Les Paul neck pickup coil split - experiences?

[jumble jumble]

I have an Epiphone LP Standard whose pickups I'm about to switch. It's currently wired with coil splits on both pickups, and when they're both split and you choose the middle position, it seems to be hum-cancelling. It also seems that both pickups split to the slug coil. I want to keep the splits as I really like some of the single coil tones.

When I put the Duncans in, I still want the bridge pickup to split to the slug coil. So I have two options with the neck pickup - a Pearly Gates - if I want to keep the hum cancelling in the middle position:

1. (easier) split it to the screw coil
2. (harder) flip the magnet in the PG and split it to the slug coil

Does anyone have any experience with these options they can share? I'm tempted to take option 1 so long as the PG screw coil is beefy enough to not completely vanish.

The bridge pickup will be a ceramic Custom, if you're wondering.


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[AlexR]

Re: Les Paul neck pickup coil split - experiences?

I think most Duncans will split to the slug coil if the wiring diagrams on this site are followed (black to hot, red/white to splitting switch, green/bare to ground). Flipping the magnet will cause phase issues in the middle position, and might not solve the middle hum cancellation.

I'll let others chime in on the screw/slug middle posi hum issue.

 

[OsvyRock]

Re: Les Paul neck pickup coil split - experiences?

Man. Don't want to dissapoint you, but the ceramic Custom, and the Pearly Gates neck don't match so nicely. I used to have that combo in my DBZ Bolero. If I EQ'd one correctly, the other one was elsewhere, and viceversa. The Pearly Gates neck is a great pickup (and I really want a guitar to re-install it to), but you're better off ''safer'' with a 59n or a Jazz. Haven't tried a Jazz yet but I got a 59n, and it matches perfectly with the SH-5. Just letting you know!

 

[jumble jumble]

Les Paul neck pickup coil split - experiences?

I'll wire the pickup backwards if I flip the magnet, obviously, to bring it back into phase and achieve hum cancellation in the middle position.

The reason I got a ceramic custom is I definitely want a custom and I don't have a ceramic mag lying around at home. If I don't like it I can switch it for an 8 or something. But the ceramic custom/PGn combo gets lots of good recommendations. Kind of wish I hadn't mentioned the bridge pickup, it's not relevant to the question.

Has anyone tried splitting a Pearly Gates neck to either/both coils who can tell me what it's like? Or has anyone compared LP tone when splitting the neck pickup to screw or slug?


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[jumble jumble]

Les Paul neck pickup coil split - experiences?

Taking this as a "no". I'll try just splitting to the screw coil in the neck and report back.


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