A Coil Split Humbucker - Can It Sound Good?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ม.ค. 2025
- Here is The Pickup In The Video dylantalkstone...
A Coil Split Humbucker - Can It Sound Good?
Upload your music to Apple, Amazon, Spotify, and more. Use this link for a 7% discount. distrokid.com/...
Learn to Solder and get two free months of skillshare!
skl.sh/2TRnbxe
Find us on the internets at
Dylantalkstone.com
dylantalkstone
dylantalkstone
dylantalkstone
Here is the Gear we use to shoot these videos thanks for checking out these links! it helps the channel and is no cost to you!
Cameras And Lenses
Sony A6500 amzn.to/2BPlysW
Sony Lens amzn.to/2GZq3o3
Panasonic G85 amzn.to/2GZMQ32
Panasonic 25mm Prime Lens amzn.to/2E4mZUG
GoPro Hero 7 amzn.to/2XnraE7
DJI Mavic Air amzn.to/2E9eJ5E
Tripod amzn.to/34mM3SD
Jpby Gorilla Pod amzn.to/2Xi7L7i
Sunpak Tripod amzn.to/2ErKkBb
Gimbals
DJI Ronin SC amzn.to/2Okxv0n
DJI Osmo 2 amzn.to/2E8tkyw
Lighting
Ring Light amzn.to/2XnFTP0
LED Flat Panel
Audio
Zoom H4 Recorder amzn.to/2GYinme
Zoom F1 Lav Mic amzn.to/2E98wGV
Rode Video Micro amzn.to/2Xl6jRG
Saramonic wireless amzn.to/34km1zJ
If you need Royalty free music, use this link to get 20% off at Soundstripe
app.soundstrip...
Nice sounds. This is exactly how I've been playing my guitar for the last 20 years. This is the the way to do it. Both my pickups are just under 10k ohm DC resistance. The only difference is my single coil sound is on the screw side.
Ok...I may have truly jumped to conclusions. I actually like the thin coil split tone, but I actually like yours even better!? Hats off to you buddy. I do ambient atmospheric blues stuff on my channel and have been searching for unique tone ideas for airy tones. I shall save up for your kit.
I did a coil split on my les Paul and in my opinion should be an option in every les Paul especially for that steep Gibson price but your coil split sounds amazing Dylan and I messed with you a little bit about never playing guitar you sounded good my guy. Cool riffs, soo many great tones awesome video
Do you have covers on your pickups?
i think the humbucker sounds of the centerpunch are very nice. honestly, my ears still hear the characteristic split coil ‘crispy’ mid-high frequency Notch that makes it sound cheap. thanks for attempting an objective test.
Dylan, I agree with you. I really like the sound of the split coil on the neck pickup. It really sound like a real single coil.
The Neck pickup in "split mode" sounds gorgeous. What a simple cost effective way to give a humbucker guitar a new lease of life for those songs which require really pretty "super clean" tones. I loved it. There's a reason why Jimmy Page used a Stratocaster for Zeppelin's beautiful song Ten Years Gone - when you need the clean chime like tones, a single coil can deliver the goods. A fantastic option. Definitely on my want to buy list!
Yeah. Nice. I got an Epiphone LP with "probuckers" in it. They say they're wound heavy on the screw side for tapping. Sounded good. No significant volume drop. I ordered some cheap replacement pickups that are much hotter and were more evenly wound. I notice a slight volume drop when it's turned down to 3 but when you dime it, no volume drop at all. Sounds amazing.
As someone who loves single coils and hates most coil splits ... well done!
Really enjoy the sound of those pickups, I generally stick to hotter pickups, but those really sound good!
Split coil sounds fantastic!
Beautiful tones from that setup! Great job Dylan! 🤟🏼
Nice. But TH-cam suggested this video about a week too late. I started a project of gutting and replacing the absolute garbage electronics in my PRS S2. And I replaced the ever scratchy push-pull pots with regular pots because I figured I’d never use the typical anemic split sound. But I do like the single coil sound (especially in the neck position) so these are intriguing.
The Lindy Fralin Unbucker starts from a different place. Lower DCR vintage style humbucker wind, unevenly wound coils so that the split for single coil is still in the 5K range of a total 8K DCR humbucker. Very toneful as a humbucker, and very useful single coil tones. Little actually volume drop of which is instead perceived as a change from humbucker girth versus single coil chime. Installed these in two guitars, I liked them so much, and because they were that toneful and useful. Love the Unbucker neck single coil sound. The two humbuckers split sound like a Tele in middle position. The bridge pickup split is least effective and doesn’t match a good Strat or Tele bridge pickup, but is still very useful in live context to add chime.
