Splitting coils on a 705

[Chuck Lemasters]

Last summer I bought a six year old Rittenberry Prestige SD 10, which came with a Lawrence 705. Very nice guitar…this pickup is very bright, very hot, and took a bit of getting used to, which I more or less did over a few jobs. I had read some posts about wiring the pickup in parallel, about splitting the coils, searched everything I could find about it. From what I had read, I was expecting the single coil mode to be thin, even brighter, knew it would have less output, could be noisy in some places. I had never had any luck with Mullen or ShoBud single coils or Truetone. . Out of curiosity and in the midst of winter doldrums, I grounded the green and white wires and could not have been more surprised at how good the guitar sounds. It actually seems less bright than before, not so piercing, with a warmer and more full sounding midrange response. Less output for sure, though not necessarily a bad thing as far as I am concerned. Sitting under two fluorescent lights in my basement the hum through a cranked Nashville 112 is negligible. I have a switch ordered, will wire it to be able to switch to humbucking mode in a noisy environment. I am very pleased with the results, looking forward to hearing it in a band setting…though, unfortunately, it may be a while…

[Bob Carlucci]

Chuck.. I have a 705 on my Marlen for about 12 years,,, The sound you heard was from the front coil, furthest from the bridge,, Very smooth, very pleasing tone.. You can use a DPDT on-on-on switch and get a third sound as well with you 705 as I do.. In other words, full humbucker, single coil furthest from bridge, and single coil closest.. All very distinct.. closest thing to a Fender pedal steel sound I have ever heard when using the rear coil on its own,, Bright and twangy, like a mid 60's Fender pedal steel with the short scale and Jaguar style pickup.. So close that I actually sold my last Fender steel.. As long as you are splitting those coils with a switch, use all 3 options... bob

[Chuck Lemasters]

Thanks Bob,
I will look into that.

[Bob Carlucci]

chuck, check your PM's....