Is it more fun achieving coil-split sounds than actually using them?

jaymenon

I’ve had a lot of fun trying various trick wiring circuits to get single-coil like sounds out of humbuckers. (Parallel wiring, coil splitting via a capacitor / resistor et cetera).

But I do find myself wondering if making those solder connections is more fun than the actual sounds achieved.

axisus

1) It's not fun wiring them
2) I've never found a coil split sound I liked

I do use them very occasionally, but it's like the lesser of two evils in certain situations and that is it.

stickyfiddle

I've never had a coil split on a guitar. Closest was a Rothwell HLK on a strat for Bridge+Mid in series. That was good fun, but generally I've never felt any great need for them

ICBM

I like them.

Do they sound exactly the same as a Fender-style direct-magnet true single coil? No.

Do they give a useful approximation of that sound without having to carry an extra guitar to a gig? Yes. You can also easily switch mid-song, which is pretty difficult with two guitars and impossible if you want it on the fly.

Personally, I prefer true splitting, or with a resistor in the split path. I don't really like the sound with a cap, and I'm even less keen on parallel wiring, even though this retains full hum cancellation. Although for bass, parallel is much better than split! I really don't know why the difference.

monquixote

The split on the DGT is very good.

I think the tendency is to see them as sounding worse because the volume drops a bit. I had a compressor set to make up the difference in gain which I always clicked in.

normula1

I think it depends on the pickup and which coil you voice and contrary to popular wisdom, I prefer the screw coil. The Gibson Burstbucker 61 splits really well as does a BK Mule and unlike others here I really don't think Duncan 59s split well.
 For me partial splits as per PRS are the way to go; I tend to use a 5 or 10k multi-turn trimmer and tune the split by ear.

The neck split on my PRS (the aforementioned BB61) with a bit of a boost from an EHX Soul Food does a very good approximation of a Strat.

Funkfingers

My younger self tried several of the guitar wiring project ideas illustrated in books by the likes of Craig Anderton, Donald Brosnac and Adrian Legg.

The majority of these were interesting to try out but of limited practical use in performance.

vasselmeyer

The split (or whatever they do} on the PRS DGT is really excellent. There is a small volume drop but when I used pedals, I just used an Xotic EP Booster to lift the sound a little, and now I'm using the BOSS GT-1000 I have a setting per patch that deals with the input level.

I haven't heard another guitar that sounds anywhere near as good as the DGT.

andy_k

My latest tele concoction ( walnut body, mahogany neck, ebony board ) has a Duncan JB jr ( could be a lil 59 though?)  in the bridge, and a Mighty Mite Motherbucker in the neck, 2 very un tele pickups.
Using a really hot neck pickup was a bit of a revelation for me really, I always went for hotter bridge, but something interesting happens in the middle position, and adding a push pull  vol for split coils gives me 6 very interesting tones with a 3 way switch, 
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

ThePrettyDamned

I'm not a fan to be honest, as the amp settings for humbuggies may not suit the split humbuggies.

I've heard it can be vastly improved with a resistor, but I can't be bothered any more. I used to love weird wiring schemes but now I'm tending towards simpler guitars. 

ICBM

vasselmeyer said:

The split (or whatever they do} on the PRS DGT is really excellent. There is a small volume drop but when I used pedals, I just used an Xotic EP Booster to lift the sound a little, and now I'm using the BOSS GT-1000 I have a setting per patch that deals with the input level.

I haven't heard another guitar that sounds anywhere near as good as the DGT.

The DGT uses resistors - in fact as far as I know it was the first production guitar to have splits done like that. (1.1K on the neck, 2.2K on the bridge I think.)

I’ve fitted them on my Swamp Ash Special and it does make a noticeable difference - the splits are much less overly thin-sounding than they are without. (I used a plain 1K on the neck.)

Dave_Mc

No, the soldering is way worse.

If I gigged, I'd agree with @ICBM . I don't so a lot of the time I just chicken out and don't bother, unless it's a guitar which really suits a coil split (usually a superstrat of some description which also has single coil(s) as well as the humbucker(s)).

bbill335

a guitar should only really have 3 sounds and only one needs to be good

NAHGuitars

I really like this arrangement. I found it on the internet a while ago and made my own diagram. Key to this is to reverse the phase of one of the pickups. It also needs a 5 way superswitch. I find coil splitting generally makes a humbucker sound thin and only approximates a single coil pickup sound. This wiring gives a bit more versatility and the out of phase sounds makes it sound more stratocaster like. Its not the real thing but it is a bit different and you can still get the standard humbucker sounds.

Jeremiah

The Seymour Duncan JB sounds better in split coil mode than it does as a humbucker.

In my opinion, obviously.

Dave_Mc

^ Disagree, though I'm not that keen on it in either setting!

ICBM

I love the JB as a full-on rock humbucker that’s exceptionally good at generating false harmonics. Split, it sounds something like a Tele bridge pickup - not exact, but in the same tonal ballpark.

Given who it was originally designed for, neither of these things are a surprise .

BillDL

Funkfingers said:

My younger self tried several of the guitar wiring project ideas illustrated in books by the likes of Craig Anderton, Donald Brosnac and Adrian Legg.

Strange you mentioned that, because earlier today I was clearing out some of the plastic totes of stuff in my cupboards and I came across "Customising Your Electric Guitar" by Adrian Legg from 1981 when I tried out just about every whacky diagram he showed - and later reverted to stock wiring again because there were either too many new switches to remember or I never used some of the new settings.

roberty

I have a med output oil city set with the neck split and the bridge on phase reverse. The split neck sounds really good, best split sound I've heard. Might not be a "true" single coil sound but it is good in its own right. It's ~9k A5. But yeh I use the neck pickup probably about 5% of the time, and on split mode approx 0%