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I am looking for opinions on whether it is a good idea to use a pot to split a humbucker. If you have a guitar with this mod, please post here and let me know what you think. It seems like a really cool idea to me.

Thanks!

I split the JB SH-4 on the bridge of my Epiphone SG Special with the factory cap and wirring and had the sound of my old late 70's Strat. I added second tone and volume pots with the wirring from the SD site with .047 Radio Shack caps and lost it. I want it back! LOL.

I've tried this on one of my strats. I had a PG bridge, a fender fat 50 middle, and a jazz neck. I did the spin-a-split with both bridge and neck pups. IMO, you need a middle pickup with more output to make positions 2 and 4 sound good. I would also go with fender's no-load pots for the pots used for splitting.

I have this mod in my Warmoth VW guitar and it sounds great. I have a JB in the bridge and a Dimarzio Virtual PAF in the neck and they both sound really good. My guitar had two volumes and two tones and I decided that I didn't need two volumes so now I have one volume, two tones, and the spin a split. It is better than a switch to go from full humbucker to split humbucker because you can turn it just a little and make your HB just a little weaker yet still sound like a humbucker.

I've got spins on both my nitefly and my zion strat and can't imagine a stratish sound without them- Will be trying similiar on a mahogany body with a cool rails soon and will give you an update then-

BTW, the way I got into this is a bit strange because it was a factory mod on my zion and I fell in love with it before I understood what it was- On my zion (3 Joe Bardens), it really should be called spin-multiple-pups because they grounded red and white from all 3 pups on one pot-

This is actually easier than keeping each pups split independant and provides some extremely useful tones for a strat- For example 2 and 4 are far more quacky when I spin the split- And even 1, 3, and 5 pick up some quot;phasignquot; sounds when you roll the split-

It was Artie who explained this mod in a way I can understand it- By grounding red and white out on the single pot, you really get 3 coils on at all times, the 5 way is adding the extra coils and the spin is providing how much of the second coil you are going to get-

Like I said, it's an extremely cool sound, but when I wired my Parker I decided to have both options so I could hear 'normal' pup combinations by using a push-pull pot- It may have been a good enough to go back and put this on my zion, but on the other hand, I'm not sure I will ever mod the zion at all as it is absoulty perferct and I dont want to take a chance of messign it up- Here are my pup varations on the parker with a 5 way, 1 spin pot, and a push pull-

1. Bridge- Full JB- Just what you would expect it to sound like

2. JB split from 5 way combined with:
A. Pot in- Classic spin a split with middle Dimarzio crusier- Classic 2 quack
B. Pot out- Spin-multiple pups- Adds first coil of cruiser and first coil of neck cool rails- spin adds amount of 2nd coolrail or crusier- More phasey- Superb rhytem position

3. A. Pot in- Crusier with 2nd rail added according to spin a split- Suprisingly good clean rhytem or lead if you back off the 2nd rail
B. Pot out- First coil of crusiser and cool rail with Spin a split adding more of 2nd cruiser rail- Phasier version of 3a. Great rhytem setting

4. A. Pot in- Cruiser with 2nd rail spin a split plus full cool rail- This is a pretty powerful version of classis 4 sound because cool rails is pretty strong. Great lead
B. Pot out 1st rail of cruiser and cool rails- spin adds in 2nd coils of both- This is closer to a classic 4 position as it somehow 'evens out' the crusier and the cool rails and it's extremely quacky

5. A. Pot in- Cool rails by itself- Very hot- Almost too hot for my set up, but by having it so close to all the other sounds I use, it acts a bit like a blower switch to really pump up a lead.

B. First coil of crusiser and cool rail with Spin a split adding more of 2nd rail from the coolrail - I expected this to sound a lot like 3b position, but because it's the cool rail adding in, it sounds a lot more like a classic 5 position with just a hint of 'phase'.

Long story short, this give pretty incredible flexibility with 3 controls, it's very logical and easy to navigate, it's very easy to wire, and most important, I wouldn't want to give these sounds up on a strat if I had any control over the situation.

Hope this is useful!


Originally Posted by TeleJr24I have this mod in my Warmoth VW guitar and it sounds great. I have a JB in the bridge and a Dimarzio Virtual PAF in the neck and they both sound really good. My guitar had two volumes and two tones and I decided that I didn't need two volumes so now I have one volume, two tones, and the spin a split. It is better than a switch to go from full humbucker to split humbucker because you can turn it just a little and make your HB just a little weaker yet still sound like a humbucker.

This is exactly how I have my LP Standard wired. The quot;Spunquot; pickup is the Jon Moore Big Dog (11.2k) in the bridge.

lt;---- HEY LOOK: 600 posts apparently is the Big Star requirement! Congratulations to me!

Thanks for the info amp; reviews! I was thinking two humbuckers, master volume, master tone, and a spin-a-split for each one. There are other ideas floating around, but that's good enough for now.