single coils coil tapped

[roland_rat]

Hi,

I have a gordon smith tele that going to get a pickup upgrade.  Only thing thats a bit odd with this one is its got a strat pickup at the neck.  I have decided on Brown Sugar bridge Mothers milk neck.  Currently the guitar is coil tapped.  I was thinking of  ordering pickups that would let me coil tap them.  What do I need to put on the order for geting single coils that I can coil tap please?  I was thinking of the two pickups in parallel for the coil tap.  What options would you suggest?

many thanks

[Philly Q]

I've never seen much point in tapped single-coils unless they're pretty powerful to begin with - so then the tap takes them down to something like vintage output.   A vintage Strat or Tele pickup is about as low-output as I'd ever want to go, never mind tapping it - I'd have thought a tapped Mother's Milk would be pretty weedy sounding and probably not very useful.

Piledriver bridge and Trilogy neck perhaps?

There may only be certain models that are available tapped, although in theory any pickup could be tapped.  Probably worth getting advice from Tim on this one.

[roland_rat]

Cheers Philly,

Some very intresting points you made.  I  would tend to agree with you  on the coil tap, however there is one on the guitar  at the moment and it seems a shame not use it when  I change the pickups. Even though I suspect in reality the guitar will not get much play coil tapped.

[roland_rat]

Philly,

 I took your advice and emailed Tim.  Will let you know his reccomendation.

Thanks again

[Philly Q]

I'll be interested to know.  Many years ago (pre-BKP!) I often considered putting a set of tapped Duncan Quarter Pounders on a Tele, I think it would have worked quite well.  Never actually tried it though.

[SG Thrasher]

You can tap single coils? I might be interested in doing this for my sinner to cool it down every now and again.

[roland_rat]

Well what I am hoping to do is have 4 different pickup options.  Bridge, Neck, bridge and neck in parallel and bridge and neck in series.  Not sure how it will pan out but thats what im hoping.

[Philly Q]

Well what I am hoping to do is have 4 different pickup options.  Bridge, Neck, bridge and neck in parallel and bridge and neck in series.  Not sure how it will pan out but thats what im hoping.

There's no need to have tapped pickups for that - all you need is a 4-way switch: 

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=tele_4ws

[roland_rat]

Thanks Philly for the scematic. 

What im hoping to do is 3 way switch thats in  place for Neck, Neck and bridge in parallel and Bridge.  Then using the puch pull pot on the tone for Neck and bridge in parallel.  Hopefully once I take the old pickups out I will be able to see the wiring and hopefully copy it. 

Got to say the 4 way switch is neat idea.


Thanks once more

[roland_rat]

Hi,

I emailed Tim about my pickup change.   Got an email back last night that more than points me in the right direction.

Heres a copy of the advice from Tim's:-



Brown Sugar/Mother's Milk not a problem although I'm not keen on tapped Strat
coils-there's very little room to get an extra wire in and they always tend to be quite
fragile.
As the guitar is quite bright I think I'd be tempted to go a touch hotter and warmer-Boss
bridge, Irish Tour neck-this will be significantly different to your Yardies and add some
fatness in the mids and weight to the tone.
By all accounts I think im going to go for what Tim suggests.  Will let you all  know how it turns out.

[roland_rat]

Ordered pickups today there is no going back now.