Pickup wiring question

[Peter Snowberg]

I've only had single coil guitars and I've always wondered about coil splitting in humbuckers.

All the coil split switches I've seen short one of the coils.

If you spin a small DC motor with it's terminals disconnected, it spins fine. Short the terminals and now you have a shorted generator. The motor doesn't spin so well any more. The difference is very noticeable.

I'm wondering if the same thing happens with pickups? Could you get more sustain with a coil split that left the second coil open?

Has anybody tried it both ways?

Thanks,
-Peter

[Brett Clark]

You have an excellent point!  But I don't know - haven't tried it (I mostly use single coils anyway).