Sounds better than all the stock splits I have used up to now!
With my G&L Fallout, the bridge hum (an OEM take adapted from the JB) splits to sort of an in-between Strat sound, which has grown on me and combines well with the neck P90.
BUT you absolutely have a fuller sound going on with these slug-side splits. Meaty!
Def sounds good! I'm also curious: What's your opinion on doing a series/parallel push/pull? I've heard of people doing this as an alternative to coil splitting, as it gives a tonal shift without getting that horrible volume drop.
In my opinion series/parallel is superior to coil split! It gives a single coil type of tone, but fatter and louder than coil split. And most importantly, without any hum.
I did this on one of my jazz basses. Series just fattens it up and gives it a real push over the top.
@@joebodynobody764 nonono, humbuckers are already wired in series. Series/parallel switching for humbuckers means you can switch them from series to parallel to get a very single coil -type of sound but just without the single coil hum.
Lol.. Alternately I have a push pull series parallel on my P Bass.. I've been messing with my neck pickups trying to find that right combo and a really hot bridge pickup in Parallel does the deal if you ignore pole spacing.. The idea Dylan has here seems legit
@@oskarileikos my jazz bsss is just the opposite. They typically are wired in parallel. I like the series switch to beef up the sound.
I have been wiring my guitars to switch the humbuckers from series to parallel. It doesn't really sound like a single coil but it's a different sound and is still noise cancelling. I know this is nothing new, just saying I think split coils sound crappy too. Your Centerpunch really sounds great. I'm impressed. Why did it take so long for someone to figure this out? Once again, thanks for the video.
On my next humbucker project, I think, I would like to try the centerpunch pickup with the single coil windings on the slug side. On my Gibson, I have custom wound Unbuckers by Lindy Fralin and Jimmy page 50s style wiring. Unbuckers use the screw side as single coil cut. Been rocking my Gibson guitar for 20 years now and it sounds fantastic.
Thats friggin awesome! Properly wound coils to do a balanced coil split !
The problem with a coil split is that it’s either fully on or fully off, you can’t adjust the amount. Google spin-a-split. Basically it’s a coil split that is controllable by a pot. So simple to wire too, take the two unused humbucker wires and run to center lug on a 50k linear pot. Run a ground wire to one of the other lugs and you’re done. You can now control the amount of the split. I found the best single coil tones aren’t full off, but blending in just a bit of the other pickup. Also solves any volume drop issues. I’m in love with this mod, so versatile. You can dial in some perfect tones.
Nice, gives me an idea as well. Using different coil wire & winds is a great way to get closer to having the best of both worlds. I'm thinking don't split, tap. Only tap one coil of the humbucking pair. I'm thinking the one you shut off but instead of off I'm thinking just barely on to cancel just a little bit of hum and a tiny bit of super highs. Thanx.
My first experiment: Cheep Squire pickup for the always full on coil, for the tapable(blendable,meh) coil I have a $12 sooooper hot to sacrifice. I'll do the blend knob as a test while unwinding the hot one to have less than half its wire. It may have to much wax to pull that off so I might wind a coil from scratch.
Again, I think your idea is and your pickup is surprisingly good. Thanx much to you DTT.
Those pickups sound pretty damn fantastic!
I know what you mean about splitting humbuckers, it can be really dissappointing sometimes. I thought your idea of deliberately using a different wire guage works fantastically well, gives a really nice chunky full single coil sound.
Ok, now that sounds crazy! Excellent job on this upgrade, Dylan. I've been using a boost pedal when i play my SG that's coil tapped, and tweeking it so the sound level stays close to the same, but it doesn't doing like THAT!
Sounds great, Dylan! Thanks for the vid, man
I actually like the volume drop and tone of a normal split humbucker. It has it's uses, and I find some humbuckers when split can give this nice old school, kinda "trashy" tone that can be cool. For example I have a Godin Session that is HSS with a split on the bridge bucker. I find when I balance the screw pieces(it splits to have only that coil on) and turn the tone knob down a bit, it actually has this really nice tone for Beatles slightly dirty rhythm stuff. It sounds kinda like an old school, cheap, low output pickup of some kind. I didn't realize this was a tone I actually wanted until I got the guitar. Usually I go for more full tones, but I've been really digging the tones from that split coil. It's also the coil closest to the bridge, so it has some twang. Sounds nice in the bridge/middle position too, probably better than on my strat actually. Sounds great for funk.
edit: I also find if you want a slightly better split bridge bucker sound, then if you're splitting to the screw piece coil to flip the pickup around so it's closer to the neck. I like to do that anyway. It's not a huge change in tone when it's a humbucker, but it's more of a change when it's split. You could also just split to the slug piece coil, but I like to use the screw coil to adjust for string volume. But like I was saying above, splitting to the one closer to the bridge can have it's uses too, but usually the other way sounds nicer. But it also changes the bridge/middle position's tone a bit. Whether or not you like it is up to you.
