This is somewhat interesting, because the way that the 450 appears to be built, most companies would probably market it as great for tapping or parallel wiring. Depending on how its wound, what is the 450 but two Fender style single coils sandwiched together wired in series? With a higher inductance 450, hot enough that each coil would be wound about like a vintage single coil, I would think that with a coil tapped (am I getting confused? theres no difference between a coil tap and a coil split is there? if so I'd appreciate a correction), you'd have a lot closer to fender tone than tapping a PAF style!

That said, the construction of the 450 to start with is going to give slightly more "Fender-y" tone than a PAF. Really, its two single coils in series, and in my experience, that does give a deeper darker tone than in parallel, but with still some hint of the glassiness and twang (though not much). So its one of those pickups that lies in the middle...a coil split is not going to give you a huge range of tone.

THAT said as well, I'd rewire for series/parallel switching and not coil splitting...parallel wiring puts it back to single coil tone but like the 2 and 4 positions on a [modern] strat, you don't have hum. And go for higher inductance 450s if you are certain you want to have the coil switching. A lower inductance 450 would offer relatively little with the switching.

And I know I overgeneralised the 450...it is NOT technically two Fender single coils sandwiched together, I know the coils are slightly smaller and the winding is no doubt different in the numbers and the wire gauge, but its basic construction is the same or very similar. I don't think this is a criticism, but a great design...the alnico polepiece S.D. Musicman pickups I have operate on the same principle and sound bleeding fantastic in both parallel and series modes.