Convert Tone Pot To Volume Pot?

[Mickguard]

My Rocket 350 passes the 'sniff test' so I'll be sanding and polishing and putting it together by the end of the week...

The guitar has three pickups --there are currently two volume pots and two tone pots (all 500k), and a 3-way switch --these parts were rescued from an otherwise POS Rick copy. One tone pot has a big fat capacitor on it, the other has a smaller capacitor.

I want to give each pickup its own volume control --the bridge and neck pickups will have the original volume pots, and will be attached to the switch. I'd like to place the middle pickups on one of the tone pots and connect that directly to the jack. That way, the volume pot will function as a blend pot of sorts.

Can I simply remove the capacitor from the tone pot to turn it into a volume pot?

I figure I'll keep the tone pot with the larger capacitor as the remaining tone pot. I could replace the pot altogether, although for the moment all I have are 250k pots here (the pickups are single coil though)

Related question-- can I connect all three volume pots to the same tone pot? (I don't ever fuss with the tone pot anyway, so it's not a big deal).

[lovekraft]

Can I simply remove the capacitor from the tone pot to turn it into a volume pot? ... can I connect all three volume pots to the same tone pot?

Yes, and yes - should be no problem with either of those ideas.

[JoeAArthur]

You could remove the tone cap - but remember to connect the lug on the pot with the cap to ground - don't just remove it.

I would connect the hot from the pickup to the middle lug of the pot, and the other remaining lug of the pot to the jack. That way, when you turn this pickup down it won't kill the volume from the other controls.

[Mickguard]

I have an extra 500k pot here, so I'm just going to replace one of tone pots, instead of dismantling it. All the other pots are 500k. The volume pots all have their low lugs (I'm guessing they're the low lugs) ground directly to the pot. So I'm assuming I should do the same with the new pot.

Here's a thumbnail of the diagram of the original wiring (note: I didn't add in all of the ground lines to make it a little less confusing)

The middle and neck pickups were originally wired to one volume pot (with the 104k cap). The bridge had its own volume pot (with the 333J cap). All pickup grounds and the bridge ground were soldered to the 333J pot. I figure I'll keep that one. Both volumes are connected to the switch.

Here's a thumbnail of the mod I'd like --i.e., each pickup with its own volume pot:

In this diagram, I have the middle pickup going to the new V3, then going directly to the jack. But if it'll be easier, I can let the middle share the switch with the neck pickup --if I can keep their volumes independent, that is.

Here's a variation-- it occurred to me that I can easily add a fifth knob in the center, since they're all mini pots:

This one might just be the easiest to achieve, since it requires less rewiring, and all I need to do is add a new hole to the pickguard. (note: I forgot to change the text for the neck/middle wiring going to V1--only the neck pickup goes to V1 in this variation)

I mostly play on the bridge pickup on my other guitars, but I like to keep my options open. (And one day I intend to add a stereo jack that will let me split the pickups into separate amplifiers).