And cool vid, they sound pretty good split
Sounds great! I've used Joe Barden's for years for the same reason - good split tone, which I use 75% of the time.
I've got a Les Paul Custom with the P500T and P496R and the Jimmy Page switching system. The coil-splitting sounds great. If I put gold covers on the pickups they seem to sound different. Maybe that's the problem with the coil-splitting.
That coil split sounds good! My problem with coil splitting is that I don't think I like the sound of humbuckers, so why bother... It seems I end up playing single coils, so nowdays I'm not even looking for humbuckers anymore.
My best friend, who is working with electronics (damn good at it, though tends to underestimate his stuff to the point he exploded amplifier he was building from the scratch that was meant to be Mesa Triple Recti on steroids) did coil splitting on a stock neck pickup on my Flame guitar (basically Mayones LP-style guitars before Mayones made name for themselves), partially because the stock pickup was incredibly muddy and I wouldn't be too gutted if he fucked it up and partially cause I play in a noise rock band, so for the most part I can work around the absolutely awful sounds with arrangements.
He ended up rewiring it in a way he doesn't completely understand, because he took a bit of a break from working on it and couldn't remember a damn thing, so he went by the parts he already had finished as a guideline - by sight and rough estimates. Luck of the draw - the split neck pickup is at the moment my go-to tone, since for some unholy reason he managed to make it so that with my JC22 (the budget amp line Soldano designs), it is incredibly clear while retaining the punch - when on the OD channel sounds like something out of Jesus Lizard or later day Unsane rig and when clean it has this jazzy, punchy quality, which is perfect for me. Even the 'regular' mode is way better now, but given the rewiring it's not really too much of a wonder. Sits in a mix really well too. Plus willing to bet he would never be able to recreate that, which has a nice faux romantic feel to it, having something that by chance became a part of my rig I would never swap out, even if I could afford an upgrade to a better guitar.
Just an anectode, sure - but truth be told if yourpickup is, well, awful and you're willing to spend some cash to upgrade anyway, I'd give it to someone who messes with the stuff just to see what happens. The more of a crazy person the better. Worst case scenario you upgrade to a proper single if that's your style (and potentially make your ears bleed while testing the mod if someone f's up big time), best case scenario you work with it and develop your own sound (part of the reason why I also rely on him to build some of my effects). Absolutely non-scientific approach, but I find that while it's important to know about the stuff and make conscious, educated decisions (and honestly, watching your videos finally made it clear for me how the basics go regarding pickups), taking a chance is, you know, exciting and stupid. As long as you can afford to, these asinine experiments can be really fun.
I look forward to demos of your products
Sounds great! My Les Paul Standard has coil splitting capability, but I don’t use it very often unless it’s a really clean tone and only on the neck pickup usually. I hate the buzzing and volume drop with the gain turned up. I’m more of a humbucker guy anyway though tbh.
I like the sound of the neck pickup in both modes although I would prefer the single coil on the coil towards the neck. The bridge pickup sounded way to nasally in humbucker mode.
I once tried a SD Custom hybrid, which also has two very differently wound coils and I didn´t like it at all. I even let a pickup builder in Germany build me a humbucker that consisted of two real strat singlecoils. One of the coils had more windings but also a tap so in humbucker mode you had two similarly wound coils and in split mode only one, but stronger coil. That sounded pretty good in split mode but the two coils together didn´t sound like a regular humbucker due to the different shape of the magnetic field.
I now usually put a 330pF capacitor in parallel to a splitted PAF style humbucker, which drops the resonance frequency down to the area of a real single coil. However I have to live with the volume drop.
Do you think series/parallel is more useful than a coil split? I agree with you that split sounds are usually pretty bad.
Great video, many thanks, fantastic sounds!
Hey Dylan! I love these! I might get ones soon. But was wondering, what's the difference between the centerpunch and the centerpunch 8? Do you ship worldwide?
Sounds pretty good bro, I was going to put a fender double tap on my hss strat but I may have to reevaluate now.
