Can you "split" Narrowfield pickups?

sergiodeblanc

sergiodeblanc

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Apr 26, 2012
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Does that defeat the whole idea of them?

There is a guitar I'm thinking about ruining that has 'em, but I'm afraid of them not doing "single coil". Are NF's really just their own "thing"?
 
Before I parted ways with my Studio I had the NFs modded to be split and was very happy with the results.
They had a very tasty quack and sounded superb when played through a dead clean amp tone.
I miss that guitar. Sometimes.
 
Shawn@PRS said:
Most of the stock NF pups cannot be split, they don't have the necessary tap wire.
Click to expand...

Thanks Shawn. Matt informed me of the same. But I'm curious - is there an easy way to tell if your NFs can be split? I'd LOVE to split mine...thanks.
 
pull the pup out to see if it has a white wire coming out of it (in addition to the black and braid).

The pickup on top does not have a tap wire, the pickup on the bottom does have a tap wire.
pups.jpg
 
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You can always take the pickup apart and modify it. I would assume NFs, being double coils, would have a wire that runs in between the coils. You cut that, splice the split wire onto it and put it all back together.
 
Yeah John, I was thinking about that. I know neither one of us is too afraid of opening up pickups and cutting that wire... but I think I'd be extra afraid on some NF's 'cause if I do mess it up, where am I gonna get another one?

Cool to know it's been done before though. Jon, why did you end up ditching the Studio?
 
True! I don't have the cajones to do it to anything other than SE pickups. I had forgotten you did that to a SE HFS/VB set that I now have, right?
 
John Beef said:
You can always take the pickup apart and modify it. I would assume NFs, being double coils, would have a wire that runs in between the coils. You cut that, splice the split wire onto it and put it all back together.
Click to expand...

then you can ship it to the PTC and pay for them to fix your mod job! (lol)
 
sergiodeblanc said:
Yeah John, I was thinking about that. I know neither one of us is too afraid of opening up pickups and cutting that wire... but I think I'd be extra afraid on some NF's 'cause if I do mess it up, where am I gonna get another one?

Cool to know it's been done before though. Jon, why did you end up ditching the Studio?
Click to expand...

Without getting into too much of the ugly truth, the guitar ended up in the hands of a certain previous "Dirty" member of the Forum and the only thing he did correctly was make those NFs tap-able.

The first time I got it back, the push/push pots he installed only worked for about three hours. So, back it went.

The second time getting it back proved to be a whole new challenge with the end result being sending a family member that lived nearby to repo my hijacked guitar after two weeks of supposed shipping delays after it was apparently repaired.

When I got it home, the bridge pickup was not wired properly and it had a new ding that it didn't have when it went down. By that point, I was soured on the guitar. I couldn't separate my feelings for the guitar and my feelings about that guy that screwed it up, so I traded it in on a different model.

At some point , I'd love to get some Narrowfields in a different format. Maybe an NF3 or something Swamp Ash with Narrowfields...
 
That's a bummer. I always cringe when I hear these horror stories, but that's part of the reason why I taught myself to do almost everything. That, and I'm a cheap bastard.
 
You've got me wondering now Serg. How much of a hurry are you in? I'm not home for 2 weeks (exams) but I can record some demos of my NF3 then if you like? They really change their character when you wind them back a bit, I always thought quite single coiley but it would be interesting to A/B it with The 624. Still got the same amp settings and everything else ready to go too.
 
I'm in no hurry Justin, the dude with the NF SAS has not returned my email. This happened to me all last week with the amps I was lookin' at too, who places an ad on CL and then doesn't respond to your email for a week? Don't these people know I got money burning a hole in my pocket?
 
I popped open the cavity plate on my McCarty 25th with NF's just to see if there was a tap wire visible that way (my Stripped 58 had its tap wires just taped off in the cavity) and didn't see any...I may pop out one of the NF's next string change just to make sure, but looks like my 25th doesn't have tappable NF's.

Still gotta check the Studio's though.
 
Argh!! Soundcloud hates my Face! It keeps crashing on me whenever I open it.... I can't wait to listen to these Justin, thank you so much!
 
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