The push/pull switch is an ideal choice for coil-tapping a humbucker as it allows you to retain the usual meaty tone while giving you an extra option - a softer, low-output tone that can make almost any guitar sound like a vintage one.
Unlike splitting coils, tapping the coil doesn’t cut off the supply but simply gives you another access point to the coil wrapped around the bucker’s magnet.
The process of coil-tapping a humbucker tone knob and routing it to a push/pull selector isn’t exactly beginner-friendly as the pickup needs “minor” modifications, so I’ve prepared a simple guide on how anyone can do it.
In this guide, I recommend grabbing an unassembled humbucker (or taking your pickup to an expert for unwinding), as this will significantly simplify the process.
Step 1: Make Space for the “Tap”
To create a “tap”, you’ll need to secure space near the middle of the humbucker where the shorter wire length will be intercepted. The easiest way to do this is to drill an eyelet hole between the poles, preferably near the top center of the plate.
Step 2: Solder the Negative on the Left and Positive on the Right on the Plate
Use a soldering iron to attach the start of the copper wire (not humbucker’s wires) to the left eyelet and the finish on the right of the baseplate of your humbucker.
(Optional)
Step 3: Attach the Humbucker on a Digital Spooling Machine
If you don’t have a spooling machine or don’t want to spend hours on this part, go to a guitar shop/hardware store and have an expert help you.
If you’d rather do it alone, get the low-output humbucker on the spooler for about 7,000-7,500 rotations.
Step 4: Cut the Wire and Connect it to the Central Eyelet
This part creates the “Tap”. If the wire got too hot from the rapid rotations, use sandpaper to brush off the debris, and then solder the “start” lead to the central socket.
Step 5: Finish Spooling the Rest of the Wire Length
Ideally, the copper wire should go around the humbucker for 9,000 full rotations. Check how many times it revolved around the pickup initially, reattach the magnet to the spooler, and finish the remaining rotations. Finalize the spooling by soldering the start and finish leads to the left and right sockets.
Step 6: Connecting the Humbucker’s Wires
Solder the ground wire to the leftmost socket, and the finish to the rightmost socket. You should have at least one “spare” wire to connect it to the tapped eyelet.
Step 7: Connecting the Pickup’s Wires to a Push/Pull Pot
Connect the ground wire to a side-mounted terminal on the potentiometer, the “tapped” wire to the lowermost frontal terminal, and the hot wire to the uppermost frontal terminal. This way, the “up” position of the pot should give you maximum output while the “down” position activates the tapped version.