How can a humbucker be made to sound like a single coil?
The easiest way is to remove all of the adjusting screws from one side of the pickup. You can also split the coil by shorting one side of the coil to ground but this also reduces the current generated by both coils. Many players have removed the adjustable poles from one side of their humbucker and this keeps from having to do any modification to the pickup that could cause damage. You can put a .0047 mfd. capacitor in series with the output of your pickups and this will give a full sounding humbucking pickup and thinner and brighter tone. I ve modified the neck humbucking pickup by removing the 3 adjustable screws on the bass side of a pickup leaving the three on the treble side. You can get a clean bottom end and a full sound on the top three strings. I use this combination if I m doing some finger picking.
