question RE pot value for spin-a-split

[daz]

I have a dual ganged pot thats 100k on both and no load at the 10 position. I want to use it as a splitter for both neck and middle pickups. But i'm wondering if the value will leave me without the sounds i want. I really like the pickups when split and when full, but i feel the in between sounds will be just right. However, with 100k i'm not sure if the tone will be able to get far enough from the split tone with 100k, tho i don't know how the pot value relates to the pickups which are 10k so i would think 100k is plenty. But then you have paralleled values and whatever else....my tiny brain can't wrap around that stuff. What value will allow me the full range from fully HB to fully split? Will the 100k do it?

[eschertron]

Post a schem of what you intend to do. Maybe I'm way off, but what resistance is you volume pot? even if you have 250K, paralleling it with 100K will load the pickups quite a bit, if I understand how you want to wire the split. can you clip a 100K resistor between the coil tap and ground on one of your pickups to hear what it sounds like? That's what it will sound like with the dial-a-split all the way off. I haven't experimented with a "variable split", but I think I'd start by sending the tap to ground through a variety of resistances, and then when I have a sound I like, figure I'd need a pot 2x to 3x bigger than that value.

[daz]

Post a schem of what you intend to do. Maybe I'm way off, but what resistance is you volume pot? even if you have 250K, paralleling it with 100K will load the pickups quite a bit, if I understand how you want to wire the split. can you clip a 100K resistor between the coil tap and ground on one of your pickups to hear what it sounds like? That's what it will sound like with the dial-a-split all the way off. I haven't experimented with a "variable split", but I think I'd start by sending the tap to ground through a variety of resistances, and then when I have a sound I like, figure I'd need a pot 2x to 3x bigger than that value.

Just a simple coil split to cut one coil of the humbucker. It won't be paralleling a 100k with the volume pot. But a dual ganged pot so i can have it cut both humbuckers. All i'd be doing is taking the coil wires that are used to cut one coil and soldering them to the wiper and grounding one one side of the pots. In the other direction the pot is no load so it's just like theres no connections at all to the splitting wires. Not that i think it matters, but vol pot is 250k.

Basically the range between 250k and 100k will be missing and i'm wondering if i will be missing some "mostly HB" tones with just a touch of the SC sound in there or if 100k from ground is enough to get that. I don't want to turn it from the no load position and have a instant big jump to mostly single coil sounding and miss out on the more gradual in between tones. So i wanna know if a 100k is enough to get the tones that are just beginning to reveal a difference over the full HB tone.

[eschertron]

So i wanna know if a 100k is enough to get the tones that are just beginning to reveal a difference over the full HB tone.

I'm not sure how much this is relevant, but I just read a couple of threads about paralleling different Ohmage speakers on different taps on a output transformer; the consensus, after much math and debate, was that to the output transformer an 8-Ohm speaker on the 8-Ohm tap along with a 16-Ohm speaker on the 16-Ohm tap was identical (to the transformer, and to the power section and hence to the speakers) as two 8-Ohm speakers on the 8-Ohm tap OR two 16-Ohm speakers on the 16-Ohm tap.

Since pickup coils are inductors *just like* the secondaries of the OT, and the guitar's pots - in this case volume on the whole pickup and the 'splitter' pot on the one coil - present loads in similar fashion to the pickup that the speakers present to the OT, my conjecture is that the two loads (volume pot plus dial-a-tap pot) will load down the pickup coil in a similar fashion. Would you put a 100K pot on the volume of your guitar and find that acceptable? My thought experiment tells me that with a 100K pot on the splitter, and with it 'wide open', the net result on your guitar's sound will be similar. Is your guitar playable with the volume control at 6 or lower? that might be what it sounds like.

My gut tells me that while when the tap is grounded you'll get the single-coil sound you're after, but when the 100K is in line between the tap and ground you'll get a soft and mushy humbucker sound. I think if you want to get "just the beginning" of a difference from a full HB sound you'll need a bigger pot. When you try it, and you find I'm wrong, please let me know so I can learn from this right along with you.