Coil Tap Pickup Madness

Here is a several part question for anyone interested.

1)I finally got my OLP Petrucci (yes :D ) and am defiantaly changing the pickups. I'm thinking a humbucker from hell for clean strumming and a tone zone in the bridge. This sound good so far?

2)The guitar has a 3 way switch. This may sound really stupid, but is it possible to rig up a coil split? Using one position of the switcher?

3)Also is the humbucker from hell splitable?

4)Because of where the switch is, whenever i strum i accidentaly flip it (the switch is in a really stupid spot). Could I possibly rig up the switch so when it's ponted towards the sky, the bridge pickup is one, the middle position splits the neck, and in the lowest position, the neck pickup is enabled. I just want it this way because I'd strum with the neck pickup and don't want knock it down.

Sorry if this sounds dumb :o. Feel free to answer one or some of the questions or just tell me im a moron :D .

i read this about the humbucker from hell

"Because a conventional humbucker senses the string at two different places, it cancels some frequencies along with the hum. What if there were a humbucker that canceled fewer frequencies? It would be brighter and cleaner: almost glassy-sounding. In other words, it would almost sound like a Strat pickup, but with about the same power as a PAF. We created The Humbucker From Hell primarily as a neck pickup. You won't believe how much it will open up the sound in the neck position of a Les Paul, and it has an almost acoustic quality in the neck spot of a bolt-on guitar. Why is it called The Humbucker From Hell? Try it in the bridge position with a bright amp--but put in your ear plugs first, and don't say you weren't warned.."

as it is described it seems it will already give u a good single coil sound so why also split it? cos if u split it the output will be reduced a lot, this might not be a problem for you but heh. u might want to consider puttin it in parrallel as this aparantly gives similar results.

i know u want dmarzios, but look at this bit a the semore duncan page u will find stuff out about coil splittin parrallel etc.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/faqdescr.shtml#coilsplit

(oh and by the way coil tapping is not the same as coil splitting :D , dont take offense please, some people seem to be touchy about bein corrected)

Thanks for the reply and link. What you said makes sense about the splitting.

And it's OK...I'm a big boy and I act like it...correct me all you want :D .

You should get some push/pull volume pots so you can just tap both of the pups. My LP had a coil tap switch already so it was easy for me to do.

I forgot tol mention...it's only got one volume and 1 tone. :(

Originally Posted by: ericthecableguyI forgot tol mention...it's only got one volume and 1 tone. :(

So has my JS - 1 is a push/pull filter the other is pull to coil tap...

Originally Posted by: zreynoldspSo has my JS - 1 is a push/pull filter the other is pull to coil tap...

This is cool. Could you kind explain that in idiot speak for me, and do you think I could do it?

not really on the JS, as it came to me that way. To be honest the 'hi pass filter' is a little lost on me - it's supposed to make hi frequencies come through better as you back off the volume, but I can't really tell.

The coil tap is cool though - you pull the pot and then middle position on the three way toggle uses the 2 outer coils, the neck position taps the neck PU but leaves the bridge as a humbucker, and bridge position does the reverse.

I did the same thing on one of my RGs - the pot is from Ibanez (the same one as on the JS - part number on the web). It has a 5 way switch but I soldered it up to work as the JS explained above. As long as your pickups have appropriate connections to tap, it should be easy.

I'm a bit of a village idiot with electronics, and I did it with a bit of help from Mr Internet, although I'd have to pull it apart again to tell you how - it was pretty easy though. Must have been if I managed it! :D

Nice. Thanks for your time.

Originally Posted by: Fret spider
(oh and by the way coil tapping is not the same as coil splitting :D , dont take offense please, some people seem to be touchy about bein corrected)

What's the difference? Is this something so plain and taken for granted that I should have used the search feature first? :confused:

As I understand it (corrections welcome!)

Coil Spilit:

Is exactly that - a humbucker pickup is wound as two single coils connected, and the connection between them can be wired to a switch to short one coil or the other when engaged - you're splitting the pickup

Coil Tap:

The pickup is wound in such a way that after a number of turns (say 5000), a wire is taken off before the rest of the pickup is wound the say 7500 turns total. When the coil tap is engaged, only the 5000 turns of the wire will be hot, so the output is reduced.

If I'm not quite there, someone step in....

ZRP

ZRP u are indead correct

There's a ton of stuff here on this subject. The Advanced Search feature can supply you with plenty of reading.

You want 4-wire pickups for advanced switching designs.

Humbucking pickups built for coil-tap simply provide a wire from the connection between the two coils, allowing you to short out one of them. This leaves you with a single coil. And noise problems.

