Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

B

Bo-Hawk

New member
So I experimented with a unique wiring combination for my HSH custom Strat and had not so great results and I am planning on going with a near typical wiring scheme.

Setup is
Bridge: Custom 8
Middle: Quarter Pound Strat (reverse wound) with a tap for a more traditional Strat tone
Neck: Whole Lot of Humbucker

Control
5-way switch
Volume (Push Pull, Determining what to do with the Push Pull Part)
EMG SPC Mid Boost
Tone Control (Push Pull, turns on a voltage readout for the battery)

I Have two ideas what to do with this and need your guys thoughts

1) Use the volume push pull to tap the Quarter Pound Strat for a tone that is less fat and less output.
OR
2) use the volume push pull to split the humbuckers (so a single coil of a humbucker) so in positons 2 and 4, it will be hum cancelling with the QP.

How good the Custom 8 sound when split?
How good does the WLH sound when split?
How will either one of these sound in position 2 or 4 when combined with a QP?.


Guitar body is Mahogany, Neck is roasted maple with Pao Ferro Fretboard, Brass tremolo and brass nut, GHS Big Core Nickel Rockers, JCM 800 50W Half Stack.
 
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Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

I am confused..you mean coil tap the middle (the QP), but I am guessing you mean *split* the humbuckers (not tap)?
 
Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

Just a tip for the wiring, instead of using a push pull to turn on the readout, you could use it to cut the midboost out of the circuit. That would be much more useful in my opinion. Also, push push pots tend to work better for Strat knobs
 
Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

Chistopher said:
Just a tip for the wiring, instead of using a push pull to turn on the readout, you could use it to cut the midboost out of the circuit. That would be much more useful in my opinion. Also, push push pots tend to work better for Strat knobs
Click to expand...

The Voltage readout is very useful for me. When I turn it on, it also acts as a kill switch.

The EMG SPC Mid boost is an active circuit, so set to zero is close enough to the same as cutting it out.
 
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Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

Bo-Hawk said:
The Voltage readout is very useful for me. The Mid boost is an active circuit, so set to zero is close enough to the same as cutting it out.
Click to expand...

It will still drain the same amount of battery so long as it's plugged into the guitar, regardless of the setting on the knob. If you wire the switch so that it disconnects both the boost and the battery, it will save battery when you don't want it on.

The SPC doesn't draw too much battery, but having a dead guitar whenever the battery goes bad is annoying, which is why I suggested the switch.
 
Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

Chistopher said:
It will still drain the same amount of battery so long as it's plugged into the guitar, regardless of the setting on the knob. If you wire the switch so that it disconnects both the boost and the battery, it will save battery when you don't want it on.

The SPC doesn't draw too much battery, but having a dead guitar whenever the battery goes bad is annoying, which is why I suggested the switch.
Click to expand...

I understand where you are coming from. The SPC does draw more power than an emg pickup (Manual states it will last 250 hours on an alkaline battery), but a good reason I have it is so it changes the output to a low impedance signal and there is less tone loss through the cable going to my pedal board. I do use the voltage readout often and I can change the battery when voltage is getting low.
 
Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

Bo-Hawk said:
To help in my decision, I was wondering how good the Custom 8 and the WLH would sound with a single coil being tapped and would it work with the Quarter Pound.
Click to expand...

You say you edited your post to make sense. Perhaps you could try it again. Because what you are asking makes no sense the way you've written it.

You're asking if the two humbuckers would sound good with a tapped single coil pickup?..AND would they work with the QP (which just happens to be the only single coil pup in your setup); or are you asking if the humbuckers would sound good "SPLIT" to one coil and would that one coil sound good with the tapped QP?
 
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Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

GuitarDoc said:
You say you edited your post to make sense. Perhaps you could try it again. Because what you are asking makes no sense the way you've written it.

You're asking if the two humbuckers would sound good with a tapped single coil pickup?..AND would they work with the QP (which just happens to be the only single coil pup in your setup); or are you asking if the humbuckers would sound good "SPLIT" to one coil and would that one coil sound good with the tapped QP?
Click to expand...

Happy that it wasn't only me. I remain a little confused here, too.
 
Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

You could use an S1 switch for the volume pot to tap the QP and split the HBs at the same time, since you only have one pot to do the switching on.
 
Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

You will need to split to the screw coils if you want positions 2/4 to be hum cancelling, unless you flip the magnets in your humbuckers.

To get more balanced quack you will certainly have to run the QP either from the tap (red to white to hot, black to ground; white can float but not best practice) or take the tap to ground (white to hot, red and black to ground). The quack will still be middle-position heavy unless you sink the QP lower than you might otherwise.
 
Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

I would use a Fender 5-Way Super Switch:

  1. bridge in series
  2. bridge split to slug coil* in parallel with the tapped QP
  3. full QP
  4. neck split to slug coil* in parallel with the tapped QP**
  5. neck in series
I don't find too many split humbuckers to sound all that great. The (omitted***) tapped QP by itself would probably sound good, but the full QP will balance better against either of the humbuckers that are wired in standard series mode. I'm not a fan of having a bunch of switching options for sounds that I wouldn't use because they don't sound good to me. FWIW and YMMV.


(*) flip magnets and reverse black/green if not all coil wires.

(**) experiment with where the tap goes to find the best tone.

(***) I would probably use a push/push to tap the QP which I would intentionally wire so it would only work in position 3. Positions 2 & 4 would auto-split and auto tap. Alternatively, I might consider using the same switch to run the full QP with either full humbucker in positions 2 & 4. You should only need a regular push/push to achieve this in positions 2, 3 & 4. It should also be possible for it to switch all 5 positions to allow you to split both the bridge and neck. With the more flexible 5-Way Super Switch, an S-1 will not be necessary to do any of what I've laid out.
 
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Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

gregory said:
I would use a Fender 5-Way Super Switch:

  1. bridge in series
  2. bridge split to slug coil* in parallel with the tapped QP
  3. full QP
  4. neck split to slug coil* in parallel with the tapped QP**
  5. neck in series
I don't find too many split humbuckers to sound all that great. The (omitted***) tapped QP by itself would probably sound good, but the full QP will balance better against either of the humbuckers that are wired in standard series mode. I'm not a fan of having a bunch of switching options for sounds that I wouldn't use because they don't sound good to me. FWIW and YMMV.


(*) flip magnets and reverse black/green if not all coil wires.

(**) experiment with where the tap goes to find the best tone.

(***) I would probably use a push/push to tap the QP which I would intentionally wire so it would only work in position 3. Positions 2 & 4 would auto-split and auto tap. Alternatively, I might consider using the same switch to run the full QP with either full humbucker in positions 2 & 4. You should only need a regular push/push to achieve this in positions 2, 3 & 4. It should also be possible for it to switch all 5 positions to allow you to split both the bridge and neck. With the more flexible 5-Way Super Switch, an S-1 will not be necessary to do any of what I've laid out.
Click to expand...


You gave me some great ideas here and I got drawn up a devilishly simple diagram to pull off something unique.

With S-1 Disengaged

P1: A8 in Humbucker
P2: A8 in Humbucker, QP Full
P3: QP Full
P4: WLH Humbucker, QP Full
P5: WLH in Humbucker


With S-1 Engaged

P1: A8 Split
P2: A8 Split, QP Tapped
P3: QP Tapped
P4: WLH Split, QP Tapped
P5: WLH Split
 
Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

Bo-Hawk said:
With S-1 Disengaged

P1: A8 in Humbucker
P2: A8 in Humbucker, QP Full
P3: QP Full
P4: WLH Humbucker, QP Full
P5: WLH in Humbucker


With S-1 Engaged

P1: A8 Split
P2: A8 Split, QP Tapped
P3: QP Tapped
P4: WLH Split, QP Tapped
P5: WLH Split
Click to expand...

Just as I suggested. One thing you can also consider is to use a resistor for the coil splits so that when you split the humbuckers, you don't have quite the drop in output.

To do this all you need to do is find a resistor (I start off with a 4k7) and put that on the red and white wires that connect to ground.
 
Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

I may need to rotate magnets and swap green and black wires, but the basics are here

Capture.jpg
 
Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

Ok guys, I think I got the diagram figured out on paper. IGNORE THE ONE ABOVE.
I need verification I'm thinking this right

I want to use:
- Slug coil of the Bridge pickup as the working coil when split
- The Screw coil of the neck as the working coil when split.

I believe the QP RWRP is North up
I need to make sure:
- The bridge magnet has its South polarity on the slug coil
- The neck magnet has its south polarity on the screw coil

For the wiring:
- The bridge is Green to ground, Red and white Soldered together, Black to Hot
- The neck will need to be White to ground, Green and Black soldered together, Red to hot. If i am thinking this correctly i will get the QP and the neck screw coil in opposite winding direction so it will be hum cancelling.

On the QP, the coil tap is the red wire.

Did I get this right before I get too far?
 
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Re: Tone from Coil Tapping a Custom 8 and WLH

Flip the magnet in the bridge. To simplify the wiring for consistent split behavior (split pair of wires to ground) do the following: connect green and black as the pair for splitting, connect red with the bare wire to ground, use the white wire as your hot lead.

Leave the neck pickup stock (magnet and wiring).
 
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