PRS coil split wiring resistor

[Wayne27]

Why don’t all humbuckers have PRS coil split wiring resistors? They seem to work perfectly and sound great.

[jeremy]

i added the resistor on one guitar and i like it, but sometimes i want the big change

[Mincer]

Please explain what the resistor does...I am not familiar with how PRS does it.

[Wayne27]

Please explain what the resistor does...I am not familiar with how PRS does it.

From what I read, they pretty much help the humbucker to keep a good amount of volume when doing coil splitting so they can have the full sound of a real single coil pickup.

[Wayne27]

Please explain what the resistor does...I am not familiar with how PRS does it.

I believe they also call it partial coil splitting.

[skelt101]

Please explain what the resistor does...I am not familiar with how PRS does it.

The resistor is placed between the splittable coil and ground so that some of the signal is retained. I guess it’s similar to a “spin-a-split”, except the resistor is not variable. Here’s an example:

https://d159anurvk4929.cloudfront.net/documents/prs_ce24_wiring_schematic.pdf

[ThreeChordWonder]

Here's a linkry to the Fralin version

https://humbuckersoup.com/partial-tap-resistor-advanced-techniques/

[Mincer]

The resistor is placed between the splittable coil and ground so that some of the signal is retained. I guess it’s similar to a “spin-a-split”, except the resistor is not variable. Here’s an example:
https://d159anurvk4929.cloudfront.ne..._schematic.pdf

Got it, that makes sense. What value resistor?

[skelt101]

Got it, that makes sense. What value resistor?

1.1k for the neck and 2.2k for the bridge.

[hamerfan]

It depends on the tone you want and the DCR of the pickup. I preferred it slightly higher and put a 2.7k in the neck.

[ErikH]

I've done this myself. I settled on 2.2k for both the Whole Lotta Humbucker neck and the Screamin' Demon. It pulls up the DCR to the 6k range and adds a little more output to it. It's great for vintage output humbuckers. I made a thread on it last year after wiring it up.

[BluesIsBlood12]

For low output pickups I think this is clearly superior. Even though it's not really a single coil tone, it's highly useable. For high output pickups the regular split is probably a better way to go.

[eclecticsynergy]

This brilliant idea was originally proposed by Bill Lawrence back in the 70s. It languished pretty much forgotten because back then the only production humbuckers wired for splits were high output and didn't need the help.

PRS revived the idea in the 21st century and it has gained wider popularity because it works very well indeed.

An adjustable version can be done using a trimpot instead of a fixed resistor.
That way you can set it to taste, and if desired you can always redial it later.
Not tweakable moment-to-moment like a true spin a split - but you don't have to sacrifice a tone control.

[chadd]

Doesn't work at all on my S2, I get full volume of both coils regardless of how/where it is connected

[AlexR]

Why don’t all humbuckers have PRS coil split wiring resistors? They seem to work perfectly and sound great.

Because thats product of the wiring scheme, not the pickup itself.