Triple Shot rings w/ partial coil split, possible?

[Tiger1016]

First post here after being a long time lurker. Should be an easy question although I have not seen a discussion on this yet.

Is it possible to do a partial coil split (a.k.a. tuned coil tap) with the Triple Shot mounting rings? If so, I am looking for some guidance on the best way to integrate the resistor to accomplish this.

I want to experiment using different capacitor values for the bridge and neck humbuckers, have them apply when splitting either of the north or south coils but not affecting the normal series mode or the parallel mode, make sure the bridge resistor does not affect the neck humbucker, etc.

My setup is a HH (BKP Black Dog), 2 Triple Shot rings, 1V + 1T, and I plan to swap my 5 way blade switch to a 3 way (although I am currently trying to figure out how to get by with using my 5 way as a 3 way for the time being). I am considering swapping my pots out for push/pulls if I can figure out a way to cut the capacitors out of the circuit for the in between single coil combinations.

I attached the standard SD wiring diagram that does not involve any partial coil tap capacitors or push/pulls to help facilitate the discussion. I am no pro on wiring schemes, so I don't know where to go from here to get to where I want.

For those who are not familiar with a partial coil split, I am talking about the somewhat common approach now that uses either a capacitor (e.g. Gibson) or resistor (e.g. PRS) wired in series with the humbucker coil that is being shorted to the ground. The result is you wind up not fully shutting down the second coil, which when added with the unaffected full on single coil results in relatively less volume drop and a different tone (somewhat P90’ish in my past experiences).

 

[Tiger1016]

There is a more advanced Phase #2 & #3 to this project that I made sense to break out into a second post.

Phase #2 involves integrating a Free-Way 3B3-01 3 way blade switch with the HH Series/Parallel Scheme 1V/1T (picture of the relevant diagram attached below). This will add in the ability to choose how the two pickups will be wired together in the middle position (parallel/in phase, series/in phase, parallel/out of phase, series/out of phase). And if I don't mess with the push/pull circuit breaker to cut out the partial split capacitors in Phase #1, then I'll do that here instead.

Phase #3, which might wind up happening simultaneous with Phase #2, involves adding a pickup blender / pan pot (for use in the middle combination modes), a bass roll off / contour pot, and maybe a second tone pot and killswitch if there is enough room in the big control cavity that I have to work with.

The net result of all of this would be having damn near every tone option and wiring combination possible on a dual humbucker guitar (and hopefully extinguish my gas for a HSH project or the Ernie Ball Music Man Game Changer Reflex).

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Hi Tiger - I don't know enough about the Triple Shot to be helpful but I'm a firm believer in resistor splits.
I'm sure someone will chime in soon to let you know if it's possible or not.
Good luck man.

 

[Mincer]

From what I understand, the Triple Shot rings do an on/off thing, so you can't partially split a coil.

 

[Tiger1016]

From what I understand, the Triple Shot rings do an on/off thing, so you can't partially split a coil.

I was kind this might be the answer. This could perhaps be why SD customer service has not responded to the same question that I posted to them ~10 days ago. I was blaming COVID for the silence, which would be totally understandable.

Any potential savings grace to perhaps be able to wire the rings up in the control cavity, with the back plate off, to just experiment with the different Triple Shot modes along with testing out different capacitor options? I don't really need ultimate flexibility forever; just need to figure out what options work for me, then can replace with a more permanent solution for what I need to keep for the long term. I would prefer a more permanent/semi-permanent solution, but I would be happy enough to settle and take what I can get.

 

[Mincer]

Nothing wrong with experimenting. In fact, that's what I did with my Triple Shots, until I found the 5 sounds I use all the time.