Humbuckers that sound great when coil tapped?

[booher]

I've decided I don't like the bridge side pickup enough to leave my Aria CS-250 completely original. But with the problem of coil taps and phase switches, a lot of people say that they don't like coil splitting tone.

 

Anyone know of any pickups that sound great as 'buckers or split into singles?

[melx]

I've never been impressed with a coil taps, I've not heard one that sounded great to me anyway.

[booher]

I honestly think the ones on mine sound pretty good, but I noticed that even that bridge side sounds too nasal and harsh to me on the humbucker side. but the pickup on the neck side sounds just like a strat when tapped, and I'm a big fan of the middle as single.

 

But, that's why I'm asking here...I know people have a lot of the same gripes.

[TechBrother]

I like the tone of the McCarty pu's when tapped in my PRS. They aren't as hot as other pu's I've used but I like the tone.

[gtrwiz]

I haven't tried them, but I know that Lindy Fralin Unbuckers were developed with coil splitting in mind...

[bleepedybloops]

whichever those Lace Sensors are that came on the Tele Plus that are muddy as humbuckers but are good split as single cools

[Pankot]

Bare Knuckle Warpig coil taps well imo. Just remember to ask for the "non-distressed" cover option.

[slight-return]

I don't know if John over at guitar nuts still does custom winds, but i had him do one for me maybe 6-7 years ago to my specs and i liked it quite a bit (the coils are symmetrical for proper CMR, but the mags are different so there are two different split sounds on it)

[panther_king]

I have taps on my neck Dimarzio FRED, and the duncan Invader in the bridge of my custom ESP. I like the sound of both (and I have them tapped reverse wound in the center position for a combo humbucker). The FRED is more strat, and the invader oddly enough (don't laugh ) is a nice quacky tele sound, with it's boosted mids and rolled off high end. It's a swamp ash guitar though, so the invader doesn't get too muddy.

 

noisy as hell when tapped though.

[DanJep]

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Seymour Duncan P-rails.

[cdawzrd]

I have a DiMarzio Air Norton in the neck of one of my guitars, when it is coil-tapped, it sounds like a piezo acoustic, especially through an acoustic simulator pedal (actually sounds good, to my surprise). Not quite what I was going for (strat) but I like it anyway.

[Aaron SS]

Anything Bare Knuckle

[Bob Doom]

I've always found the neck pickup in my PRS McCarty really useful when tapped. I pretty much only use that guitar with the tapped neck pickup lately.

 

For something a little different... in my heavy guitars with mini toggles, I've noticed that the Dimarzio Super Distortion taps surprisingly well.... even better than the Seymour Duncan Custom Custom.

 

I can't wait to get my hands on that P-rails though.

[MathiasWilliam]

Fender Red Lace Sensors!

 

i preferred it as a single coil for a while

[No Arrow_Dann]

i have seymour duncan 59 and custom in my les paul which has the 4 way push pull circuit kinda like the jimmy page model... (for the record page actually had two buttons underneath the pickguard to trigger the effects)....the 59 sounds pretty decent when tapped but the custom is kindof bunk. Im not a big fan of push pull id raTher have a switch in the middle of the knobs kinda like a Neils 'old black'

[TechBrother]

 

I've always found the neck pickup in my PRS McCarty really useful when tapped. I pretty much only use that guitar with the tapped neck pickup lately.

 

 

I often times only used the tapped coils on my McCarty then use the humbuckers as a boost.

[spentron]

Being a heavy distortion user I think coil splits are the useful control and pickups other than bridge position aren't of a whole lot of use unless you're willing to readjust your whole rig.

 

DiMarzio's Multibucker is two of their humbucking-type single coil replacements in a single package and sound as good as them in split with NO HUM, and I like the regular humbucking sound. That's four coils and four pickup blades total. No alnico mojo or anything of course. I've found 4 other coil split hum's just fine with me, 3 of which I had to modify to even try because they weren't wired for it, although the L6S pickups being a bit brighter in series HB made them less good in other modes. It doesn't sound just like a real single coil or as good really, but on the other hand you don't have to deal with anything as stupid as the Strat bridge pickup with the slant and no tone control on that PU only (3 pickups, 5 positions, four too bassy & 1 paint remover).... I consider it almost essential to allow selection of which of the 2 coils of a bridge HB you use, although if I had to choose I'd take the far side from the bridge. With the Muiltibucker I did try it both ways, I prefer the Chopper coil away from the bridge and the Fast Track 2 toward it, I expected to like the other way making the 2 sounds even closer together but the coils really do complement those positions. The 2 HB "coils" being different is part of a big trend in most of the new humbuckers, making the coils pick up differently to reduce phase cancellation when the two coils pick up different sections of the string.

[Agreed]

I like the JB/Jazz combo tapped, but run together differently. Outside/outside, inside/inside, etc.. The Jazz sounds pretty good coil tapped as a single coil though, using the outside coil.

 

Spentron, I'm a high-gain player too and I use my neck pick up all the time (and my middle pickup on my SSH strat, too!)

[IvIark]

I've got SD59s and a Duncan Distortion tapped in one guitar, and a Full Shred and Alnico Pro II tapped in another. Both the 59s and Alnico sound great to me but the others pickups are a bit meh.

 

I think lower output humbuckers seem to get away with it better.

[bluehuricane]

gfs crunchy pafs. i like the split sound better than most sss strats i've played.