Hi All
I would like to source a Strat sized bridge coil tap humbucker.
I understand this is a compact 2 coil humbucker that can be switched (toggled) to a single coil
Suggestions Brand/Make/Model/Shops ??

I like that if it exists from fat boy to slim boy in a flick.

Hi rinkledrocker, welcome to the Forum.

Only to be helpful, not pedantic, I suspect what you mean is a coil split, rather than a coil tap. The latter means interupting the windings of a single coil at some point in their travel, to reduce a pickup's output.

I'm sure you mean splitting a humbucker to leave one of the coils out of the circuit. That has to do with how you use the multiple wires coming out of the pickup. This wiring diagram might help: it features the kind of single-coil sized humbucker you are thinking of:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... t_5w_split

Any humbucker can be used that way, so long as it has the required number of wires. Some options on this page, but there are so many others to choose from...:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/e ... php?page=2

Good luck - C

Thanks for the response Ceri
I tried out a PRS that had a compact bridge humbucker that could be changed to a single coil by a push-pull switch --gave good tone variation. I want the same for my 63 strat but I don't want to hack it to fit a "normal" shape HB. I need a ready made product as in South Africa guitar tech,s are as common as unicorns. Also thanks for the steer on terminology --coil split -point taken

There are a bunch of options for you. look for pickups usually called 'single coil size' Which will have side by side coils, but in a small profile, or look for a 'stacked HB' which is kinda self explanatory. The most important feature for you to look for to split 'em is that they have a 4 conductor lead wire.

on the SD site:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/c ... atocaster/

The bottom 4 all fit your needs.

Five-Two Stack® for Strat®
Pearly Gates Single-Coil-Sized Humbucker for Strat®
Single-Coil-Sized Humbucker for Strat® with Alnico Magnet
Stack® for Strat® with Even Stagger Poles

Other companies offer em too. I just posted these as an example, not an endorsement, I have never actually used any of the small profile humbuckers.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

There are a lot of good single-coil sized humbuckers. I have a Seymour Duncan JB Jr in my bridge. Great for single sounds, great for super high gain from my mesa boogie, and great for a lot of in between P90-ish sounds as well.

Even further than a simple on/off humbucker tap, I have the middle tone knob wired as a volume fader for one of the humbucker coils. So instead of single OR humbucker, I can dial it up for a lot of in between sounds, and end up using those most of the time to be honest. Most of the time I like an almost-humbucker tone, but not a Les Paul sound either. Or a single sound but a bit quieter and thicker - alll of which can be dialed up.

Hi again rinkledrocker. Can't help on techs in your country I'm afraid, but just out of sheer nosiness I wonder where in South Africa you are?

My wife and I had such a nice time in SA about five years back. J'burg, Cape Town, the wine lands and three different game reserves. Total knockout and without exception amazingly nice people. We began to think it would be interesting to meet a rude South African just for the novelty. But we never did.

Got good friends in Cape Town: we'll certainly be back sometime.

Cheers - C

PS Oh, and what food too!

Hi
Thanks for the info -- exactly what I need The correct terminology/description is key !!

Have you ever seen a single coil pickup with taps?

That would be really cool. Start with an over-wound pickup. Flick a switch and it becomes a normal-winding, flick the switch again and it's under-wound.

Output transformers (just coils of wire, really) are examples of things that are (multi-) tapped.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Haha! No, again, it's just something I've read about - usually in magazine Q&As when they are correcting someone's misuse of the the phrase "coil tap"!

I can't really see the point: surely switching a clean boost pedal on and off is an easy route to the same end? But if someone out there is selling a tap-able single-coil pup no doubt somebody here will post a link...

Cheers - C

While waiting for that link to materialize, let me say that some guys don't like to use pedals

I would probably be interested in such a beast. I guess I could try to build one. I have the wire, I just need to buy a couple of those nice Stew-Mac kits (and the earth magnets to charge the pole pieces).

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Essentially, you'd wire it like a split series humbucker, wouldn't you? It's really just two coils one after the other, except they continue running on the same physical loop instead of reversing like a stacked humbucker... I think...

Where the heck's Martian? Feels like discussing relativity when Einstein is in the room...

Cheers - C

It's not rocket science:



The thing labeled less hot is the Tap. I think I know how I'd do while winding that wouldn't involve trying to solder a wire to the coil.

Between Gnd and Less Hot, there'd be like 7500 winds (5.8K ohms) and then another 1000 winds between Less Hot and Hot (6.5K ohms).

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Ooo - very interested. How?

Cheers - C

PS Thanks for the diagram. Neat.

PPS If Martian is Einstein then you are Niels Bohr. Or Werner Heisenberg. Or whom you will. I'm the guy who got sent out for coffee - that's all I was getting at...

That's the classic coil tap diagram!

How? Well, I don't suppose it's IP, so: imagine, instead of a single wire coming from the coil down to the Less Hot point, you just extend that single loop way out ... you'd have to have a pickup with a third eyelet. Wind that long loop round the eyelet, solder in a yellow wire and bingo!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.