Push/Pull Pots

A push/pull pot is a volume/tone control with a switch attached to it that is activated by pulling and/or pushing the top of the pot. Commonly used for coil tapping, phase switching, even pickup selection.
 
People use them because it gives them more controls without adding more components to the guitar... so you could have an LP with coil splitting (to get Strat sounds) that looks totally stock, or a Strat with a series/parallel switch (to get LP sounds) that looks totally stock.

This site has tons of stuff you can do with push/pulls: series/parallel, phase, splitting, kill, treble boost, etc etc.
http://alexplorer.net/guitar/mods.html
 
As one who has tried many combinations of switches, push/push, push/pull pots, I gotta say, the best thing I have found is whats been arround for ever, and that is a pickup selector switch, and a volume and tone knob,  All of the fancy splitting and reversing is really just a way to brag about what your guitar can do, when the reality is that you will find the best sound for your axe, and play that litterally all the time. And splitting humbuckers, reversing phase is not it, at all. But it's like teaching kids, they never understand till they do it themselves, good luck....
 
Well, I've tried parallel buckers and split, and I didn't really like it (although I do have a true strat, so maybe it's just relatively crappy sounding).  The BEST use I have found it to add the Neck-Bridge and Neck-Middle-Bridge combo to my strat by using it as an on switch to my bridge pickup.

- TS
 
Not ALL humbuckers are suitable for coil spiltting, but I've been very pleased with the versatility of a lot of higher output HBs like Rio Grande sets. Lace Arenas and SD JB/JBJrs, all of which can give you great single coil tones when split. Doesn't have anything to do with bragging, just tone/sound...
 
i'll agree with alfang. although there are humbuckers that have enough output in one coil to get by as a single coil i tend to be less than impressed by the sound. i think there is a reason guitar controls haven't changed much in 50 years. the old stuff works, is easy to understand by the player and repairman and it gives a reasonable amout of versitility without any bad sounds or anouying changes in volume. i won't discourage the use of unusual stuff but i will encourage keeping it simple. if you want your strat to sound more lp or vise versa you may just be hapier with 2 guitars.
 
Alfang said:
All of the fancy splitting and reversing is really just a way to brag about what your guitar can do, when the reality is that you will find the best sound for your axe, and play that litterally all the time. And splitting humbuckers, reversing phase is not it, at all. But it's like teaching kids, they never understand till they do it themselves, good luck....

Maybe...
you'll end to use just the best sound of your guitar and leave others apart, but it's good to know some variations (good or not) are there.
So, why not? I think these push/pull pots are simple and cheap way to mod guitars without changing their look. :icon_tongue: 
 
I agree with ventolino.  If you've got a guitar with two humbuckers, there is ZERO cost (well maybe $5, but zero cost to the guitar configuration) to adding a push/pull to split your humbuckers.  It can't hurt anything, it can only help.  Maybe it's useless, but if it is, just ignore it.
 
Alfang said:
As one who has tried many combinations of switches, push/push, push/pull pots, I gotta say, the best thing I have found is whats been arround for ever, and that is a pickup selector switch, and a volume and tone knob,  All of the fancy splitting and reversing is really just a way to brag about what your guitar can do, when the reality is that you will find the best sound for your axe, and play that litterally all the time. And splitting humbuckers, reversing phase is not it, at all. But it's like teaching kids, they never understand till they do it themselves, good luck....

Try telling that to Brian May, Jimmy Page, Peter Green...(don't tell me you don't think they get good tone!)
 
Funky Phil said:
Alfang said:
As one who has tried many combinations of switches, push/push, push/pull pots, I gotta say, the best thing I have found is whats been arround for ever, and that is a pickup selector switch, and a volume and tone knob,  All of the fancy splitting and reversing is really just a way to brag about what your guitar can do, when the reality is that you will find the best sound for your axe, and play that litterally all the time. And splitting humbuckers, reversing phase is not it, at all. But it's like teaching kids, they never understand till they do it themselves, good luck....

Try telling that to Brian May, Jimmy Page, Peter Green...(don't tell me you don't think they get good tone!)

brian may's wiring is complex, but he used very little of the options avaiable.
Page almost never used the coiltaps on his guitar. they made him go crazy. 'were am I in the wiring? whats happening?!"
and Green didnt use coiltaps too, only a reverse neckpickup.
 
I have my current MIM strat modified with several switches giving it Parallel/Split/Series and all on for the bridge, and plan on doing the same thing when my warmoth gets here soon.

Do I use all 15 PU combinations that I can currently get or will I use the 31 I'm planning for the warmoth?  No, but... I do use half of them on a regular basis.  You definitely lean towards some more than others for sure, but... I just like having the options.  All the sounds do sound different and when it comes to recording, it's nice to have all these different flavors available. 

The P/S/S 3 way switch for the bridge Humbucker alone is worth it.  It's like have a low/med/high switch.  Kick in the high(series) for leads, medium(parallel) for articulation in chords, and low(single coil) when combined with other PU's for the stratty 2-4 sound.

erik
 
I did the JP LP wiring on a cheap LP copy, and I think the series/parallel and phase switch get some very useful sounds. It might be the last thing I want to horse around with at a gig in the middle of a song, but for recording, I likey.
 
My Parker P-42 has the pull knob of for splitting the coils and for a clean or light distortion tone it sounds really nice. I don't like it as much with heavy distortion. If you have a touch of distortion, with it split it cleans up really nice, in my opinion. It gives that guitar 3 more totally different tones to work with.

I'm going to talk to my tech about doing the Page mod on my Warmoth LP. I figure why not do it? I want to hear all of the different ways it can sound.I'll probably end up using the straight bridge pick up the most anyway, but I like options.
 
Oh, and somewhat on topic, I'm itching to try those SD P-Rails.  Those will require at least a push-pull (hum/P-90) and you could even use a 4-way (rail/series/parallel/P-90)!  (Or a six way if you add in phase, but it's probably easier to add a toggle for phase if you're into that.  Which I'm not.)
 
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