Coil splitting humbuckers - Is it worth doing?

[Gary_Goo]

I'm getting a set of VHII's for my Les Paul Custom. I was considering putting in a coil split at the neck and possibly the bridge, but before I re-wire the guitar I'm asking myself is it really worth doing?
I have 2 Teles and a P90 loaded Les Paul Special for single coil sounds, so do coil split humbuckers offer anything tone wise or should I just not bother with the coil splits?
What do people reckon. Worth doing or not?

[BigB]

What do people reckon. Worth doing or not?

Coil-splitting is IMHO mostly useless, at least if you already have real single coils (and unless you have a HSS setup of course).  Serie / parallel switching has usually been much more interesting in my experience - lower output (than series), clearer and more single-coilish tone, but without becoming overly thin / brittle,  and still retains the humbucking effect.

Now I've not try splittng any BKP yet, and some are supposed to work fine split.

[Twinfan]

Unless you NEED a (compromised) split sound for live work, I wouldn't bother on regular humbuckers.  Series/parallel, as BigB says, may be a good option if you want to try something different.

[Gary_Goo]

Thanks guys. I think I'll just go with standard wiring and use a Tele for single coil sounds. I've got more than enough tonal options in a range of guitars and its not something I'd really use live anyways. It'll save me some time and money too as I wont need to rewire anything.

[Telerocker]

Thanks guys. I think I'll just go with standard wiring and use a Tele for single coil sounds. I've got more than enough tonal options in a range of guitars and its not something I'd really use live anyways. It'll save me some time and money too as I wont need to rewire anything.

Good decision. With all your guitars you have got the whole spectrum covered.

[Philly Q]

I'm not a big fan of split humbuckers either, but I am interested in the PRS DGT wiring, where they use resistors so in split mode you're not "losing" all of the second coil, giving a slightly fuller sound. 

http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/schematics/2012/dgt_2012.pdf


Another option on a two-pickup guitar, which only needs the simplest bit of re-wiring, is putting the pickups out of phase - that gives a thinner, less bassy sound in the middle position, which I quite like.  Used to be the standard wiring on Hamer guitars.

[darkbluemurder]

No big humbucker splitting fan, too, unless it's in a HSS set up or HH set up with a 5 way selector. Never liked it much in a LP type guitar.

That PRS DGT diagram looks interesting. It seems as if the resistors are in series with the coil tap line so that the non-active coil is not fully grounded. This may have an influence on hum susceptibility, too.

Bill Lawrence used a different approach by adding a capacitor of 0.022uf in series with the coil tap line. Instead of deactivating one coil his method reduces its resonant peak to a very low level. The purpose is to keep both coils active at low frequencies - thus eliminating single coil hum. I use a 0.047uf cap with my Miracle Man in "split mode". 

Cheers Stephan

EDITED for typos

[Philly Q]

That PRS DGT diagram looks interesting. It seems as if the resistors are in series with the coil tap line so that the non-active coil is not fully grounded. This may have an influcenc on hum susceptibility, too.

In the sense that it will retain some hum-cancellation, or make the hum worse?

[Slartibartfarst42]

Not a big fan of splitting myself but then I can't say I'm a fan of single coil tones anyway. It's never sounded desperately like a Strat to me even when I did try it. As with others on here, the parallel/series switching appeals a bit more but I still doubt I'd make that much use of it and I have an HSS guitar! The mod I made most use of was a push/pull that allowed me to permanently engage the bridge pickup in full humbucker mode so I could have the bridge pup with the neck or all three at the same time. I've sometimes wondered about a mod to permanently engage the bridge humbucker while also making it parallel at the same time but I've never tried it.

[Twinfan]

In the sense that it will retain some hum-cancellation, or make the hum worse?

It will retain some hum-cancelling ability Phil  :)

[Philly Q]

Thanks Dave.  Sounds good, I will have to give it a try..... y'know, eventually.

[richard]

I'm not sure how splitting VH buckers would work as they're fairly low output to start off with and you'd be halving that output. I recently had coil split push/pulls fitted to my RY equipped guitar. The neck split I'm not too wild about because there's not enough output but the bridge split sounds amazing.

I don't understand people rejecting the idea of split buckers simply because they don't sound exactly like a Strat or a Tele. It's still definitely a singe coil sound (and an awesome one) and I use it on some songs without the need to switch guitars during a gig which I hate doing. Folks put hummers in their Strats without complaining that it doesn't make it sound like a Les Paul.

[fhn_lopes]

I had a VHII bridge on the neck postion of a HSH guitar years ago and it's split sound was FANTASTIC. I use this pu in the bridge for my HSS strat and the split is usefull, and the tone IS very single-like. This guitar can do early van halen and deep purple only splitting the coil. I think it is allways worthy.

[BigB]

I don't understand people rejecting the idea of split buckers simply because they don't sound exactly like a Strat or a Tele. It's still definitely a singe coil sound (and an awesome one)

As far as I'm concerned it's not that much about "not sounding like a Strat or Tele" than about "not sounding that good with most buckers" (that is with all buckers I've tried with so far, but none of them were BKPs). wrt/ the "not a strat or tele" stance, I only mention this when someone seems to assume he'll get that kind of tones from a split bucker.

[darkbluemurder]

I fully agree with BigB here - it's not that a Les Paul type guitar does not sound like a Strat or Tele with a split humbucker which I did not expect anyway but because mostly it sounded too thin to my ears.

I must say though that the Miracle Man bridge in the alder strat sounds very good in split mode - so does the Holydiver in the ash strat.

Cheers Stephan