Switching Between Pots

[trashman]

ok so i have an ibanez with 2 buckers and a 3 way switch. in the process of rebuilding i added a mini toggle to coil cut each pickup indepently from each other--in other words i can cut the neck, put the p/u selector in the middle and use my bridge bucker with my neck single and many different combos. my question is this--i want to be able to independantly change vol and tone on each pickup as well, can i add a push pull for each knob and do this? can i run my pickups with no selecter switch and use the vol knobs for selection (volume on 0 for neck no sound, so neck is basically "off") this is how i figured most basses with more than 1 p/u work-yes? any ideas?

[borge]

So you want to have 2 vol pots that becomes tone pots when you push them? AFAIK a standard push pull cant do that, you would need double ganged pots where the push pull selects which pot is controlled, Im not sure if they're made.

concentric pots'll perform a similar function.

yes you can have no selector, just volumes.

[trashman]

Thats effin brilliant why didnt i think of that!! so i need a schematic with NO selector switch and cant find one on any sites (been to most major pickup manufactures sites for endless lists of wiriing schematics) any ideas?

[borge]

most basses have no selector, just volumes, check those.

Im still not exactly sure what you want?

[Donovan]

Check out this page for a great explanation of how and why wiring up one pot per pickup works. It just takes a specific pinout to avoid affecting the others in line.

http://www.stewmac.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?a...reeinfo/fi.html

I have done this as an experiment with a guinea pig guitar to try it, converting both of the tones on a squier strat into volumes. If you don't wire the wiper as suggested, what happens is cutting one cuts them all. If you are going to do this, I believe equal and higher pot values (500K -750K) are a must to maintain equivalence from one pickup to the next as well as to avoid cutting high frequencies. My attempt was with 250K pots (the converted tones) and there is a less than desirable high end cut when rolling off the volume.

You could easily wire the final output to one tone knob as well.

[psw]

Well...you know...this works on a standard LP

My old LP has the usual volume and tone for each pickup...select the middle position and you can mix, have coil taps on each pickup (actually 3 way either SC or both)...

So...an LP like wiring with the selector deleted so both pickup are on should work...(i'd rather have the selector as well, plus can be used as a kill switch with one pickup fully off)...

If pots are making things a little dark turning down, a treble bleed circuit can help with that.

pete

[Donovan]

If pots are making things a little dark turning down, a treble bleed circuit can help with that.

Not to go OT, but got a link to one of those, Pete? Thanks.

[psw]

There you go...half way down are three variations....

Various Pot mods Link

Generally a very, very small cap on the volume control will make things brighter as you turn down instead of darker as it allows the highs to "bleed" through rather than becoming muffled by the pot loading down the his without it.

I generally only use the cap...last example...and good for HB guitars where the sound is already a bit darker (it can sound a bit like a coil split in lower volumes on some installations).

I didn't add anything to my tele as it is a bright guitar already, so getting a slightly darker tone when turned down a little works well...then full up is very bright. So, use to taste!

This of course has nothing to do with using multiple volumes the thing is to study how a guitar like an LP add the controls to the pickups before the selector so they effect each pickup.

pete

[Keegan]

If your impedence to ground is too low though, that won't help as much as just going to the correct pots.

Edited March 31, 2009 by Keegan