Humbuckers: coil split, phase reverse, series/parallel

[MarcusGHedwig]

Are any of the above worth anything to a guy who plays high-gain 85% of the time? (50/50 riffs/leads) I've played guitars with push-pull pots before and whenever I engaged them it always just felt like the output and balls of the pickups were being halved, with maybe a little extra "twang" (incidentally one of my least favorite tonal qualities). But everyone and their damn grandmothers seem to go on about all the fun possibilities with 4-conductor humbuckers, so I'd like to find out what all the fuss is about

 

[Keregioz]

I have EMGs with push-pull coil split (only in the neck position) and on my other guitar I have 2 passive pickups with a 5-way pickup switch. It's nice to have the option but when I use the coil-split setting 99% of the time is on clean sounds.

 

[egan.]

Marcus I'd stay out of that game unless you like your guitar better face down ass up.

 

[Uros]

I have a 5-way super switch on my COW7. I don't use its extra options a lot, but it certainly is fun to play with every once in a while.

 

[Tercero]

Eh, it depends. As far as coil tapping, I really dig single coil tones...but as a general rule the type of single coil tone I'd prefer I wouldn't get from the type of humbucker I typically use. I played in a cover band for a while with a '78 Les Paul that I had set up with push/pull pots to tap the coils and it was handy to get the job done when needed live, but it wasn't like magically flicking a switch and turning a giant mahogany guitar into a Strat. I've got two Strats and a Tele all with different pickups and really enjoy them all, but I've never found a humbucker that I was blown away by the tapped tone of. Then again, I haven't played every pickup there is out there so you could very well find the perfect match for you. But as a general rule, I'm with you. Tapping a humbucker, to me, just sounds like a weaker version of that humbucker. A singlecoil that's designed to sound like a singlecoil is usually a better fit for that type of tone. But that's just me. Guys like Guthrie Govan make it sound like a million bucks....but I'm sure he could play a rubber band and make it sound like a choir of orgasming Swedish girls.

 

[jangoux]

On my Cort original pickups, it sounded great for clean sounds. But on every one of my other guitars, it usually sounds like crap lol

 

[JeffTD]

I love being able to split my pickups, but really just for cleans, layers, and leads. I should also mention that I'm a HUGE fan of single coils and my Strat and Tele get the large majority of playtime these days.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

I wouldn't worry so much about the whole series/parallel switching for the most part, just get a split coil setup so that you can have a single coil in the neck position. Just run that parallel just like all standard pickups are wired and call it a day.

Honestly, the ability to have a single coil or humbucker in both the bridge and neck is overkill for tonal possibilities for guys that do high gain and just need some variations when doing cleans.

I personally like cleans with a neck humbucker, a neck single coil and a neck single coil in parallel to a bridge humbucker. With the right amount of compression and light splashes of effects, you have a fair amount of options to choose from.

 

[JakeAC5253]

I've been down that same path before and it's not advisable. It's one of these things where it never gets better it just gets different. I've modded tone knobs, remove them, change volume knob resistance, remove them, put them back, change volume resistance again, add resistor to mod sweep, add capacitor to counter tone suck, now wait is that the right resistor, is that the right cap, maybe today my ears are bright, change the cap, change the resistor again, change the cap, this is a better cap, change the cap again. It's maddening. I'm now back to humbucker > 500k pot > fucking output and that's where it's going to be. If this combo doesn't sound right for metal then get a new guitar/pickup/strings/pick bleh bleh, you'll go mad playing with electronics.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Thanks dudes, think I'll just stick with a push-pull pot to coil split the neck pickup and call it a day! (I hate 5-way toggles)