you guys are a wealth of knowledge.,
and i pretty much have zero idea how this would work
but i've got some humbuckers that i'm not going to be using, so i was thinking of trying to tear them apart and turn them into single coils.. is this possible?
a google search for "rewiring humbuckers as single coils" dis sweet F.A. for me.
rewinding pickups
Moderated By: mods
I'd say it depends on how the pickup is made, and if you're truly interested in rewinding it (taking it all apart down to the unwound bobbin(s) and adding your own turns of wire) as opposed to rewiring it (leaving the wound coils as they are, but connecting them to the guitar circuit differently).
If the whole thing is potted in some sort of solid wax/resin/whatever, it's unlikely you'll be able to get at the individual coils' wire ends, or get all the components apart, without destroying most of it. If you can see the two coils sitting next to each other in/on a frame and can get at the wires that connect them without damaging the windings, then you have a decent chance. Look around for some articles/diagrams that show how a humbucker is made, and you should get an idea of what's possible with yours.
If the pickup has four wires instead of two, then it's the equivalent of two reverse-polarity single-coils mounted side-by-side. You can use one of the two coils, or wire the two in parallel. (Humbucker coils are wired in series to get their signature sound.) I don't know how satisfying the sound would be when compared with a "real" single-coil, unless you rewind it with more turns of wire. I have a splittable humbucker in one of my gits and it sounds small and thin when I use one coil by itself. That one coil does sound good in parallel with the other un-split humbucker though.
The two coils in a humbucker often share one big magnet. If you want to make two separate single-coils out of one humbucker, you'll need to make sure that each has its own magnet(s) -- either magnetic pole pieces or a big magnet underneath that contacts the steel pole pieces.
If the whole thing is potted in some sort of solid wax/resin/whatever, it's unlikely you'll be able to get at the individual coils' wire ends, or get all the components apart, without destroying most of it. If you can see the two coils sitting next to each other in/on a frame and can get at the wires that connect them without damaging the windings, then you have a decent chance. Look around for some articles/diagrams that show how a humbucker is made, and you should get an idea of what's possible with yours.
If the pickup has four wires instead of two, then it's the equivalent of two reverse-polarity single-coils mounted side-by-side. You can use one of the two coils, or wire the two in parallel. (Humbucker coils are wired in series to get their signature sound.) I don't know how satisfying the sound would be when compared with a "real" single-coil, unless you rewind it with more turns of wire. I have a splittable humbucker in one of my gits and it sounds small and thin when I use one coil by itself. That one coil does sound good in parallel with the other un-split humbucker though.
The two coils in a humbucker often share one big magnet. If you want to make two separate single-coils out of one humbucker, you'll need to make sure that each has its own magnet(s) -- either magnetic pole pieces or a big magnet underneath that contacts the steel pole pieces.