Hold on lads, I've had an idea.

[ToneMonkey]

When you coil split a humbucker and drop it to a single coil you loose a bit of volume.  Could you add something in there to drop the volume of the HB so that when you split it it's at about the same volume.  (I know you can use a volume pot before any of the smartarses pipe up).

I figure it would be easier to drop the HB single rather than boost the single coil signal.  Obviously a clean single path is the thing to go for, so it might not be a great idea.  But that way you could easily have mid song twiddliness.

[Twinfan]

Half of the point is that single have less output, isn't it?  Why fix something that isn't broke?

[Frank]

You mean have the option of switching the HB output down so that it's at the same level as the SC so all you hear is the tonal difference?

I suppose you could do it - find the volume setting where it's at the reduced level you want then measure the resistances and have an option to switch in fixed resistors with the right values but I can't quickly think of a way to combine all that into one switch. Ideally you'd want SC/HB/low output HB on one switch. Maybe one of the techie types will chip in with an elegant solution here.

[Roobubba]

Or just 'fix' it so you wire up the humbucker straight to the output jack, and stop poncing around!

Problem solved!

:D

[Twinfan]

You could wire the humbucker in parallel not series........

[Afghan Dave]

Keep me updated when you find a solution to this critical issue...  :?

[Afghan Dave]

You could wire the humbucker in parallel not series........

Good point... Sorted!

"Move along now, nothing to see here"  :lol: :lol:

[Philly Q]

You could wire the humbucker in parallel not series........

Good point... Sorted!

"Move along now, nothing to see here"  :lol: :lol:

It's a very different sound though - almost defeats the point of having a humbucker IMO.

What guitar is it, by the way?  I'm assuming something like an HSS Strat, not something with only humbuckers?

[ToneMonkey]

Not for any guitar really, it was just something I was thinking about when I was trying not to think about work.

[gingataff]

How about having a high output pickup but with both coils tapped so that you can have a lower output in series mode and then with electrickery switch to one uptapped coil for your single coil sound?

I'm not sure I'd be that bothered myself though ;)

[BigB]

You could wire the humbucker in parallel not series........

Had this on my Vox Custom 24 (didn't rewired it when I put the Crawlers in - probably will some day but well...), and there's still a noticeable volume difference between serial and parallel. FWIW, you wouldn't expect the "2 SC parallel" positions of a Tele or Strat to be louder than the other positions, would you ?-)


[edit]
Oh, wait... the point was to make the bucker quieter - so you'd have parallel / split, not serial / split or serial / parallel ?

Duh - sorry for being a dork :(

But anyway - wired parallel, it's not exactly sounding like a 'bucker at all, so I guess that's not really what ToneMonkey was after.
[/edit]

[7thSon]

With the coil split on the volume knob can you not just roll it up while you're pulling it out?

[impossible]

Push/pull pots and micro switches generally have two independent sets of three contacts. You could put the coil tap feature on one side of a push/pull pot or 2-way micro switch, and the other half of the switch could basically send the output of the pickup (hot wire) straight to the volume control or introduce the resistor for the volume drop mentioned by Frank. That way, I *think* the volume control would still act mostly as normal when in humbucking mode.

There may be some minor maths involved for the resistor value to compensate for it interacting with the pot's resistance.

Quite surprised I didn't think of this simple mod already, unless I've missed something obvious which would complicate matters.

[hermetico]

Other thing that some people likes is the "spin-a-split" mod, that allows you to mix the split with the humbucker sound in certain degree.

[impossible]

Other thing that some people likes is the "spin-a-split" mod, that allows you to mix the split with the humbucker sound in certain degree.

+1 Sometimes I prefer that to having a tone control!