Read an in depth interview with a guitar tech, he worked with Emmylou Harris for 11 years, as wells many other renowned musicians. His take on boutique and high end pickups is the designer winds/designs the pickup with the intention that the best sound is at full output, as connected directly to the jack. He therefore had the guitars at full volume, and would use the mixing board to cool them down if necessary. Makes sense, the pickup designer has a specific sound in mind, and wound accordingly. As far as pots go, they simply dump unused frequencies to ground. He also had some good advice to avoid scratchy pots. One is to not store a guitar with the pot where it was when done, for example turn the pot all the way left, or off. If it stays to long at a certain point, corrosion can develop at that point. Also he recommends "spinning" the pot knobs stop to stop at least a dozen times often to keep them clean. An electrical cleaner/lubricant is also recommended every once in a while. Any other tips or feedback?

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Comment by Daniel Walter on March 27, 2019 at 4:59am

oops...."words of wisdom"....................................re: grounding paragraph........

Comment by Daniel Walter on March 27, 2019 at 4:55am

Pick, i agree, it works for me. but we're not playing madison square garden. i do like frets, though, but if you're a blues slide player you don't need them. violins, cellos, stand up basses, no frets. so you need to know what your doing, your ears are the frets.

Paul, thank you for all the great info. couple things: i've read that a volume pot at 10 still cuts the tone/volume a bit compared to wiring directly to the jack. maybe not as clean? today, however, pots seem to be the norm. so what if you just have a volume pot? would there be any case where a cap would be added? caps are on the tone pot. i understand that caps pass frequency to ground, but the pots do that as well, correct? i still don't get what the caps do. you've most likely already answered my question below, i'll need to re-read and digest.

Now here's one for you i've asked many times, and nobody has answered. i usually add a piezo or two, even with a guitar with two mag pickups. the piezos have a switch for on/off, and are soldered to the same jack. so here's the quandary: i plug in, and even with everything grounded, usually get a hum or "noise" from the amp. i switch on the piezo, and bam, total silence. of course this is a very low or no volume scenario, as the hum cannot be heard when you turn the amp up anyway. but it does work. i need someone to verify this, even with alligator clips. often now i just add a piezo, even if it can't be heard.

lastly, grounding seems to be the key. any words not wisdom for grounding pickups, especially when the bridge is not metal? i like to run a ground wire to the ball end of a string thats brass, then it pulls tight against the tailpiece. there's a great youtube video where they measure the electricity in the air. amazing how much stuff is there, especially with an improperly grounded or un-grounded amp. i live in an old house and and have few grounded outlets, so i'll use a "cheater", thus no ground. with my bass amp i have to run a heavy extension cord from a grounded outlet.

thanks Paul.

Taff, you are correct, this is what this blog is about. many players don't want to wander to the amp or pre-amp to make adjustments. 

i, like pick, just have had great results just going directly to the jack. certainly less messy inside. but......................................

Comment by Paul Craig on March 26, 2019 at 7:57pm

If your pots are set to 10, they are wide open/full output as if they weren't there. They only come into play when turning the knobs down when it come to output, but they will still determine set tone parameters.

If you don't have any pots or caps, you will have full output. However, that output will be according to the set parameters of the pickup and how it's made. That can be manipulated at the board.

Pots and caps or no pots and caps, the sound will still be set at the board. Having no pots or caps on the guitar only limits your playing style though because you can't add anything or turn anything down when you want to. That's fine for all out Rock or Boogin' down, but when things get quiet and you need something different, your going to need the sound man's help or you'll have to walk over to the amp and hope it works out.

Comment by Paul Craig on March 26, 2019 at 7:13pm

If you have single coil pickups, then the usual is 250k volume and tone pots with a .047 tone cap. If that's too dark, raise the pickup height first, if still dark try a lower value cap(.033 - .022). Still too dark, try 500k pots.

If you have a double coil humbucker pickup, start out with 500k pots and .022 tone cap.

Always remember that pickups heights should be adjusted first, then make electronic changes. If that doesn't work, then you may want to just have a volume only our try other pickups.

