Santana III question...

[SteveK]

Just curious. Does anybody here know if the stock Santa III pickups can be coil tapped?

 

[Rider1260]

The Santana don't coil tap without modification

 

[SteveK]

What type of modification?

 

[Rider1260]

Two options really
1) change the pickups to something that taps
OR
Have someone rewire your pickups to tap ( not for the faint of heart )

 

[G-Man]

Basically it is adding the McCarty switching and pickups.

 

[SteveK]

Thanks, I didn't know if the pups were 4 conductor or not.

 

[CatStrangler]

Thanks, I didn't know if the pups were 4 conductor or not.

Did you open up the electronics cavity? Only way to know for sure.

 

[Andrew Paul]

How many conductors are there?

Mine have three conductors. Shield (GND) black (hot) and a white that was taped up. I decided to un-tape the white wire, strip it and measure resistance. Well I was led to believe (from internet) that Santana pups you are not able to coil tap. Well here is what I found. Santana Treble - Black to Shield 14K White to Black or Shield 7K, Hmmmm looks like I'm reading separate coils. Santana Bass - Black to Shield 6.3K, White to Black or Shield 3.13K.

I modified my guitar with Seymour Duncan Distortion pups with push/pull tone for coil taps. I now wired Starla pups with push/pull tone for coil taps, interesting tones. Next string change I'm putting in the original Santana pups that came with the guitar and wire the coil tapped with push/pull tone since they have the white wire. I'll let you know how I make out.

 

[MichaelS]

I've seen used Santana III's on Reverb mentioning coil split in the specs/description.

Sounds like the pups have the right wires.
No such luck in 2015s:

 

[Andrew Paul]

Michael, my white wire was not in the control cavity. Instead it was coiled up and taped under the bottom of the pickup. When you do a string change unscrew your pups and check underneath.