I learnt so much from this test, I hope you enjoyed it! -Bonus Split Circuits for my Fourthwall Plus Members waylonmcpherson-shop.fourthwall.com/supporters/videos/66904 -McPherson 51FIFTY™ Humbuckers mcphersonmusic.site/product-category/pickups/mcpherson-guitar-pickups%ef%b8%8f/
In the mid eighties around 1986 I bought a used Ibenez Roadstar MKII, it originally came with a Dimarzio humbucker that the seller included, it was fitted with a custom wound humbucker that was true tapped, the single coil sound was phenomenal, no hum and a great single coil sound with minimal volume drop. I wish I had never let that guitar go or at least returned the guitar to standard and kept the custom humbucker, I did keep the Dimarzio though!
Nice work. From my experience, the best way to get real single coil sound from split humbucker is to disconnect the series wiring between two coils and ground only the coil in use. This prevents the other coil from forming a closed loop, which kinda removes the chime and airiness of a single coil pickup.
the resister gave more mids. the first split example is what i did to a strat HSS, and I've never liked it, except for full humbucker and middle pick up in pos 2. i do miss the 2 x singles tone in pos 2, but, for noisy wiring venues, the humbucker is essential. Interesting things you do.
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar , they have great single coil and humbucker type sounds. I was impressed. Bought the artec ones to test and I loved them. I don't pay a lot cause I'm cheap but I was surprised for sure.
Great comparison. Love the south split with and without resistor or cap to ground. Maybe a combination of resistor and cap could be interesting too.. thanks a lot for this content !
I guess much of the difference between north and south pole is the position in the guitar, north pole is slightly nearer to the neck and south pole is slightly nearer to the bridge, so its sound is a little sharper. It's interesting to me the difference between regular split-coil and parallel wired coils, they sound pretty much the same (maybe a tad fuller the parallel coils?) but with a little more output in the parallel coils, so it can minimize the usual output drop when splitting a humbucker
South coil split in neck position is what a split should be, being the south polarity of the pickup closest to the neck, like a single coil guitar i guess. I liked the parallel mode configuration. I think resistor and capacitor make the tone too nasal
Have you ever tried removing the screws completely from the screw coil of a humbucker. I saw a video on this years ago and it's another (reversible) way to achieve a more single coil tonality but retaining hum cancellation.
Have you tried the Rio Grande Muy Grande and Tallboy Humbucking pickups? It's a different kind of pickup. My very favorite when I want to split a humbucker.
It seems odd to me that the standard split is having the north side hot. It makes sense to me that you would want the side closest to the neck (the south coil) to be hot. Humbuckers are placed in the guitar with the screw poles of the two pickups placed furthest apart, the bridge screws are closest to the bridge, the neck screws are closest to the neck. It makes more sense that when cancelling one coil you would want the hot coil to be screw coil, not the slug coil, for the biggest differentiation in bass/treble tone between the two pickups.
In my experience, most of the time coils that are wound low enough to sound good as a series humbucker are a little weak in single coil or parallel mode. I like to take humbuckers that might be a little hot for my taste in series but try them out in parallel. Musicman bass pickups are like this, designed to be used in parallel as the default.
10:03 It has to sound different, because the electromagnetic processes are different in those scenarios. It all is down to winding. If you flip the pickup’s electric polarity without rewinding it in the opposite direction, you change how the electricity is running inside that wire-from center of the coil to the periphery or from the coil’s edge to its center. I did numerous tests with pups’ phase and here are my conclusions. If two pickups have opposite winding direction and opposite phase, they sound exactly the same. I.e. they have to be sorta a mirror reflexion of each other. Both pickups, being wound in opposite directions, may have Hot at the coil’s edge and Ground at coil’s center, or vice versa-Ground at the coil’s edge and Hot at coil’s center. However, if a pickup stays wound in the same direction, you get minuscule sound changes every time you flip the phase. Try it for yourself, you’ll be amused :) It’s a quite stupid, but very entertaining experiment.😅
Maybe I missed something, but surely you realize that inverting the phase is meaningless except if it is in or out of phase with the other pickup. Or in another context, one coil out of phase with the other coil.