A 4-wire pickup allows you access to both ends of both coils, for connection any way you want. You can still coil-tap, plus you can coil-split (which means using one coil from one pickup with one coil from another pickup), or connect the coils in series or parallel.

You can see schematics of all this and more by going to the >DiMarizio< website and navigating to the wiring diagrams in the humbucker descriptions.

u sure about the coil tappin lats cos it says this on the seymour duncan websight. i addeda bit on series and parrallel if your interseted.

What is a coil tap?
A coil tap refers to a lead connected to an individual coil’s winding and is used to raise and lower a pickup’s output and change its tone. This is most often utilized on single coil pickups where the player wants a higher output pickup but also wants to be able to switch to a lower output and more vintage-type tone using the same pickup. Many of our pickups for Strat® and Tele® are available in tapped versions for an additional $1 - $11, depending on the model. In addition,you can special order a "Shop Floor Custom" tapped version of any other pickup for an upcharge of $12.

What is coil splitting?
Coil splitting refers to the ability to disable one coil in a humbucker-type pickup. This offers the player option of getting a single coil-type tone from a humbucker-loaded guitar. Many pickups have three- or four-conductor wiring that allows for one coil to be disabled by shorting one coil to either ground or hot. All production Seymour Duncan humbuckers can be purchased with four-conductor wiring either stock from the factory or as a Production Floor Custom order. The exceptions to this rule are the Vintage Rails (SVR-1) and Duckbuckers (SDBR-1), which are wired internally in parallel from the factory.

What are series and parallel wiring?
Series and parallel wiring usually refers to two separated but related issues. The most common usage refers to how two coils in a humbucking pick up are connected to each other. With series wiring the individual coils are connected end to end. Current flows first through one coil and then the other. This is the way most humbucking pickups are wired. With parallel wiring the individual coils are connected to each other at both ends and current flows through both coils at the same time. Pickups wired in parallel are brighter sounding and have considerably less output than an identical pickup wired in series.

The terms series and parallel are also used to describe the way in which separate pickups are connected to each other in the guitar by the pick up selector switch. In the vast majority of guitars the pickups are connected to each other in parallel. The same rules apply to pick ups wired in series and parallel as a humbuckers coils wired in series and parallel. Two pickups wired in series will have higher output and a fuller tone.

What are the differences between coil splitting and parallel wiring?
While coil splitting and parallel wiring sound very similar to most players, there are some differences. One difference is output. Splitting a 16k ohm DC resistance humbucker results in an 8k ohm single coil and that translates into a -3 db lowering in output. Wiring a 16k ohm DC resistance humbucker in parallel results in a 4k ohm DC resistance and a -6 db lowering in output.

Once again though many players find the tone and output to sound very similar. Another difference is that a split humbucker is no longer hum canceling while a parallel-wired humbucker with the coils out-of-phase is still hum- canceling. Players with high-gain amps may find parallel wiring more manageable because of this reason. With all this being said there are subtle differences in tone between parallel and split coil wiring and each player needs to decide which wiring is best for their particular needs.

It deosn't help either that in the 'non-technical player' community the terms are interchangeable.... Myself included. I say 'tap' whether I actually mean that, or splitting and then the rest comes out in the context.

Guitar players tend to say 'coil tap' when they mean 'somehow monkey with a pickup's output using a switch'....

The definitions of coil tap used by zreynoldsp and SD are valid for single-coil pickups. Unless specifically designed that way, it does not apply to humbuckers, which are almost always tapped at the connection between the two coils.

I stand by my definition of coil-splitting.

So on humbucker pickups the terms split and tap do actually mean the same thing? :confused:

Tapping a humbucker means shorting out one of the coils to make it function as a single-coil pickup. The connection taps the pickup at the midpoint of what was originally two coils connected in series. 4-wire setups were a later development. 2-wire humbuckers are almost always internally connected in series.

Splitting means connecting one coil of the neck humbucker to one coil of the bridge humbucker (for example). You get two coils acting as a humbucker, made by splitting two pickups. Obviously, 2-wire humbuckers can't be connected this way.

ok that makes sense. my bad i just assumed it was the same terminoligy for humbuckers and single coil.

can u get humbuckers that are coil tapped in the way a single pickup would be. like shorting out some of the coils in each humbucker to give a humbucker with a lower output and higher resonant frequency?

I suppose you could get anything you want, on a made-to-order custom basis.

If you have a specific design, (and you don't mind waiting for a few months), check out >HighOrder< pickups.