Coil splitters?!?!?

I saw a Les Paul on ebay with "coil splitters" fitted. What do they do? Theres a switch that is fitted under the scratch plate from which they are controlled!

Same as a Tap Switch. turns off one of the coils in humbuckers. I have one on my PRS, very handy if you like single coils !

So what does it do for your tone? going from double coil to single?

Single coils (as a rule) are thinner and crisper than humbuckers. Think strat vs Les Paul.

Hmm.. I find it hard to get a sharp bluesy tone with my les paul. Remember the tone slash has when he played "tie your mother down" at wembly with queen! I cant get that! would single coils gimmie that? are p90s single coil?

P90's are Single Coils that take up the space of a Humbucker. Some people love them, some find them useless.

Yeah i had p90s in my les paul special. Is p90 the band of the brand? what company makes them and what other types are there of p90?

I have two coil splitting switches on my guitar, but I usually just keep them on one setting.

I wired the humbuckers on my 'Brand X' for series/parallel connection of the coils.

Most humbuckers are wired with the coils in series for maximum output. With the coils wired in parallel, you get lower output that sounds very single-coil, but no hum, because both coils are still connected.

where did you get the coil splitters?

They're just a Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) switch. You can get them as a separate switch, or built into a tone or volume pot at StewMac

I got myself an EMG 89, that's a splitable active (i.e. battery powered type with a high output which distorts with the amp on a lower level and gives super-distortion) humbucker. The coil tap on mine is operated by pulling out or pushing in an ordinary looking tone knob. I use a little two way switch to turn the pickup on and off. If I set the pick up selector exclusively to that pick up the on off switch can completely kill the sound producing this cool stuttering effect. If the pick up selector is selected so that my EMG 89 and my middle pick up are selected the kill switch makes a nice kind of tone and volume fluctuation, harsh and loud on the one hand, warm and quiet on the other. This latter effect is more manageable I find, I particularly like it with out of phase unison bends that wail and burn.
Some of Rage Against the Machine's Tommy Morello's sounds come from using an on/off switch.