Hey! Jazzy polite Aussie version of Tom Morello 😂 Love your videos! Very informative and viewer friendly! Excited to see more of your videos! If possible can you make a video about mixing different makers of pickups in a guitar. Ex. Seymour duncan bridge and a dimarzio neck What to be careful of when it comes to wiring diagrams and polarity and such. Much love!! Thanks!!
The difference in loudness that you hear is slightly because the screws are a little taller, but mostly because the closer that you get to the fretboard, the greater the string vibrates. A string vibrates the greatest right in the middle. So, the closer you get a pickup to the middle, the more vibration of the string it can pick up. The south single coil split is a mainstay in my Les Pauls and Double Cuts. It is the closest thing you can get to a Strat single coil neck pickup, which is an essential sound for me. I have never thought of splitting in conjunction with an additional capacitor or resistor. I'll have to try that. I am not 100% sure because it isn't a sound that I have often used, but if I remember correctly, both humbuckers need to be on (3-way toggle in the middle) and one of them flipped out of phase to get the phased sound.
I learnt so much from this test, I hope you enjoyed it!
-Bonus Split Circuits for my Fourthwall Plus Members
waylonmcpherson-shop.fourthwall.com/supporters/videos/66904
-McPherson 51FIFTY™ Humbuckers
mcphersonmusic.site/product-category/pickups/mcpherson-guitar-pickups%ef%b8%8f/
Spin-a-split has become my go-to. With a 100k pot you can really get all the way from single to humbucker and every bit in-between.
I think an important distinction is that the parallel mode is also humbucking whereas none of the split-coil modes are.
In the mid eighties around 1986 I bought a used Ibenez Roadstar MKII, it originally came with a Dimarzio humbucker that the seller included, it was fitted with a custom wound humbucker that was true tapped, the single coil sound was phenomenal, no hum and a great single coil sound with minimal volume drop. I wish I had never let that guitar go or at least returned the guitar to standard and kept the custom humbucker, I did keep the Dimarzio though!
I really liked the sound of the parallel humbucker.
Very close to single but without the loss of volume which is the enemy of this kind of setup IME.
I really liked that setting too!
It's really inspiring! I like the splited south coil and the parallel setting. It brings more clarity to the tones.
Glad you like it!
Wow I expected way more difference... I love splitting humbuckers I agree with you on the south
Very interesting ! Hey thanks for your email reply too about the two pole superswitch too man, you're a scholar and a gentleman !
Nice work. From my experience, the best way to get real single coil sound from split humbucker is to disconnect the series wiring between two coils and ground only the coil in use. This prevents the other coil from forming a closed loop, which kinda removes the chime and airiness of a single coil pickup.
I had an Epiphone LP Spl II with both pickups split. Loved getting a close to Tele sound from the split bridge.
the resister gave more mids. the first split example is what i did to a strat HSS, and I've never liked it, except for full humbucker and middle pick up in pos 2. i do miss the 2 x singles tone in pos 2, but, for noisy wiring venues, the humbucker is essential. Interesting things you do.
I just gpt some p-94 pickups and I love them. Great tone and great humbucker sounds when the two are on.
Cool, I have not checked those out yet, they are now on my list, thanks!
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar , they have great single coil and humbucker type sounds. I was impressed. Bought the artec ones to test and I loved them. I don't pay a lot cause I'm cheap but I was surprised for sure.
Great comparison. Love the south split with and without resistor or cap to ground. Maybe a combination of resistor and cap could be interesting too.. thanks a lot for this content !
I guess much of the difference between north and south pole is the position in the guitar, north pole is slightly nearer to the neck and south pole is slightly nearer to the bridge, so its sound is a little sharper. It's interesting to me the difference between regular split-coil and parallel wired coils, they sound pretty much the same (maybe a tad fuller the parallel coils?) but with a little more output in the parallel coils, so it can minimize the usual output drop when splitting a humbucker
Thank you! I prefer the resistor.
Are these similar to the Duncan custom custom?
Really interesting! Thanks man.
Glad you liked it! Cheers!
