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MatchBookNotes
New member
What effect does this have on the pickups? Is it exactly what one assumes; just turning off one coil to get another sound?
Middleman
Professional Amateur
Several options exist by splitting the coils.
Parallel connection
Serial connection
Humbucking (normal)
Reverse or out of phase
Either single coil with the other off.
Basically it allows you to get a variety of sounds out of a humbucker. The downside is adding the switches on your guitar to make it do all of the above. The best approach is a single stepped rotary knob which allows you to rotate through the various configurations. A lot of players will populate their guitar with mini switches however.
At the end of the day it is an interesting science experiment but I've only found the single coil shutoff, phase and standard humbucker useful. Parallel and Serial are not that useful in my opinion, others may vary.
D
Dani Pace
New member
Depending on how it is wired and switching capacity it basically turns (in most cases) a two humbucker guitar into a guitar with either two or four single coil pups. If the humbuckers have individual tap switches it also allows a combination of humbucker and single coil. It wont make a Les Paul sound like a Strat but it will give you a wider variety of sounds/tones to work with from a single guitar.
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ericlingus
New member
I have coil tapping on my schecter xxx c1 guitar. I love it. I want it on all guitars I get. Gives me a much wider variety of tones. I can have humbucker or single coil tones by just pulling out my tone knob.
Light
New member
Precisely. There are other things you can do with a four-conductor pickup (which is what you will usually need to do a coil tap, though Lindy Fralin does a three conductor pickup which can do some, though not all, of the things a four-conductor pickup can do), but a coil tap is just that - turning off one of the coils.
SERIES (not serial)/Parallel stuff, and "out-of-phase" stuff is a whole other thing, though it may or may not include taping a coil.
One of my favorite wiring tricks is on a H-S-H guitar, you can use a regular 5-way switch and tap the coils of the humbuckers in the 2 and 4 positions, so your "in-between" sounds are more traditional. Oh, and all positions are still humbucking, assuming your middle pickup is RW/RP.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
Gear_Junky
New member
I believe "coil tapping" is the less common practice of "tapping" a coil - using only a part of the winding as an option (and as such can be done even to a single-coil pup). I could be wrong, but I read about it.
I know it's quite common to use "coil tapping" and "coil splitting" to mean the same thing - the more common deactivation of 1 of the 2 coils of a humbucker.
I'd be curious if I read right and if anyone's done that (the true tapping). I'd assume you just get a less "hot" pickup option that way so you can go from "modern" to "vintage" in 1 pickup.
If I'm wrong, hey, won't be the 1st time
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MatchBookNotes
New member
interesting. I guess i'll have to see if long and mcdonalds has a guitar with such capabilities next time i'm there and play around.
Light
New member
It's also commonly used for splitting the two coils of a humbucker.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
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Unsprung
New member
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned, with coil tapping a humbucker, is the volume drop whenever the coil tap is used. My Ibanez JTK2 Jet King has coil tapped humbuckers, and my experience is that the volume drop is a slight inconvenience. Just bump up the guitar volume a tick or two. Lindy Fralin makes a humbucker that's supposed to eliminate the volume drop typical of coil tapping, and is called The Unbucker.
http://www.fralinpickups.com/humbuckers.asp
Matt
http://www.fralinpickups.com/humbuckers.asp
Matt
Light
New member
It doesn't eliminate it, but it does reduce it a bit, because one of the coils is wound a little hotter than the other. Of course, you also get a bit of hum, but not so much as that you would notice.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
T
Thurgood
New member
Bravo!! You guys are the best. I have an instrument that coil-taps and there is a loss of output. I just change guitars when I want that sound. Caveat: not real practical on a gig. my .02. Keep up the good information. 
G
ggunn
Crystal Flavolian
Bravo!! You guys are the best. I have an instrument that coil-taps and there is a loss of output. I just change guitars when I want that sound. Caveat: not real practical on a gig. my .02. Keep up the good information.
