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Volume pot as a blend

Posted by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on June 16, 2010 at 5:29pm in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion
Wanna know if anyone has used a volume pot (NOT tone pot) as a blend between two pickups. (+) from one pup to Lug 1, (+) from another pup to lug 3, Lug 2 is (+) out and casing is ground for the wiring.

Would it work to modulate between the two pups? Piezo or mag.

Any idea what the combination would to do output. at 50%, would the output be 2x or still 1x or somewhere in between?

thx

-WY

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Replies

  • Shane Speal May 22, 2013 at 2:59pm

    As a professional performer, I'm starting to favor a bare minimum design: one pickup, one volume knob.  If you want to get fancy, maybe ad a tone...but it's not necessary.  The reason is that my hands start flying around and tend to hit random knobs and switches.  I'd rather just keep things simple.

    I know this doesn't address your question...  maybe I'll shut up now.

    • The Phrygian Kid > Shane Speal May 22, 2013 at 3:14pm
      IMHO is a supporting argument for blend pots. If you NEED two pickups... Well a blend pot can do the job of two volume pots. And a switch. Too many controls on a guitar is ugly in my opinion, although once it approaches the absurd it can become kinda cool again it's hardly in a practical way

      Ill take a blend pot and a master volume over individual pickup volume controls every time thanks.
  • Ted Crocker May 22, 2013 at 2:16pm

    A little late to this discussion.  Maybe I'm just old school, but I prefer independent controls of both pickups - on/off and vol/tone of each.  That gives you the ability to control the output and tone of each one - and blend each as you desire.  Here's how I do it with 2 mag pups:

    259159244?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024

    And here's how I do it with a mag and a piezo (note: no tone control on the piezo)

    258570563?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024

    Find more of my wiring diagrams HERE or just ask if you don't see what you need!

    Ted Crocker

  • Chester Winowiecki June 16, 2010 at 11:19pm
    just some generic guitar parts site...stewmac and other places sell them as they're used a lot on guitars where the real estate gets a little crowded like when you have several pickups each with their own tone. they ain't cheap, though. and then you have to buy special concentric knobs for them.

    Ganged pots are much cheaper but you're controlling both pots with one knob. Here's some cheap surplus ones:
    http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/products.asp?dept=1111


    Wes Yates said:
    where did you find this at?
    Chester Winowiecki said:
    So you could have one "blender" and one volume or two volume pots. Same number of pots either way and the second way will give you both pups at 100%.

    Wes Yates said:
    yeah, it would be (2) pups > switch(es) > (2) Tone pot > 'blender' > (1) Vol pot if I have my wiring order right. unless the 'blender' would not work. I'll check 1Vol/2tone wiring diagrams.

    -WY
  • The Phrygian Kid June 16, 2010 at 10:24pm
    there are 'concentric' pots, which have 2 knobs put on em, like on a jazz bass..
    then there are 'ganged' pots, which are 2 stacked pots but controlled by only one knob so the setting is shared
  • Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates June 16, 2010 at 9:53pm
    where did you find this at?

    Chester Winowiecki said:
    So you could have one "blender" and one volume or two volume pots. Same number of pots either way and the second way will give you both pups at 100%.


    Wes Yates said:
    yeah, it would be (2) pups > switch(es) > (2) Tone pot > 'blender' > (1) Vol pot if I have my wiring order right. unless the 'blender' would not work. I'll check 1Vol/2tone wiring diagrams.

    -WY
  • Chester Winowiecki June 16, 2010 at 8:11pm
    So you could have one "blender" and one volume or two volume pots. Same number of pots either way and the second way will give you both pups at 100%.


    Wes Yates said:
    yeah, it would be (2) pups > switch(es) > (2) Tone pot > 'blender' > (1) Vol pot if I have my wiring order right. unless the 'blender' would not work. I'll check 1Vol/2tone wiring diagrams.

    -WY
  • Chester Winowiecki June 16, 2010 at 8:07pm
    Yep. here's a pic;

    GN4585EL-525.jpg


    Wes Yates said:
    Right, just as I thought. Not that this isn't what I wanted and I assumed the 50/50 split at 50% which is to say I get 100% across the board and not 200%.

    Concentric pot eh? Two shafts. VERY interesting. Therefore I can control both pups to 100% each as if they were two separate pots -- which is in effect what they really are.

    -WY

    Chester Winowiecki said:
    It should work, but the most you would get is %50 of each at the center position. At full right: 100% of A and 0% of B. At full left: 0% of A and 100% of B. This is assuming the the pot value is chosen so that at full resistance, it just kills the volume of each pickup. I think two pots or a concentric pot with two shafts in one would work better.

    Chester
    • jabes > Chester Winowiecki May 22, 2013 at 6:35am

      has anyone got a wiring diagram for this? 2 single coil pups with blend pot and tone ...please?

      • David L. > jabes May 22, 2013 at 9:14am

        Hi Jabes,

        Blend pot wiring

        305815814?profile=original

        then to the output run another wire to the tone pot (cap value as per your preference)

        306048910?profile=original

         

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