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Tone or not to Tone

Posted by The Capo Kid on February 5, 2015 at 11:53am in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

 

Hi

   Tone or not to Tone ? , my next build is going to have a Mag pup and a Piezo rod bridge with a 3 way switch , I was going to have Vol and Tone for the Mag pup and just a Vol for the Piezo rod but I don't have the space on the box for all those knobs and a switch ? , so any thoughts on Mag pups with just a Vol pot ? .

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Replies

  • The Capo Kid February 6, 2015 at 6:24am

    306410005?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024 Here's mock up .

  • Slowpaw Steve T February 5, 2015 at 8:28pm

    I found volume and tone controls on a CBG create more problems than they're worth -  I don't even fit them for others anymore, you have tone and volume controls on the amp and are only three feet away, no problem!  ;)

  • Cause the Blue rat February 5, 2015 at 8:24pm

    Honestly I've never used a tone control on any of the electrics I've played out with. If you want to mellow out your highs it's easy to turn down the treble on your amp.

  • David L. February 5, 2015 at 2:18pm

    It depends on how much you want the addition of a tone for the mag pickup - you can get concentric (or stacked) pots but they cost a bit more than a normal pot.

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HIGH-QUALITY-ALPHA-STACKED-DUAL-CONCENTRI...

    This was the cheapest I could find when I bought some last month.  

    An additional extra cost is that you need a special knob for a concentric pot (two halves; one for each separate stacked pot).

    http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Papa-Ds-Music-Store__W0QQ_sidZ63831824?LH_...

    you can find these knobs cheaper on ebay from China if you can wait for delivery.

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dual-Concentric-Dome-Knob-Volume-Tone-Ble...

    For a three way switch you can use a small on/on/on dp/dt toggle switch which takes up much less room

     http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DPDT-3-position-on-on-on-mini-toggle-guit... again cheaper from China but it must be described as a dp/dt on/on/on type.  If you look at the diagram from the above link you wire the magnetic pup hot wire across the bottom two lugs and the piezo hot wire across the top two lugs hot output to jack is connected across the middle two lugs. Wired this way you have a 3 way switch giving mag/both/piezo.

    Another option which gets rid of the 3 way switch is to use diodes on the output from the  volume pots (1N5819) for each pickup and the diodes prevent any signal passing back.  This prevents any pot turned down from bleeding the whole signal to ground.  In effect you get a separate blend control of the pickup connected to each pot.  This link shows the mod on a stratocaster http://www.strat-talk.com/forum/stratocaster-discussion-forum/13405...

  • Bad Finger (Eric) February 5, 2015 at 1:44pm

    I would recommend using a mag pickup that has a pleasing tone, or close to what you are after right from the start.  On my last Farmyard Relic, I did dual volume for the rod and mag, but no tone.  It was one of Elmar's original flatpups.  Your pickup selection and blending the two volumes is pretty powerful tone control on its own.

  • Scott aka Farmer Ted February 5, 2015 at 12:03pm

    An alternative would be to locate the switch on the upper left corner of the box (like a Les Paul) or off the side of the box near same area. It's fine to do a mag pup with just a volume, but having the versatility of a tone control is nice too.

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