imJonWain]

I'm just wondering if anyone else here mods or makes their own pickups at all? I've started playing with a few I have laying around recently and came up with a question I couldn't find via googling.

Does running a separate baseplate/"body" ground wire from the pickup make a noticeable difference noise wise vs the vintage 2 wire style of just tieing that to signal/coil ground at the pickup? I know most pickups come with the 3 wire setup now but I wanted to know if that's more just out of good practice or actually a noticeable difference.

[morange]

It won't make a difference in sound, and it's not better practice than the two wire setup, except that the three wire setup allows you to connect the pickup more ways - you know, polarity switching and series wiring with other pickups, etc. In a two wire pickup, the shield ground shares a lead with one end of the coil - that end of the coil must be ground, and then the other end of the coil is your signal. The three wire pickup puts the shield on its own lead, so then you can use either end of the coil as signal or ground.

[imJonWain]

oh yeah, duh haha,makes sense. thanks!