Single Coil Simulation using a Capacitor

jaymenon

The single coil simulation on the Charvel Govan sounds lovely...

It is apparently achieved by a .1uf capacitor along the humbucker's shunted series connection’s path to ground.  No resistor.

What is the shunted series connection please? Is that the North and South Finish wires that you solder together to make the humbucker in series?

How would I do this please? 

ICBM

Yes. The shunted series connection is where the two coils are connected to each other. On a four-conductor-cable pickup, this will be the two wires (eg red and white on a Duncan pickup, or black and white on a DiMarzio) which are joined together and insulated. Take off the insulation and connect that joint to one leg of the cap, then the other leg of the cap to ground.

What it does is it removes all the high frequencies from one coil, but leaves the very deep lows so you will still get the 50Hz hum cancellation. If I remember rightly this was originally a Bill Lawrence idea.

Roland

There’s a longer explanation and a diagram here https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/26783-mod-garage-the-sound-of-silence

jaymenon

Thanks John for clarifying.  And thanks Roland - that article was very clear and very useful...

Kindest regards
Jay

jaymenon

Surely that diagram is wrong...quite apart from the incorrect colour codes employed...?

shouldn’t the cap/resistor be connected one end to the pot casing and the other end to the lower terminal shown in the diagram? 

So with the switch up, the series connection is isolated; when down the series connection is shunted to earth, but via the cap/resistor...?

please correct me if I’m wrong...

ICBM

Looks correct to me. A S1 isn’t the same as a standard push-pull, it’s a 4PDT, and they’re using two of the spare terminals to hold the resistor.

Which colour codes are wrong? I’m not familiar with those pickups.

jaymenon

He says they’re Seymour Duncans.  Wouldn’t the wires involved be White and Red...?

jaymenon

So for a DiMarzio Humbucker and a push-pull pot would it look something like this John?

[Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/JHsEMcn.jpg)