RWRP

Reverse wound, reverse polarity: a pickup built so that its winding direction and magnetic polarity are both opposite to its neighbour.

Its purpose is hum cancellation in combinations. When two such pickups are used together, the interference each sees arrives in opposite polarity and cancels, while the string signal still adds because the reversal affects both equally. The standard application is the middle pickup of a three single-coil guitar, which makes the two in-between switch positions quiet even though neither pickup is a humbucker on its own. Used alone, the pickup sounds like any other single coil.

Example: the second and fourth positions on a three-single-coil guitar are hum-free because the middle pickup is reverse wound and reverse polarity.

RWRP

See also