I have a Les Paul that I tricked out the bridge pickup with coil tapping and phase flip. It was an interesting exercise, but I find that I never use that stuff. Coil tapped, it still doesn't sound like my Strat, so when I want that sound, I switch guitars.
Gear_Junky
New member
useful info, guys. it might just keep me from messing around with custom-wiring my les paul in the future. i've always liked the humbucking LP sound anyway, clean or driven.
Gear_Junky
New member
on the other hand... I just tried coil-splitting on my GFS Dream 180 humbucker - what a SWEET sound! But I already liked the pickups' sound.
I got parts to coil-split both pups, but so far only tried the neck position.
yes, the output is lower in single-coil mode, but not a great deal, still quite useable, even in 1 song context.
the sound I got was unmistakeable single-coil punch, very clean and "strat-y". I can get a nice version of the Chris Isaak "Blue Hotel" or "Wicked Game" sound.
fun stuff.
P.S. I use push/pull pots for this, so no mods to the wood for me.
I got parts to coil-split both pups, but so far only tried the neck position.
yes, the output is lower in single-coil mode, but not a great deal, still quite useable, even in 1 song context.
the sound I got was unmistakeable single-coil punch, very clean and "strat-y". I can get a nice version of the Chris Isaak "Blue Hotel" or "Wicked Game" sound.
fun stuff.
P.S. I use push/pull pots for this, so no mods to the wood for me.
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MatchBookNotes
New member
cool, i was planning to do such a mod when swapping out my humbucker(ala the soldering thread), did you do it yourself?
Gear_Junky
New member
of course, couldn't be simpler. My pickups (and parts) are from GFS and they match Seymour Duncan diagrams. Basically you attach the 2 leads that used to be soldered together (shorted) (white and red on mine) to one of the middle lugs of the DPDT (separate or on a push/pull pot) and you connect one of the other lugs to ground (body of pot) - just follow the diagrams, it's easier that way.
for now i just swapped the neck volume with push/pull (volume+coil-split). I'll also do the bridge pickup sometime soon. When I have all the materials and time I plan to replace the tone knob and cap, the 3-way switch and the jack and also to shield the cavity.
btw, on my Dream 180's in single-coil mode there's no more noise than in humbucker mode! that metal cover must shield it quite well!
for now i just swapped the neck volume with push/pull (volume+coil-split). I'll also do the bridge pickup sometime soon. When I have all the materials and time I plan to replace the tone knob and cap, the 3-way switch and the jack and also to shield the cavity.
btw, on my Dream 180's in single-coil mode there's no more noise than in humbucker mode! that metal cover must shield it quite well!
CoolCat
Well-known member
you can buy a Squier 51 for probably $150 and it has a split-coil humbucker and you could play with it....maybe easier and cheaper than rewiring an expensive guitar.
I have one and you can definately hear a tone change. I don't know what its doing after reading this thread...
..phasing or what ever..but in this 51 guitar it's a very distinct sound change, when the knob is pulled and the coils are split.
yes, you get another sound, thats the whole idea.
surfmaster
New member
this may sound like a crazy idea, but could you somhow include a small active boost circuit that is connected to the switch so it only activates when your coils are tapped, eliminating the volume drop common with most coil splits/taps?
something like this maybe
http://store.guitarfetish.com/25migubociti.html
something like this maybe
http://store.guitarfetish.com/25migubociti.html
Gear_Junky
New member
the answer is "of course you can", but that brings a more complicated wiring and a battery into the picture. and more money.
and the volume drop may not warrant this, either. It doesn't in my case. It just accounts for a cleaner tone when splitting, or the other way around I can smack the push/pull knob down and go from clean to dirty. no battery required
Light
New member
In theory yes, but you couldn't have a true bypass, so the booster would be loading down the circuit at all times, which is a bad, bad thing. In order to counteract that, you would need to have a buffer amp in there, which is actually probably a good thing if you use a lot of effects, but if you are a straight into the amp kind of guy it is not optimal.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi