A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

I was just playing my AL-3001 and it sounded a bit thick for what I was noodling. So I went to pull up a tone knob to switch to single coil, only to realize one thing - this isn't one of my guitars with push/pull enabled coil splitting.

Add to that as hard as I tried, my fingers felt the digging in as the annoyingly sharp knob (who knew better than to comply) just stayed in place. It didn't quite hurt, but still... I laughed at my idiocy, but it brings to light something I never thought of before: I now hate push/pulls.

I hate push/pulls because there is very little about them to visually inform me that they are there. They sit a little higher than normal knobs and that is it. The existence of a switch on the other hand is visually obvious. I can't always remember which of my humbucker guitars have coil split via push/pull, but I don't need to remember which have coil split via switch. So yeah, I now hate push/pulls.

I hate coil splits. They are either too thin and under wound as a single, or over wound as a double. You would need some sort of split/tap setup to make them both good, but totally not worth it. Just buy more guitars.

I hate soldering push/pull pots, with all those little pins... So much so that when I sold my 3100MCC, I didn't even bother to put the stock pickups back in.

The only guitar that I own with push/pulls anymore is the Mahogany Tele that I built. Tim made the pickups with the south coil wound to 6k (10k total), and that works out well, but otherwise, I have no use for split-coil with regular humbuckers.

Chocol8 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 5:12 pm I hate coil splits. They are either too thin and under wound as a single, or over wound as a double. You would need some sort of split/tap setup to make them both good, but totally not worth it. Just buy more guitars.

I agree in many cases with typical humbuckers. The P100's in my AD-3200MCC sound very good split, as do the stacked pickups in my Revelation RLR. But yeah, a lot of humbuckers just don't pull it off.

I am not really a fan of the sound you get from a “split” HB either, but I did have an LP studio that had the feature and I did use it occasionally.

I did play an LP once that had “push-push” pots instead of push-pull and they worked pretty slick.

But overall if I want single coils I would opt for one of my single coil guitars

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 12:48 pm ...
I hate push/pulls because there is very little about them to visually inform me that they are there. They sit a little higher than normal knobs and that is it. The existence of a switch on the other hand is visually obvious. I can't always remember which of my humbucker guitars have coil split via push/pull, but I don't need to remember which have coil split via switch. So yeah, I now hate push/pulls.

Chocol8 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 5:12 pm I hate coil splits. They are either too thin and under wound as a single, or over wound as a double. You would need some sort of split/tap setup to make them both good, but totally not worth it. Just buy more guitars.

My suggestion to both of you is to try a set of SD PRails in SD triple shot rings, they work. And you can put them anywhere a HB fits!

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-pr ... set-arched

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/p-rails

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-pr ... riple-shot

dabbler wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 9:11 pm

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 12:48 pm ...
I hate push/pulls because there is very little about them to visually inform me that they are there. They sit a little higher than normal knobs and that is it. The existence of a switch on the other hand is visually obvious. I can't always remember which of my humbucker guitars have coil split via push/pull, but I don't need to remember which have coil split via switch. So yeah, I now hate push/pulls.

Chocol8 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 5:12 pm I hate coil splits. They are either too thin and under wound as a single, or over wound as a double. You would need some sort of split/tap setup to make them both good, but totally not worth it. Just buy more guitars.

My suggestion to both of you is to try a set of SD PRails in SD triple shot rings, they work. And you can put them anywhere a HB fits!

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-pr ... set-arched

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/p-rails

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-pr ... riple-shot

IMGP0200.JPG

Looks clever to me. In a perfect world, I´d try that.

dabbler wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 9:11 pm
My suggestion to both of you is to try a set of SD PRails in SD triple shot rings, they work. And you can put them anywhere a HB fits!

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-pr ... set-arched

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/p-rails

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-pr ... riple-shot

I have seen those mentioned a couple times. I'm waiting to hear reviews from people whose ears I really trust. They do look interesting.

The P90 sound is decent, the humbucker mode OK, and the rail only mode is thin and bleh.

I would much rather have different guitars with great pickups than one jack of all trades with compromise pickups.

Chocol8 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 5:12 pm I hate coil splits. They are either too thin and under wound as a single, or over wound as a double. You would need some sort of split/tap setup to make them both good, but totally not worth it. Just buy more guitars.

May I suggest Peavey/Rhodes wiring?

p13 of "The Ancient Order of the Mystic Magnetic Pickup": https://peavey.com/PDFs/HPW-Chapter-5.pdf

Only we guitar players would turn a random rant about a push/pull pot into a religious pickup quest.

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Tue Mar 16, 2021 11:55 am Only we guitar players would turn a random rant about a push/pull pot into a religious pickup quest.

LOL Yes, or, at the very least, to turn whatever into a guitar quest. A new guitar always makes you smile.

This is us, folks. And I love it!

glasshand wrote: ↑Tue Mar 16, 2021 8:42 am

Chocol8 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 5:12 pm I hate coil splits. They are either too thin and under wound as a single, or over wound as a double. You would need some sort of split/tap setup to make them both good, but totally not worth it. Just buy more guitars.

May I suggest Peavey/Rhodes wiring?

p13 of "The Ancient Order of the Mystic Magnetic Pickup": https://peavey.com/PDFs/HPW-Chapter-5.pdf

That doesn’t address the problem, especially if you don’t modify the pickup construction like they did. Half of a PAF hum bucker will never have a Strat like sound, and two Strat pickups next to each other RWRP will never sound like a PAF. Wiring will not fix this.

Chocol8 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 16, 2021 6:27 pm That doesn’t address the problem, especially if you don’t modify the pickup construction like they did. Half of a PAF hum bucker will never have a Strat like sound, and two Strat pickups next to each other RWRP will never sound like a PAF. Wiring will not fix this.

Oh, I agree with you that half a PAF doesn't sound like a Strat single, but my point about the wiring is that it doesn't have to be all or nothing; you can do a kind of variable split.

glasshand wrote: ↑Wed Mar 17, 2021 4:35 pm
Oh, I agree with you that half a PAF doesn't sound like a Strat single, but my point about the wiring is that it doesn't have to be all or nothing; you can do a kind of variable split.

I've got a Washburn W164 that came wired like that stock. IIRC, two volumes, a master tone and the fourth pot "blended" the coil split...

Tried a push/pull on an Epi and really disliked it. Now my Prs SE "Paul" has the small toggles and I love the sound I get from that guitar. But tastes do vary!