"half tap" coil tap method - anyone tried this?

[tfarny]

I read somewhere that, instead of shunting to directly to ground in a coil tap situation, you ought to put a .047 or higher value cap between the start / finish wires and the ground. That way, in theory, you get the bass coming through the tapped coil. This should 1) reduce hum, maybe by a lot since most of the power is in the bass frequencies anyhow, and  2) lessen the "thin & crappy" sound problem of most tapped coil setups by adding in some bass response and increasing overall output, while still giving you the treble aspect of single coils.
I'm curious to try it since I like to tinker, but has anyone tried doing it this way, and what were your experiences?

 

[line6man]

That sounds absolutely brilliant in theory, but it might not work very well in practice.
Where did you hear this?

 

[Superlizard]

Doubt you'd hear enough of a difference to justify doing so.

 

[tfarny]

Some stupid guitar forum somewheres....not here. I suppose you could get real tricky and attach a pot to get infinitely variable tap, or even infinitely variable 'half tap' too, but that adds a control and complexity. I may try this one day on my LP if anybody says it sounds decent.

 

[tfarny]

to justify a 50cent cap and 5 minutes of soldering? I don't have to even remove the strings to fiddle with a Les Paul wiring.

 

[GoDrex]

well I think now you have to try it

 

[line6man]

I had Curtis Novak build me a custom Jazz bass pickup with a half coil and a full coil with a tap. In single coil mode, i use the full coil for a true single coil Jazz bass tone with no compromises, but in humbucker mode, i use the half coil and the tapped portion of the full coil.
I have everything configured so that there is one ground and a hot wire from the humbucker mode and from the single coil mode, which i A/B from an SPDT mini toggle, and the connection from the half coil to the coil tap is done at the pickup with a short length of wire.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3566/3397527524_8e0e058ceb.jpg?v=0)
I have never heard either half coil alone, or all three coils, but i am kind of tempted to rewire the pickup to bring all the wires into the control cavity and screw around with it a bit and see if i could work in this mod somehow. It might also be worthwhile to experiment with very low capacitor values on one coil to accentuate the bass slightly from one side and treble from the other. It almost makes me wonder if this is something worth trying out on 2 pickups that are wired in series.

I wonder how many capacitor on/off switches i can fit on a pickguard before i am driven to insanity by all the options :icon_jokercolor:

But ultimately, like i said earlier, i think this is something that works better in theory, and in practice will probably be a huge disappointment.
It's not by any means a waste of time though. I am always willing to embrace outside-the-box thinking on passive guitar/bass designs.