How do you "partially split" humbuckers?

[Marty Grass]

There is a guitar that has a set of these in them that can be partially split. My guess is that involves a resistor turn on between coils, but I don't know.

Galaxy Neck - Traditional Sized | Righteous Sound

[lammie200]

I didn't see any info in the link but what you are describing sounds more like it should be called "split-filtered" rather than "partially split." Seems like you would need several separate coil winds and several leads to partially split any type of pickup whether single coil or humbucker. Just my thoughts.

[Bob_Ross]

Also didn't read the link so maybe this is way off base, but fwiw nearly any time I've heard someone (or some company) describing a "coil-xxxx" feature of their pickups that is not a complete coil-cut (which would switch a pickup between full dual-coil humbucker and true single-coil pickup), what they are talking about is a coil-tap (which changes the number of windings on the active coil, regardless of whether it is humbucking or single coil).

But this notion of inserting a resistor between the windings of a pickup is intriguing; I've just never heard of anyone doing that.

[Cunamara]

I didn't see any info in the link but what you are describing sounds more like it should be called "split-filtered" rather than "partially split." Seems like you would need several separate coil winds and several leads to partially split any type of pickup whether single coil or humbucker. Just my thoughts.

Fralin and others have wiring on this. It does use a resistor to only partially shunt one coil to ground. I have used this, it works OK but it's not a true single coil sound- but it sounds better than a split humbucker through 500k pots (which is a terrible sound IMHO).

5 Powerful Ways To Coil Split Your Humbucker - Fralin Pickups

Another option is a Q filter a la Bill Lawrence. I have this in one guitar, it is a nice option with a lot of tonal variation. I have it on a push-pull pot (the push-pull Q to standard tone diagram). There are tradeoffs for this vs. coil splitting versus partial splitting.

Q-Filter – Bill and Becky Wilde Pickups

[garybaldy]

I have a couple of guitars by the Vintage brand which have variable splitting via a knob. One has a regular HB, the other 3 stacked 'P90s'.

[Marty Grass]

Fralin and others have wiring on this. It does use a resistor to only partially shunt one coil to ground. I have used this, it works OK but it's not a true single coil sound- but it sounds better than a split humbucker through 500k pots (which is a terrible sound IMHO).

5 Powerful Ways To Coil Split Your Humbucker - Fralin Pickups

Another option is a Q filter a la Bill Lawrence. I have this in one guitar, it is a nice option with a lot of tonal variation. I have it on a push-pull pot (the push-pull Q to standard tone diagram). There are tradeoffs for this vs. coil splitting versus partial splitting.

Q-Filter – Bill and Becky Wilde Pickups

The luthier got back to me and explained he uses the first (Fralin) option you mentioned. I don't know what resistor he uses, but it drops the output of one coil. He says it gives no significant hum and sounds a little single coil-ish.

I asked him about his pickup choice. When he builds a guitar, he can put almost any pickup in. The choice is up to the buyer if there is a preference. He has been impressed with Righteous Sound's Wide Range Humbuckers. I've been a fan of Fralin P-92s, and these may be similar. The partial coil tap can give it a bit more of a single coil sound. I asked him if the smaller sized WRHB (fitting into a traditional humbucker space) still captures the sparkle. He said it does, at least for the most part. The magnets are the pole pieces, which are made of copper, nickel and iron. This choice makes a difference but is harder, therefore more expensive, to produce. As I read about it, this was Seth Lover's first pickup he designed for Fender.

Here's an older article. Just a moment...

Here's the pickups details. WIDE RANGE | Righteous Sound

[Cunamara]

IME your luthier is correct about the partial split not adding any significant hum to the sound. it sounds more singlecoil-ish rather than sounding like a true single coil, but I find that coil splitting with a humbucker doesn't sound like a nice singlecoil because the pots and the capacitor are wrong. Most of us want to hear 250K pots and a .047 capacitor instead of 500K/.022 which is typical of guitars with humbucker pickups, so when a humbucker is split the functioning coil sounds noisy, thin, harsh and has significantly lower volume output. The partial split method gets around most of those problems. I found it much more usable than true coil splitting. Except for maybe a few guitar nerds in the audience, nobody's going to notice.