How close does a split coil humbucker sound to a good single coil tone?
Standard humbuckers have two coils that normally pick up two areas of the string. When you split a pickup you cut out one coil and eliminate the current generated from that area of the string. The spilit pickup now uses one coil and 1/2 of the total turns when combined with the other coil in series. If you spit a pickup that is normally 8k ohms, you now have 4k ohms. You will have less output but a higher resonant peak or brighter sounding pickup. Trying to simulate a typical single coil like a stratocaster will be difficult to achieve due to many factors. When you split a humbucker you reduce the total turns within the pickup by half, you generate less output when using one coil and the pickup will be thinner and brigher sounding. You will simulate the single coil pickup because you are only using one side of the coil and one string area. Also when you split the coil you will notice an increase in 60 cycle hum.
