General Consensus- Coil Tap or Split?

[PhilKing]

As far as I know Tim only does coil tap on P-90's.  I am sure this is because of these reasons:

a) it is a pain in the arse to do
b) there needs to be enough turns to make the split viable (a p-90 has 10,000 turns roughly for a bridge position
c) on a humbucker there would need to be 6 wires to tap the coils (tapping one would still need 5)

Contrary to most of the belief here, there is not a significant volume drop when you tap (where Tim puts the tap anyway).  What you get is a thinning of the sound, there are less mids.  THis was what I wanted when I first asked him about it, and if you think about the way the coil is wound you should be able to see why this happens.

When you tap you reduce the width of the windings giving a more focused magnetic field, hence a 'thinner' sound.

Anyway, I prefer parallel too, unless I am combining coils (like the PRS wiring).

[dave_mc]

^ ok, cool, thanks phil, that's the kind of answer I was after. I was kind of waiting for you to answer, I knew you had some cool wiring in some of your guitars.

So what you're saying is, in your opinion, I should go with 4 conductor, but instead of getting a coil split wired, use that to get parallel wiring when i use the push-push knob? and (in your opinion) that sounds better than a coil-split? (i tried parallel wiring in a stock ibanez rga121, for the neck pickup, and it was nice)

:drink:

[PhilKing]

Yes, use the push pull for series parallel.  You have noise cancelling in every position and don't have to worry about how you combine the coils (to get humbucking with coil split and combine the magnet has to be reversed in one pickup)

[TwilightOdyssey]

Series/Parallel = manly
Coil tap/split = unmanly

[deg0ey]

Series/Parallel = manly
Coil tap/split = unmanly

:lol: I wired the manly Series/Parallel switch with the Slowhands in my strat - was a bitch to wire, and one of my switch combinations now gives no sound at all, but it was worth it for the (almost) neck humbucker sound I can get out of it now :lol:

[Dakine]

my PAINKILLERS are SPLIT (one coil from each) and it certainly is NOT unmanly.
Then again I like variety and all that, and WTF would I know anyway  :roll:

[TwilightOdyssey]

my PAINKILLERS are SPLIT (one coil from each) and it certainly is NOT unmanly.
Then again I like variety and all that, and WTF would I know anyway  :roll:

Well said. I have no reply to that, besides this:

 :headphones3:  :violin2:  :grr:  :orcass:  :orczz:  :haha:  :wallbash:

[Dakine]

saved re-wiring a bloody circuit board anyways :) As the damn thing was wired that way otherwise I would'nt have bothered  :P

Although it does sound good (when I knock the switch into centre pos. by mistake ROFLMAO).

And actually, blending pups with piezo works quite well, late at night after beverages :)


Ben I like my 'sauce' abit heavier than you so would'nt go outta my way to dilute a Painkiller ;)

[MDV]

Dont mean to hijack the thread mate, but what custom is it?

[RorySRV]

(a) yeah, i think so.

(b) yup, though only one coil will be active. It won't buck hum any more.

(c) yep, assuming you use a push-pull and not push-push knob (or some other device for activating the split). I think it's normally the tone knob that's wired to activate the split though.

(d) you can... it's up to you. it gives you more versatility if you have two, because that way in the in-between setting, you can have on pickup fully humbucking, and one pickup split. Depends what you want, of course.

(e) yeah, depending on the way you wire it.

Kool.

And a series parallel switch is a switch that makes it that say you have a H-S-H it skips the middle one out?

Or does it mean you can combine one coil from the bridge humbucker and one coil from the neck humbucker?

[blue]

seies/parallel all happens in one pickup.  a standard humbucker has the two coils wired in series, (i hope :oops: ), the switch allows you to change the coils to parallel, which will give a thinner, more single-coil like, but still humbucking sound.

i hope i've got series and parallel the right way around, i'm sure someone will politely correct me if not

[deg0ey]

No need to fear correction Mr Blue, you are indeed correct :drink:

[PhilKing]

Series/Parallel = manly
Coil tap/split = unmanly

I wired your Snakeskin Wayne Cold Sweat with a split :shock:

However I did make the split coil be in series with the Trilogy  :P

[TwilightOdyssey]

Series/Parallel = manly
Coil tap/split = unmanly

I wired your Snakeskin Wayne Cold Sweat with a split :shock:

However I did make the split coil be in series with the Trilogy  :P

Then it's not split. It's a parallel humbucker!

[dave_mc]

Dont mean to hijack the thread mate, but what custom is it?

the long-awaited legra, mark. Now I just have to decide on a headstock shape. I had a go with the various kisekae programs on the net, and then tried to "alter" them a little with MS paint (that bastion of the cheapo would-be artist). The results weren't pretty. :(

:lol:

Yes, use the push pull for series parallel.  You have noise cancelling in every position and don't have to worry about how you combine the coils (to get humbucking with coil split and combine the magnet has to be reversed in one pickup)

Thanks, phil. That's a good point.

:drink:

Series/Parallel = manly
Coil tap/split = unmanly

:lol: