Coil tapping

[Boogie]

Since I don’t have any pickups with a coil tap, I can only respond regarding coil splitting, which I use all the time for a variety of reasons. And it’s way more than a volume reduction, but you have to explore with an open mind. Split = Clarity = articulation and that’s something I need regularly and can get from splitting. It also offers some phasing change when combined with another pickup, which is another great option. We’re talking art here, which embraces the different/uncommon/weird.

 

[Vinker202]

With higher gain sounds, it's not going to make a whole lot of difference unless you are being super critical.

When you have an amp in the edge-of-breakup sound, the tap will make all the difference in the world to the tone, expressing the Stratty single coil experience with it's wider tonal range and more picky attack.

This is what I am looking for...I am running through some effects into studio monitors and there I cannot hear much difference. I am getting an amp so that will change. Thanks

 

[Victek]

Well, I hope I am not attacking religion or anything...it just I didn’t think much of the piddly volume change, the effect is barely noticeable no? I have enough science knowledge to infer what it means but I just wondered if people really use this...no offense guys carry your own thing...tap your coils to your hearts content

I experimented with it when I first got my Custom 24 SE; thought it might make the guitar sound like a Strat, but it didn't. I find the tapped sound kind of nondescript. On the other hand the full humbucker sound is great

 

[littlebadboy]

I once owned a Parallels virtual machine that allowed me to run Windows apps on my Mac. That was the extent of my "parallels" experience, though. Sometimes knowing when to get off the internet highway is also a wise move.

Not talking about your "parallels experience", the humbucker in parallel wiring on my guitar gives less output but brighter sounding. I really like it for cleans or at that point when it's a little bit past distorting break up tone. Almost like a single coil, but without the hum.

"Sometimes knowing when to get off the internet highway is also a wise move." What do you mean?

 

[CandidPicker]

This is what I am looking for...I am running through some effects into studio monitors and there I cannot hear much difference. I am getting an amp so that will change. Thanks

Congratulations. Please remember to post pics of the amp in the Amp section of the forum, as we also like amps.

Not talking about your "parallels experience", the humbucker in parallel wiring on my guitar gives less output but brighter sounding. I really like it for cleans or at that point when it's a little bit past distorting break up tone. Almost like a single coil, but without the hum.

"Sometimes knowing when to get off the internet highway is also a wise move." What do you mean?

Please forgive the snarkiness, it's been building lately with some of the attitudes around town rubbing off on me. We live in critical times, you know? Can't go anywhere without someone judging and/or sometimes criticizing you.

I really should tone it down myself so as to be a better example, but dang. Somewhere someone is always looking to get a rise out of you.

This is why I the giving season could be better handled by folks who know how to give good gifts, instead of ones that you'd like to regift...like that bad fruitcake that keeps going around...consider me nonplussed.

 

[CandidPicker]

Not talking about your "parallels experience", the humbucker in parallel wiring on my guitar gives less output but brighter sounding. I really like it for cleans or at that point when it's a little bit past distorting break up tone. Almost like a single coil, but without the hum.

Is it possible that the parallel has a resistor on the circuit that acts as a...um...low-pass filter(?) (Or perhaps I've got that wrong, a high pass filter?)

The noiseless is like due to the "split" single coils being wound in opposite directions, much the same way hum buckers are intentionally designed to work.

 

[Tim S]

https://www.seymourduncan.com/faqs/...es-between-coil-splitting-and-parallel-wiring

 

[littlebadboy]

Is it possible that the parallel has a resistor on the circuit that acts as a...um...low-pass filter(?) (Or perhaps I've got that wrong, a high pass filter?)

The noiseless is like due to the "split" single coils being wound in opposite directions, much the same way hum buckers are intentionally designed to work.

Not sure sir...

Friend wired it for me.

 

[Rider1260]

A quick Internet search on "pickup coil splitting vs coil tapping" could prove helpful

Thanks for being the grammar police.
I believed I tried to answer the OPs question ( regardless if the totally correct term was used ) which was do you use it ( YES )
Correct or not the two terms have been used interchangeably for decades. and if I was calling the newest PRS pickups something I would call it coil tapping because they are leaving turns of the second coil active so they are tapping the second coil.