I'm impressed, it actually does sound like a single coil pickup. Great job. I'm going to buy one a set of these sooner or later.
Did you make a video yet on pickup impedance (or resistance) and other physical values that matter for a newb like me?
Great approach (and result) to the main split coil shortcoming. To me, there is however a second problem. I love the sound of a neck single coil but - in most guitars (if not all) - the single coil is the farthest from the neck, and it pushes the tone towards a middle pickup. Why is this done this done this way? Why isn’t the active half, the one on the neck side?
Sounds good. But i would describe most of my issue with a split coil humbucker is that it sounds off like way too hot and harsh not more mellow like a natural single coil
How about a tutorial on putting the coils in parallel and out of phase?
Wow! That is an amazing, sweet split sound! Almost reminds me of DeArmonds in old Gretsches.
Brilliant idea.
What is your opinion on lipstick pickups? I'd like to hear your insight and opinion on unconventional pickup designs; lipsticks, Lace, MFD pickups (g&l), etc.
your pickups seem to do something like Dean Zelinsky's "side-kick" pickup, when the coil is split there is no volume drop... :)
Beautiful guitar with a beautiful sound. Although I mostly play SSS or HSS in the 2nd and 4th position, if I do an HH build, I will definitely put in the pickups.
Ask and you shall receive! Thanks for the video and will be looking into these on my next build! How about a monthly Dylan pickup video!?!
I need to update my website so we may do it more often than that for a while.
Holy crap. A beautiful coil split. I love my burstbucker guitars, but always feel they sound like a bad tele bridge pickup when split.
Thanks man. We have worked on these a while.
Series adds, it’s like batteries, why is there no volume drop if you are essentially using only one coil?
Sounds great!
10/23/2021: I have been wondering if I purchased an H-H setup with a 3-way switch, could I split both humbuckers and get a quacky twangy country sound in the middle position of the selector switch? You know, just like a Telecaster can do.
The Pasadena and Pasadena + in my opinion have the best sounding best balanced coil split. Everyone should check them out. They come in a schector solo 2 costome. Darell has a good review of them
Nice job on those splitable pickups,no volume drops going on when you switched, how long did it take you to figure out the turns of windings to match the output of the full humbucker mode,did you waste a lot of material rewinding or did you get lucky the first time, you made one,just kinda curious thanks.
Exactly what I'm looking for, question though, I just got a new Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro, everything is cool but the that coil split sound, they have the quick connect system stock, do your Humbuckers come with your possibly could do a video on how to install something like that, I've heard these Epiphone's systems are different size than most quick connect systems.
Very nice!
Hi D can you do a video on the difrence between bass pick ups and guitar pick ups
sounded great!!
This is cool! I'm trying new pickups from time to time...had some Duncans, had some Dimarzios, had some Bare Knuckles. But this is stepping things up a bit, I put this on my ever-growing wish list. Quick question: Can you also coil split the Centerpunch/8-ball and use the screw-coil instead (well technically you can, of course) ...but I mean, will it sound any good or will it sound weird? Using the outer-coils sounds similar to a Telecaster, which is also nice to have.
How much have you experimented with partial coil splits?
Sounds great to me.
Dylan, please, can you give me a link to a video that you made with this humbucker in a Strat guitar. I looked at all your videos but I cannot find that particular video that you said you made. Thanks very much.
Those pickups sound great! Great clarity and like no volume drop either!!
Both neck sounds are lovely, full and split. I noticed I'm still not a fan o bridge PU clean, I really don't like it.
Hi Dylan, what do you think about Lace Alumitone pickups? Could you maybe do a video with them or something?
I just bought PRS SE custom 24 that the previous owner had installed Seymour Duncan 59 neck Pearly gates in bridge. Both can be coil split. I rather enjoy playing that guitar in split coil mode.
I did hear that the original pups that come in this model don’t sound good split at all.
I used to own a 1979 ES-335, in the typical dark walnut finish of that period. It had a coil split toggle switch on the treble horn. I think I used it one or two times. It sounded awful.
I have only had luck splitting emg pickups ans have them sound good without volume drop as other pickups i have split i've gotten volume drop. I 'm now considering these pickups.
Is it just an optical illusion or is the bridge not exactly parallel to the tailpiece, pickups, and nut? Sorry for the stupid question.
Tom Hamrick it’s not and it’s not supposed to be. Look at pictures of les Pauls or really any guitar with that style bridge and you’ll see that it’s on an angle
@@JoshBattershell Thanks, Josh.
