School me on push/pull pots please?

BeardyAndy

I've just got a Seymour Duncan 59 pickup to put in my Tele (replacing an anonymous Epiphone humbucker i picked up on ebay) and would like to be able to split the coils.

I see Dimarzio do one in 500 or 250k, is there a right or wrong one with regards value or is it just personal preference? Also, are there any other brands I should be looking at? I know CTS is fairly industry standard but I've not found a push pull of theirs.

gavin_axecaster

I carry CTS p/p pots
https://www.axecaster.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11&products_id=593&zenid=8f0j10rkmck27pntck38dg1fp0
They are very robust but also a bit more fiddly to wire up as they don't have tabs like alphas and the eyelets are pretty close together.
I'll leave the value recommendation to someone with more nous on that subject!

ICBM

Usually 500K with a humbucker.

Funkfingers

TBH, in a Telecaster, a full coil split on the Duncan SH-1N is going to result in a weedy sound. Consider a partial (or tuned) split.

If you are fussy about the feel and resistance track taper performance of your volume pot(s), have the push-pull pot as a tone control.

Alternatively, consider borrowing the old Fender Fat Telecaster circuit. This employs a five-way pickup selector switch to automate the coil splitting.

Alegree

Don't SD 59s usually come with braided output conductor (therefore you can't split)?

Funkfingers

They can be ordered with either cable format. 

I have removed OEM versions of both. 

BeardyAndy

Why is it never as simple as you’d hope @Funkfingers ?

I think I may we’ll just stick em in as is for now and use it for a while before i start messing about with splitting. When I do I’ll be sure to tap you up for some parts @gavin_axecaster ;
  

hywelg

Bourns Push Push pots are better IMO Certainly ergonomically. 10 years in both my strats and still working fine

https://www.mouser.co.uk/Bourns/Passive-Components/Potentiometers-Trimmers-Rheostats/Potentiometers/_/N-9q0yp?P=1y92ddkZ1z0zlsdZ1yiecv1

brucegill

If it’s worth anything, I’ve had some SD 59 pups in something for around 20 years. They were set up with push pulls all this time. Much nicer after new wiring with regular (500k) pots. The split coil sound was pretty crap to be honest. 

BeardyAndy

brucegill said:

If it’s worth anything, I’ve had some SD 59 pups in something for around 20 years. They were set up with push pulls all this time. Much nicer after new wiring with regular (500k) pots. The split coil sound was pretty crap to be honest. 

You may well have saved me a lot of work!