 

[shimmilou]

Rider, split vs tapped is simply how the pup is wound from the factory, not about switching. If there are 2 completely separate coils in the pup (4 wire) the coils are split. If both coils of the pup are one continuous wind, and the coils can not be separated, with one or more wires connected somewhere in the middle of the wind (3 or 4 wires), the coils are tapped. The main differences are being able to change phase relationship, and true isolation ability with the split, but not with tap. Some PRSi are split with a switch, and some are tapped with a switch, and each has its own uses.

I can see how the terms can be misused, the user not really knowing what's going on under the hood, whether the coils are split or tapped.

 

[jak3af3r]

These terms also aren't exclusive either. The 408 pickups are wound with uneven windings per pickup. Let's just assume the screw side has 5,000 and the slug side has 7,500.

When the pickup is in humbucker mode, the screw side has 5,000 winds and we'll just assume the slug side is tapped using only 5,000 winds to balance the sound.

When you split the coil, the screw side is grounded and then the slug side uses all of its windings to compensate for volume drop by bringing up it's DC resistance which is why there's little/no volume drop.

Of course the pickup could be wired so the splits are reversed but this is just the general concept they used based on a ton of videos where I've seen Paul explain it in an excited and almost cryptic way.

 

[shimmilou]

Assume?

From your description, sounds like they are only tapped, not split (could be both, but I haven’t seen any PRS pups that are both). You can still get a single coil mode with a tapped coil, but you cannot split them. As I pointed out before, true coil isolation can only be had with split coils, and the terms split or tapped are not about the switching, but rather how the coils are made at the factory.

 

[jak3af3r]

Assume?

From your description, sounds like they are only tapped, not split (could be both, but I haven’t seen any PRS pups that are both). You can still get a single coil mode with a tapped coil, but you cannot split them. As I pointed out before, true coil isolation can only be had with split coils, and the terms split or tapped are not about the switching, but rather how the coils are made at the factory.

If this is in response to my post, the word assume was used as an indicator that I do not know the exact number of winds on each bobbin.

It's possible to have a tapped single coil (like an amp transformer with selectable impedance) which will alter the number of windings active.

Knowing this it's possible to make a humbucker and treat the coils as the two separate pickups they are.

Then all one has to do is ground one coil (now it's a single coil) and add the rest of the windings from the active coil to the circuit to eliminate volume drop.

And if this still doesn't make sense, I'll just let Paul explain it.............

 

[shimmilou]

I see what you mean Jake. From Paul's description, one could certainly conclude that the pup is split and tapped. The only way to be sure is to put a meter on the pup and see if it has one continuous coil with taps, or truly two separate coils. I know that the SE Paul's is split because I have one that I have looked at. Maybe someone has a Paul's guitar pup we could examine?

 

[jak3af3r]

http://www.prsguitars.com/documents/paulsguitar_2017.pdf

The 408 has the same wiring based on these diagrams.

 

[shimmilou]

The mini toggle switch wiring is quite different between the SE Paul’s and the Paul’s, but the rest of the wiring is almost identical. The drawing you linked to clearly labels it as tapped, indicating one continuous wind. However, it isn’t clear from the drawing if the pups are split or tapped, so I would need to examine a pup to be sure.

 

[jjazzman]

The mini toggle switch wiring is quite different between the SE Paul’s and the Paul’s, but the rest of the wiring is almost identical. The drawing you linked to clearly labels it as tapped, indicating one continuous wind. However, it isn’t clear from the drawing if the pups are split or tapped, so I would need to examine a pup to be sure.

wonder what 180pF is for on a volume knob? Maybe some kind of treble bleed?

 

[Antmax]

Coil split is where you only use one humbucker coil.

Coil Tap is where you have the windings split with extra wires coming off of a coil that let you tap into a coil at different places in the winding. So you get one full coil and part of the second coil.

I read about one PRS SE, might have been the new 85/15 's' equipped CU's have an extra resistor that bleeds most of the second coil when split so you get something like one coil plus 12% of the second coil. Which is a cheap trick way to do a simple coil tap.

 

[garrett]

wonder what 180pF is for on a volume knob? Maybe some kind of treble bleed?

Yes, it's a treble bypass to prevent the tone from darkening when you roll the volume back.