Tap, split or series/parallel. Which to choose and why you might care.
Its been a busy month in the workshop with plenty of wonderful guitars to work on. There have been some very fine examples of outstanding Japanese made instruments as well as guitars well into adulthood. This weekend brought a lovely Epiphone Les Paul with a request for new pickups. Its owner had recently acquired a new amp and felt it was time for an upgrade to his axe, too. Whilst at it, maybe split the coils. Even better, series/parallel wiring! So many options...
Well, if you are thinking about this upgrade, This post will help you decide which one is for you and why. We will start with the tap.
Coil Tap
This option is more of a component choice than a wiring decision. The term is often used interchangeably with coil split but is not the same thing.
Your pickup includes a winding of conductive wire which helps create an electrical signal. The more windings, the bigger the signal. Imagine a motorway with lots of traffic. The noise it makes is significant. Now tap off some of that traffic with a slip road (or two). The noise on the slip is significantly less. Now the physics aren't quite the same but it illustrates the concept. A coil tap takes the signal at a point where fewer winding have been made. Thus, a smaller signal.
This option is typically employed with a single coil pickup, as you might find on a Strat or Tele. A fully wound, hot pickup might give you a more modern sound which will respond well to being overdriven. Switch to the tapped output and you now have a more vintage, low output.
As you have probably worked out, its all in the pickup choice. It has to come constructed with the tap already installed.
Coil Split
This is what is generally meant when these options are discussed. It requires a pickup with a specific arrangement of wires but is more of a switching choice.
Your humbucker pickup is made of two, adapted single coil pickups. Its original design purpose was to cancel out the electrical hum created in a single coil. They also give us that full, crunchy tone we love, but lack some of that crystal clear response a single coil gives you.
So hey, lets split the two single coils and get the best of both worlds. That is what this option does for you. It removes one of the windings from the circuit, effectively leaving you with a single coil pickup.
The specific arrangement of wires I mentioned? That would be 4, a pair for each winding (5 actually because there is a bare ground wire, but it isn't generally counted). Some humbuckers come with 2. That will work just great as a humbucker but it can't be split without surgery.
Series/Parallel - Humbuckers
Now we get in to real wiring fun. Its a less typical option and has a very different effect on the output. You can apply this principle to multiple single coil pickups, but lets keep things less complicated.
Essentially, a similar outcome as a coil split is the intention. One drawback of a coil split is that in neutralising a coil, it is no longer cancelling the hum. Now you may want this if a more vintage tone is what you are after, but perhaps not. Also, see how I wrote two adapted single coils above. Coil splitting will give you a single, but it doesn't sounds the same.
With series/parallel wiring the north and south coils are connected either in series (normal configuration) or parallel. Think of it like two water pipes. Two narrow pipes in series (one after the other) provide greater resistance than the same pipes side by side (again, not perfect science but it helps to visualise). The larger the resistance, the bigger the signal.
So, wiring in such a way as to enable the two pickups to be in either series or parallel provides the option to reduce the signal strength whilst maintaining the hum cancelling nature.
Why choose split over series/parallel? As in all things guitar, its all about the tone. If one adapted coil sounds different to a single coil pickup, two definitely will. Your decision will be influenced by your desired outcome. Vintage tone or modern but lower output.
Now you just need to think about push/pull, push/push or toggle!
Never fear. Hale Guitar Studio have your back.
Happy Riffing
Chris
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