Coil Tapping Humbuckers

[CEB]

I'm playing a guitar gig. Rock gig.

 

I have a cheap Chinese Fender Tele thing I like a lot. It has a Strat hard tail through body bridge. A bridge humbucker, middle Strat pickup and Tele neck pickup. I originally bought it as a slide guitar. I like the neck and weight a lot. It is wired with a coil tap switch. If I use this as my #1 I would like to upgrade the bridge humbucker. Stock was fine for slide stuff.

 

1) Do coil taps ever work well?

 

2) How hot does the humbucker need to be for the pickup to sound good in single coil mode? A Humbucker I like is the DiMarzio Tone Zone but it isn't a particularly hot pickup. Any pickup work well tapped?

 

Stuff I am doing is sort of in a Matchbox 20, Jimmy Eat World, Banditos, Squeeze sort of mode.

 

Thanks

[desertbluesman]

I have an Ibanez RG321 with 2 full sized hum-bucking pickups in it and on one switch setting it taps both pickups and wires them hum-bucking and gives the guitar a Strat sort of a between the pickups sound. That is all I know about that phenomenon. I once had a guitar with three mini switches, each controlling one of the three pickups with the two end pups, full sized hum-bucking coil taps which also gave that between strat pup sound.

[Baldwin Funster]

Ive never known coil splitting to work that well. The split setting always sounds weak and thin compared to a dedicated single coil. If youre trying to get a good single coil sound out of a HB routed guitar try a duncan fat cat or other SC pickup in a HB shell. Or have someone like lollar or fralin make a pickup that sounds good split if they can.

 

Edit. I saw you were more interested in tapping coils not splitting. I have foung tappi g to be very hit or miss, mostly miss.

[CEB]

Actually I think I screwed up the lingo and am interested in splitting. I need to open up the Tele and see what is going on.

 

I wired HS1 with a parallel - series switch years ago but it IMO never sounded good when not in humbucker mode.

[Baldwin Funster]

If you are creative with your possible circuits you can try changing the phase of one of the coils,or switching so the instead of splitting the coils you run in a split series parallel config. Probably 5 or 6 or more different possible configs available.

[Dannyalcatraz]

IME, the better the pickup, the better it sounds when split. Some pickups are even designed with splitting in mind.

 

For example, Rio Grande makes several Humbuckers which are actually made by pairing two of their singlecoils in a HB housing. The Tallboy family & HalfBreed are all based on Strat-style singlecoils, while the Dirty Harry HBs are made from their singlecoil-sized P90s.

 

http://www.riograndepickups.com/tallboy-slant-six

http://www.riograndepickups.com/tallboy-2

http://www.riograndepickups.com/halfbreed-3

http://www.riograndepickups.com/dirty-harry-humbucking

http://www.riograndepickups.com/dirty-harry-jr-humbucking

 

If you don't really need the HB sound, you could even go for a HB-sized:

 

1) P90 (lots of makers, including Railhammer, Vintage Vibe, The Creamery, Bareknuckle, Lollar, etc.)

2) Charlie Christian (Vintage Vibe, Lollar, and more)

3) Telecaster pickup (Lollar or Railhammer, possibly others)

 

[CEB]

Thanks. The guitar and amp shop I hangout at is a Rio Grande dealer. I have never used them but Mark would hook one up and let me try one.

[Dannyalcatraz]

Lucky duck! RGs are nice- I'm personally planning on a Dirty Harry/Dirty Harry Jr set for a Malden Bad Karma (LPclone). A guy I recommended them to has now got RGs in 2-3 of his guitars now. Hope they work for ya!

[Bartholomew]

I bought a Les Paul Studio a couple of years back with super-hot pickups & coil-splitting. Too hot, too distorted I originally thought but when the volume on the guitar is dialed back it cleans-up pretty good.

 

Gibson 496R and 500T. I like them better when they are split and use it that way mostly. Sounds amazing for recording. Completely the opposite of what I originally thought. I remember Caevan saying he used similar hot Gibson p/u or maybe it was those. I didn't get it then but I do now.

 

No matter where I am, what kind of amp, big room, small room, whatever - it can always get a really good sound with all the different combinations etc.

 

Prefer my vintage axe but sometimes I don't want to take a high value instrument to club jams and this thing works everywhere. Those super-hot pickups split great and the OD sound is wonderful when dialed in with the right setup.

 

 

[Larryz]

I can go from Humbucker doubles to singles on my Taylor T3B exactly like the one in my Avatar. It does a great balancing job but still takes a little volume knob concentration. One of my Strats has a humbucker at the bridge combined with single coils and things can get a little louder when going from the single coil to the humbucker (which is similar to going the other way with a humbucker to a single coil and getting a little volume drop). Lots of slide lap steel players like a single and at times they want a double at the bridge, so having the ability to go from one to the other is an advantage...for the most part I like using one or the other during a song. I have used the singles for rhythm and switched to doubles for a little lead boost using my push/pull volume knob. It comes in handy having the push/pull on the volume knob as you can make volume adjustments very quickly...

 

ps. I have seen Strat style guitars with two Fender Lace single coils at the bridge and you can go from using one or both at anytime. The Lace pickup probably wouldn't be a good pup for slide but the concept is cool. You could find two single coils that you really like and mount them the same way at the bridge. I might consider having one hot and one mild so when you switch both of them on, they will not get a big change in volume. And I would use a push/pull volume knob for switching. Just a thought...

