What's coil splitting?

[MetalGrasshopper]

Whats it mean to coil split a humbucker? How would it sound?

[Metalcop]

Re: What\'s coil splitting?

Coil splitting is just what the name implies. Taking a humbucker and splitting it into a single coil. You can only do this if the pickup has a 4 conducter lead, since each of those wires represents that beginning and ending of each coil. All Duncans, DiMarzios and newer Gibsons have this kind of wiring. It will sound thinner and weaker than a humbucker, think Stratocaster, and you will get the idea. Coil tapping is just another way to add versatility to a single guitar.

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: What\'s coil splitting?

Originally posted by Metalcop:
Coil tapping is just another way to add versatility to a single guitar.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I forget exactly what coil TAPPING means, but it's not the same as coil SPLITTING. Coil tapping is a much-used errenous term for coil splitting, which is what you were describing above correctly. It's kind of like a trem... tremolo is a rapid repetition of notes, while vibrato is a shifting of pitch. So, the bridges that change pitch are really called vibrato bridges rather than tremolo bridges... stupid Leo Fender coined the term "tremolo" for his Strat bridges and named it after the proper tremolo effect on his amps.

[VulfgangPfuck]

Re: What\'s coil splitting?

What coil TAPPING does is reverses the phase of the coils in a humbucker...which is also referred to as "Phase Switching"...it sounded too technical so most techies just call it "tapping".
Most effective when being used in the middle position against another pickup (should your guitar be equipped with 2 'buckers)...what it does (audibly), is shift the tonal spectrum of the individual pickup to reverse.

Coil SPLITTING...like others have mentioned here, is simply splitting a humbucker to imitate the charecteristics of a single coil pickup.

[j2379]

Re: What\'s coil splitting?

i thought reversing one bobbin or pickups with another is series / parallel, in & out of phase with itself or another pickup.
coil tapping is grounding out part of a pickup or a complete bobbin of a humbucker to make it sound like a single coil.

[j2379]

Re: What\'s coil splitting?

i thought reversing one bobbin or pickups with another is series / parallel, in & out of phase with itself or another pickup.
coil tapping is grounding out part of a pickup or a complete bobbin of a humbucker to make it sound like a single coil.

[Newc]

Re: What\'s coil splitting?

Tapping and splitting are the same thing - stop being such tech geeks [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Newc

[VitaminG]

Re: What\'s coil splitting?

Originally posted by Number Of The Priest:
I forget exactly what coil TAPPING means, but it's not the same as coil SPLITTING. Coil tapping is a much-used errenous term for coil splitting, which is what you were describing above correctly. It's kind of like a trem... tremolo is a rapid repetition of notes, while vibrato is a shifting of pitch. So, the bridges that change pitch are really called vibrato bridges rather than tremolo bridges... stupid Leo Fender coined the term "tremolo" for his Strat bridges and named it after the proper tremolo effect on his amps.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">erroneous, clever clogs! [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[ February 09, 2004, 07:32 PM: Message edited by: VitaminG ]

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: What\'s coil splitting?

Thanks for the spell check, Ron. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Jester700]

Re: What\'s coil splitting?

Originally posted by Newc:
Tapping and splitting are the same thing - stop being such tech geeks [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Newc

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hey. You can still get single coils that have taps. THAT is tapping. Splitting a bucker is, well, splitting.

I know these days they're synonymous, but I don't care! Nya! [img]graemlins/baby.gif[/img]

[JimmyApollo]

Re: What\'s coil splitting?

Yes, coil tapping is for certain singles - there are two winds in the coil you can select: one with the full wind, and one with a shorter wind for a more "vintage" sound. Coil splitting, as mentioned above, is for selecting one of the two coils in a humbucker.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/support/faq.shtml

A coil tap refers to a lead connected to an individual coil’s winding and is used to raise and lower a pickup’s output and change its tone. This is most often utilized on single coil pickups where the player wants a higher output pickup but also wants to be able to switch to a lower output and more vintage-type tone using the same pickup.

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Coil splitting refers to the ability to disable one coil in a humbucker-type pickup. This offers the player option of getting a single coil-type tone from a humbucker-loaded guitar. Many pickups have three- or four-conductor wiring that allows for one coil to be disabled by shorting one coil to either ground or hot.

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