Is This How You Wire A P-90

[grungehead]

i want to have 2 volumes for one p-90.

i'll have a switch to switch between the two so i can either use it as a kill switch, a distortion switch (by having 1 pot really low and the other really loud) or a helicopter effect.. etc.

i drew this up on ms paint.. just wondering if it will work

EDIT: im using a 3 way toggle and 500k pots if that helps anyone..

Edited June 20, 2007 by grungehead

[Samba Pa Ti]

nope that wont work, the second volume pot is only connected to the output jack (the right one)

also is the 3way switch on/on/on ? or on/off/on in the center posistion i assume you want it to kill ?

[grungehead]

D'oh!

do you know what i should do then?

[Samba Pa Ti]

firstly i dont see how 2 volumes can produce distortion (its just going to double the resistance)

you could connect the hot part of the pickup to the common lug (center) then put the pots on the left and right lugs and wire the output jack to both pots, this should give you selectable volumes,

as for using it as a kill switch its not going to be practical (and as other people will say, without sending the hot to ground when in the kill posistion, there will be a Popping sound everytime you select that posistion)

[grungehead]

alright then i might just scrap the second volume pot and connect the third lug of the toggle to ground.

i was board with my p-90 and wanted to do somthing special with it..

i dunno. i know i'll come up with somthing. but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[dude]

Couldn't you just split the hot wire on the Pup and run each end to a separate volume pot, and then run each output from those to one of the outside lugs on a simple on/on toggle? The center lug would then go to the output jack and then to ground. The toggle would pick which one of the volume pots you were using.

Your double-volume idea is an interesting one. I hope it goes well.

[GregP]

firstly i dont see how 2 volumes can produce distortion (its just going to double the resistance)

I don't have an answer to the OP's question, but this phrase makes me suspect you're not visualizing what he's trying to do. What he wants to do is be able to have 2 different volume "presets" and then switch between them. If each volume pot is discrete and selectable, how can it double the resistance? I mean that as a genuine question, not smart-arsey-- I don't know that much about electronics, but it seems to me that what he wants to do is put it through either one "circuit" or the other, or kill to ground. As long as the signal is only travelling through one pot, how can the resistance be doubled?

As for the distortion, it's not that he wants to generate distortion, but rather when you "back off" on your volume knob, most tube amps will clean up in tone. Most guitarists make effective use of their volume knobs to control the sound of the distortion generated in their amps. But instead of 'rolling off', he wants to be able to just switch between his 'full' and 'cleaned up' volume presets.

Which brings me to another point, which the OP can take or leave-- it can be safe to assume that in "distortion" mode, you'll almost always just want full volume. So you might be able to make the circuit more efficient by wiring up a switch to bypass a single volume pot (the single volume pot can be for setting your 'cleaned up' preset) instead of alternating between 2 different volume pots. It sounds good in theory to be able to set them both independently, but I bet you dollars to doughnuts that one of those knobs is always going to be "full" anyhow.

Again, not an electronics guru so I'm not using the right term here, but if bypassing directly to the output jack sounds too 'brash', you can always wire some sort of resistance inline... with a capacitor, I assume, but I dunno... maybe you DO need a resistor. Other more capable people could provide more info than me.

Greg

[Samba Pa Ti]

i was just replying to this "a distortion switch (by having 1 pot really low and the other really loud)"

makes it sound like the op wanted to have 2 pots inline one low and one high,

having 2 500k pots to deal with would double the amount of resistance surely ?

maybe im visualizing it wrong, idk

also

shunting one of the pots with a cap would just be a big treble sucker (depending how big the cap was).

[GregP]

i was just replying to this "a distortion switch (by having 1 pot really low and the other really loud)"

makes it sound like the op wanted to have 2 pots inline one low and one high,

having 2 500k pots to deal with would double the amount of resistance surely ?

maybe im visualizing it wrong, idk

Yeah, one's not feeding into the other. They're discrete. The "distortion switch" is just going to the "high" volume knob instead of (rather than in addition to) the low one.

shunting one of the pots with a cap would just be a big treble sucker (depending how big the cap was).

Exactly! Some people find that going direct to an output jack (without even a pot in the way) is too open and 'brash'. A wee little cap sucks off some of the treble and puts the tone back into more familiar territory. It might not be a cap, but since a cap is used for passive tone controls, I just assumed that's what would be there. I'm only 60% sure on that one.

Greg

[biliousfrog]

I think that GregP has the ideal solution by using a switch to bypass a single volume control. This has been discussed before but I can't recall the term used for such a switch.

[Daniel Sorbera]

What you want is a on/on 2 way switch with the volume pot connected to one lug and the hot lead from the pickup connected to the other. That way you can switch between the full output, and the volume pot.

It's really a very simple fix to a simple problem.

It would look like this

The switch would be a DPDT on/on like this one.

[grungehead]

wow, thanks for all your help guys!!!

cheers to all of you!

i'll try the diagram godin sd drew up. it completly eliminates the pot.. it may sound brash like greg said but i it may be to my use. i like the raw grungy sound.

thanks again guys.

ROCK HARD.

[gibsonsg26]

if you want distortion stew mac sells a capacitor called black ice that you wire on the tone knob that would give you a vintage sounding distortion

[Daniel Sorbera]

if you want distortion stew mac sells a capacitor called black ice that you wire on the tone knob that would give you a vintage sounding distortion

I've never tried one myself, but I've heard nothing but bad things about the black ice.

It's much better to just buy an overdrive or distortion pedal.

[grungehead]

if you want distortion stew mac sells a capacitor called black ice that you wire on the tone knob that would give you a vintage sounding distortion

i do like vintage distortion stuff but i am a metal distortion kinda man

[gibsonsg26]

if you want distortion stew mac sells a capacitor called black ice that you wire on the tone knob that would give you a vintage sounding distortion

i do like vintage distortion stuff but i am a metal distortion kinda man

same here thats why i havent tried it yet i might try it in my next project im not sure though.

[grungehead]

same here thats why i havent tried it yet i might try it in my next project im not sure though.

dont they just overdrive a tube amp? that wouldnt do crap for me since im not using a tube amp.. i dont think i'll ever use them. i would love to see what your gonna do with them though.

i've got a boss mt-2 and the ge-7. plenty of dark, crunchy, super heavy distortion for me and the rest of the neighborhood

[GregP]

Hear-say information... someone more knowledgable could clarify:

black ice are just a pair of shottky diodes. They clip in a way that's somewhat analogous to (single-stage? I'm not technical...) tube clipping. But not really. The waveforms are more square, so more like transistor or "fuzz" clipping... or at least, a reasonable hand-drawn facscimile.

I wouldn't personally bother with the mod. Plenty of inexpensive projects out there that just require room for a 9V battery but will do something useful for your guitar.

[Samba Pa Ti]

the black ice is a waste imo, a lot of effort for not much return, ive tried it 2-3 times and the output isnt worth shouting about although with the right pickups (high output) it does work.

the diodes have to be wired up Anti parrallel for it to work properly

[grungehead]

started and finished the project this morning

i used godin's diagram. it works wonders.i added a master tone because i had two knobs to begin with and i dint want a dummy knob laying on my guitar so...

i'm definately gonig to do this in my superstrat project someday. thanks again to those who helped!!

as for the black ice, i think my mod works much more as a "distortion" or "booster" than the black ice does. it may not give it that fuzz effect but now i can switch distortion incognito. and you dont have to have high output to do it