Coil split

A wiring option that switches off one coil of a humbucker, so the pickup operates as a single coil with roughly half its output.

It is done by shorting one coil to ground through a push-pull pot or a mini switch, and because the remaining coil is only one of the pair, the result is thinner and brighter than the full humbucker while retaining the humbucker's physical position and mounting. Common on guitars with four-conductor pickup wiring, and it is the standard way to get a usable single-coil approximation from a dual-coil instrument without routing for another pickup.

Example: splitting a neck humbucker under a clean arpeggio adds the hollow top end that a full humbucker hides.

Coil split

See also