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Post subject: coil splitting success? keepin' the quack
Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:51 pm
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I have a MIJ (basswood) with dual red lace in as a humbucker in the bridge position. I am shopping for more of a vintage sound. I'm leaning towards either the '57/'62's, Duncan Vintage, or Alcino Pro II. But I'm stuck on what to do on the bridge. The Duncan 59 'bucker seems like it would fit the bill nicely as far as a humbucker goes. But I like having the ability to split the coils to keep that quack in the 2nd position. Has anyone had success with splitting a humbucker?

Thanks


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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 6:24 am
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Hi Bluesdown. I have an HSS Strat which splits the 'bucker on the bridge+middle postition. It's not bad at all: to my ear it sure ain't a perfect reproduction of the Knopfler sound - but I doubt many in the audience would notice the difference. Perfectly useable and reasonably quacky.

Strangely, although I have the S-1 switch on that guitar the bridge alone is full humbucker whether the switch is up or down. So I can't tell you what a single coil of that pickup would sound like on its own. Odd omission, that...

Cheers - C


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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:21 am
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I have a JB Jr single-size humbucker on my bridge, and two Lace Sensors.

I don't have a normal splitter, I had one of my tone knobs rewired to be a volume fader for the inner coil of that JB Jr, so I can get a lot of in between sounds.

Full Humbucker
Alone: Sounds like a good, fat humbucker. Great with high gain if needed.
With Middle PU: Somewhat quacky, but fatter and quieter.

Half Humbucker (inner coil half way up)
Alone: Very strat-like, but a bit warmer and quieter. Has some single coil grit.
With Middle PU: More quacky. Very nice tone that I use a lot. Lean but warm.

Full Single Coil
Alone: Very strat like, but thinner and a little low in volume. Does not sound like a stock strat, but does have that grit and twang by itself.
With Middle PU: Very twangy and nice sounding.

This all being said, I tend to keep that fader at around 3 for single coil-ish sounds but a bit warmer and less noisy.

For thicker sounds but more strat-ish, I'll rolll it up to 6 or so. This still has a strat-like tone, but even less noise and still sounds good. Even with mid gains, this is very noise-free, great, warm and thick quack tone that I use a lot.

For thicker tones and/or hi gain, I'll use the full humbucker setting.


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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:17 am
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I'm currently considering doing the 2nd possition coilsplit mod to my 57 hotrod. Wondering whether its worth it for the differences it would make to a singlecoil sized bucker.

Any opinions?

_________________
No no and no


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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 6:37 pm
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Ceri- That is odd that the S-1 acts that way in the bridge only. Which 'bucker to you have?

dgonz- Thanks for the detailed response. I am leaning towards the Pearly Gates or JB. How did you wire your tone pot as a volume fader? Is it a standard 250k tone pot? I suppose you wired directly to the pot as opposed to the 5-way first? Speaking of, where do you buy wires for such projects? Generic hardware store or the fancy stuff from stewmac?

nikininja- The tone zone is a 4 wire, and the details even mention the option of splitting the coils. http://www.dimarzio.com/site/pickups/#/pickups/
It might be worth a shot, just don't drill a hole for a mini 3-way or anything permanent till you try it out.


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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:03 pm
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bluesdown wrote:
dgonz- Thanks for the detailed response. I am leaning towards the Pearly Gates or JB. How did you wire your tone pot as a volume fader? Is it a standard 250k tone pot? I suppose you wired directly to the pot as opposed to the 5-way first? Speaking of, where do you buy wires for such projects? Generic hardware store or the fancy stuff from stewmac?


I wanted "something" more custom that the generic coil tap, and found this...
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/ch ... pinasplit/

There are other tips for different things you can do with pickup combinations as well.

I believe the standard 250 was used for this. I think my master volume is a 500 though. Not sure why I did that, but I'll probably go back to a 250 next time I need a new master volume pot (probably this summer since I use this constantly).

I didn't do this myself. There is a certain tech that works on all my guitars and always does a great job. I just had him do it, and a few other maintenance things at the time so I wouldn't have to worry about any connection or anything.


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