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Coil tapping a Delano XTender: Would you do it?


chyc
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I have a Sandberg Custom with 2 Delano XTender pickups. The pickups are both individually wired in series. Love the instrument, and love the sound. Problem is, this YT vid shows the pups with a switch for parallel/series/single and I love all the sounds on offer, and love the versatility that it brings. I'm taking the bass in for a service and am half thinking about changing from series to parallel, or even asking the tech to add a series/parallel(/single) switch for these pups.

 

What do other people think, listening to the video? The Sandberg sounds like the series-wired samples in the vid. Do you prefer the parallel over the series? Would you add a switch to your own bass in this situation? Am I chasing a dragon?

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, franzbassist said:

My Franz Sirius fretless bass has this exact setup and I love the instant change of tone three way switching brings.  I say go for it!

My wallet isn't thanking you :)

 

In all seriousness thanks for the data point. Out of interest which setting would you say takes the lion's share of your playing?

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1 hour ago, chyc said:

My wallet isn't thanking you :)

 

In all seriousness thanks for the data point. Out of interest which setting would you say takes the lion's share of your playing?

 

Haha, sorry!  Probably humbucking mostly, but on my fretted Franz (which has two Delano HBCs and the same switch for each pickup) I usually have the bridge in series and just switch the neck to taste.

15. Body FINAL.jpg

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22 hours ago, chyc said:

My wallet isn't thanking you :)

a couple of three way switches would be fairly cheap... if you don't want to drill holes in the front of your bass it would be possible to get 3 way slidey type switches and install them inset on the back cavity cover. I did this on an old Yamaha SG I had to add coil taps. Not an ideal situation but lets you try it without any holes on (the front) of your bass. 

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Thanks for all the replies to this. After some thought I decided that had there been just one pickup I probably would have gone for it, but two pickups already gives me a wide range of tones, and there's a three band EQ to finesse it further. Two switches would make the front of the bass a little cluttered for my taste, but one switch would do my head in at the lack of symmetry :)

 

The switches themselves would have been cheap, but I wouldn't have the equipment, the confidence or the skills to install it myself, and that's where the cost would be.

 

I must say I'm bloomin' impressed with the bass. It's making me pick it up every day for a practice. Maybe the odd shape of the XTender is a gimmick, maybe not, I don't know,  but it sounds really good to my ears.

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2 hours ago, chyc said:

The switches themselves would have been cheap...

Use a pot with a switch. No need to drill extra holes.

 

I use rotary switches. Here are two in my dear fretless: an 11 position step attenuator (metal foil resistors, naturally), and a three position coil tap switch.

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IMG_0787.thumb.JPG.ec5ef58e1398b3292a0e7e70003a2289.JPG

Edited by itu
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If you coul tap these pickups, do they still humbuck?

 

I think the twin jazz bridge pickup on my Warwick must be two humbuckers in series beacuse it's still silent when tapped... But some won't be ( hence I think, the limited options on an HH Stingray ...it will never allow a single pickup single coiled )

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19 hours ago, NickA said:

If you coul tap these pickups, do they still humbuck?

Interesting question. Delano make two identical looking pickups, the XTender HE and the XTender HE/S. I think the S stands for split coil so should be silent in single coil operation. (UPDATE: This is the wrong way round.)

 

Saying that, the video above is of an HE and I cannot hear any buzz at all. I do not know which one is installed on my bass. Sandberg never replied when I asked, which is a shame but I don't think it changes things much.

Edited by chyc
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10 hours ago, chyc said:

Interesting question. Delano make two identical looking pickups, the XTender HE and the XTender HE/S. I think the S stands for split coil so should be silent in single coil operation.

I got it the wrong way round. The HE is silent in single. The HE/S will have a buzz, but there are videos of HE/S that are silent to my ears.

 

Here's a thread on the topic: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/delano-xtender-pickup-question.1329640/

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Series and parallel are both humbucking.  Single coil is not and it isn't really "tapping" either.  I have a couple of really old DiMarzio Strat single coils which have a coil tap coming from roughly half-way through the wind.  This can be switched in and is the only true "tapping".

 

Edited by geoffbyrne
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Yes I now realize that tapping isn't the correct term, although it's been used incorrectly enough that hopefully people would understand what I meant. I was talking about a selector switch to convert a pickup between series, parallel and single coil. Even then the terminology isn't correct: the single coil can be a true single coil in the HE/S, or can be split like the HE.

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Yes, sorry if I sounded a bit peremptory - I have a Sire M7 with that kind of switching.  I use it, mainly, in parallel mode and never in single, switching only to series when I need the extra mids.  It not being played much since I got my Tanglewater (Overwater by Tanglewood).  The Overwater pickups seem to be in parallel, both on the above bass and my fretless and that seems to suit me very well.

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