# Coil Splitting



## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Had a question, but i found the answer. How do i delete this thread?


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## ed2000 (Feb 16, 2007)

Aww, clicked here to be enlightened, Leaving disappointed.


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## bluzfish (Mar 12, 2011)

I think it may have something to do with a coil of some sort showing up and then leaving?


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

bluzfish said:


> I think it may have something to do with a coil of some sort showing up and then leaving?


As in "Coil has left the building" ????


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## ed2000 (Feb 16, 2007)

I did a modification to a 70's DiMarzio Super(duper) dual sound humbucker. The challenge was to fit a standard size humbucker into a P90 dimensioned route on a 79 Les Paul Pro Deluxe. I physically split the coils apart, de-wound both coils to read 6K each, filed the plastic coil flanges so they sat close together, connected them in parallel, reduced width of the brass mounting base and elongated the coil mounting holes. Once the coils were mounted and taped together it was a friction fit into the P90 slot. It looked cool to see a cream coloured P90 in the neck and a cream coloured HB in the bridge. I no longer have the guitar but held onto the slimmed and de-fatted HB.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

ed2000 said:


> I did a modification to a 70's DiMarzio Super(duper) dual sound humbucker. The challenge was to fit a standard size humbucker into a P90 dimensioned route on a 79 Les Paul Pro Deluxe. *I physically split the coils apart, de-wound both coils to read 6K each, filed the plastic coil flanges so they sat close together, connected them in parallel, reduced width of the brass mounting base and elongated the coil mounting holes. *Once the coils were mounted and taped together it was a friction fit into the P90 slot. It looked cool to see a cream coloured P90 in the neck and a cream coloured HB in the bridge. I no longer have the guitar but held onto the slimmed and de-fatted HB.


Nominated for the GC Forum award for determination and dedication to a task for the global enhancement of music.

Cheers

Dave


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## ed2000 (Feb 16, 2007)

greco said:


> Nominated for the GC Forum award for determination and dedication to a task for the global enhancement of music.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Dave


It took a lot of guts to admit that, on this forum, for the fear of being taunted by the purists.





























I modified the rotary switches to be lower profile to fit my SG
Options were: single coil front or rear, parallel, series and phase.
Back in the 70's and 80's I used to scour the electronic bargain bin stores for neato stuff.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Well, if you guys want something to discuss...

I have an Epiphone Black Beauty with 3 pups. So i swapped out the stockers and put a Seymour Duncan JB at the bridge, a Seymour Duncan Jazz at the neck, and a Lindy Fralin p92 in the middle. ( wanted his P90 but it didn;t come in gold).

Anyway, I wanted the most combinations possible from these 3 pups, so I got in contact with Free-way and asked them to send me some schematics on how I could hook those pups up with the 6 way switch they make. I wanted to keep the guitar sort of the way Peter Frampton has his 3 pup les paul. The middle pup with one set of controls and the neck/bridge pups on the other set. Alisdair from freeway sent me about 10 schematics and I decided to go with this schematic.











Now I have a ton of new pots kicking around and also some push pulls. So I was thinking of throwing in the one optional push pull to coil split the neck and bridge. But my dilemma was which coils to tap. There really isn't much information out there. Should I tap north on both coils, south on both coils, or one north and one south ( if i did one north, one south would they be hum cancelling? I can wire anything up if I have a drawing, but understanding the drawing is another matter. LOL. 

So my question was, if you were to go this route, would you tap north or south or one of each assuming you would still get them to cancel the hum...


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

1) Nice to finally see someone using the Freeway switch. I look forward to your impressions of it, as a user.

2) The easiest coil cancelling is generally done by shorting out whichever coil is between the the inter-coil junction, and ground. That is, one cancels the coil by running a connection from the junction to ground. Now, whether the remaining coil is closer to the bridge or to the end of the fretboard is a whole other thing. My own preference is to keep the neck-side coil of the neck pickup and the bridge-side coil of the bridge pickup, cancelling the inner ones, whichever sort of connection is required to accomplish that. This way, you get the most tonal contrast between pickups, such that the coil-cancellation option adds some real value, rather than merely being an I-did-all-possible-mods accomplishment.

3) My own sentiment is that one always needs to strike a balance between having more tonal options available, and turning the guitar, and pickup selection, into a combination lock. You don't want to create the one, while in pursuit of the other, because you'll have to devote too much attention to switching, and not enough to phrasing. That's one of the things I find appealing about the Freeway, is that it takes what _could_ be 2 or more switches, and turns it onto one joystick-like master switch. It's not that it makes more possibilities accessible, but that it does so without complicating the user interface. I often distinguish between real innovation and ephemeral technology by calling only that which makes a greying fart like myself mutter "Finally!" a real innovation. It has to solve an enduring problem, not just be "kewl". The Freeway is a real innovation.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

The stupid thing is, i wanted to use the Seymour Duncan triple shots, it may have made life a lot easier. But I went with the free-way because I misread the triple shot warning about metal covered trembuckers not fitting in the triple shots. Then I realized it said trembucker, not humbucker, and I had already bought the freeway. And to tell the truth, because it is an epiphone and not a true gibson, I have a feeling the triple shots will need some sanding/shaping to fit the epiphone properly. Which is not something I felt comfortable trying. 

The reason I tried to delete the thread was I don't really think I need 10 or 12 combos on this guitar, so I decided to just go with a normal pot instead of the push pull and not use the coil split.


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## Mateo2006 (May 31, 2015)

I'd be interested to hear how you like the the p-92s.

Premier Guitar did a review of p-90s which fit into humbucker slots: http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/20058-humbucker-sized-p-90-review-roundup?page=3

And on the strength of that I bought the regular p-90s for my PRS rather than the p-92s. Lots of people diggin' on those p-92s though.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

I would have grabbed the P90 but it didn't come in gold. And I also wanted the P90 because it was pointed out to me that perhaps the outside humbucker's magnetic field would interfere with the middle pup, and the middle pup magnetic field would interfere with the outside pups. Not a lot, but I'm sure the fields overlap so I wanted the p90 to lessen that effect. The offset p92 probably doesn't accomplish that but after listening to countless sound clips I found Lindy's p92 to be more appealing to me for the options with gold covers. And the offset of the p92 may help a bit with the overlap more so than a 3rd dual coil humbucker.


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