A lot of people will go through changing pickups instead of the other things I mentioned because they think that they sounded great in someone else's guitar and it should sound the same in theirs, but it rarely works that way. One pickup won't sound the same in every guitar you put it in. They have to be set right, wired right and run through the right equipment to get the sound your after.

Comment by the anonymous pick on March 26, 2019 at 7:03pm

Daniel. The article you mention , is the essence  of swamp witch guitars.

I feel the same way about pots as i do frets ..  don't need em ;-)

Comment by Paul Craig on March 26, 2019 at 6:58pm

The pots are resistors that regulate set parameters for the frequency.

250k used for single coil pickups mostly to have a darker tone due to single coil pickups being usually bright. P90 style pickups(often short and fat coils) usually sound better with 500k pots as the exception to the rule. The Fender Jaguar(24"scale) guitar uses 500k and 1meg pots to allow medium dark or bright tones through a unique switching scheme.

500k pots are the usual norm for humbucking/double coil pickups, but sometimes 1meg pots are used if the tone is too dark(Fender Wide Range Humbuckers are a good example).

Capacitors pass frequency to ground. This is why they are used in tone circuits or as filters for pickups. The higher the value(.047 and higher) - the more treble is passed to ground and more bass flows through the circuit. The lower the value(.033 and lower) - the more bass is passed to ground and  more treble flows through the circuit.

Capacitors wired in series on the pickup signal wire to volume can filter unwanted bass or treble in pickups that are muddy or overly bright by using the right value. However, this can effect the sweep of the pots negatively. I will usually change the pot value or use a volume pot only for muddy neck pickups and lowering the pickup heights can drastically change the tone of a pickup.

It's a good rule of thumb that a pickup that is wound over 8k shouldn't be used in the neck position of a guitar and pickups wound over 10k can be too bright/shrill in the bridge. However, DCR isn't always the best way to judge a pickup and the overall tone of the guitar can also be a factor.

I personally want a volume pot and tone pot or multiple pots for a guitar because they are interactive. By adjusting the pots I can get loud and bright or low and dark or combinations for whatever I feel at the time. I set my pots at 7 or 8 and then set my amp to give me the right amount of volume and the right tone that I like. This gives me the ability to get more volume or brightness when I need it for a song without having to go over to the amp and fiddle with those knobs in the middle of a song. You can't do that if all the knobs are set to 10 on the guitar. This is why pots are used on guitars in the first place. Learn how to use them as they were intended to be more versatile. Only do without pots and caps if you have too. The only reasons you should have to do without is if your guitar is too dark or your amp isn't loud enough.

The sound man has overall control of your volume and tone because he has to mix it in with other instruments. If your sound is too loud and too bright, he's going to set it to sound right for the mix. However, if your pots aren't on the guitar or they're set to 10, you can't shine or stand out when it's time to solo. Don't think that the sound man is going to keep track of your playing and give you a boost for all of your solo's, he's not going to. There's computerized sound boards out there these days that can change set levels for a set time in a song or a set song, but your timing has to be spot on and everyone else's timing too. It's easier to use the pots and caps and set them right for your best advantage.

Comment by Taffy Evans on March 26, 2019 at 4:50pm

Hi Daniel, I'm not a whiz at electronics or mixing sound, but my first "layman's thought" was, why? 

If I wanted my customers to get the best sound I had intended from a pickup, or reproduced from an old favorite 52' pickup, then I would make it produce its best sound when its wired as nearly all guitars are and most players are used to.  A way that most listeners hear it. That may be flat out, but still though pots.

I assume he means bypassing the pots to go "directly to the jack".

It might be a good method for top notch performers to rely on the sound from the mixer, but in my experience of sound techs fiddling at the desk when I'm playing, it rarely has a happy ending. They don't seem to hear what I'm hearing.

Watch any top guitarist {blues in my case} and they are constantly adjusting their sound from their guitar so as to suit that part of the song or solo they are at.

Then I'm probably wrong, but you asked for feed back. The guy's that know better will put me straight.

Taff

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