coil tap

[musomaniac]

hi guys i have a Kramer Stagemaster Standard , the one with just one humbucker and one volume pot , what i would like to do is coil tap the humbucker so i have more control over my sound , i would like to use a pull switch instead of the volume pot i have now .

Would it be possible to explain how this is done , i want to attempt it myself , i can solder reasonably well , but would need help on what wires go where ,and also whether or not i would have to have a capacitor to improve the sound of the single coil .

Thanks in advance .

[Mark Hammer]

Each coil in that humbucker will have two wires. One of the wires in one coil will be connected to one of the wires in the other, placing the coils in series.

You will have 4 options resulting from that:
1) the two coils in series, as they presently are;
2) the two coils in parallel, which produces hum-rejection, but will have a slightly different tone that is not quite as hot and a bit brighter;
3) coil A but not B (no hum rejection, and less output)
4) coil B but not A (same constraints)

Depending on your tonal preferences, and where the pickup is situated on the guitar, you may prefer to omit #3 and keep #4, or the reverse. I am not thinking about it too deeply at the moment, but at first blush I think you should be able to accomplish this with a 3-position toggle. Naturally, this would entail doing more modification to the pickguard and body than you probably want to do.

In which case, using a push-pull pot to cancel one of the coils, OR to convert from series to parallel using both coils, is about as complicated as you're going to get. The need for any sort of added cap would depend on what you like, what the thing sounds like, pre and post mod, and what your rig is like.

Stated most simply, though, the pickup currently consists of a wire going to the volume pot, and another going to ground. Cancelling one of the coils would involve running a wire from the switch to ground, and another from the junction between the coils (where they connect to each other inside the pickup cover) to the switch. When you pull the switch out, the mid-way connection gets tied to ground and voila, only one of the coils is now doing the signal sensing.

make sense?

[big_teee]

Try this.
Wiring Diagram
Terry

[musomaniac]

thanks for the reply , heres a pic of my guitar , i don't understand the diagram you pointed me to , how is there 5 wires coming from the pick up ? soory for being such a dumb ass , but i have no idea when it comes to electronics ,the only thing i do is make leads for the band when required , hence i am pretty good for soldering

[musomaniac]

just found out that the humbucker in the Kramer is not the original seymour duncan , its a Fernandes humbucker , is it worth coil tapping this pickup , or should i put something else in first , if i need to put another pickup in what would you recommend , i play classic rock through to modern rock , with a bit satch type stuff thrown in as well .
I also need to play clean at times , hence the coil tap issue .

[Mark Hammer]

The manufacturer of the pickup doesn't matter. Both the Fernandes and SD use two coils, each having two wires. The difference between them - apart from tone - will be that maybe the wire colours for each coil will be different. Either way, whether the junction between the two coils is red+white, black+green, purple+barberpole, sparkle+dull, connecting it to ground, as shown, will render one of the coils from the pickup out-of-circuit.

Since your guitar does not currently have too many tonal options (no tone pot and only one pickup), consider using the "leftover" set of contacts on the pot switch to engage a bypass cap on the volume pot for a little more bite from the remaining coil.

You want to know how possibly to wire that up, I'm guessing? The SD diagram big teee showed uses two of the lugs on one side of the switch. To do what I am suggesting, you would use the two analogous lugs on the other half of the switch. You would run a cap from the input lug of the volume pot to one of those two switch lugs, and a piece of wire from the other pot lug to the wiper of the pot. This would insert a bypass cap on the volume pot when you cancelled a coil.

What value cap? My own inclination would be to use something in the 680pf to 1200pf range, but that will be up to you. This is a larger value than people normally use for a traditional treble compensation cap in Fender guitars. It will preserve the top end as you turn down, but given its larger value will also retain more of the upper mids as well; retaining more mids with a larger value. I like to use it make a bridge pickup more chicken-pickin-friendly.

[David Schwab]

just found out that the humbucker in the Kramer is not the original seymour duncan , its a Fernandes humbucker , is it worth coil tapping this pickup , or should i put something else in first , if i need to put another pickup in what would you recommend , i play classic rock through to modern rock , with a bit satch type stuff thrown in as well .
I also need to play clean at times , hence the coil tap issue .

How many wires is coming out of the Fernandes humbucker? If you have a 4 conductor cable, you can coil tap. If you have a 2 conductor, you can't, unless you rewire the pickup.