The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I came across a tele with P90s when I talked with the owner he sane that previious owner made 'cut-out'

    I did not quite get how it is possble... always thought that it meant cutting out a coil on humbucker... but P90 is technically a sigle.. what's there to cut out?

    i am not a technician and the guy really could not explain it.

    Technically it controls with volume knob pressing it up or down...

    I cannot try guitar at the moment to see houw it works..

    Andy idea whta can it be? (The guy who made it was a metalhead)

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  3. #2

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    I am not a native English speaker, and I think nor are you, so I hope I understood enough, but I think he made a kill switch operated by a push-pull pot?

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Little Jay
    I am not a native English speaker, and I think nor are you, so I hope I understood enough, but the only thing I can think of is that a P90 is larger than a Tele single coil pickup, so he had to enlarge the pickup cutout (=hole) to make the P90 fit.....
    Thanks! And no))

    Actually I tried to traslate Russian term commonly used by guitarists and guitar masters here. Litterally it is 'cut out' - usually that means that they change the circuit adding additional switch to cut out on of the coils in humbuckcker.
    I ne er used it and never had guitar with it - mostly metal guys do.

    But I cant figuer out what's there to cut out in P90...

    I once had a guitar with KA handmade pickup (I bought it from Kent directly) that also had option fo such wiring with additional switch... it worked like it had more dry tone with it suitable for comping..

    Tomorrow I will check the guitar myself to see... it is Squire Fender Customs iI P90... pretty weird beast - I tried it in teh shop and I liked the tone and feel though I was not after such a guitar.\Suddenly a good offer for used one popped up so I decided to try it... just less than 200usd why no& if it is ok it would be good stick to modify)))

  5. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonah

    But I cant figuer out what's there to cut out in P90...
    Probably a coil tap where you have the option of only half of the coil of the pickup being active....

  6. #5

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    Sounds like a coil split, that’s cutting out half of the double-coil of a humbucking pickup. Push-down would sound dryer. But to have coil-split P90s is rare.
    Nothing but having a play and see if it can do good sound on lower volume as metal usually means a lot of output.


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  7. #6

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    I think Tommo got it.

    <mansplaining>The terminals or lugs at the beginning and end of the coil are called "taps," to which the lead wire is soldered at the pickup and then connects to the controls, switch, etc. In a single coil pickup there are two taps (for the beginning and end of the coil); a humbucker pickup has two coils and thus there are four taps.

    You can add a third tap somewhere in the middle of the coil to reduce the output, then have a switch to select whether to use the full coil or the partial coil. Kent Armstrong has this arrangement on his handwound floating single coil pickup; the higher output tap is more like the DeArmond 1100 pickup and the lower output tap is more like the Gibson P90.

    That's coil taping. Coil splitting is done with humbuckers, shunting the output of one coil to ground resulting in a single coil signal. Usually sounds terrible IMHO, at least in passive pickup systems. The only guitarist I ever heard make that sound really decent was Jerry Garcia, whose very complicated wiring harness sent the split single coil single signal to 250K pots and the full humbucker signal to 500K pots, which avoided having that trebly thin sour sound that split humbuckers usually have (because they're still running the signal through 500K pots and .022 caps). Plus there was a unity gain buffer in the circuit, effects loop, etc.

    Coil splitting and coil tapping are terms that are often used erroneously. </mansplaining>

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Cunamara
    I think Tommo got it.

    <mansplaining>The terminals or lugs at the beginning and end of the coil are called "taps," to which the lead wire is soldered at the pickup and then connects to the controls, switch, etc. In a single coil pickup there are two taps (for the beginning and end of the coil); a humbucker pickup has two coils and thus there are four taps.

    You can add a third tap somewhere in the middle of the coil to reduce the output, then have a switch to select whether to use the full coil or the partial coil. Kent Armstrong has this arrangement on his handwound floating single coil pickup; the higher output tap is more like the DeArmond 1100 pickup and the lower output tap is more like the Gibson P90.

    That's coil taping. Coil splitting is done with humbuckers, shunting the output of one coil to ground resulting in a single coil signal. Usually sounds terrible IMHO, at least in passive pickup systems. The only guitarist I ever heard make that sound really decent was Jerry Garcia, whose very complicated wiring harness sent the split single coil single signal to 250K pots and the full humbucker signal to 500K pots, which avoided having that trebly thin sour sound that split humbuckers usually have (because they're still running the signal through 500K pots and .022 caps). Plus there was a unity gain buffer in the circuit, effects loop, etc.

    Coil splitting and coil tapping are terms that are often used erroneously. </mansplaining>
    Wow! Thanks!
    Today I will report after trying this particular guitar

  9. #8

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    As you describe it, it doesn't necessarily have to refer to the PUs themselves. With a some Teles one has to enlarge ("cut out"?) the cavities in the body for the PUs to make room for the larger P90s.

  10. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by oldane
    As you describe it, it doesn't necessarily have to refer to the PUs themselves. With a some Teles one has to enlarge ("cut out"?) the cavities in the body for the PUs to make room for the larger P90s.
    Thanks! And as I said avove it is not about physical carving of cutting the body.
    The term is used in regards of electrics.

    Actually Cunamara described very precicesly what in Russian in guitarist and makers slang is called 'otssechka' (litterally 'cut-out or cut -off'). Partly it is my fault I did not google up to find a proper English term...

    Actually I got the guitar now an dwill record a video

  11. #10
    I show it in this vid.. somewhere in the middle


  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonah
    I show it in this vid.. somewhere in the middle

    It sounds lovely! And indeed it looks and sounds like a book tap not a coil split. Congrats! (I listened to a few Epiphone Uptown Kat videos and it sounds atrocious in each and every one and that’s about 1000)


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  13. #12

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    Sounds great, in any configuration! Congratulations on such a great find.

    If you don‘t mind my advice - your spoken English is excellent, but your spelling isn‘t. Have you ever tried speech recognition?


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  14. #13

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    Maybe the switch toggles between 2 pickups wired in series or wired parallel?

    Kent's PAF has the option to do this between the 2 coils. Maybe here the P-90s are acting like one big humbucker.

  15. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by docsteve
    Sounds great, in any configuration! Congratulations on such a great find.

    If you don‘t mind my advice - your spoken English is excellent, but your spelling isn‘t. Have you ever tried speech recognition?


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    Thank you!)))

    Actually my spelling is good)
    I mean I know how words should be spelt quite well - the reason of my misspelling in writing I made on computer is different.

    My spelling mistakes are mostly about typing problems.
    I write lots of texts in Russian and I make just crazy quantity of typos (I edit it first and my wife then checks it over) and Russian is more difficult in concern of syntax and correct punctuation even for native speakers - espcially today when people type a lot quickly on smartphones and tend to neglect the basic rules.
    It was really improved when I learned touchtyping in Russian.

    But in English or othe languages using Latin keyboard I still make lots of typos. Also browser does make strange corrections: like switching 'is' to 'us' or 'as', 'hear' to 'here', 'write' to 'right', 'quite' for 'quiet' and so on... I often see the final message and there are corrections like that which I could not make myself.

    Anyway I feel embarassed - I should work it out with the browser (I have the same problem on FB in English).

  16. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonah
    Thank you!)))

    Actually my spelling is good)
    I mean I know how words should be spelt quite well - the reason of my misspelling in writing I made on computer is different.

    My spelling mistakes are mostly about typing problems.
    I write lots of texts in Russian and I make just crazy quantity of typos (I edit it first and my wife then checks it over) and Russian is more difficult in concern of syntax and correct punctuation even for native speakers - espcially today when people type a lot quickly on smartphones and tend to neglect the basic rules.
    It was really improved when I learned touchtyping in Russian.

    But in English or othe languages using Latin keyboard I still make lots of typos. Also browser does make strange corrections: like switching 'is' to 'us' or 'as', 'hear' to 'here', 'write' to 'right', 'quite' for 'quiet' and so on... I often see the final message and there are corrections like that which I could not make myself.

    Anyway I feel embarassed - I should work it out with the browser (I have the same problem on FB in English).
    I know. I speak decent Russian but never learned how to type. I am actually a speech recognition (Dragon) specialist and I always wants a Russian SR. I thought it might work for you.

    BTW apart from the spelling, your written English is excellent, too. Moreover you always have something to say.


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  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by ccroft
    Maybe the switch toggles between 2 pickups wired in series or wired parallel?

    Kent's PAF has the option to do this between the 2 coils. Maybe here the P-90s are acting like one big humbucker.
    Yes I thought that too. Must be especially designed P90s but problem is just 2 P90s in counter phase will reduce the sound, to cancel hum the volume and tone must be the same (that’s why the old goldtop has only one vol and one tone knob. I tried it once with my gibson p90’s and the resulting sound was rather awful


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