coil split?

[aceshigh22]

Hey there,

I recently bought a calibrated set of Nailbomb pickups (4 conductor). They've been connected in my SG for several weeks now and sound amazing :D well worth the money. However, i have recently neared completetion on a guitar i've been building for quite a while (which is what I originally bought the pickups for) and would like to investigate coil splitting before I start drilling holes all over the place!

could you guys tell me what advantages coil splitting gives, if any? do you know anywhere i could find wiring diagrams? i'm still very much a novice at electronics!

thanks a lot :D

[BloodMountain]

from my knowledge, coil splitting is when the two coils of a humbucker are split, therefore creating a single coil. it will give you a very single-coil like sound, but it will not be a perfect simulation (as it is wired differently).
it basically gives your guitar more versatility.

i would use push/pull pots for coil splitting instead of drilling holes, it's much easier  :)

hope this helps, someone more advanced will tell you about the electronics
 :D

[chrisheyes]

Definately go for increasing your guitars tonal range

+1 on the Push Pull Switche / pots  

Push - Push Volume and Tone switche/ pots are cool too

[Philly Q]

These are the best places I know for wiring diagrams:

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/c=CNs5ibj0G6OiUbNHYyZDJ7Cxb/category/wiringresources/

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schematics.shtml

If you can, try things out before you start drilling holes in your guitar!  I have a knackered Squier Strat and a pile of old scratchplates for experimenting with wiring.  Sometimes ideas which seem interesting turn out to be completely useless.

(Oh, something else to remember - BKP's 4-conductor colour coding is the same as Tom Anderson and Peavey)

[aceshigh22]

wow thanks for the quick replies guys! il look into push pull pots, thanks :D just got a couple more quick questions - can i use any pot (volume or tone) as a push pull pot? how many will i need for the pair of humbuckers?

i'm planning on having a volume and tone for each pickup btw!

thanks again :D

[BloodMountain]

i think you can either use volume or tone pots.... someone will have to confirm.

you need 1 pot for each humbucker,
e.g. the neck volume for neck splitting and the bridge volume for bridge splitting

OR

the neck tone for neck splitting and the bridge tone for bridge splitting.

[aceshigh22]

ahh i see! thanks a lot guys you've really helped :)

[Philly Q]

As Bloodmountain said, you can replace either the volume or tone pots with push-pulls - the "switch" part is completely independent of the "pot" part.

If you definitely want to split both humbuckers (at the same time), you can do both with one push-pull.  To split them independently, or for series/parallel switching, you'll need two push-pulls.  If you really want to get complicated, you could replace all four pots with push-pulls and copy the Jimmy Page Les Paul wiring (personally I think that's taking it too far!!   ).
A word of warning - if the guitar body is thin (like an SG) it won't be deep enough for push-pull pots!

[aceshigh22]

A word of warning - if the guitar body is thin (like an SG) it won't be deep enough for push-pull pots!

Do you know how thick it has to be? i made my guitar thick enough to take a battery compartement for active pickups (i hadn't discovered bare knuckle at this ppint ;)), will that be enough do you think?

[Twinfan]

It depends how deep your cavity is.  You could always buy the shortest pots you can find and eBay them if they won't fit.

[Philly Q]

I just measured a couple of different push-pull pots - the "in-body" part is about 1-1/16" to 1-1/8" deep (27-29mm).  An SG body is just under 1-3/8", so the pots almost fit, but of course the cavity doesn't go all the way through.

If your body's any thicker than that you should be fine, especially if you have a scratchplate.

[aceshigh22]

ok cool, thanks loads for the advice guys :D