[p90jr]

I have the Seymour Duncan triple shot pickup rings in my Heritage Les Paul thing and love them... don't hear noise or a weakness of the single coil settings (it lets you use either of the coils you choose alone) and does the series and parallel hum bucker settings. Of course, on a Fender-type pick guard it might be too tall or strange-looking.

 

 

[Sharkman]

Okay, since nobody else asked, I guess it's up to me. What is the difference between coil tapping and coil splitting?

[Bartholomew]

When you tap the volume pot they turn back into humbuckers ?

[J. Dan]

I'm trying to remember what pickups I ended up with...this was probably 13 years ago... I they are both Seymore Duncan. I think I ended up going with the Custom Custom (not just custom) in the bridge, and the Pearly Gates in the neck with a pull-switch on that pot to tap it single coil. This is on an Explorer. I always thought it sounded strat-like, which was what I was going for, for versatility. The original PU's had a really weak output, so maybe it only sounds good in comparison with those. But it's kept me happy all this time.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Okay, since nobody else asked, I guess it's up to me. What is the difference between coil tapping and coil splitting?

 

When coil-tapping, a segment of the wire in the coil is bypassed, reducing the overall amount of coil-wire used, yielding another sound that is lower in output and typically leaner in tone, generally more "vintage"-like. A "tap" is taken out part-way along the length of coil-wire. A similar example would be the multiple taps in a tube-amps output-transformer that yield different impedances.

 

Coil-splitting removes one of the two coils from the circuit altogether, leaving only one coil active. While this is an actual 'single-coil', other elements in the overall design- magnet types and placement, dimensions, location relative to the strings, etc.- may or may not make an appreciable difference in the sound, strength attack, tone, etc. compared to that of the type of single-coil pickup that is desired to be emulated.

[Larryz]

When you tap the volume pot they turn back into humbuckers ?

 

On the Taylor T3B you are coil splitting. When the volume knob is up, both pickups are in the single coil mode. When down, you are back to humbuckers (double coils). You can get some cool sounds while in the single coil mode, but you have to increase the volume just a tad. The master tone knob is also push/pull and switches the capacitor circuit for some more interesting sounds...

 

Fender uses what they call S-1 switching on the volume knob to turn on/off their humbucker double coils to allow for coil splitting too. But, it makes a noticeable clicking sound that comes through on the amp which I do not care for. The Taylor switch is silent.

[The Geoff]

I have a '79 Ibanez Studio ST105 with a DiMarzio PF at the neck & a Super Distortion at the bridge, both wired for coil splitting via push/pull tone knobs.

 

Both sound good, the SD is exceptional.

 

HOWEVER!!!!

 

I've arranged the pups so the coils furthest from the bridge are active when split. Look at the distance between the bridge and a Strat coil, then where the nearest coil to the bridge is in, say, a Les Paul. It's very near indeed - much nearer than the Strat. This is why these conversions often sound thin, as there is little or almost no amplitude left in the string to generate a decent signal.

 

Try it the other way. It works.

 

G.

[Caevan O’Shite]

I have a '79 Ibanez Studio ST105 with a DiMarzio PF at the neck & a Super Distortion at the bridge, both wired for coil splitting via push/pull tone knobs.

 

Both sound good, the SD is exceptional.

 

HOWEVER!!!!

 

I've arranged the pups so the coils furthest from the bridge are active when split. Look at the distance between the bridge and a Strat coil, then where the nearest coil to the bridge is in, say, a Les Paul. It's very near indeed - much nearer than the Strat. This is why these conversions often sound thin, as there is little or almost no amplitude left in the string to generate a decent signal.

 

Try it the other way. It works.

 

G.

 

Good call.

[Sharkman]

Okay, since nobody else asked, I guess it's up to me. What is the difference between coil tapping and coil splitting?

 

When coil-tapping, a segment of the wire in the coil is bypassed, reducing the overall amount of coil-wire used, yielding another sound that is lower in output and typically leaner in tone, generally more "vintage"-like. A "tap" is taken out part-way along the length of coil-wire. A similar example would be the multiple taps in a tube-amps output-transformer that yield different impedances.

 

Coil-splitting removes one of the two coils from the circuit altogether, leaving only one coil active. While this is an actual 'single-coil', other elements in the overall design- magnet types and placement, dimensions, location relative to the strings, etc.- may or may not make an appreciable difference in the sound, strength attack, tone, etc. compared to that of the type of single-coil pickup that is desired to be emulated.

 

Thanks, Caevan.

[The Geoff]

I have to say, though, that I'm seriously considering changing the PAF to parallel/series to retain the humbucking element. You lose a bit of the bite in the attack, but the sound isn't too far off the single coil and sounds great for rhythm. I'm keeping the SD the same as it gives a single coil of around 7.4K - Strat on steroids.

 

G.

[picker]

I have a Hamer Special FM that I have had since '93, and the first thing I did when I found out it had 4 wire Duncans in it was have a push/pull pot replace the tone control, so I could cut both the inside coils.

 

It works amazingly well. Very strat-ish on the neck p/up, very tele-ish on the bridge and in the middle.

 

I have had people try to tell me that coil splitting humbuckers won't work, the one coil won't be powerful enough.

 

Bull.

 

It works like a charm. At least it does with Duncan JB and '59 p/ups. And, I had the stock p/up in my Faded Flying V rewired for four wires, and they work really well too. I even had an offshore-made Hamer 335 clone, with the "Duncan Designed" p/ups, set up the same way, and it worked great.

 

I have found the versatility of a guitar that will do both 'bucker & single coil sounds well very useful. I can heartily advsplitting. They have worked well for me.