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Hi!
Has anyone experience with going from the PU directly to the plug socket of the guitar? Or leaving the connection to the volumepot but bypassing the tonepot?
I read that Martin Taylor prefers this. I have not tried this. How do you think it will affect the tone?
best,
lapideus
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07-20-2024 12:25 PM
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I would always use a no load tone pot which bypasses the tone because it gave me the option of having some bite if I wanted it. If I didn't want bite, I could just cock the tone back to 9 or lower. For jazz I wouldn't use anything higher than a 500k volume pot or go directly to the jack. It can work for humbuckers because they don't have a big resonant peak that needs to be attenuated and they still sound usable just clearer and brighter. With single coils, it tends to be a bit too much to let the full signal go through, and they're really bright and strident.
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One of my many guitars, has an endpin jack socket and no volume or tone pot, with a mini humbucker. I use the amp, mixer or pedal EQ to get a tone I like.
I think you'd probably need a volume pedal, I sometimes use a Solomaster passive pedal with passive vol, bass and treble controls.
Project Guitar Parts - Home of Burford Electronics boutique pedals, for booster pedals, treble booster fuzzbox
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Many guitars with floaters have only thumbwheel volume. I have one. My others have tone pots but I don't miss it at all on the Lehmann with KA 12 pole PAF.
I wouldn't bother bypassing a tone pot. Just run it on 10. There might be some small increase in highs, but I expect it's next to nothing. Assuming the current pot is correctly wired and capped that is...
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I don't install tone controls on guitars if I do the electronics installation, because I never roll off the tone. I use the amp, and want the guitar to deliver the full spectrum to it. That's just me. I don't bother to remove or disable the tone on guitars that already have them, because it's more trouble than it's worth to me. Theoretically a tone control can cause a subtle treble cut even when wide open if it's out of spec, and the specs are wide. But it's going to be very subtle unless the pot is really defective. I've built instruments without even a volume control, but I found that to be less than ideal. A volume control is a necessity for me, both for small adjustments and for killing the output entirely when necessary.
Do what you want with your guitar.
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Thanks. Yes, I also never use the tone pot.
Originally Posted by ccroft
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Thank you! If the tone pot itself doesnt suck treble or tone, I will leave it. Thats the info I wanted. Originally Posted by sgosnell
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I'm not a tech, so I don't know a lot about why things happen (actually, not really interested). What I can say is that I rewired my Strat and swapped the middle pup's tone control to the bridge and ended up using the now "liberated" middle pickup as my go-to rude lead tone, when needed. Man, it now cuts through like nobody's business! I imagine its clean tone now also has a wider spectrum, though I mostly use the neck pup for that. So, there you go. YMMV
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I rewired my Eastman AR805 with KA 12 pole and 1 volume pot, no tone pot, and I don't miss it at all.
The tone pot is a really crude, archaic way of altering the sound of guitar.
Now we have eq pedals, preamps, Henriksen amps with 5 band eq etcetc.
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It's incorrect info. A tone pot at 500k still cuts some high just like a tone pot at 499 cuts some high, or 450 or 300 or 250. The tone has to either be a no load or removed (or a bypass switch) for it to not have any effect. Originally Posted by lapideusvir
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I took the tone pot out on my tele. I don't miss it. After I changed the pickups to filtertrons humbuckers there is no need for it. If I want a darker tone I slightly turn off the volume, it does the trick. But usually I don't.
Btw the difference in tone is very pronounced compare to having a tone pot. Without it the sound is livelier, juicier, the best I can describe.
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A potentiometer fully open has a theoretical resistance of zero. It's only when fully closed that it reaches 500k ohms, or whatever the nominal resistance is.
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Hmmm, that´s where I like to go... Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
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Who told you that? That's only if it's a no load pot that when it's fully up it won't load the signal. Any regular pot will still load the signal when fully up. Try measuring with a multimeter.. Originally Posted by sgosnell
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I had the exact same experience on my '63 strat, that middle pickup kills now! To me, definitely a better lead sound than the lead pickup. Originally Posted by Peter C
So I definitely think that there could be a positive effect to bypassing a tone pot, at least on my old strat, where everything has probably drifted out of spec anyway. As well, adding the tone pot to the lead pickup subdued it a bit, not a bad thing IMHO. That thing was BRIGHT!Last edited by bluejaybill; 07-21-2024 at 05:43 PM. Reason: Added info
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The first part of the OP suggests eliminating both the volume and tone pots. Magnetic guitar pickups generally have a large bump on the frequency response when unloaded which is smoothed out by the resistance across the volume pot, and becomes less pronounced as the volume pot is rolled back. The pickup designers generally assumed connection to a volume pot, and might have designed the pickup differently if it was intended to have no pot. For jazz, I generally prefer the smooth sound of a volume pot rolled back a bit, and wouldn’t consider eliminating the volume pot.
The second part of the OP suggests eliminating the tone control circuit. The no-load pot on my Telecaster disconnects the tone control circuit when set to maximum treble. There is a noticeable increase in “sizzle” when it gets to that point. I don’t care for that sizzle for most of my playing, so I’ll roll the tone control back at least a slight amount. It could be useful for some situations though. So if you are considering eliminating a tone control I’d instead recommend installing a pot with the no-load feature.
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A tone pot is a good thing if you’re using the bridge pickup now and then
But a no load pot is always best bet for your neck pickup. It‘s not only the plus 1-2% high end, a direct to output pickup signal does something to the tone: it’s s tad louder, rougher and richer. On my own guitars the no load pot is standard.
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This sounds like a revelation for a Strat! Originally Posted by Peter C
I've never felt the need for a tone control for either the neck or middle and the bridge pickup is never right for me other than together with the middle pu or with something like a turbo distortion.. That's why I never use my 1997 Am. Std. bought new. Trouble is it's totally mint and I don't want to mess about with the wiring. Yeah, I know, but that's me!
Apart from a late 80s HM Strat which is HSS, I do have a Korean copy by Ferdinand (not Fernandez!) to which I may try out that mod. With just one tone control then being used on the bridge, the spare tone (removed from the neck) could be used as a blend for all 3 pups together or neck and bridge (if it can be done!).
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In the course of spending busking money on bargains I got a Yamaha RGX A2 last week*) which has a strat type body and two humbuckers and no tone control at all. I have to say that it sounds really good without the tone pots and if I had not decided to make it a blues and rock machine with thinner strings (10 to 46 instead of the 13 to 56 I use on my jazz teles) I could imagine to play jazz on the neck PU as well.
*) Usually they go for 300 to over 600 EUR, I got mine for 100
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I never install tone controls just like sgosnell, but I want a volume control that has to be right close, and the amp is harder to get to. I have a cord though I use to test pickups that is just exactly like that it just plugs in amp and I the amp volume control. But that is just for testing and volume controls do nothing except cut volume.
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