Splitting coils question

[DarkAxel]

Hey... so my tele has a DiMarzio Chopper in the bridge position. I have a push-pull on tone knob for splitting the coils

it sounds wonderful split, BUT there's the problem with the signal and therefore a volume drop...

is it SOMEHOW possible to do something with the electronics to avoid the drop? i'm a DIY and electronics noob, the only thing i've done is swapping 3PDT in my fix'd fuzz... so please help me

[Schlatte]

as far as I know the volume drop is normal when splitting coils, since you're practically running on "half a pickup"
maybe the easiest option would be to use a booster?

[DarkAxel]

yeah, i know, it's logical, i'm not surprised in any way

that's an option i'd like to avoid i don't want to have to step on a pedal to even out those volume levels

[coldbrightsunlight]

Only solution I can think of is having a little booster in your guitar so pressing the coil split button also turns on the boost. Kind of a chore though.

[DarkAxel]

Alright, nevermind than...

i'll man up and deal with it

[kevinhifi]

There are a few things you can try that may or may not do the trick. It's a tough one because you are talking about all passive components. So you don't have any ability to actively boost the single coil versus the full Chopper. All you can do is try to limit all loading down of that coil.

You can wire the push-pull to also pull the tone knob, volume knob, or both totally out of the circuit when you split the Chopper. In order to have a single push-pull do all three (split Chopper, remove volume control, remove tone control), you'd probably need a fancy push-pull with three poles. The typical one has two poles, which means you could install another on the volume pot to achieve this. Any way you do it, there should be a nice bump in volume when you take away the loading down effects of those two controls. It'll also be a little brighter and give you no more control over volume and tone...of course.

[DarkAxel]

Might try to pull that tone knob out of the circuit, that's a nice idea! i don't use it on bridge pickup anyway, so it wouldn't be a problem will look into that, thanks!

[Schlatte]

hrrrmmm... you could wire your normal mode so you have a little bit of a volume drop... so you wouldn't notice any volume differences between normal/out of phase... and just use an always-on booster first in your chain to even it out...

[DarkAxel]

I know a booster would be a solution. I just wanted to avoid it by doing something with the electronics, you know

[kevinhifi]

hrrrmmm... you could wire your normal mode so you have a little bit of a volume drop... so you wouldn't notice any volume differences between normal/out of phase... and just use an always-on booster first in your chain to even it out...

Yeah, that could do it too. You could put a couple resistors on the push pull that make a voltage divider to always drop the volume when you have the full chopper on. It's a question of whether you like the tone of the Chopper untainted or the tone of the single untainted. Then from there you have to taint to make them match...that came out strange.

[Noise...]

as far as I know the volume drop is normal when splitting coils, since you're practically running on "half a pickup"
maybe the easiest option would be to use a booster?

This is the answer.

I had a Jagmaster that I split the coils on. Instead of push/pull, I just permanently split them. It was slightly lower output than my CIJ, but sounded good.

I'd go with a booster, as in general it will give a nice boost to the frequencies in your sound anyway.

[Gone Fission]

Not to be too that guy about it, but I'm assuming you have a volume knob, right? Ride it.

[DarkAxel]

^ What do you mean? ^

anyway... i've never ben a big fan of boosters :/ maybe that's really the only option though

[Schlatte]

^ What do you mean? ^

anyway... i've never ben a big fan of boosters :/ maybe that's really the only option though

I think he means that you should turn down your volume on the normal setting and turn it up on the out-of-phase setting so there is no volume difference between those settings.

But you could also wire a voltage divider so your guitar is quieter on the normal setting, and no voltage divider on the out-of-phase setting so the volume matches.
But that would lead to the problem that your signal is quieter in general.. which would lead to the conclusion that you need a booster. Even if you're not a big fan of them... They help.

[DarkAxel]

Oh, right...

fixing rather the setting i use more than the one i use just from time to time seems kinda contraproductive... so i guess i should get/build a booster