There was a wiring thread a few days ago that got me thinking about how difficult it is to get a balanced sound out of one single coil, and one humbucker.
Problem:
The full series-wired HB is overpowering, and splitting to one of the coils suffers a noticeable volume drop requiring a volume adjustment in both directions. Also the split coil often doesn't sound great.
Solutions:
There are two choices better than a plain split. The PRS style partial split with a resistor. And this new partial frequency split, with resistor and cap. So far I like the 6K2 resistor and .005 uf cap method best.
PRS coil splits are known for their natural sound, and little to no volume change. Their method is just to split via a small resistor. Some of the dumped coil is thus retained, boosting the output a bit. The resistance value doesn't seem overly sensitive. For my Duncan Seth Lover, I found that 6K2 was the best, but anything 2K either side of that would be fine. I read that PRS uses 1K2, and 2K2, but read elsewhere that someone (can't remember who) uses 7K - 15K.
It's a bit of a tradeoff, though, because the more you boost, the more you lose chime and brightness. We want it louder than a plain coil split, but also better-sounding. I had some good results with a series bass-cut cap applied to the coil that's being kept. The cap value is pretty sensitive. So far .005 µf sounds best. That's a bigger cut than I expected to like. I predicted that a .02 µf would be in the best range, but that was hardly noticeable. Smaller, at .003 µf, begins to sound artificially bright and shallow.
I'd still like to revisit the cap value, with fresh ears. I wasn't expecting such a large bass cut to sound best.
In all my testing, I chose to split to the south / screw coil, dumping all or most of the north. That means connecting the split wire to hot, not ground. I think it sounded best simply because the screws are adjusted a bit higher, and staggered, on that pickup.
The top figure is easy, right? The north coil shorts to hot. Gone.
The middle fig. is a partial split, where some of north is retained.
The bottom figure builds on that idea. Remember, the more resistance, the more output, but also the darker it gets. To have both worlds, a good boost, without the darkness... I can't add treble, but I can cut bass...
Just for kicks, and because they were too much work to never see the light of day, here are the three test harnesses I made to test all this. Because they're just for testing, there's no tone pot, one of the harnesses has a position #5 that's just a dead spot, etc. It was a lot of wiring for a 20-minute test each time, but I had to be able to hear all the variations back to back.
This was to test splitting with resistors from 1K to 6K, and compare to no split, to plain split, and even to coils wired in parallel.
Next, I wanted to test some higher value resistors. I'd heard enough of the parallel wiring, so I dumped the super switch. I like parallel, but I'm familiar with it, so I don't need to keep comparing it.
In addition to testing different resistor values, I had this idea to try a capacitor alongside (parallel to) the resistor. The cap alone is what I've called the Fat Tap in the past, and what Gibson has used for a (not very good) faux coil tap. Fender also used it in the 60th Ann'y Strat, but with a larger cap.
Alone, the cap (usually .01 - .02 µf, Fender used .05) imparts a woody tone. It did the same here, and was not what I wanted. Good to know.
The final harness kept the same higher value resistors as before, but dumped the parallel cap idea, and introduced the bass cut. Ultimately I tried four cap values, .001 µf, .003 µf, .005 µf, and .01 µf.
Finally, here's a snippet of how to wire up this splitter on a toggle or push pull.
Problem:
The full series-wired HB is overpowering, and splitting to one of the coils suffers a noticeable volume drop requiring a volume adjustment in both directions. Also the split coil often doesn't sound great.
Solutions:
There are two choices better than a plain split. The PRS style partial split with a resistor. And this new partial frequency split, with resistor and cap. So far I like the 6K2 resistor and .005 uf cap method best.
PRS coil splits are known for their natural sound, and little to no volume change. Their method is just to split via a small resistor. Some of the dumped coil is thus retained, boosting the output a bit. The resistance value doesn't seem overly sensitive. For my Duncan Seth Lover, I found that 6K2 was the best, but anything 2K either side of that would be fine. I read that PRS uses 1K2, and 2K2, but read elsewhere that someone (can't remember who) uses 7K - 15K.
It's a bit of a tradeoff, though, because the more you boost, the more you lose chime and brightness. We want it louder than a plain coil split, but also better-sounding. I had some good results with a series bass-cut cap applied to the coil that's being kept. The cap value is pretty sensitive. So far .005 µf sounds best. That's a bigger cut than I expected to like. I predicted that a .02 µf would be in the best range, but that was hardly noticeable. Smaller, at .003 µf, begins to sound artificially bright and shallow.
I'd still like to revisit the cap value, with fresh ears. I wasn't expecting such a large bass cut to sound best.
In all my testing, I chose to split to the south / screw coil, dumping all or most of the north. That means connecting the split wire to hot, not ground. I think it sounded best simply because the screws are adjusted a bit higher, and staggered, on that pickup.
The top figure is easy, right? The north coil shorts to hot. Gone.
The middle fig. is a partial split, where some of north is retained.
The bottom figure builds on that idea. Remember, the more resistance, the more output, but also the darker it gets. To have both worlds, a good boost, without the darkness... I can't add treble, but I can cut bass...
Just for kicks, and because they were too much work to never see the light of day, here are the three test harnesses I made to test all this. Because they're just for testing, there's no tone pot, one of the harnesses has a position #5 that's just a dead spot, etc. It was a lot of wiring for a 20-minute test each time, but I had to be able to hear all the variations back to back.
This was to test splitting with resistors from 1K to 6K, and compare to no split, to plain split, and even to coils wired in parallel.
Next, I wanted to test some higher value resistors. I'd heard enough of the parallel wiring, so I dumped the super switch. I like parallel, but I'm familiar with it, so I don't need to keep comparing it.
In addition to testing different resistor values, I had this idea to try a capacitor alongside (parallel to) the resistor. The cap alone is what I've called the Fat Tap in the past, and what Gibson has used for a (not very good) faux coil tap. Fender also used it in the 60th Ann'y Strat, but with a larger cap.
Alone, the cap (usually .01 - .02 µf, Fender used .05) imparts a woody tone. It did the same here, and was not what I wanted. Good to know.
The final harness kept the same higher value resistors as before, but dumped the parallel cap idea, and introduced the bass cut. Ultimately I tried four cap values, .001 µf, .003 µf, .005 µf, and .01 µf.
Finally, here's a snippet of how to wire up this splitter on a toggle or push pull.
Last edited:
