Pickup wiring question

ChuckManual

To get two humbuckers to produce a passable Strat quack tone, would it be best to have coils 2 and 3 split or tapped?

Many thanks.

ICBM

Split to inner coils, in parallel, in phase.

It only works well if the pickups are relatively close together - closer than in a Les Paul. The separation of the pickups is critical, which is why a PRS Custom 24 does it much better than a Custom 22.

ChuckManual

Thank you, Obi-Wan! 

Funkfingers

If you expect the faux Stratocaster sound to be hum-cancelling, it will be necessary to reverse the magnetic polarity of one of the humbuckers.

On Paul Reed Smith Custom 24 gutars with the five-way lever selector switch, the *in between* selections involve three coils. 

The four control pots on a Paul Reed Smith S2 Singlecut permit coil split per humbucker. Introducing capacitors to the split grounding path seems to make for a more believable sound.

Regardless of the number of control pots, it ought to be possible to add simultaneous partial coil split on your guitar.

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

On Paul Reed Smith Custom 24 gutars with the five-way lever selector switch, the *in between* selections involve three coils.

I'm pretty sure that's only because they don't properly bypass the third coil and leave it 'floating'. Only two coils are active in any position of the rotary switch models, but the third coil can still seem to be if you touch the polepieces.

(I haven't actually tested a lever-switch one though.)

Funkfingers

My musical collaborator bought himself a Custom with the lever switch for his fiftieth birthday. I have tried (and disliked) it. I have not taken a look into its control cavity. The schematic diagram is available on the PRS Guitars website.

On the older Customs with the rotary selector, the coil splits shut off entire coils with no capacitor trickery. 

I modified my Custom. I was fed up of the audible click between selections as the rotary switch contacts are broken and made. I disliked some of the factory coil permutations. I wanted to try the "Power-Out-Of-Phase" sound from the very early Customs. A Freeway 3x3-03 toggle switch gives me all of the coil permutations that I wanted and none of the ones that did not.

ICBM

I modified my Custom and my Standard too... by fitting toggle switches and push-pulls, and chucking the rotary switches in the parts bin, where I think they still are.

ChuckManual

Funkfingers said:

If you expect the faux Stratocaster sound to be hum-cancelling, it will be necessary to reverse the magnetic polarity of one of the humbuckers.

On Paul Reed Smith Custom 24 gutars with the five-way lever selector switch, the *in between* selections involve three coils. 

The four control pots on a Paul Reed Smith S2 Singlecut permit coil split per humbucker. Introducing capacitors to the split grounding path seems to make for a more believable sound.

Regardless of the number of control pots, it ought to be possible to add simultaneous partial coil split on your guitar.

Actually, it doesn't have any yet. It's for a forthcoming build.