Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: CaffeineJunkie on February 21, 2006, 05:45:36 PM

Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: CaffeineJunkie on February 21, 2006, 05:45:36 PM
Hi,

This has been bugging me for ages now as i'm not very experienced in the whole "guitar" thing, having tought myself.

erm... basically, 2 things:
   1.) What is coil tapping and how does it effect the sound?
   2.) What are pinch harmonics?

Cheers
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: MDV on February 21, 2006, 07:51:38 PM
Coil tapping is where you take a second output off a shorter length of wire so that you have a switch option to reduce to power of the pickup.

Mostly "coil taps" is used for the same thing as "'coil splits" where you take a humbucker and wire one of the single coils on its own.

Pinch harmonics are a picking techinique where you brush the string with th e thumb of your picking hand to set offf a set of very high pithced harmonics. It squeels.

Edited to clarify.
Title: Re: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: Neemo on February 21, 2006, 07:52:49 PM
Quote from: CaffeineJunkie
Hi,

This has been bugging me for ages now as i'm not very experienced in the whole "guitar" thing, having tought myself.

erm... basically, 2 things:
   1.) What is coil tapping and how does it effect the sound?
   2.) What are pinch harmonics?

Cheers


I'm not 100% positive but I think coil tapping means splitting a humbucker, using only one coil.

Pinch Harmonics aka. Artificial Harmonics are something very annoying when used too much, á la Zakk Wylde. Sounds like a high-pitched wail.
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: sambo on February 21, 2006, 07:58:51 PM
coil tapping doesnt have to be a h/b ive got a tapped p-90... it just reduces/increases the hotness of the pup when its engaged/disengaged.... not quite sure how but its something to do with the coils...

and the p.harmonics are like the guys said.
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: MDV on February 21, 2006, 08:03:59 PM
Hey, I never said it had to be used on a humbucker!

 :(
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: sambo on February 21, 2006, 08:09:25 PM
hahahaha!  :lol: sorry!

probably me mis-interpreting - what you two guys said just gave me the impression you thought it was just for h/b's...

obviously not lol
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: CaffeineJunkie on February 21, 2006, 09:00:22 PM
Alright cool, so can any pickup be coil tapped???
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: sambo on February 21, 2006, 09:01:55 PM
think so.... and Tim does it for no extra charge!  :D
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: PhilKing on February 21, 2006, 10:41:28 PM
Coil tapping is when you take a lead out of the coil part way through the winding.   The main result of this is that the sound cleans up slightly without losing too much volume, which makes it great for rhythm.  You can only do this when winding the pickup.

When you take one coil of a humbucker it is commonly called coil tap, but it is actually shunting one of the coils to ground, so you have a single coil pickup, and should really be coil split.

Pinch harmonics are when you hit the string with the pick and the edge of your thumb, bringing out the octave of the note hit, because of the double hit.
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: Elliot on February 22, 2006, 08:34:27 AM
I dont think pinch harmonics are the same as artificial harmonics - at least not in the acoustic guitar world - artificial harmonics are where you play the harmonic (usually) 12 frets above a fretted note so you get the effect of a 12th fret harmonic but , i.e. if you fret the second string you can play the '12th fret' harmonic on the 14th fret.

People like Davey Graham, Tommy Emmanuel, Tony McManus and the late Eric Roche use this technique to play entire pieces to get a harp type arrangement.
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: sambo on February 22, 2006, 08:36:51 AM
what harmonics are they though elliot? how do those guys actually get the harmonic? the only ones i know of are pinch h's and ones where you play an open string then hover your finger over the vibrating string....
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: _tom_ on February 22, 2006, 03:57:24 PM
Quote from: sambo
what harmonics are they though elliot? how do those guys actually get the harmonic? the only ones i know of are pinch h's and ones where you play an open string then hover your finger over the vibrating string....


Well the ones Elliott is going on about, basically you play a note say at the 3rd fret, keep it ringing, and hover your finger over the string 12 frets up, so in this case it would be 15th fret. Sounds pretty cool. I think dime briefly touched upon them in that video in Time Out.
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: sambo on February 22, 2006, 04:12:35 PM
what so you use your picking hand to touch twelve frets up?
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: _tom_ on February 22, 2006, 04:27:00 PM
Yeah, obviously you dont use your fretting hand, unless you have foot long hands  :lol:  :lol:
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: sambo on February 22, 2006, 04:31:35 PM
maybe i do...  :wink:  !  :o   :D
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: Elliot on February 22, 2006, 04:55:00 PM
Its a fingerstyle technique (although I can't see why you could'nt do it if you use a pick) so you use your picking hand to generate the harmonic.
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: jimi hendrix on February 22, 2006, 07:59:39 PM
Quote from: sambo
maybe i do...  :wink:  !  :o   :D

Yeah, but you know what they say about men with foot long hands... :D
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: sambo on February 22, 2006, 08:03:01 PM
hahaha!   8)   :wink:
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: Neemo on February 22, 2006, 08:24:57 PM
Quote from: Elliot
I dont think pinch harmonics are the same as artificial harmonics - at least not in the acoustic guitar world - artificial harmonics are where you play the harmonic (usually) 12 frets above a fretted note so you get the effect of a 12th fret harmonic but , i.e. if you fret the second string you can play the '12th fret' harmonic on the 14th fret.


I thought that was tap harmonic? Or atleast that's what Satriani calls them.
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: MDV on February 22, 2006, 09:01:18 PM
Artificial harmonic: retting a note and playing a harmonic from that using the picking hand to touch the harmonic out. As previously said.

Tapped harmonic: As I understand it a tapped harmonic is where you tap a note that is a harmonic of the fretted note, but you tap it on top of the fret, so you get a harmonic sound thats sounded with a tap.
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: dave_mc on February 22, 2006, 10:05:24 PM
^total guitar (the mag) sometimes confuse things by calling "harp harmonics" artificial harmonics, while the USA mags use pinch and artificial interchangeably.

but yeah, tapped harmonics are what mark/mdv said.

I dunno, i just know what the techniques are :D
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: genocidal tendencies on February 23, 2006, 12:02:31 AM
I could be wrong, but I think tapped and pinch harmonics are both types of artificial harmonic - artificial in that they aren't natural.
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: lulusg on February 23, 2006, 12:10:07 AM
Actually they very unnatural...and artificial.  :)
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: CaffeineJunkie on February 23, 2006, 05:06:44 PM
oh right, cool. Wasn't expecting quite a response but hey, always helps to have more than one opinion.

Cheers
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: MDV on February 23, 2006, 05:11:47 PM
Geno: you could tap a natural harmonic.
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: genocidal tendencies on February 23, 2006, 06:57:26 PM
Isn't it still technically a natural harmonic though, being on an open string, whereas tapped harmonics have to be fretted?
Title: Coil Tapping / Pinch Harmonics
Post by: lulusg on February 23, 2006, 07:56:28 PM
...please disregard my input! No idea what I was talking about...tried to be funny but it didn't work out! :shock: