boosting volume on coil splits.

markblack

Last year I modded a guitar with two humbuckers, one volume and two tone. Push/pulls on the tone knobs to coil split on both.

there is a volume drop when I use the coil splits. I was reading up about adding resistors in to this to boost the volume, but I'll admit it's making my head spin a bit.

for example here

Anyone done this?

Cheers

Mark

steamabacus

I tried it after reading this thread and it was very successful. I'm not sure I'd describe it as 'boosting volume', though. More like fattening the sound slightly to give a bit more body. It's worth experimenting with the exact resistor value.

ADP

It's pretty simple; you put a resistor between the middle lug of a push/pull, if that's what you're using to split the coils, and the earth, which in this instance is the casing of the tone pot. That way, when you split the pickup, a portion of the coil that is "turned off" remains active. So, if you have a 9K humbucker and you use a 2.2K resistor, instead of having a 4.5K split coil, you'll have 4.5 plus 2.2K from the other coil, which gives you a beefier, more single-coil-like sound.

djspecialist

I've been meaning to do this as well.

When I do, I plan to use a trimpot (mounted inside the cavity, not controllable from outside) so that I can play around with the resistance to get the sound I'm looking for.

Chalky

You can also try two other alternatives to splitting the coils on a humbucker: A parallel wiring, where your push pull changes the coils from series wiring to parallel wiring giving a more nasal p90ish sound. Or B a low pass filter like the bass contour on Reverend guitars, where your push pull adds in a capacitor and resistor (wired in parallel to each other and in series with the humbucker output) to take away some of the bass making it less muddy and increasing bite.

markblack

Thanks all.

Very useful.

Cheers

Mark

JayGee

Chalky said:

You can also try two other alternatives to splitting the coils on a humbucker: A parallel wiring, where your push pull changes the coils from series wiring to parallel wiring giving a more nasal p90ish sound. Or B a low pass filter like the bass contour on Reverend guitars, where your push pull adds in a capacitor and resistor (wired in parallel to each other and in series with the humbucker output) to take away some of the bass making it less muddy and increasing bite.

I use series/parallel switching on a "Warm Rails" single coil sized bridge humbucker in one of my Telecasters and really like it - not a "true" single coil sound (certainly not a true Tele bridge PU sound!) but enough extra brightness, just the right change in output to be a useful/usable alternative, and still fully noise cancelling. 

Not universally popular, (I dunno, maybe it just works better on SC form factor PUs...) but it works for me and well worth a try!

Dalefty

I have a very good trick and solution for this to increase you volume by up to 50db but I'm keeping mum about it, as it's given me an idea for my modding challenge, but I won't be a total cock tease, I will point you in the right direction, have a look at Eric Clapton, I've used it on a few Less Pauls and SG's over the years.


DaLefty

Roland

I like the old fashioned method. When I tap the pickup I nudge the volume up a bit too.

Cirrus

Dalefty;574009" said:

I have a very good trick and solution for this to increase you volume by up to 50db but I'm keeping mum about it, as it's given me an idea for my modding challenge, but I won't be a total cock tease, I will point you in the right direction, have a look at Eric Clapton, I've used it on a few Less Pauls and SG's over the years.





DaLefty

It's not the mid booster circuit by any chance is it? I had a demonstration unit that came in a box like a pedal (except it had a rocker- instead of foot-switch). It was kinda fun!

Dalefty

Cirrus said:

It's not the mid booster circuit by any chance is it? I had a demonstration unit that came in a box like a pedal (except it had a rocker- instead of foot-switch). It was kinda fun!

I ain't saying nothing without legal representation.

DaLefty

4114Effects

50db of boost? Ouch! Putting a car battery on the guitar to power it?

ICBM

If it's the Clapton boost circuit it's only 25dB, but that's still an absolute shedload. 50dB is more like the amount you get in a high-gain distortion pedal.

I suppose you could wire two Clapton boosts in series…

Dalefty

ICBM said:

If it's the Clapton boost circuit it's only 25dB, but that's still an absolute shedload. 50dB is more like the amount you get in a high-gain distortion pedal.

I suppose you could wire two Clapton boosts in series…

You can do that if you want, or you can dick about with the boost circuit and get 50dB out of it and not have to spend around £60.00 on two of them and have to worry about fitting two boards into your guitar, and draining the battery twice is fast, or using a battery for each board,  Alternatively you can mod the aftermarket Eric Clapton Boost Circuit, it's not actually called that by the way, it called the UPC Part No. 005-757-7000, 717669160210, as it's not what Eric Clapton actually uses and several other guitar players like Muddy Waters have their own version of the circuit board, it is not what is in his signature series of strats, the ones released after 82, but you can mod this circuit to Eric Claptons specs whch will give you a 50dB boost, the cheaper route which you can do for under a tenner is the Australian guitarist Ritchie Laird's mod, here is a link to a very detailed page that he set up about that, and how to do it;

http://www.singlecoil.com/docs/active_strat.pdf

Adapting it for a Les Paul style of set up is quite simple.  Then there is always the gutting a boost pedal and putting its guts into your guitar, the Mooer MBT2 Pure Boost Boost Pedal, has a tiny foot print and will give you 20dB of boost.

DaLefty

ICBM

Interesting info, thanks .

Although as you probably know, I prefer to do things the other way round… I'd rather put a Clapton Boost in a pedal than any actives in the guitar .

Dalefty

ICBM said:

Interesting info, thanks .

Although as you probably know, I prefer to do things the other way round… I'd rather put a Clapton Boost in a pedal than any actives in the guitar .

I'm in two minds regarding these mods, sometimes I love them and the convenience of having them inside my guitar and not having extra equiment to lug about, then there's times where I worry about the failure scenario and how it is far easier to carry two pedals than two heavily modded guitars.  I have phases, but the boost circuit is very stable after all it's been in production and sale since the late 80's.

DaLefty

Dalefty

ICBM said:

Interesting info, thanks .

Although as you probably know, I prefer to do things the other way round… I'd rather put a Clapton Boost in a pedal than any actives in the guitar .

Buddy Guy sorry, not Muddy Waters, I have no idea why I got them mixed up.

DaLefty