"Gradual Splitting" ........ Anyone?

[dregsfan]

Came across this on Lindy Fralin's site.
Fralin Pickups: Understanding And Using The "Gradual Tap" Mod


*considering this as well. (METHOD #3: PARTIAL SPLIT) :
5 Powerful Ways To Coil Split Your Humbucker - Fralin Pickups


I had never heard of this before.

I'm trying to decide on pickups and wiring options on my guitar that I'm redoing.

So, checking to see if anyone has any experience with this on bass (or guitar).

Thanks .

 

[Kenan]

That's a really interesting idea. Maybe I'm missing something, but why is it a blend pot? Aren't you just attenuating one coil of the humbucker? It sounds like a normal pot would be the thing.

 

[dregsfan]

I'm missing it to.
Thought I saw somewhere else that a normal volume pot can/was used.
I'll try and find that.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[dregsfan]

Here we go: Seymour Duncan Guitar Wiring Explored: The Spin-a-Split Mod - Guitar Pickups, Bass Pickups, Pedals

Looks like it's using a volume pot.

(like everything else, I need to read about it some more )

 

[ctmullins]

I've done this! It's a great idea; a very clever way to get a lot of character variation from a single pickup using a normal, off-the-shelf pot.

In practice, I wound up using it like a switch - either full on or full off.

So now I just use switches.

 

[dregsfan]

ctmullins,

Thanks for the reply.

I've gone back and forth about the practicality and need for this option.

With the way I'll be using this guitar, which is just playing solo at home, it might be a useable option worth checking out.
Playing without the interference of other instruments would make the subtle changes in sound throughout the sweep of the pot easy to hear and appreciate. Versus playing in a band situation (where those darn drums and everything else drowns one's self out )

 

[jfiver]

Present. I built a guitar with one of these on each pickup as a teenager. It can work well - just be prepared to read up on / experiment with the pot values to find what works best for the pickups you're using.

FWIW, I've found it worthwhile, especially if playing clean, but the amount of tonal variation available was less than I expected.

On the plus side: there's a sweet spot with the volume for split coil set just above zero that fills out the tone very nicely. It does a lot to ameliorate the usual shortcomings of a coil split. I've also set them up with switches in the form of push/pull pots, where 'push' bypasses the split coil volume control entirely.

For the cons: the standard volume pots I've used (probably 500kΩ, but who knows?) mean that only the first ~5-10% range of each is useful. After that, it's basically indistinguishable from fully open. (I don't know electronics well enough to hazard a guess whether you'd have more success with 100kΩ or 1MegΩ.)

(P.S. if you happen to have a way of EQing with parametric mids and a resonant low pass filter - e.g. the Broughton RFE pedal - then you can achieve a similar effect by splitting the coil, boosting a little around 800-1kHz, and putting the LPF around 2-3kHz with some resonance.)

 

[dregsfan]

Present. I built a guitar with one of these on each pickup as a teenager. It can work well - just be prepared to read up on / experiment with the pot values to find what works best for the pickups you're using.

FWIW, I've found it worthwhile, especially if playing clean, but the amount of tonal variation available was less than I expected.

On the plus side: there's a sweet spot with the volume for split coil set just above zero that fills out the tone very nicely. It does a lot to ameliorate the usual shortcomings of a coil split. I've also set them up with switches in the form of push/pull pots, where 'push' bypasses the split coil volume control entirely.

For the cons: the standard volume pots I've used (probably 500kΩ, but who knows?) mean that only the first ~5-10% range of each is useful. After that, it's basically indistinguishable from fully open. (I don't know electronics well enough to hazard a guess whether you'd have more success with 100kΩ or 1MegΩ.)

(P.S. if you happen to have a way of EQing with parametric mids and a resonant low pass filter - e.g. the Broughton RFE pedal - then you can achieve a similar effect by splitting the coil, boosting a little around 800-1kHz, and putting the LPF around 2-3kHz with some resonance.)

Wow, thanks. That's some great interesting points.

I neglected to mention I'd be playing clean or almost clean (mild overdrive) most all the time.

I had seen some discussion in a guitar forum somewhere about some pot values being preferred over others, and 100kΩ and 1MegΩ values were mentioned.

You said "On the plus side: there's a sweet spot with the volume for split coil set just above zero that fills out the tone very nicely."
Does this mean: from the totally split end of the sweep (of the pot) you're adding just a hair of the 2nd coil?

I've always been curious about parametric eq's and both LP & HP filters. Funny you would mention those.

Thanks again.

 

[jfiver]

You said "On the plus side: there's a sweet spot with the volume for split coil set just above zero that fills out the tone very nicely."
Does this mean: from the totally split end of the sweep (of the pot) you're adding just a hair of the 2nd coil?

Yep, that's correct.

 

[ctmullins]

You can also incorporate a 0.1uF cap (like the G&L OMG circuit) to only split the high frequencies, leaving all of the low end intact.

 

[darkwasthenight]

Worth using a No Load pot (or modifying your pot for no load) so that there isn't any added resistance between the coils when they're both fully active.

I've found a bass-cut pot works roughly the same way for me in being able to 'tune' the bass response of a gain sound and it's easier to get it to work on all pickups, so I've mostly taken that route rather than spin-a-split.

 

[LowActionHero]

Is this to get as much single coil sound while humbucking out the noise?

Interesting idea, and a whole new level of tone tweaking.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Came across this on Lindy Fralin's site.
Fralin Pickups: Understanding And Using The "Gradual Tap" Mod


*considering this as well. (METHOD #3: PARTIAL SPLIT) :
5 Powerful Ways To Coil Split Your Humbucker - Fralin Pickups


I had never heard of this before.

I'm trying to decide on pickups and wiring options on my guitar that I'm redoing.

So, checking to see if anyone has any experience with this on bass (or guitar).

Thanks .

I always run my humbuckers as two single coils. I wire them in parallel, and sometimes use a series switch.

 

[bassliner50]

There is beauty and musical practicality in simplicity. I will stick with that.

 

[Lo-E]

I've seen a number of interesting threads recently that discuss clever ways to use passive circuits to achieve tonal variation.

I've been jotting all of it down in a notebook because I have an uncanny ability to misplace links and bookmarks but I've yet to misplace a notebook. These variable split ideas will be added to the book!

 

[dregsfan]

Obviously, there is a lot that can be done with passive wiring. Pretty cool (for people that want to mess with it).

I'm always torn between simplicity, which is very appealing, and exploring the more involved options.

I've even considered neck humbucking only, volume, tone pots and output jack.

It's cool to know the options, and it's a great way to drive yourself nuts .

I've assembled alot of basses for myself over the years, and experimented with various pickups and configurations, and ended up with a put-together P bass as the keeper. It's what I grew up playing, a long time ago.

These responses are great! Thanks.
Don't you (sometimes ) love Talkbass.

Thanks to all .

 

[Charley Umbria]

If I'm not mistaken, what you're describing is very similar to the way that the Peavey T-40 tone controls work.

 

[dregsfan]

If I'm not mistaken, what you're describing is very similar to the way that the Peavey T-40 tone controls work.

I'll have to look that up. Thanks

A note about that: The T in T-40 stands for Todd, Chip Todd. He worked for and apparently had a big hand in developing that model for Peavy.
Chip is the guy that apprenticed the guy I worked for (instrument repair), Kevin Perry, in Houston many years ago.
What do they say ..."small world".

 

[ardgedee]

If I'm not mistaken, what you're describing is very similar to the way that the Peavey T-40 tone controls work.

T-45, not T-40. One tone pot is a conventional tone circuit, the other is a spin-a-split.

 

[micguy]

Is this to get as much single coil sound while humbucking out the noise?
Interesting idea, and a whole new level of tone tweaking.

Pickups are very reactive things - their impedance varies a lot with frequency. As a result, using resistors in shunt like this to control things leads to interesting - sometimes useful, sometimes not characteristics. I'm not a fan of VVT circuits, because they don't do what you'd like them to, but in this case, what will happen may be more useful.

As you shunt one coli of a pickup like this, You're going to lose the high end stuff from that coil first. With dual coil humbuckers, there is a cancellation at higher frequencies from the fact that the string is being sampled at two points. The kicker is that that frequency is different on each string - the cancellation is a wavelength filter, not a frequency domain thing. As you start to shunt the coil in this case, that means that your higher strings are going to sound "single coil-ish" before the lower ones are. Since the lows (where the pickup is lower in impedance) won't be attenuated as much, the low frequency part of the hum will still be bucked pretty well. The higher frequency harmonics of the hum (where the "buzz is), won't be bucked all that well.

So is it worth it? I can't predict your subjective response - Id say it's worth experimenting, but.....I wouldn't drill a hole in your bass for that potentiometer until you know if you like it or not. My guess is there's likely to be a sweet spot where you like it - if that is indeed the case, a fixed resistor and a switch might be more useful as controls, so you can always hit that spot easily.