After conducting some experiments, I have come to the conclusion that these rail humbuckers are not separately wired.
I guess you have to pay a lot more to achieve that.
Makes having 2x3 way switches somewhat redundant.
Meanwhile I'm up to 22 coats of Tru-Oil.
Bottle is fast running out so contemplating getting another one.
cheers, Mark.
I didn't know you were looking to split those humbuckers.
I believe it can be done, but not without modifying the pickup in your case, and probably not worth the effort.
I have not split rail humbuckers myself, but from what I have read, the result is quite lacklustre. Apparently they just sound very anaemic. Understandable given the coils & magnets are considerably smaller than a standard HB.
Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...
That's precisely the effect that I was aiming for.Originally Posted by McCreed
If I could condense this build down two words, 'Simple and Anaemic'.
cheers, Mark.
Looks like a standard 4-wire arrangement to me. But there are no pictures showing exactly what wires are coming out of the pickup.
From the AliExpress web site, it looks like you've got black (ground) + a screen, white (hot) and green and red (the centre wires). https://m.aliexpress.com/item/328215...1e0c313&is_c=N
So finding whether green or red is connected to the white wire, will give you the two sets of coil wire details. You'll probably need to keep the screen and black wires separate before any switching arrangement. I can't see any
You also need to tidy up and snip the loose ends of your soldered wires back, as in the last photo, it looks like the two bare ends of wire on the switch could easily be touching and so negating the switch.
In addition, to get two coils in a single pickup space, they've probably used 44AWG wire. So whilst it may have a 10k ohm DCR reading, when you allow allow for the increased resistance of the thinner wire, that will be roughly the equivalent of a 6.2k DCR standard humbucker. So not that high an output as it is, and when coil split, that's a 3.1k equivalent single coil. So definitely thin and anaemic.
Hi Simon. Clicked on that link for confirmation on what I have...
'single coil' humbucker, why didn't I see that?
maybe the 'aceesaries' should have set the alarm bells ringing.
cheers, Mark.
It says 4-wire. The pictures show 4-wire. Single coil is just the size of the pickup. Parts and aceessaries is just there for search engines to find.
It should be what it says it is.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick (an average day at the office) I thought the presence of 2 coils wound in opposite directions determined the word 'humbucker'.
cheers, Mark.
Not quite. One coil needs to be 'reverse wound, reverse polarity' to the other. It's less the direction of the winding ( you still end up with a coil of wire round the bobbin whichever way you wind it, it's how you connect the ends that matter) but the fact that one set of poles (or bar in this case) has a different magnetic polarity to the other, and the coil is connected up the other way round to compensate for this in order for the output signal created by the string to be the same polarity as the other coil, but have any airborne electrical noise picked up by both coils to have opposite polarity to each other and so (mainly) cancel out.
The direction of the wind could make a very subtle difference to the sound, as one end of the coil will be closer to the pole pieces than the other end will, but topographically it's exactly the same and differences should average out. Which is why you can reverse the connections to one of the coils to have one produce a string signal that's opposite polarity to the other coil and so get an output where most of the sound is cancelled, especially the lower frequencies, resulting in a very thin nasal sound indeed. The closer the coils are together, the more the outputs will be similar (but one inverted) and so more will cancel out.
Your pickup definitely has two sets of coils and is a humbucker. The 'single coil' reference is only to the shape and size of it, not its function. I agree it's a poor description, but one that is in common usage around the guitar community.
Last edited by Simon Barden; 08-07-2020 at 08:21 PM.
Cheers Simon. Thanks for the illuminating trip through the technical thicket.
I'll have another go at it tomorrow.
Fortunately another neck arrived for the TL build and the Trem-King is dismantled for some minor adjustments (and a new paint job).
Now that us Victorians have been placed back into 'lock-down', I have something to keep me busy.
cheers, Mark.
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