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Post by Bodaggit23 on Nov 19, 2010 8:56:34 GMT -5
What happens when you bypass a Tone pot?
My next aluminum guitar might have just a Volume knob, no tone.
I would want the Tone to be wide open, as if the knob was set on 10.
Where would the tone wind up if I wired a pickup straight to the volume knob?
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Post by nickwellings on Nov 19, 2010 17:27:32 GMT -5
You just get a little bit of a brighter tone. I have a Chavel Model 2 (1 Humbucker, 1 Vol). it is a rock/metal machine. As you probably know, pots and wire and electronics loads down the circuit. I think if you take it all out it is "more pure" signal-wise.
I modded one of my HMs to have a bypass switch/soloswitch/blower switch. When flipped it bypasses volume and tone pots and goes right to the jack. There is a very noticeable increase in gain and volume when you flip the switch.
Would not have thought bypassing two pots would do much but it really does.
If you were to bypass the tone (i..e have no tone) it would basically sound like a tone knob on 12 or 11, not 10, as even 10 is very much colouring the signal and tone already.
The downside is obviously that you may need the volume pot to tame your pickups, if they are very hot, or to suit songs.Live, I find I use the bridge pickup about 90% of the time as it "cuts through".
My band mates all agree that the Model 2 sounds amazing and the rhythm guitarist basically said I should use it all the time. This may be because it has a 21KOhm pickup in it too!
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Post by Bodaggit23 on Nov 19, 2010 19:20:04 GMT -5
Great, thanks Nick!
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Post by heem6 on Dec 2, 2010 0:40:41 GMT -5
I have almost all the tone controls removed from my guitars. Even with them in the circuit but turned all the way up they still bleed some of the signal to ground.
I have a 2mg Volume Control (almost no signal loss) and no tone pot on my Vandenberg and the guys I jam with were blown away by my tone at our last get together.
I would caution you that this works best with bridge pickups, you still want 250k pots for a fender single coil sound.
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Post by Bodaggit23 on Dec 2, 2010 9:07:03 GMT -5
Thanks for the input guys!
I ended up adding the Tone pot anyway.
I figured it would detract too much from the sale if I didn't,
just in case most people prefer to have it.
The biggest reason was real estate. I honestly didn't think I'd have room for it!
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Post by stratznhatz on Dec 2, 2010 15:29:51 GMT -5
Another option is 'no load' tone pots. These work like a normal tone control until you turn them right up to 10 and then they bypass the tone circuit. There is a way to modify standard tone pots this way, I think you have to strip the pot (fiddly) and remove the last bit of the track so when turned up full the contact is lost. I'm sure there's a bit more to it than that (I modded my highway 1 strat this way a few years ago with reasonable results) but it's something along those lines, it was a fair while ago! Probably not worth the trouble though as you can buy them fairly cheaply, I just like to tinker lol!  |
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Post by Bodaggit23 on Dec 5, 2010 12:42:29 GMT -5
Ahh, ok. That's very cool...I might just try that on a cheap pot...
Thanks again for all the input guys!
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Post by stratznhatz on Dec 9, 2010 12:37:41 GMT -5
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maxdoom
New Member
HM Slab Rawk
Posts: 4
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Post by maxdoom on Feb 1, 2011 4:27:13 GMT -5
Having a tone pot helps to find that sweet spot.So many people just turn them to 10 and leave them.It can be a tool to make notes really pop.Full on is not always the best tone.
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Post by stratznhatz on Feb 1, 2011 13:00:52 GMT -5
I quite agree, tone pots are there for a reason and help you to dial in certain tones in many situations, but for highly distorted metal tones a lot of players prefer the 'direct' sound and higher output you get when bypassing the tone circuit.
That's why I like the no load tone pots as you can have the best of both worlds!
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