South coil split in neck position is what a split should be, being the south polarity of the pickup closest to the neck, like a single coil guitar i guess. I liked the parallel mode configuration. I think resistor and capacitor make the tone too nasal
Cool, thanks for checking this out :)
Very interesting video.
Thanks for it
Have you ever tried removing the screws completely from the screw coil of a humbucker. I saw a video on this years ago and it's another (reversible) way to achieve a more single coil tonality but retaining hum cancellation.
Makes sense. Removing the screws turns the South coil into a dummy coil
Yes, it's a really cool and cheap mod!
I like the parallel the most, it is simple and still no hum, and sounds different from humbucker.
Have you tried the Rio Grande Muy Grande and Tallboy Humbucking pickups? It's a different kind of pickup. My very favorite when I want to split a humbucker.
Yes, they are great!
It seems odd to me that the standard split is having the north side hot. It makes sense to me that you would want the side closest to the neck (the south coil) to be hot. Humbuckers are placed in the guitar with the screw poles of the two pickups placed furthest apart, the bridge screws are closest to the bridge, the neck screws are closest to the neck. It makes more sense that when cancelling one coil you would want the hot coil to be screw coil, not the slug coil, for the biggest differentiation in bass/treble tone between the two pickups.
In my experience the "north coil split" as you call it always sounds pretty good on neck and terrible on bridge.
Thanks, I have not done too much experimenting with Bridge splits as I don't normally split the bridge, but I will have to try this out, cheers!
What size of capacitor?
In my experience, most of the time coils that are wound low enough to sound good as a series humbucker are a little weak in single coil or parallel mode. I like to take humbuckers that might be a little hot for my taste in series but try them out in parallel. Musicman bass pickups are like this, designed to be used in parallel as the default.
10:03
It has to sound different, because the electromagnetic processes are different in those scenarios.
It all is down to winding. If you flip the pickup’s electric polarity without rewinding it in the opposite direction, you change how the electricity is running inside that wire-from center of the coil to the periphery or from the coil’s edge to its center.
I did numerous tests with pups’ phase and here are my conclusions.
If two pickups have opposite winding direction and opposite phase, they sound exactly the same. I.e. they have to be sorta a mirror reflexion of each other.
Both pickups, being wound in opposite directions, may have Hot at the coil’s edge and Ground at coil’s center, or vice versa-Ground at the coil’s edge and Hot at coil’s center.
However, if a pickup stays wound in the same direction, you get minuscule sound changes every time you flip the phase.
Try it for yourself, you’ll be amused :)
It’s a quite stupid, but very entertaining experiment.😅
Try a larger value resistor. 4.6k or 6.2k
Maybe I missed something, but surely you realize that inverting the phase is meaningless except if it is in or out of phase with the other pickup. Or in another context, one coil out of phase with the other coil.
6:05 is this(parallel humbucker) the new Seymour Duncan "humbucking single coil"?
Hey! Jazzy polite Aussie version of Tom Morello 😂
Love your videos! Very informative and viewer friendly!
Excited to see more of your videos!
If possible can you make a video about mixing different makers of pickups in a guitar.
Ex. Seymour duncan bridge and a dimarzio neck
What to be careful of when it comes to wiring diagrams and polarity and such.
Much love!! Thanks!!
Thanks! Cool idea, I will add that too the list :) New Zealander btw but I will keep the Tom Morello comparison!
Why is the South coil so much warmer
South coil is closer to the neck. More bass, less treble.
I think I have been ignoring parallel for too long
First. Cool Video!
Thanks man!
they all sound the same..single coil sounds weaker .. no suprize
The difference in loudness that you hear is slightly because the screws are a little taller, but mostly because the closer that you get to the fretboard, the greater the string vibrates. A string vibrates the greatest right in the middle. So, the closer you get a pickup to the middle, the more vibration of the string it can pick up. The south single coil split is a mainstay in my Les Pauls and Double Cuts. It is the closest thing you can get to a Strat single coil neck pickup, which is an essential sound for me. I have never thought of splitting in conjunction with an additional capacitor or resistor. I'll have to try that.
I am not 100% sure because it isn't a sound that I have often used, but if I remember correctly, both humbuckers need to be on (3-way toggle in the middle) and one of them flipped out of phase to get the phased sound.