That sounds pretty sweet. Again, it would be great to hear your thoughts on Seymour Duncan P-rails. Hope you'll consider doing it.
🍻
Do you plan on making any of these with cream bobbins?
All of our humbuckers are available in black and cream zebra, but we can’t make double cream.
I disagree with the view that most other split-coil feature guitars sound "bad". That's not true. In recent years, guitars with split-coil feature have done a great job in providing an excellent single-coil tone from humbuckers. As a single-coil pickup lover, let me explain...
I am a Fender single-coil pickup fanatic, both Teles and Strats. I don't much enjoy the somewhat dulled-down tone of typical PAF-style humbuckers, as compared to true single-coil pickups.
I have found a number of commonly popular guitars with "split-coil" feature that sound GREAT with the split-coil/single-coil feature enabled - among them Epiphone does an awesome job with this feature, and so does PRS.
For example, I have two Epiphone ES-Les Paul guitars (2017 and 2019) with the split-coil feature and they sound AWESOME in single-coil mode. Very pleasing to me (as a devout Fender single-coil guitar lover.)
I also have a 2014 Epiphone ES-339 with the split-coil feature, which sounds FABULOUS in single coil mode, as well. And, I have a PRS SE Custom 22 Semi-Hollow guitar, with split-coil feature. It, too, sounds fantastic with the coils split to single-coil.
In addition, I took a pair of Epiphone ProBucker pickups (each with 4-leads coming off) and wired them into one of my Teles, but using only two leads from each hum bucker. Essentially, this only uses one of the two coils inside each humbucker. Result? This Tele sounds very single-coil (because it IS) and fantastic. No magic to it. Just simple wiring of a humbucker to use one of the two coils.
Seems legit. How would these do parallel?
They do parallel very well.
Disappointing not to hear the bridge position full - split. I would really like to hear the Centerpunch humbucker in a good Strat with the Centerpunch split in combination with the Strat middle single.
We have a few of these videos. Since it’s our top selling pickup
@@DylanTalksTone Hi Dylan. Thanks for that. Could you hook me a link to these videos?
That is very good
Dylan, I will like to inquire about a neck and middle single coil pickups. I really will like to try your pickups. Where can I reach you to see what you recommend me for what I am looking for?. Thank you
Dylantalkstone.com
Is split coil worse than a single coil?
It's a little more quacky but to be "strat esk" yeah got to have that great big hole in vhf the body. I have a 1967 strat with humbuggies in it and it still sounds like a strat. I mean I wired it so only the outside coils are on and those are really hot Dimarezos pups. It's funny the shit we try to make guitars sound like other guitars. I don't think it can be done. If you want a lp sound ya got to play a lp. Like wise if your interested in the strat or tele sound.
Instead of killing one coil, a partial split is where it's at. Use a 1.1K to 3.3K resistor to ground rather than just a wire to ground. 1.1K for the neck and 2.2K for the bridge works well. Experiment.
How much volume drop off will that give? )Dylan says in another video that the drop off for his centerpunch is 40%) And does that sound like a real single coil pickup?
What do you think about putting one in the tele neck position? Something I wanted.to do for a while. Or n a revrend trickshot?
Oh... amazing. I just did that in one of my custo builds for a client
Hi Dylan
Is there any way to wire a guitar so the humbucker sees 500k but the split coil sees 250k. Had my sg wired up with 300k. The coil splits sound amazing but the humbuckers are on the muddy side
what kind of push-pull pot you used?
My Seymour Duncan Invader is probably the best sound split humbucker I have ever heard.
Can you ship the pickups to India?? I'm really into it
Yes
Hey guys I recently got my 3rd guitar. It's a Fender Duo Sonic with a Humbucker Bridge and a Single Coil Neck.
I own a Jazzmaster and a Mustang with p90's so i've not encountered this problem and want advice:
I switch between the Neck and Bridge constantly with the music I play. I'm losing so much volume on Neck pickup (because SC are lower output). I've adjusted my Neck pickup as high as playably possible and my Bridge as low without being too extreme. No luck on fixing the issue.
Would putting a hot rail in the neck help? Any advice to help sort this would massively help me out
Kinda sounds like parallel wiring tbh
Make one in wrhb size?
can anyone tell me what model ibanez that is?
Ibanez AX120, I believe
very nice.
All hail the Algorithm!
68th.
I just want a clean single, to go in a bucker hole.
So, you basically saved guitars.
Well i did win i am in Canada and your in Georgia you ain't driving here
Unbucker copy