So coil tapping is not coil splitting...

[Sharkfin]

I had it wrong all this time. I though coil tapping meant to split a humbucker into single coils but not so...

What's the difference between push/pull switch for dual coil tap and push/pull switches to coil tap each pickup ? I assume these wiring diagrams mean coil splitting? I'm seriously confused

[straycat]

Pretty simple really splitting means you are able to shut one coil of the humbucker off and use it as a single.
It won't sound quite the same as a true single but close.

[Banjowarrior]

The video is correct, but in usage the phrase 'coil tap' has taken the same meaning as splitting. The vast majority of times 'coil tap' is used it is to mean 'coil split'.
The diagrams in your links show coil splitting, one has two switches so you can split each pickup individually, the other has a single switch which splits both at the same time.

[lefty]

Yah, the video is right, but I disagree that it's strictly a single coil issue. No reason it can't be done with a humbucker, c.f one or both coils still both operating, but some of the windings cut out. I think Gibson may have done this at some time?

[Sharkfin]

Oh I see, I missed the second push/ pull pot in the second diagram. Electronics is not my strength so forgive my ignorance when I ask, in the push/pull switch for dual coil tap diagram, when enabled will split both humbucking pickups? If the bridge pickup is selected it will be split and the same if the neck pickup is selected?

[Banjowarrior]

Yes, with the single switch both pickups are split so you would have a split pickup regardless of selector switch position.

[Dog Boy]

You can "tap" a coil at any point. If doing that happens to shut off one coil of a humbucking pickup then that's what it does. Of course this isn't the whole story. Lefty has got it right (and it was on the Gibson Marauder guitars. Peavey also had a guitar that had a blender knob that shut off or blended in a coil of a humbucking pickup. Worked pretty well too.)

[Newc]

This "argument" is as old, and as tired, as the "vibrato vs tremolo" argument. Ye Ancient Ones like to point out that coil TAP is not the same as coil SPLIT, even though none of the Big Name makers (Fender/Gibson) do it any more. Vintage specialists like Fralin and such might offer one to be Trooly Vintage, but frankly, I don't see how cutting a single-coil roughly in half is a good thing. Maybe if you were dead-set on nailing the exact tone someone got in 1953.

So yes, you will see "tap" and "split" used interchangeably. In this modern age, they mean the same thing, unless you're looking at a boutique or antique 3-wire pickup (hot, ground, and tap).

If it's got DiMarzio or Duncan on it, and it has 3 wires, it's probably just missing the 4th wire (though both do make vintage tappable pickups). You're not likely to find a JB or Super 3 with just 3 wires.


As for humbuckers, they're not classified as one continuous coil, so the classical definition of tapping does not apply. It's still splitting, though even that is technically inaccurate, because you can only split a whole. The technically-correct term would be "coil shunting".