When you’re starting out learning to play electric guitar, it’s important that you know the parts and features of your instrument. Knowing what your guitar can offer you gives you an idea about what you can and cannot do with it, allowing you to come up with ways to work around its limitations.
Today we’re taking a look at a feature that many electric guitars already have: coil tapping. What is it, when do you use it and how does it differ from coil splitting?
What is coil tapping?
Coil tapping refers to a feature in electric guitars with single-coil pickups. When you tap a coil, it means you are taking the electronic signal from a certain point within the coil instead of from its end for a reduced output. A switch allows you to select between the full output or a lower output so you can produce two distinct sounds or voicings from one pickup.
Some of the best electric guitars sub $500 like the Schecter Omen Extreme-6 already have this feature installed. Single-coil pickups with coil tapping circuitry are also available for purchase.
The method of tapping a coil would depend on how the feature is designed. Coil tapping can be done via a switch or a push-pull pot.
When do you use coil taps?
Some single-coil pickups that have high outputs make use of coil taps in order to produce a lower output so that it resembles that of low-output pickups, like those on many vintage electric guitar models. Coil tapping is done when:
- You want a cleaner, brighter more vintage-like sound.
- You want more control over your output without simply using the volume knob to reduce the level of output.
- You are using a tube amp that is particularly sensitive. The tapped setting would be ideal for playing rhythm and the full setting for lead.
- You want to experiment with effect devices such as envelope filter pedals.
What is the difference between coil tapping and coil splitting?
Coil tapping is done with single-coil pickups while coil splitting is done with humbucking pickups. With humbucking pickups, there are two coils of copper wire that are used with two magnets. The magnets and coils have opposite polarity, which effectively cancels or bucks undesired hum and noise. This is why the pickups are called humbuckers. Humbucking pickups also produce a higher output as well as a heavier and thicker sound than single-coil pickups.
Splitting a coil means breaking the connection between the humbucker’s two coils, leaving one functional while disabling the other. In this manner, the pickup essentially becomes a single-coil. Coil splitting is done when you want to have a brighter tone.
Of the two, coil splitting is the more common tone option. However, the terms coil tapping and coil splitting are often used interchangeably to mean producing a single-coil sound. Electric guitars with either feature are considered to be more tonally versatile than models that do not have coil tapping or coil splitting. With these features, you have a more colorful tonal palette and you can switch between different tones, allowing you to be a more flexible guitar player overall.
Special thanks to Know your Instrument for sharing their technical expertise to our readers.
