coil splitter idea

phaeton

here another hair brained idea from me.

Since i've never found a use for tone knobs i figured it would be interesting to remove both the tone knobs from my les paul and replace them with coil splitting switches, one for each pickup.

Sound ike an idea? course i'll have to upgrade the pickups to splittable ones but it should add some interesting options.

Either that or take off one volume and one tone and rewire so theres one master volume and tone.

zontar

You'd be better off just using push/pull pots for your tone controls--they'll act as switches and if you ever decide you want to use the tone controls--you'll still have them.

phaeton

now theres an interesting notion.

zontar

You could also use push/pull pots as the volume controls.

That's what I did on my Les Paul so I can have each pickup wired series or parallel. (Series would be regular humbucking & parallel makes them like 2 single coils next to each other.)

SmutVendetta

zontar said: You could also use push/pull pots as the volume controls.
That's what I did on my Les Paul so I can have each pickup wired series or parallel. (Series would be regular humbucking & parallel makes them like 2 single coils next to each other.)

antoha

Or you can go even crazier and do a volume control for every single coil on the guitar.

phaeton

Now thats a lot of knobs, But I never use volume knobs either.

Either I havent learned their benefits or it does just sound better when turned up.

antoha

Then you can get rid of all the pots, that way the signal from the pickups is gonna be cleaner, because pots do alter your tone a bit.

jq623

A friend of mine has a Les Paul with a very interesting set up for the Pots.

Both volume pots are push/pull, coil tapping the respective pickup when pulled.

The humbuckers are wired so that when both are coil tapped, the coils being tapped are of opposite polarities.

Both the knobs are TBX tones (I think).They cut treble when turned to one side, bass on the other, they do nothing when in the middle.

Interesting variety of sounds too.

antoha

Yeah, I have the opposite polarity thing on my LP too, prevents hum. I tried TBX, but i didnt like them, partially because they were to hard to turn and then the shaft broke off when I was trying to put on a knob(bumer?)

AnotherTool

If the TBX was hard to turn to the point where you snapped the shaft when turning it, you fitted it wrongly. I have a TBX on a strat, and while it is a little stiffer than a standard pot, it's still loose enough so a 3 year old could turn it.

I'm guessing that the spacer nut that goes between the pot and your scratchplate was absent.

antoha

Actually, i broke the shat while I was putting the knob on, I guess it was too tight. As for spinning it, all the washers were in place, but it felt pretty stiff comparing to the pots on my LP and Stang. I'm just a fan of easy spinning knobs 😀

tragictravisty

OR instead of switches, use the tone knobs as gradual splitters (check seymour duncans website, they have a diagram)

zontar

tragictravisty said: OR instead of switches, use the tone knobs as gradual splitters (check seymour duncans website, they have a diagram)

The old Peavey T-60's used that idea--the tone switch gradually changed the pickup from humbucking to single coil. The only problem with that is that you can't adjust the tone without changing the coil split. Maybe you don't do that now, but you eliminate an option down the road.

tragictravisty

i mean vol/tone/split/split so the splitters would only split the pickups