Coil tap??

[Sunbane]

In parallel it is the same of what they call coil tapping.

I disagree with this statement. IMO, you can only call that a "parallel wired humbucker", or something that is similarly descriptive of what the circuit looks like. A coil tap is something you don't find on any of today's off-the-shelf pickups. In addition; modifying a pickup for a true coil tap would require rewinding the pickup - which would be quite the ambitious project, and not for the faint of heart. It may be possible that running a humbucker in parallel produces a similar effect to coil tapping, but that is no reason to use the terms interchangably. On a tapped pickup, the coils would still be running in series - only with less windings per coil being active.

...is volume going to be cut by 1/2 when its being split?

Well, the theoretical output will probably end up being ½ (or rather close to it) of what you'd have in serial humbucking mode. But how it will affect your subjective experience of the guitar tone coming out of your amp, is harder to predict.

A split control is rather easy to wire up though if you have 4 wire pickups, and it should also be easily undoable if you don't like it.

So this would be the same as turning your volume knob down about halfway? You keep the hum-cancelling properties, just a lower volume.

Sorry I failed to comment on this earlier. Practically - probably, yes. Theoretically - no. The tapped pickup would physically become a weaker pickup, not a "throttled" one. The output level would also depend on where exactly the tap was being put into the coils. It doesn't necessarily have to be at half wire distance - it could for instance be tapped at a quarter - or three quarters (or anything between 1% and 99% of the wire length, really).

I think the main reasons we don't see coil tapping going on today, is that:

A) It is complicated to do, and requires time. You are winding a pickup coil, and at some point you have to stop, wire in the tap, insulate the connection with laquer, let it dry, and then resume winding the coil.
B) The design becomes increasingly complex with another coil added to the pickup. On a humbucker, you'd have to tap both coils at the same point, and you would end up with a 6-conductor pickup.
C) Parallel wiring accomplishes roughly the same thing with a standard 4-conductor pickup, although through entirely different means.

[delt]

So coil tapping is both coils in parallel, and coil splitting is canceling out one of them? (ie. middle leads going to signal-out or ground) .... or does it refer to a completely different way the pickup is built?

Terminology isn't clear...

[dg]

Coil tapping is not 2 coils in parallel. The first pickups that were tapped were single-coils. Tapping means that you run a wire to some point in the middle of the windings (usually in an overwound or hot pickup) in order to bypass the remaining windings and achieve a lower output and/or other tonal differences. It was used on strats & teles quite a bit back in the day, but is pretty uncommon now, to the point that the term is now used almost exclusively when somebody is actually referring to coil-splitting. If you google "coil tap" you have to go way down in the results before you find anything that refers to the original meaning of the term. Here's a couple threads from other boards that discuss tapping singles:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=295697

http://music-electronics-forum.com/showthread.php?t=3941

and from the Duncan FAQs:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/faq/frequently-asked/installation-an/what_is_a_coil/

[XxKilgannonxX]

So in my Ibanez I have second position which is the neck humbucker in parallel...is that specially wired?? How so??

[dg]

Series wiring sends the current through one coil, then the other. The end wire of the first coil is connected to the start wire of the second.

Parallel wiring sends current through both coils at the same time. The start wires of each coil & the end wires of each coil are wired together.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/faq/frequently-asked/installation-an/what_are_series/

[tanpsi]

If I do this, is volume going to be cut by 1/2 when its being split?



Thanks

Not that much, It's hard to put a number but with my les Pauls standard pickups it was about 70-80 % as loud, I'm going to modify my my PS4 with 3 way minis so each hum will have

Series
Parallel
Single

Also, I'm going to put in the special strat wiring where you can have any combination of the 3 pickups.

By my calculations, this should give me 2,234,654 different possible combinations!

[delt]

Not that much, It's hard to put a number but with my les Pauls standard pickups it was about 70-80 % as loud, I'm going to modify my my PS4 with 3 way minis so each hum will have

Series
Parallel
Single

Can't really do that with just one switch.... the way i plan to do it on one guitar, is to have a 3-way on each pickup that selects between north/both/south coils, and the volume & boost knobs are push-pulls for series/parallel. This is the way i wired my Rhoads, very versatile setup.

Now i'm trying to figure out how to keep all this functionality and use the tone push-pull to switch between both pickups in series/parallel -with each other- .... it should be theoretically possible... hopefully

[Cygnus X1]

Can't really do that with just one switch.... the way i plan to do it on one guitar, is to have a 3-way on each pickup that selects between north/both/south coils, and the volume & boost knobs are push-pulls for series/parallel. This is the way i wired my Rhoads, very versatile setup.

Now i'm trying to figure out how to keep all this functionality and use the tone push-pull to switch between both pickups in series/parallel -with each other- .... it should be theoretically possible... hopefully

I have the Mini-Bich switches set like that, and toyed with using the pull-pot for the combo. But I have enough mind boggling options with two minis and the three-way. The two knobs are volume each, for a blender, and no tone.
A lot of times, they are both switches down, vols to 10. It sounds just too good that way, and I keep going back to it.

[j2379]

BCRICH electronics, series/parallel for each pickup, the pickups in series parallel with each other. thats the 3 mini toggle near the bottom of BCRs. with that & the varitone, there is a silly amount of options. i find coil tapping or splitting to sound more like a real single coil. & yes ide have to agree with parallel is about 70% of series standard humbucker output. it does get a bit brighter. running the pickups series/parallel with each other has a much more drastic change in both output & tone.

[marcus]

I've never understood how you guys with so many switches and knobs on your guitars keep track of what does what

[tanpsi]

Can't really do that with just one switch.... the way i plan to do it on one guitar, is to have a 3-way on each pickup that selects between north/both/south coils, and the volume & boost knobs are push-pulls for series/parallel. This is the way i wired my Rhoads, very versatile setup.

Oh, I thought with a 3 way mini you could, well, I'm just in the planning stage, I'm just learing about wiring

[tanpsi]

I've never understood how you guys with so many switches and knobs on your guitars keep track of what does what

We have superior ears Haha! Like alot of people here I dig the 1 hum guitars(I had a BC Rich for a while) but it's nice to have options, even though my favorite sounds are either humbucker by itself

[j2379]

i really only mess with the switches when playing clean or with a bit of overdrive. with full on chunk its pure humbucker mode. i really got into BCR's when i was young so you just get used to all the switches. when i see newer BCRs without the switches to me they dont look right

look at moser custom shop wiring diagrams it may help explain how to wire stuff.

[usmc50bmgsniper92]

my new(1989) kramer model 610 has factor coil tap

[usmc50bmgsniper92]

nyou can never have to many switches,lol that why i love my charvel model 4, i would never part with it