How versatile are Warpigs?

[_tom_]

I'm allready planning my next guitar which will hopefully be as follows:

-sg style but with a reinforced neck joint/deeper tenon
-all mahogany
-rosewood 'board

Will Warpigs even sound good in that guitar?

Also how versatile are they? Whilst I think this guitar will be more of a stripped down "metal" guitar than my others, I still want to be able to play other styles if I want to, as my tastes are always changing. I remember some french jazz musicians using the pigs for that but I dont play jazz. I do metal, classic rock, stoner rock/metal and punk type stuff. Obviously I'd have to use the volume control to change the output but what do you reckon?

[MDV]

Very, for their power.

Their split and parralel is great, their clean and crunch is great...only thing I havent tried, and recommend (at a guess at its performance) for max versatility from them is tapped.

If you had a set of pigs, 5 way selection with splits for each one on 2 and 4, and 2 vol push pull to tap them there would be very few tones you couldnt get at least the general vibe of.

They'll work fine in all-mahogany as well.

Only thing is for the split and tap they'd have to be....6 conductor? (4 conductor with the 2 extra outs for the tap?). Unconventional, but likely the sort of thing Tim wont bat an eyelid at.

[Antag]

I reckon the std alnico Warpig would sound good in that guitar.  They sounded good in my Gibson V & absolutely fantastic in Feline's SG-style guitar.

The A-pig is reasonably versatile.  Although it's very powerful & pushes the amp hard, it's perfectly useable clean with a full, warm, rich tone.  Under high gain it's very saturated but there are some nice sounds to be had from rolling back the guitar's volume & you can always turn the amp's gain down :)

I'm not sure the C-pig is quite so useable clean, I've never tried one.

[_tom_]

Good to hear :)

Yeah I was gonna go with the alnico version, think the ceramic one would be too modern and tight/compressed for me.

I wasnt going to bother with splitting and stuff because I wanted to keep the look of the guitar quite simple so dont want switches all over the place, was just going to go with a single volume control and a 3-way toggle. I guess I could put a smaller toggle on for splitting though (I hated the push/pull I tried, so flimsy feeling), if that sounds good on the pigs?

[MDV]

I had a split and parralel C-Pig. Both sounded great, and I'm exptrapolating from that.

The C-Pigs cleans are a little sterile, but still OK. Better than a miracle man anyway.

The only visual difference with a normal SG would be its got a 5-way instead of a 3 way toggle. Whats the big deal about that?

But yeah, pigs can hack it fairly well without alt wirings, versatility wise. Very good for their power, at least. To get the best versatility out of them go with the switching options. They're great for them.

[_tom_]

Dunno I dont really like the look of 5-way toggles at all, gibson styles need to have the proper 3 way imo haha.

[Davey]

very versatile, especially if you have a series/parallel toggle!

[gwEm]

i was strongly impressed by the pig in afgan dave's basswood superstrat - ideal for thrash in E standard. less impressed with it in philking's explorer, though was quite good wired in parallel.

to get a bit of extra tightness, think about a 25.5" scale length and/or a maple neck (with your favourite rosewood board as you say). i have this scale length and wood combo in my Flying V 90, and its as tight as you like with the Holy Diver, I reckon an A5 pig would be the same.

since its custom, i would think about an ebony board, its my favourite fingerboard material :)

[Vilches3]

i got it in a tiny 1988 ibanez Saber............It sounds better for cleans than my duncan cool rails and my YJM dimarzio which are both in the same guitar (middle and neck position) enough said?

[dheim]

very versatile, very powerful, very nasty and dirty... they split well and have a really nice crunch when turned down.
in your SG alike they will sound great!

ah, judging from your clips i was wondering why you hadn't yet bought a set of WPs!

[Dr. Vic]

Their split and parralel is great, their clean and crunch is great...only thing I havent tried, and recommend (at a guess at its performance) for max versatility from them is tapped.

Completely off topic, sorry, but what are the difference (in sound, wiring, etc) between :
- coil split
- parrallel
- and coil tapped ?  :mrgreen:

[Antag]

Completely off topic, sorry, but what are the difference (in sound, wiring, etc) between :
- coil split
- parrallel
- and coil tapped ?  :mrgreen:

OK, the "full" humbucker sound is both coils in series.

Wiring them in parallel gives you a much less powerful sound, quite like a single coil in character, but hum cancelling.

Coil split it just one of the coils.  It's basically a single coil sound, not hum-cancelling, but generally speaking it's not as good as a "real" single coil because it wasn't wound specifically for that purpose.

Coil tapped is an often mis-used term that is actually describing coil split.  Real coil tapping is where the output can be switched to part way round the pickup wind, so it's a slightly lower output signal with different tonal characteristics.  It's something that has to be built into the pickup & doesn't come standard.

[MDV]

Split is one coil of the humbucker and sounds more like a single coil (but not quite)
Parallel sounds lower gain, less compressed, more high end and high mids, clearer and more dynamic. I really like powerful bridges in parallel (or at least with the option)
Tapped is a second output from a shorter portion of the wind, lowering power and compression, increasing high end and dynamics.

[WezV]

for coil tap, imagine winding a pickup coil so far, lets say till it was 6k. stop at that point and add an output.   then wind on anouther 6k worth ot turns and add another output


then you have a 6k output and a 12k output from the same pickup

[Dr. Vic]

Many thanks for the as-usual-high-quality inputs guys ! I think actually coil split and coil tap are often use to say the same thing which is why your posts here are very usefull to clear it up !

When you have a guitar with a push-pull knob for coil splitting, do you need a special order or are the 4 conductors cables enough ? I assume all the BKP are ready for coil splitting, but you seem to say that's not the case for coil tap ? 

And finally what does hum cancelling mean ? and why coil split is not hum cancelling ?  :mrgreen:

Still sorry for the off topic question (especially because Tom, I know you say 1 knob is enough for you so much so that this discussion might bore you to death  :lol:)