Coil tapping?

[fensonpaulcaster]

Can some one please explain coil tapping to me and If you read my other thread (wiring?) would it be possible to incorporate like a mini switch as well as the jag system? because I read that you can add a mini toggle switch for different coil tapping combos. What is coil tapping and what is the difference in sound and how exactly do you make it work?

Thanks again everyone!

[markb]

Here's Deaf Eddie's explanation. I've pasted this because it's a word doc on his site. See www.deaf-eddie.net for diagrams, etc.

Coil Shunts vs. Splits vs. Taps

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Ah, the vocabulary! I THINK I have a handle on what MOST of us mean when we use these terms:

COIL SHUNT: refers to playing only one coil of a humbucker's pair, accomplished by routing a jumper from the connection (NOT breaking it) between the two coils to ground (or hot) though a switch, which allows the signal to bypass (shunting) one coil out of the voltage potential. The resulting tone is thinner and brighter than that of a humbucker, with less output. This is probably the MOST COMMON way to get a single coil tone out of a humbucker.

COIL SPLIT: Also refers to playing only one coil of a humbucker's pair. Technically, this would be done by breaking (splitting) the connection between the two coils, and routing the hot lead of the coil that is grounded straight to the volume pot or switch, whichever. Again, the resulting tone is thinner and brighter than that of a humbucker, with less output.
Most modern humbuckers come with a four-conductor option, allowing you to utilize either the “shunt” or “split” scheme to get that "single-coil" tone from a humbucker. Personally, I can NOT hear a difference, but there are those who will say they can, I'm sure. I will confess that I believe the SHUNT seems to retain some SMALL measure of noise-cancellation, whereas a SPLIT does not. But again, perhaps that's just me. Consider my handle...

So many people INCORRECTLY use the terms "coil-shunt" and "coil-split" as interchangable, that it has become OK to do so. Not me. I think we should all use the same terms, and as correctly as possible – it’s less confusing that way! Which brings us to...

COIL TAP: Is a completely different idea. This USUALLY refers to "tapping into" the windings of a SINGLE COIL, cutting out (bypassing or shunting) a number of windings to decrease the impedance of the pickup. When a SINGLE COIL pickup is wound, an "extra" hot lead is spliced on to the coil windings, part way through the winding process (usually at about the 75% point), and that extra lead allows the player to bypass the remainder of the windings. The USUAL result of playing a pickup with the "COIL TAP" oconnected is a brighter tone, with less output.

A number of custom-wound SINGLE COIL Tele bridge pups use this coil-tapping scheme – Don Mare comes to mind – to get the big modern “hot” and vintage “bite” tones out of the same pickup.

BOTTOM LINE: Shunting with a jumper works because electricity always seeks the path of least resistance, where splitting actually breaks the connection between two coils. A coil-TAP can be wired as a shunt-type connection, leaving the full-coil lead connected, or it can be switched between the full-pickup lead and the tap lead. Even though all three of these terms result in the same kind of change in a pickup's sound, I don't think we should be using them interchangably. Let’s ASSUME that the popular convention is that a COIL TAP means something entirely different than a COIL SHUNT. Or, maybe it's just me, again...

Anyway, by this vernacular convention, you can coil-SHUNT or coil-SPLIT a humbucker; you could connect a coil-TAP on a pickup that was manufactured or rewound with that "spliced halfway through the windings" tap-option. So, you would NOT coil-tap your standard four-conductor humbucker - the proper terms for your options there would be a shunt or split.