no real "voice" with split-coils

[eddiewagner]

hui guys, over the years i found out for myself, that i can get nothing close to the real deal from a split coil pup. the splitted coil singlecoil-sound is okay for rhythm stuff or the likes. but real twang i can get only from a singlecoil pup. i had quite a bunch of theese pickups over the years, sd-stag-mags and others. what you thinking?
eddie

[RockinCarl]

I agree with you, I never liked the tone from pickup splitting. It always just sounds thin to me.

[yerffej]

I have had best results with drastically mis matched coils. say like in a humbucker with a 5k coil and a 7k coil, you use the screw coil (make it the 7k one also) for best results. the proximity of the 2nd magnet does help a lot with hum though.

[Kelsey]

The split tones from my PRS McCarty Standard are actually quite nice. The coils are slightly mismatched, and the slightly stronger slug coil is active when split. It's definitely a Fender-like SC tone, although not quite Strat and not quite Tele. The combined pickup tone is close to the corresponding Tele tone, but the neck or bridge alone are probably closer to Strat tones. I was surprised at how useful this feature can be.

[TG]

If you run the wire that grounds/earths out the coil through a resistor (2.5 or 4K perhaps) then you only dump a part of the coil when you 'split' it, so you end up with a 'coil and a half'.
It gives you something closer to the sound of an actual single coil.

You can use a variable resistor...a mini-pot...and adjust how much of the coil's output you ground.

[yerffej]

Originally Posted by TG

If you run the wire that grounds/earths out the coil through a resistor (2.5 or 4K perhaps) then you only dump a part of the coil when you 'split' it, so you end up with a 'coil and a half'.
It gives you something closer to the sound of an actual single coil.

You can use a variable resistor...a mini-pot...and adjust how much of the coil's output you ground.

that is a VERY interesting idea. I will have to give it a shot

[Jammin'John]

Split Coil = thin & wimpy
Great Single Coil = Fat Clear SNAPPY TONE...mmmmmmmm

JJ

[Rob DiStefano]

For the very most part, humbuckers have two coils that are designed to function their best when series connected. An average 8k to 9K bumhucker will have each coil at about 4.5K. Split those coils by grounding one side out and whaddaya have? A whimpy 4.5K single coil that wasn't designed to work on its own.

There are some humbuckers, such as Rio's Tallboy, that are created from two real single coil pups and when split the resulting hot coil IS a true single coil pickup designed to work all by its lonesome.

[Wild Rice Chris]

Originally Posted by TG

If you run the wire that grounds/earths out the coil through a resistor (2.5 or 4K perhaps) then you only dump a part of the coil when you 'split' it, so you end up with a 'coil and a half'.
It gives you something closer to the sound of an actual single coil.

You can use a variable resistor...a mini-pot...and adjust how much of the coil's output you ground.

You could also ground it through a capacitor, I like to use a .1 cap. That gives you both coils on the low end, but just one on the high end. A little fuller tone, a bit more output, and retains the spank. G&L used to do this on the L-1000 bass, calling it "single coil with bass boost."

[jhundt]

Hey Eddie - you remember my Japanese Tele from the jam in Utrecht? I have GFS Retrotron Liverpool Vintage Alnico humbuckers in there. The split-coil sound on the neck pickup is really nice, I like it even better than my old favorite - the neck pickup on my '68 Tele. Can't say much more, I never had another guitar with split-coil pickups.

[eddiewagner]

Originally Posted by jhundt

Hey Eddie - you remember my Japanese Tele from the jam in Utrecht? I have GFS Retrotron Liverpool Vintage Alnico humbuckers in there. The split-coil sound on the neck pickup is really nice, I like it even better than my old favorite - the neck pickup on my '68 Tele. Can't say much more, I never had another guitar with split-coil pickups.

i guess then you are one of the lucky guys. i think the concept of split humbuckers is nice. and if its done right and sounds good: more power to splitters!

[JohnnyCrash]

I always viewed the single/humb combo switch as a compromise to the single coil tone...

That being said, I use a Seymour Duncan Lil '59 in one of my Telecasters, a cheap rails in another Telecaster, and "completely real" single coils in my other Telecaster (Nocaster RI pickups there).

I don't ever consider using it as a "true" single coil - I only use it for live stuff where I need many sounds with limited gear. Like I said, it's a compromise to the single coil sound, but I am happy enough to use it when I need two guitars in one.

When I really need/want a nice single coil sound, I reach for my Nocaster equipped Tele or my LPJr with P90s :)

My Lil 59 has Strat middle and neck pickups and I use that as a "Les Paul Strato-Tele" when I need to cover alot of tonal ground in a given night.

My rails Tele is ONLY for slide in open tunings, so I like the option to go either thin or fat. I found the cheapest Asian rail pickup I could find to get me a crappy CHEAP blues sound... the neck pickup on this guitar is a salvaged full sized Epiphone humbucker... again, I aimed for "crap" tone on this, on purpose.

I also have a coil splitter in a super heavy metal Jackson Rhoads V.

[Val-tone]

I recently had a guitar wired so each pickup would go series/parallel--so that let's say an 8k humbucker:
- if it were in series was running as a regular 8k humbucker
-if it was split runs one one coil as a 4k humbucker
-if it's parallel, both coils are running--but they aren't "connected" for lack of a better word--so you have two little 4k pickups running.

I'm sure someone on this site can explain it better than I just did.

In theory it's supposed to give the pickup a brighter sound--which it did to me--but not as much drop in volume. Did it sound like a true single-coil? IMO, no.

I tried this on a Squier cyclone. The front pickup was a Carvin Twinblade single-coil sized humbucker and the bridge was a SD Jazz. Both were wired on their own series/parallel switch.

Anyway, my next project will be putting the Carvin pup in my strat, right next to the bridge pup, so there will be 4 pickups in there. Then I'll wire an on/off toggle for each one. The Carvin will have its own 500k volume. That way I'll have a true single-coil and a "decent" humbucker sound, in theory.

Who knows when I'll get around to doing this though.

[appar111]

I had been a little underwhelmed with the split coil option on my Dimarzio Super Distortion T, because, like others have said, it just sounds a little "generic" when split. Sounds nice when it's in full-on humbucker , though--way better to me than a Li'l '59 for those fat AC/DC & Kiss guitar licks.

Then I got a better amp and the split coil mode is actually quite useful and sounds really nice--- so much so that I've decided to keep the Super Distortion T in the tele for the time being.

It's definitely not like a regular, good ol' single coil tele bridge pickup (nothing like it actually)... it don't have that "spank" and twang that a regular tele single coil bridge pup does, but I've sort of modified my playing when using split coil so that I can still get some steely spank to the strings. It's funkier and a little thinner/more hollow than something like a Fender OV, but it seems to work for my style right now, so it's good.

I grabbed a new-in-the-box Fender Nocaster bridge pickup, but I think the Dimarzio will stay for a while because the humbucker mode works quite well as a compliment to my other guitar, and the split coil mode gets the job done. Since the pickup resides in an Esquire, I needed a little more versatility since I only have one pickup to work with, so it's right at home :).

[Phil Jacoby]

appar111:
Try the Dimarzio T SD in parallal rather than split, you may like it better. I've had good luck with it. The parallel sound isn't exactly like a full size T single coil, but it is usable...

[teletin]

EMG makes the 89 pup, this is an 85 humbucker and a SA single coil in one casing. The SA is the strat pup David Gilmour uses(d). Not a tele pup but it might do the trick.