why is it the screw side is tapped most often?

[RG 2570]

I noticed that on any pup that has a screw side/flat pole side the flat pole coil is always the one that stays on when using a coil tap?
what happens if you switch lead(hot) wire from black to green on both pups in a two pup axe? black would go to ground instead of greens?
I want to be able to have the screw side stay on when the pup is coil split?
I have a set of wolfgang pups on the way and want to rewire my RG for 2 hum wiring with coil taps.

 

[Artie]

Re: why is it the screw side is tapped most often?

Hey RG; I've always wondered that myself. But there's no need to switch black and green to try this. Just have your "splitting-switch" short the white/red combo to black, instead of green. That should do it.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: why is it the screw side is tapped most often?

I think because if you were dealing with a covered pickup and chose to split it and use the stud pole bobbin rather than the screw pole bobbin, the stud poles would be under the cover which muffles the tone slightly. Also, the screw side usually is closest to the neck and gets a fuller tone. Lew

 

[RG 2570]

Re: why is it the screw side is tapped most often?

Hey RG; I've always wondered that myself. But there's no need to switch black and green to try this. Just have your "splitting-switch" short the white/red combo to black, instead of green. That should do it.

OH i see i want the two wolfgang pups to be in phase when on together?
the wiring is very similar to a duncan,except the red is hot and black/white go together with bare/green to ground just like a dimarzio?
so what do i do to get the screw side coil of the neck pup to stay on when split(flat pole shut off) and the bridge pup will be normal? flat pole on when split?
this would cause them to be out of phase? wouldnt it?

 

[Artie]

Re: why is it the screw side is tapped most often?

I think because if you were dealing with a covered pickup and chose to split it and use the stud pole bobbin rather than the screw pole bobbin, the stud poles would be under the cover which muffles the tone slightly. Also, the screw side usually is closest to the neck and gets a fuller tone. Lew

I agree completely, but what I find confusing is, that all the SD schematics, that show coil-splitting, do it by shorting the red/white combo to green, thus shorting out the adjustable coil, and leaving the stud coil to operate. That seems backwards to me.

OH i see - i want the two wolfgang pups to be in phase when on together?
the wiring is very similar to a duncan,except the red is hot and black/white go together with bare/green to ground just like a dimarzio?
so what do i do to get the screw side coil of the neck pup to stay on when split(flat pole shut off) and the bridge pup will be normal? flat pole on when split?
this would cause them to be out of phase? wouldnt it?

I hadn't considered this, but you may have hit on why its done the way it is. Perhaps it something to do with phaseing when a split coil is combined with the "other" humbucker.

 

[RG 2570]

Re: why is it the screw side is tapped most often?

I agree completely, but what I find confusing is, that all the SD schematics, that show coil-splitting, do it by shorting the red/white combo to green, thus shorting out the adjustable coil, and leaving the stud coil to operate. That seems backwards to me.



I hadn't considered this, but you may have hit on why its done the way it is. Perhaps it something to do with phaseing when a split coil is combined with the "other" humbucker.

well you may laugh or thnk i being silly but the reason i need the screw side coil to say on is that the wolfgangs are in zebra,so i want to keep the traditional look of neck pup with the cream coil closest to bridge and the the bcream coil happens to be the flat pole side
:smack:
LOL!!!
it will look more uniform but that is all if i keep it with normal tapping the coil(cream coil,flat poles) closer to the bridge side of the neck pup will be on and it may be too trebley?

 

[RG 2570]

Re: why is it the screw side is tapped most often?

I think because if you were dealing with a covered pickup and chose to split it and use the stud pole bobbin rather than the screw pole bobbin, the stud poles would be under the cover which muffles the tone slightly. Also, the screw side usually is closest to the neck and gets a fuller tone. Lew

yes in th bridge spot,but what about the neck spot? the stud pole is closer to the bridge? that is why i want the screw side to stay on and not the stud pole?

 

[Robert S.]

Re: why is it the screw side is tapped most often?

The vast majority of HBs that I see have the stud coil as the north coil and the stud coil is connected to hot. I imagnine the reason is simple, that's the way Gibson did it with the original PAFs and most everybody else followed Gibsons lead. From a wiring standpoint ground is easier to find in a guitar (ground is common, the hot leads must come from the pickup of "ownership" making wiring slightly more complicated) so ground is most often used to short one of the bobbins out.

This leaves the north coil (stud - not screws) on.

If you reverse the hot and ground leads you will in fact not change the phase of the guitar and it's debatable as to whether the tone will change overall or not. It will cause your pickups to split to the south (screw bobbins) though and often this is a better way to go, especially if you are using one side of a Fender type 5 way switch to apply the ground to the coil link wires. (RD/WHT on SD pickups)

But Artie is correct and connecting the red/white to hot instead of ground will cause the opposite bobbin to stay on when splitting. Sometimes it is easier to wire that way, sometimes not.

 

[RG 2570]

Re: why is it the screw side is tapped most often?

The vast majority of HBs that I see have the stud coil as the north coil and the stud coil is connected to hot. I imagnine the reason is simple, that's the way Gibson did it with the original PAFs and most everybody else followed Gibsons lead. From a wiring standpoint ground is easier to find in a guitar (ground is common, the hot leads must come from the pickup of "ownership" making wiring slightly more complicated) so ground is most often used to short one of the bobbins out.

This leaves the north coil (stud - not screws) on.

If you reverse the hot and ground leads you will in fact not change the phase of the guitar and it's debatable as to whether the tone will change overall or not. It will cause your pickups to split to the south (screw bobbins) though and often this is a better way to go, especially if you are using one side of a Fender type 5 way switch to apply the ground to the coil link wires. (RD/WHT on SD pickups)

But Artie is correct and connecting the red/white to hot instead of ground will cause the opposite bobbin to stay on when splitting. Sometimes it is easier to wire that way, sometimes not.

thanks i will give it a try :cool3: