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Hi again, I'd like to share with pickup makers something interesting I found while analyzing some "coil tapped" Strat pickups. All of those details are here Seymour Duncan SSL-4, Analysis and Review | Fender Stratocaster Guitar Forum
The finding that I think pickup makers might be interested in is it appeared to me that, when a tappable pickup is coil tapped, there is a significant amount of capacitive coupling between the active inner coil, and the inactive outer coil. This is because when a coil is tapped, usually the outer portion of the coil is still physically touching the rest of the circuit at that tap point, though it's not inducing a current, as it's not connected at one end, but it's still able to capacitively couple with the inner portion of the coil, just as a grounded cover or base plate would, but to the extreme in this case, due to the point blank proximity between the active inner coil and inactive outer coil.
The take away is that if you want to construct a tapped coil, and get the inner coil to sound more like an underwound coil, try fully disconnecting the outer coil so that it can't capacitively couple. This can be done with a DPDT push/pull, since only one half is required to tap the pickup, the other half of the DPDT can be used to also disconnect the outer coil at tap point. It would also require four conductor cable, and have both halves of the coil connected with their own positive and negative lead wires, similar to a four conductor humbucker scenario, but the potential payoff is a superior tapped tone.
The finding that I think pickup makers might be interested in is it appeared to me that, when a tappable pickup is coil tapped, there is a significant amount of capacitive coupling between the active inner coil, and the inactive outer coil. This is because when a coil is tapped, usually the outer portion of the coil is still physically touching the rest of the circuit at that tap point, though it's not inducing a current, as it's not connected at one end, but it's still able to capacitively couple with the inner portion of the coil, just as a grounded cover or base plate would, but to the extreme in this case, due to the point blank proximity between the active inner coil and inactive outer coil.
The take away is that if you want to construct a tapped coil, and get the inner coil to sound more like an underwound coil, try fully disconnecting the outer coil so that it can't capacitively couple. This can be done with a DPDT push/pull, since only one half is required to tap the pickup, the other half of the DPDT can be used to also disconnect the outer coil at tap point. It would also require four conductor cable, and have both halves of the coil connected with their own positive and negative lead wires, similar to a four conductor humbucker scenario, but the potential payoff is a superior tapped tone.
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