Tapping Either Coil of a Humbucker?

[marnold***]

Hey you wiring gurus!

Is there a way to set up an on/on/on switch so that you could choose which coil of a humbucker to tap or not tap it at all? The reason I ask is because someone talked about a 6K/13K Hot Gold Lace Dually. That would give you three cool tones with the flip of a switch: a very hot humbucker, a more vintage single coil, or a hot single coil.

[ted s]

Sounds like a 3 way push/pull pot would do the trick, maybe StewMac ?

edit.. no 3 pole push/pull, maybe something like this ?
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electron...s.html#details

I think 1223 or 1224 would work .

[ted s]

hmm... I'm sketching this out, you would need more than a three way to make that combo

[ted s]

I'll leave it to the pro's

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/cat...kerwiringmods/

[marnold***]

Thanks Ted! I appreciate it. If I get the Lace pups for my Floyd, a switch like that is definitely going in.

[duhvoodooman***]

Yep, Ted's link to that GuitarElectronics.com humbucker wiring page shows you just what you want to do. You need to get an on/off/on SPDT toggle switch (Rat Shack should have those) and wire it up per the 3rd diagram down on the left side, labeled "Single Coil (N)/Humbucker/Single Coil (S)". You'll have to drill a hole in your pickguard to mount the toggle switch, but that's the cost of tonal flexibility for this mod!

[marnold***]

Yep, Ted's link to that GuitarElectronics.com humbucker wiring page shows you just what you want to do. You need to get an on/off/on SPDT toggle switch (Rat Shack should have those) and wire it up per the 3rd diagram down on the left side, labeled "Single Coil (N)/Humbucker/Single Coil (S)". You'll have to drill a hole in your pickguard to mount the toggle switch, but that's the cost of tonal flexibility for this mod!

I just noticed that Lace has a diagram to do this very thing too on the bottom of this page (PDF). Evidently I'm not the first one to have this idea Since you have more technical know-how than I do, will this do the same thing as the one listed on GuitarElectronics? If so, I'd rather do that one because it's simpler than the Lace version. This is assuming that Lace duallys are wired the same way that normal humbuckers are. I emailed them for clarification as to what kind of DPDT switch they are using there.

I've got to look at my under-the-pickguard pictures of my Floyd again to see how the route is cut so I could figure out where to put this thing.

[duhvoodooman***]

Since you have more technical know-how than I do, will this do the same thing as the one listed on GuitarElectronics? If so, I'd rather do that one because it's simpler than the Lace version. This is assuming that Lace duallys are wired the same way that normal humbuckers are. I emailed them for clarification as to what kind of DPDT switch they are using there.

I would assume it does the same thing, from how it's described. But I'd have to check how the switch works, which requires knowing what kind of DPDT it is, as you've implied. Hopefully, they'll respond to your inquiry....

[ted s]

It's kinda crappy the way they rep. the switches. They could make life so much easier if they actually showed it displaying as normally open/closed contacts.

[marnold***]

Here's the response I got:

The switch is an on/on/on. And yes, that wiring does look easier, just use orange as start and white as finish. Green to ground.

So, if I read the diagram correctly (and I use a strobe light) the orange lead would go to the "top" lug and from there to the switch. The white and striped orange leads would go to the middle lug. The two green and the striped white would go to the "bottom" lug and from there to ground. Relatively simple, except that the bottom lug would have four wires soldered on to it. I'll just have to do a very clean job of tinning.

Edit: From looking at the Lace thing again, I'm not sure that the green wires would have to go through the switch at all. I'm a bit confused.

I'd orient the switch parallel to the neck so that when the switch is forward, the front (6k) coil is on. In the middle it would be full dually. In the back it would be the back (13k) coil. I'm going to go giggle like a schoolgirl now.

[marnold***]

OK, after thinking about it a bit, I believe I understand the Lace diagram. For some reason their "standard" wiring has you solder the white and striped orange leads together to wire the two coils in series. For some reason on the diagram I linked to above, they did it the other way. They were connecting the striped white and orange leads. The net result will be the same thing, it's just inside out, so to speak. I don't know if there was some reason to do that but the diagram that Ted linked to makes a lot more sense to me and is simpler to wire to boot. I also realized that the green leads can go right to the pot and don't have to go through the switch. Basically on that diagram, orange would go to top, white and striped orange to the middle, and striped white to the bottom. Good to go.

If I add this switch and push/pull pot that would add the bridge pickup (for the neck-bridge and all three pup combos), am I correct in assuming that this switch would need to be wired in between the pickup and the push-pull pot? Otherwise it would seem that that the switch would only function if the push-pull was either up or down but not both.

Also, with the all-three-pickups-on mode, wouldn't that generate an extremely weak signal? All three pups are acting as a load on each other. I know that, for example, two 6k pickups wired in parallel would basically give a 3k output. I'm not sure of the math, but three 6k pickups all wired together would have to have an output somewhere along the line of 1k, wouldn't it?

[andyl]

hi, relatively new on the mod scene, just wondering if a standard gibson pickup, like a 490R alnico (neck position on an SG) could be wired similarly or does this mod require a higher output pickup like the Burstbucker or Lace that's mentioned???

Andy

[marnold***]

hi, relatively new on the mod scene, just wondering if a standard gibson pickup, like a 490R alnico (neck position on an SG) could be wired similarly or does this mod require a higher output pickup like the Burstbucker or Lace that's mentioned???

You mean coil tapping? If the pickup has four conductors, you could do it. You could also do the thing with tapping either coil, but on the vast majority of humbuckers, there would be no point. Usually both coils are exactly the same so tapping one as opposed to the other isn't going to make a ton of difference. This particular Lace dually has two different coils (6k and 13k), so tapping either one would produce dramatically different tones.

Having said that, when I installed a coil tap on my Fender I tapped the coil that was further from the bridge. The purpose for this one twofold: 1) Since it was a little further from the bridge, the tone would be a bit fuller and less bright, and 2) (and this is the main reason) it was much easier to wire up this way.