Quick "splitting" refresher.

[Artie]

I see this come up quite a bit and thought I'd do this little "quick reference".
In these diagrams, the red/white pair is shown as simply red, to keep the drawing simple. Just remember that it represents both wires. Connections are shown with a big black dot. Wires that cross without connecting don't have the dot.

Hope this makes sense.

None of these require magnet swaps or pup flipping. Just install the pups in the "normal" fashion.

Artie

P.S. The two halves of the push/pull pot can be two separate pp's, for individual control.

 

[Rusty Fingers]

Re: Quick "splitting" refresher.

Hope this makes sense.

Artie, um....I'm having trouble with the diagrams and the ideas of of inside/outside and north/south.

For the first two diagrams, it looks like for "inside" you mean the "neck" coil of each pickup and for "outside" you mean the "bridge" coil of each pickup. Not saying I'm right, but I think of "inside" as the two slug coils and "outside" as the adjustable pole pieces.

For the second two diagrams, it looks to me that your are splitting to one north coil and one south coil in each diagram, so I don't understand the labels of "split to north" and "split to south". The humbucking part looks right because you do have to have a north coil and a south coil together to be humbucking, right?

Anyway in general, I'm confused by the north/south polarity thing. Do neck and bridge humbuckers normally have the same relative polarity (say north for the polarity of the adj. coils and south for the polarity of the slug coils) or do they have opposite polarities? When do you have to flip magnets?

Thanks, Rusty

 

[Artie]

Re: Quick "splitting" refresher.

For the first two diagrams, it looks like for "inside" you mean the "neck" coil of each pickup and for "outside" you mean the "bridge" coil of each pickup. Not saying I'm right, but I think of "inside" as the two slug coils and "outside" as the adjustable pole pieces.

For the second two diagrams, it looks to me that your are splitting to one north coil and one south coil in each diagram, so I don't understand the labels of "split to north" and "split to south". The humbucking part looks right because you do have to have a north coil and a south coil together to be humbucking, right?

Anyway in general, I'm confused by the north/south polarity thing. Do neck and bridge humbuckers normally have the same relative polarity (say north for the polarity of the adj. coils and south for the polarity of the slug coils) or do they have opposite polarities? When do you have to flip magnets?

Thanks, Rusty

Hey Rusty; Your assumtions are correct, but somehow you're misreading my diagrams.

Think of it like this - normally, when one mounts two humbuckers, one is turned 180 deg's from the other. You would have the adjustable coils on the "outside", just as you said. So, if we ground the red/white wires of both pups, we've selected the stud coil of both pups - ergo, the "inside" coils. That's what my first diagram shows. Pull the knob up, and both red/white's short to ground. (You could also say - short to the green wire.)

The next diagram is the opposite: short to the black wire. Which gives us the adjustable coils, or "outside" coils.

In the next two diagrams I use "north" and "south" to refer to the physical orientation relative to the guitar sitting in a stand, rather than to magnetic north and south. That might be where part of the confusion is. So, in the first diagram, you short the r/w to black, giving you the adjustable coil of the neck, and you short the r/w of the bridge to green, giving you the stud coil of the bridge. Basically, you've just connected a humbucker, with the coils 3" or 4" apart.

The next diagram is simply the opposite. Does that make sense?

Artie

 

[Rusty Fingers]

Re: Quick "splitting" refresher.

Hey Rusty; Your assumtions are correct, but somehow you're misreading my diagrams.

Think of it like this - normally, when one mounts two humbuckers, one is turned 180 deg's from the other. You would have the adjustable coils on the "outside", just as you said. So, if we ground the red/white wires of both pups, we've selected the stud coil of both pups - ergo, the "inside" coils. That's what my first diagram shows. Pull the knob up, and both red/white's short to ground. (You could also say - short to the green wire.)

Does that make sense?

Artie

Artie.....um....no, not yet. :dunno: I'm looking at the physical position of pole pieces and the wires shown, but not thinking about wire colors. Lets stick to the first diagram. I agree that you are selecting the slug coil of the bridge pu, but it looks to me that you are selecting the adj. poles of the neck pu. Doesn't the diagram show the adj. pole as the output when split? I think my confusion is that you show the green wire for the neck pickup coming out of the slug coil and the green wire for the bridge pickup coming out of the adj. pole coil. Wouldn't the green wire be associated with the same type of coil for each pickup?

Rusty

 

[Artie]

Re: Quick "splitting" refresher.

I think my confusion is that you show the green wire for the neck pickup coming out of the slug coil and the green wire for the bridge pickup coming out of the adj. pole coil. Wouldn't the green wire be associated with the same type of coil for each pickup?

Rusty

Ok, I see what you mean. Thats my fault for mixing "schematic" type drawing with diagram type. There's not supposed to be any correlation between those colors and the specific coil. The "pup" symbols are just supposed to be a "block" that indicates the orientation of the coils.

I should probably change that. :smack:

Artie

 

[Artie]

Re: Quick "splitting" refresher.

Ok . . . better?

 

[Rusty Fingers]

Re: Quick "splitting" refresher.

Ok . . . better?

Ok Artie, Now I get it.

If you don't mind a suggestion or two, I'd change diagrams 3 and 4 to read "split to neck-side coils" and "split to bridge-side coils". I think that would be clearer.

From info I found at Stew Mac (haven't confirmed it here yet), for Duncans the adj. coils use South magnetic polarity and the slug coils use North magnet polarity. That's why diagrams #3 and 4 are a little confusing, since the bridge pu appears reversed if you consider "North" and "South" to be magnetic polarity. If it were me. I'd put North and South Magnet info on all four diagrams.

Rusty

 

[Artie]

Re: Quick "splitting" refresher.

If you don't mind a suggestion or two, I'd change diagrams 3 and 4 to read "split to neck-side coils" and "split to bridge-side coils". I think that would be clearer.

Good idea. Done.

Thanks for the critique and suggestions Rusty. Hopefully, its a little clearer now.

Artie

 

[Rusty Fingers]

Re: Quick "splitting" refresher.

Good idea. Done.

:beerchug: Thanks for the update Artie. I really appreciate all of your drawings and the work that goes into them. They always make me think....sometimes a little too much! :laugh2:

Rusty