Hopefully one of the very knowledgeable people can answer this:
When a pickup has a coil tap (genuinely meaning a coil tap, not a split) - when it is in the tapped setting, would it act exactly like as if the pickup only had that much wire to begin with?
Or does the fact there's extra wire on there, even if it's disconnected, affect the signal in some way, even if subtly?
I.e. is a coil tap always a compromise or can a hot pickup with a tap give the same sound as a lower output pickup (if it happened to be otherwise made the same)?
Comments
Best tapped sound from a humbucker is using a resistor to reduce one coil's output. Some like 3k-5k but I prefer 8k-10k.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
My only concern has been noise, as the low output tap can sometimes be slightly noisy depending on how the tap is selected ( the additional windings can act as an aerial if the high output is left floating). I prefer to wire both hots together for the low output tap, then lift the low output tap to select the full output. Essentially in the low output setting both ends of the additional windings are at the same potential and are less inclined to add noise to the output.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest
It’s also more reliable since if the switch contact fails you’re left with the full pickup, rather than no connection which you get if you’re selecting one or the other.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
So, with the earth side of the pickup soldered to the back of a volume pot, most wiring diagrams will then select between the two outputs with a minimum of a SPDT switch (push/pull, mini toggle or whatever), where the centre terminal is the output from the switch (going in to the rest of the guitars wiring), and where each of the outer terminals is one or other of the hot outputs from the pickup (6K and 9K respectively in this example). The problem here is that when the vintage 6K output is selected the additional windings (the additional 3K which is added to create the hot 9K output) is still connected to the vintage 6K hot output, because the additional 3K windings are not discretely separate (remember the finish of the first winding is also the start for the additional 3K). However, the second 9K hot output is not connected to anything (left floating), and can act as an aerial injecting noise at the vintage 6K output which is the common point for both sets of windings.
A remedy is very simple. Solder the earth to the back of the volume pot as usual. Solder the vintage 6K output to a simple SPST make/break switch then solder the output of the SPST switch together with the 9K hot output and take this on to the rest of your guitar wiring. With the switch open the output will be from the hot 9K output. With the switch closed both hots are tied together, and as such both the start and finish of the extra 3K windings are also tied together, and so do not contribute noise or signal (both ends of 3K windings at same potential, no longer floating, does not act as an aerial).
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest
My bass with taps is wired the first way you explain (by myself, can't remember what factory was like) so will need to rewire it when I get a chance.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest
So ultimately is the idea of two completely separate coils or with a Paf style 3 separate coil all wound to there own outputs preferable but more fiddly.
We talked about the idea of being able to have the full normal paf the 2nd Paf coil with an added number of turns to take it to say 6.5k to give a better single coil sound and possibly a 2nd humbucking effect with the tap and the other coil to give another tone how different or useful I am not sure.
I have not reasearched this yet hence this question.
Ultimately if he can get it off the shelf for fair money then little point in my time tight world getting the winder from the attic and setting it all up get myself able to wind a few decent coils I doubt after 15 years I can remember what I did that I liked from back then, I just remember endless evenings of getting it wrong or ok before it got to a point where I was happy or thought the pickup was comparable to something I liked.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest
think I might just push my friend to the Chameleon.
I wish you could buy 408’s I really like mine
As for Fender patenting well it’s america they have corporate lawyer money so will easily get it in the broken US patent market then leverage any small builder who does anything remotely similar.
i will dig in and see what’s out there after seeing the purgatory Alegree went through to get his out the door I simply do not have the time lol.