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Coil Tapping North/south Coils


hessodreamy

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I got this diagram from the guitar electronics site for tapping each individual coil of a humbucker. I'm using a lace sensor red-blue humbucker otherwise I doubt I'd have bothered with choice of coils.

hbswitch.gif

Looking at it, though, I'm not convinced it would work. Seems that if you wire the series link wires to the hot out, you'd get something like the 1st coil in parallel with the series combo. Or am I wrong on this?

I couldn't find a suitable on-off-on switch but have a 2 pole on-on-on which connects the common to one of 3 lugs in turn. Am I right in saying this isn't a problem (with slight change to the circuit)?

I also presently have a phase reversal switch to put the bridge out of phase with the neck. How do I incorporate this into the above wiring? I can't just switch the hot and cold, or can I?

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Seems that if you wire the series link wires to the hot out, you'd get something like the 1st coil in parallel with the series combo. Or am I wrong on this?

it seems that way, but the diagram would work as is. remember that any electrical circuit must be grounded at the other end in order to work. that switching setup is running the first coil and the series link both to hot. but the other end of that first coil is not grounded, so it won't produce any signal.

the series link going to hot theoretically could give you sound from the first coil or the second coil. but in this case, the other end of the first coil is not grounded, so the series link to hot is not going to give you the first coil on. the second coil does have the other end grounded, so the series link to hot will give you the second coil on.

the trick in this diagram is that making both ends of a coil hot will give you no output from it, because neither end is grounded.

Edited by scott from _actual time_
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Looking at it, though, I'm not convinced it would work. Seems that if you wire the series link wires to the hot out, you'd get something like the 1st coil in parallel with the series combo. Or am I wrong on this?

You're wrong :D . The switch shorts the "north coil" to itself - resulting in no output. The "south coil" output goes directly to the output.

I couldn't find a suitable on-off-on switch but have a 2 pole on-on-on which connects the common to one of 3 lugs in turn. Am I right in saying this isn't a problem (with slight change to the circuit)?

An on/on/on switch could be used, and yes, it would need to be wired slightly different due to the way the switch works. Seems like a waste though - I'd use an on/off/on, even if it was a double pole. But that's just me.

I also presently have a phase reversal switch to put the bridge out of phase with the neck. How do I incorporate this into the above wiring? I can't just switch the hot and cold, or can I?

To incorporate a phase switch, you would want to wire it to both sides of the coil tap switch outputs before either of them go to ground. You'd want to ground the "bare or shield" wire after the phase switch as well.

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OK I think I get it now, thanks. Here's my new diagram. Its the same as one I've done before except for the choice of coils. The reason i've used an on-on-on is that I can't immediately find any on-off-on. For the sake of simplicity I've assumed a separate ground wire for the body of the pickup. The second pickup would be same but without the phase reverse. I think its all good??

hbswitch2.gif

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OK I think I get it now, thanks. Here's my new diagram. Its the same as one I've done before except for the choice of coils. The reason i've used an on-on-on is that I can't immediately find any on-off-on. For the sake of simplicity I've assumed a separate ground wire for the body of the pickup. The second pickup would be same but without the phase reverse. I think its all good??

hbswitch2.gif

I don't think so. I believe you want to wire what you have now as a ground connection on your coil tap switch to the opposite side of the phase switch... mirror the connection on the right.

For phase switching, you want the phase switch to determine which connection is ground - and not have anything before it ground referenced.

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I don't think so. I believe you want to wire what you have now as a ground connection on your coil tap switch to the opposite side of the phase switch... mirror the connection on the right.

Ah yes I see now. You mean like this?

hbswitch3.gif

Ok. You got it.

Physical wiring depends upon the physical layout.

You might want to notice (since you said the other pickup would be wired the same way but without the phase switch), that it would be the same electronically to take those two outside wires (far left and far right) and instead of connecting them to the phase switch, connect them to the two terminals on the coil tap switch since those wires are also connected to the same terminals of the phase switch.

Which would be how the second pickup would be wired - only you WOULD connect one of those terminals directly to ground. The other would be hot.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wired it up at the weekend and it works a treat. :D

Having a hot single and a fairly cold one gives great tonal options. It's like directly controlling the amount of 'twang' from the pickup. And as humbuckers the lace red and silver together can go from aggressive to sweet really nicely.

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