https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 11:52:24 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-346418 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:56:02 +0000 Guitar Repair and Maintenance Hyperborea https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-346418 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-346347 Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:06:31 +0000
OK, after over a year of experimenting, I tried a few different configurations. I finally settled on the "Jimmy Page" setup. It's popular for a reason. I got a prewired harness and had a guitar tech install it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Jimmy-Page-wiring-harness-THIS-DOES-EVERYTHING_W0QQitemZ390140100612QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar_Accessories?hash=item5ad6298004

One bad thing aoubt it was the pot shafts were slightly too large for the holes, so he actually had to ream out the holes a little bit. That's a really strange problem to have.


My second favorite configuration is what I call the "Fred Flinstone" setup. After several resolderings I had ruined the pots, so I took them out entirely. The only control was the 3 way switch. It sounded great and TBH, it's all I really need. (Points to the elephant in the room...)]]> Guitar Repair and Maintenance Alien https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-346347 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306194 Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:59:24 +0000
Given all you are trying to check out, maybe you want to avoid all the soldering and de/re-soldering until you know what you want? In your situation, I'd probably bring all the wires outside the guitar and connect them to a small breadboard with a header (row of little spikey pins) and use push-on jumpers to reconfigure for testing. Find the good configs and go with those as the permanently soldered/switchables.]]> Guitar Repair and Maintenance gnease https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306194 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306127 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:26:11 +0000 When you say parallel, do you mean parallelling one pup with the other? That's normal dual 'bucker switching option, usually center pup selector position. Or do you mean parallelling the two coils of a single humbucker -- a novel arrangement, as the coils are usually in wired in series? Parallel on the same pickup like this, it's also descibed at the bottom of this page.

I like parallel wiring if it's single coil sound + humbucking, I'll definitely keep that. I suspect the reason Gibson doesn't offer this mode stock is that when you switch back to series the output signal doubles, they don't want to be responsible for blown speakers.
Some have found that doing series and parallel connections of the outer bucker coils (one from each in SC mode) are interesting and useful. IIRC, PRS offers this with the 5-way switching option. Hmmm... that's an interesting idea. I'll have to put that one in the hopper.
The most useful combinations for me are using each pickup individually, so although my switching capabilities are pretty much endless, I usually just use the normal strat sounds Yes, I'm trying to limit the modifications to stuff that I think I'll actually use. Sometimes when thinking about all the possibilities I feel like Michael Jackson ordering plastic surgery.]]> Guitar Repair and Maintenance Alien https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306127 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306118 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:52:14 +0000
I have to say that I think playing pickups out-of-phase can be pretty cool. I would describe it as an almost "hollow" sound, it sounds like the guitar is being played through a cheap radio speaker or something (like the beginning of "Wish you were here" by Pink Floyd) or even playing through a wah-wah pedal with the pedal in the treble position. Depending on what pickup combinations you even, different frequencies can be added and eliminated.]]> Guitar Repair and Maintenance Steve-0 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306118 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306115 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:03:11 +0000 Guitar Repair and Maintenance gnease https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306115 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306099 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:26:25 +0000 Guitar Repair and Maintenance Ricochet https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306099 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306096 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:53:16 +0000
I'm very surprised you do not hear a difference when you switch phase (to out-of-phase) -- unless you are listening with only one pup turned ON, as that's an irrelevant/useless situation for phase switching. The phase switch should flip the phase (swap + and -) for only one pup, but depends upon both pups being ON to create the out-of-phase effect. That is, phase switching only will be noticeable tonally only when both pups are ON. In out-of-phase mode, the timbre should get very thin, as this causes some cancellation of lower freqs and some harmonics -- great for jangly funk rhythm.

When you say parallel, do you mean parallelling one pup with the other? That's normal dual 'bucker switching option, usually center pup selector position. Or do you mean parallelling the two coils of a single humbucker -- a novel arrangement, as the coils are usually in wired in series?

If you are not hearing tonal/timbral differences, I suspect a wiring issue to two. But, I also will guess that once wired correctly (if not already) you are not going to find all these options tonally compelling.]]> Guitar Repair and Maintenance gnease https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306096 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306094 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:25:06 +0000


Wow, did that picture get cropped.

These pickups are really bright and extremely hot. They sound decent but if I were to do this again I'd probably go with something a little more mellow. I'm used to leaving tone and volume on 10, now these pots actually need to be used. The pickups blend just fine, I was getting some nice tones by putting the toggle in the center position and adjusting the neck volume.
Parallel should still be humbucking, while the split coil isn't. So you might hear a difference in noise with higher gain settings. Personally I've found that parallel seemed slightly thicker than split as well, but it could depend on the pickup, ears, etc. I played around with it a bit more and I think I can hear a subtle difference. But I prefer effects that hit you over the head. I think I'm going to change the tone pots so that pulling them out turns on a high-pass filter (jaguar style) or maybe changes the tone to an adjustable bandpass filter.]]> Guitar Repair and Maintenance Alien https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306094 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306066 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:18:47 +0000
Congrats on the good learning experience! 8)]]> Guitar Repair and Maintenance slejhamer https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/coil-tapping-experiment/#post-306066