Author Topic: Coil Taps? (Read 4303 times)

opprobrium_9 · « **on:** November 04, 2007, 05:13:38 PM »

i know this section of the forum is what its here for, but i still feel really ignorant asking this question... what exactly are coil taps? There is probably a really simple answer for this. Thanks in advance!

Philly Q · « **Reply #1 on:** November 04, 2007, 09:33:30 PM »

A coil tap means taking out a "tap" wire part-way through the windings of a pickup coil (usually about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through, I believe). When the tap wire is connected, the remaining 1/3 (or 1/4) of the coil is shorted out, giving a lower-output, brighter tone.

It's usually done with powerful single-coils, especially P-90s. Duncan have coil-tap options on their Quarter Pound single-coils. It is possible to tap both coils of a humbucker, too, but it's very rare (Schecter used to do it on their old MonsterTone pickups).
Confusingly, people very often say "coil tap" when they mean "coil split", which is of course turning off one coil of a humbucker to get a single-coil tone.

WezV · « **Reply #2 on:** November 04, 2007, 10:40:53 PM »

the genral idea with coil taps was to wind a pickup as normal, run a lead out at that point - then add extra windings as well and run a lead out from there.

Now you have a coil with one in but two outs. the first out will give you normal power, the second will be overwound

FELINEGUITARS · « **Reply #3 on:** November 05, 2007, 12:02:48 AM »

+1 to what the guys said

However often the phrase coil tap is misused and is being used to describe the process of separating out one coil from a humbucker to allow you to use it to get a single coil sound or to be used in conjunction with another coil (often a true single coil) on a guitar like a super-strat

For Example Ibanez wiring often has this to give those strat like tones on RGs & Jems

WezV · « **Reply #4 on:** November 05, 2007, 07:08:39 AM »

yeah, for years people have been calling coil tap and coil split as as the same thing - i.e. cutting a humbucker in half. I would hazard a guess that when most people say coil tap they really want a coil split and dont realise the difference.

but technically seperating two coils is a split and having extra outputs on the same coil is a tap.

opprobrium_9 · « **Reply #5 on:** November 06, 2007, 12:50:29 AM »

thanks!

pagan7 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 06, 2007, 10:29:17 PM »

The techies here might be able to explain why, but whenever I've coil split a humbucker the single coil sound is never as convincing as a dedicated single coil pup, even with a BKP humbucker. To my ears a coil split humbucker just doesn't have the same depth, dynamics and sparkle of a true single coil.

Will · « **Reply #7 on:** November 06, 2007, 10:33:49 PM »

Different construction type and magnet location I believe, a humbucker is not specifically 2 single coils together. I would assume the shared magnet may change something anyway

Philly Q · « **Reply #8 on:** November 06, 2007, 10:53:15 PM »

Yep, the construction is very different - most humbuckers have steel polepieces in contact with a horizontal bar magnet at the base of the pickup, whereas in most single-coils the polepieces themselves are individual rod magnets. So the shape of the magnetic field is different, which affects the tone. I'm sure other construction differences have an effect too.

You can get humbuckers with individual magnet polepieces - Duncan's Stag Mag for example, and I have an old Schaller pickup called (I think) the Golden 50s Super. They sound just like a single-coil when split, but I've never heard anyone say they're particularly great-sounding humbuckers.