Coil Splitting Questions.

[Rick540]

I've got two Jackson DX10D guitars. Both are HxH setups with 1 volume and 1 tone. One still has both the Duncan Designed pickups in it and in the other I replaced the bridge with a DiMarzio Fred. I'm planning on replacing the pickups in both with a JB/Jazz combo and would also like to coil tap them. I have a few questions though that maybe you guys can clear up for me.

Besides installing the Fred on one of the Jacksons, I don't have any other experience with guitar electronics. I've read quite a bit about the subject though and can solder (which I taught myself before installing the Fred), so I'm confident I can do what I'm trying to do.

I figure while I'm in there replacing pickups I might as well replace all the wiring, pots, switches and jacks since all that stuff is relatively inexpensive. Plus it'll be a good learning experience.

As I said, I would like to coil tap the pickups so that I have more tone choices. It's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it right? Anyway, my main concern is what switch I'll need.

The wiring diagram on the SD site shows that I'll need a five way switch to replace the three way that's installed currently in both gutiars. I'm assuming that this would activate the north coil in the neck and south coil in the bridge. Just out of curiosity, what would be the difference, and why would someone want to have the opposite of that (north in bridge, south in neck), or both north or both south? Does it give you a different sound? Also, to do that you'd need a 4-pole five way switch right?

The switch that's currently installed in both guitars looks like THIS. HERE is the switch I plan to get. My main concern is the location of the mounting holes and if they'll line up with the holes already drilled in the guitar. Do you think they'll line up like they should?

Here's a rundown of what I'm planning on ordering. If you have a second, click on each and tell me if I've chosen the right parts.

POTS (volume and tone)
SWITCH
JACK (both guitars use a jack plate, so I assume I need 1/4" and not 3/8")
CAPACITOR

Thanks in advance.

 

[tone4days]

Re: Coil Splitting Questions.

if you are only going to split one coil, it is probably best to split to the screw coil of each pickup in case the tone you seek from the split requires adjusting of the pole piece height

the sounds are slightly different when splitting the north as opposed to the sound from splitting the north ... in my opinion, those differences are more readily heard when playing clean sounds than when playing distorted sounds ...

and to be clear, with standard wiring and magnet polarity, you need a north and a south to combine with proper phase and hum cancelling

 

[blueman335]

Re: Coil Splitting Questions.

Some of us here much prefer to split so that the slug coil of the bridge PU is left on, as it's twice as far from the bridge, and the extra string energy gives it a little more voluem & warmth. On a Duncan, instead of the black being hot & green being ground, you'd use the red as hot & white as ground, pairing off the black & green together.

I have a Fred in a LP with 250K's and I really like that PU. Warm, rich, full with enough bite. I'd never replace it with something like a JB, and certainly not on both guitars. What kind of music are you playing? The JB/Jazz gets promoted a lot by Duncan (for reasons that baffle many of us), but few guys here think they're Duncan's best PU's. The Custom family (Custom, C5, Custom Custom, and the wildcat C8) is very popular for rock & blues, and isn't quite as fussy about the guitar's they're in, like a JB is notorious for. JB's are a hotly debated PU here, with strong opinions on both sides; even those that like them admit they sound 'atrocious' in some guitars. It's certainly not a clear favorite by any means, and many used ones are sold by unhappy users. By the same token, in the right wood, they sound great & have a lot of fans. The complaint about the JB is that it can have an annoying 'ice pick' spike in some woods, with a loose low end. Some guys fix this by putting in a warmer magnet, like an A2 or A8 The point is, Duncan has better PU's than the JB, and many have higher 'success' rates.

The JazzN is good, but many here consider it a bit bland & prefer the '59N as it has more color & character, while still being a very clear neck HB. A very popular pair here is a C5/'59N.

So, something to think about.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Coil Splitting Questions.

Depending on what pickup switching options you want, you may not need a SuperSwitch.

If you only want Bridge-Both-Neck as it was originally set up, but want to add coil splitting (tapping is an entirely different animal), you can either add push-pull or push-push pots, or do the Auto-Split wiring - http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=1h_1s_1h_1v_1t_5w_as


When looking up diagrams at Duncan, don't limit your searches to body shape and/or pickup configuration - i.e. "Humbucker" usually makes you think 2-hum LPs and such, but there are hardly any 2-hum + blade switch diagrams in there - there are some 2-hum + 5-way diagrams - then you look at the Strat diagrams, but most of those are for 5-way blades and the only ones that have 2 humbuckers are H-S-H. Only the Tele section has 2 hum + 3-way blade diagrams.