Who makes such pickups?

[torquil]

I had this idea: Two coils side by side like a humbucker. One coil is larger than the other. The large coil has a coil tap that corresponds to the number of windings of the smaller coil.

E.g. coils of 5k and 7k windings, where the 7k coil has a coil tap at 5k.

From this you can get a symmetric humbucker with a total of 10k windings (5k+5k), or a single coil with 7k windings. All in the same pickup.

Who makes such pickups? Wouldn't this be much better than just tapping between the coils?

The neck coil tap on my PRS sounds very good, but the output changes too much when I switch. So I'll consider making a switchable attenuator on the humbucker signal, but not on the single-coil signal. I don't want to fiddle with the volume control in addition to switching between single-coil/humbucker. Actually, that switch can also be used as a "solo boost" when using the humbucker alone. At least of the amp is not distorting heavily.

I know that the single-coil volume will be lower even with an asymmetric humbucker, but maybe it is possible to tolerate. So maybe I need a switch like this in any case...

Torquil

 

[Zexcoil]

That's a great idea!

 

[Corinthian]

Speak to Hayden at Bulldog Pickups. He's pretty open to unusual concepts, plus he knows enough about pickups that if there's a flaw in your theory he'll be able to tell you.

 

[jakes guitars]

I did almost exactly that same thing for a guitar I built just a couple of months ago.
If I remember correctly, one coil was about 6.5, and the other was about 4.5, and untapped, it (obviously...) came out to almost 11k. The reason I did it, was the guitar was wired simlar to a tele, and I wanted to have both a full neck humbucker sound, and one that blended well with the bridge pickup in single coil mode.
I made the adjustable coil the hotter one, and put it closest to the neck. With a push pull pot,to switch between single and humbucker.
It came out sounding great!

 

[Rattle&Hum]

Have you looked into Lindy Fralin Unbuckers? They are mismatched coils (made to your specs) and are ideal for tapped/series humbucking tones. The dominence of the one coil actually gives the humbucker tone greater clarity and snap...

 

[jmoose]

Seymour Duncan Stag Mag... its two single coils stuck together.

If you wired it with a spin-a-split you'd have full control over the balance of the coils. I'm sure you could also put in a series/parallel switch to stack the coils in different manners...