A coil tap is a wiring feature found on some electrical transformers, inductors and coil pickups, all of which are sets of wire coils. The coil tap(s) are points in a wire coil where a conductive patch has been exposed (usually on a loop of wire that extends out of the main coil body). Transformers - Typical electrical configurations. ... An inductor is a passive electrical device that stores energy in a magnetic field, typically by combining the effects of many loops of electric current. ... A pickup device acts as a detector and captures mechanical vibrations (usually from suitably equipped stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, electric bass guitar and violin) and converts them to an electronic signal which can be amplified and recorded. ... It has been suggested that Conductor (power engineering) be merged into this article or section. ...

When the coil taps are disconnected, the coil operates as normal (see transformer). When a coil tap is connected to one end of the coil (or the end disconnected and reconnected to the tap), the section of coil between the tap and its connected end is bypassed - effectively reducing the number of turns in the coil. Transformers - Typical electrical configurations. ...

Uses

Transformers

In a transformer, coil taps are often used on both the input and output coils. Transformers - Typical electrical configurations. ...

• On the input coils, the taps are usually connected by switches to compensate for differing supply potential - for example, between 110 V and 230 V for American and European mains electricity.
• On the output coils, taps are used to provide a range of output potentials. Prototyping transformers are often supplied in cases which have spring-loaded contact traps - one common and several taps (for example, Common; 3 V; 5 V; 10 V.)

This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. ... World map showing location of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ...

Inductors

Coil taps on inductors are quite rare, but are sometimes used for band switching in tuning circuits. The Sansui TU-X1, considered by many the mother of all stereo FM tuners. A tuner is an adjustable device which passes one radio frequency, or band of frequencies, and excludes others, by using electrical resonance. ...

Coil Pickups

Coil pickups used with measuring instruments often feature coil taps to compensate for band rejection or equipment input impedance. Band rejection is a phenomenon in waveform signals, where a certain frequency or range of frequencies are lost or removed from a source signal. ... In electrical engineering, impedance is a measure for the manner and degree a component resists the flow of electrical current if a given voltage is applied. ...

Coil pickups used in musical instruments (such as electric guitars) are most often used to switch between single coil and Humbucking operation. An electric guitar is a type of guitar with a solid or semi-solid body that utilizes electromagnetic pickups to convert the vibration of the steel-cored strings into electrical current. ... The original pickups for the electric guitar were single coil and had a distinctive tone, but were noisy. ... A humbucker is a type of electric guitar pickup. ...

Telephone tapping

Coil taps can be used as a rudimentary method for recording telephone conversations. See Telephone tapping. Telephone tapping or wire tapping/ wiretapping (in US) is the monitoring of telephone conversations by a third party, often by covert means. ...