Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

[LexLuthier]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

A tone pot in the circuit rounds off a little high end, even when on 10. Sometimes on 1 knob guitars that are really bright, I'll wire up a .022 cap/500k resistor network to the volume pot so the guitar 'sees' a tone circuit (but no actual tone control), which mellows the highs a tad.

[DonP]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

After playing it again last night, I'm happy with the way it is. Sharp as a razor that will cut you balls off!

[rocksoldier]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

Just leave it as it is, the only good thing with tone controlls is that you can disconnect them [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[DonP]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

Picked up a concentric pot on ebay, so those who voted for the concentric pot won.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

a tone knob is just a resitor that turns down the high end.

a tone knob up all the way is the same as no tone knob at all.

[django]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

imho....

tone knobs are great!!! but, only on one pickup guitars. rolling them back is necessary to give you different sound, like switching pickups does, on a multi-pu axe.

i had this 1959 danelectro and a 1964 harmony, each with one pickup. they had a volume and a tone knob. they also had a switch that acted as a tone knob cut off, thus simulating the knob on 10 (since adjusting a knob cuts away what goes into it). i'd set the tone knob at a good, different tone than full on. then, by using the switch, i almost had a 2 pu guitar. kind of cool. i always wanted to do this to a les paul junior, but there's no way in hell that i'm going to drill a hole in a 50's gibson.

long story short. tone knobs are rather useless if you have more than one pickup.

[toejam]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

[ QUOTE ]
a tone knob is just a resitor that turns down the high end.

a tone knob up all the way is the same as no tone knob at all.

[/ QUOTE ]
I disagree. Having only a volume control will yield a brighter sound than when having a tone control there all the way up. The tone knob being in the mix does take away some high end, even if it is on full.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

true. but so does the impedence of the volume pot. a 1 meg pot will be brighter than a 500k pot and a 500k pot will be brighter than a 250k pot.

and if you get right to it... the thickness of your wires will effect the signal as well.

will YOU hear the difference?... i doubt it. but some of us will.

basically any load in the chain will drop the high end in some faction of a measurement.

but the basic design of a tone pot is just to roll the high end off.

[quiksilver]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

[ QUOTE ]
Drill. They're not rare collectibles, and none of the skinflint bastards here would give you more than $300 for it if it was the last Charvel on earth anyway [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/poke.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]
[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Sparkytfl]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

I added a concentric pot onto my kelly std. I actually use it regularly. It helps with the brittleness of my ss practice amp. You can supposedly get more accurate tuning if you turn the tone down, since it cuts all the harmonic overtones that confuse the tuner. Only problem is they cost a lot.

[DonP]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

Well, mine cost $20 shipped with the black knobs. The guy on ebay said these were pricy, especially for the knob set, but I really have no idea.

Soldered it up last night, then problems started happening. Concentric pot won't fit through the hole. OK, get the reamer and enlarged the hole. Done. Put the pot through the hole, and the shank isn't long enough to get a nut on it. So now its "floating" in the hole, held in by the knobs. I'll have to take wood out of the rear of the body to get a nut on there. I'm open to suggestions?? [img]/images/graemlins/help.gif[/img]

I do like being able to cut the highs down a bit. It sounds like a normal pickup with the tone turned down all the way. I also bought an EMG85 to experiment with as well.

[django]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

[ QUOTE ]
Well, mine cost $20 shipped with the black knobs. The guy on ebay said these were pricy, especially for the knob set, but I really have no idea.Soldered it up last night, then problems started happening. Concentric pot won't fit through the hole. OK, get the reamer and enlarged the hole. Done. Put the pot through the hole, and the shank isn't long enough to get a nut on it. So now its "floating" in the hole, held in by the knobs. I'll have to take wood out of the rear of the body to get a nut on there. I'm open to suggestions?? [img]/images/graemlins/help.gif[/img]I do like being able to cut the highs down a bit. It sounds like a normal pickup with the tone turned down all the way. I also bought an EMG85 to experiment with as well.

[/ QUOTE ]so, you have a short shaft. what's your girlfriend think about that? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]seriously, is there a nut or a spacer you can remove from the pot, to give the shaft more length? if not, take a bigger drill bit or a routing bit, etc and carefully remove as little wood around the hole, to make that area thinner. just dont drill a monster hole all the way thru!!!of course, you can add a pickguard to your guitar and mount it there, NOT!!! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[DonP]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

What does my girlfriend thing? I don't know but now my wife is kicking my ass after reading this LOL!

There was a nut and a "tab" thing that I bent out of the way. Yep, I'm going to have to be real careful, because the wood is pretty thin to begin with. Or, should I just wedge the pot in place (inside the control cavity) to keep it from turning, and just be done with it?

Right now it's not great, but it works. Just a little sloppy.

[django]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

[ QUOTE ]
Right now it's not great, but it works. Just a little sloppy.

[/ QUOTE ]I heard short shafts can be sloppy. Sorry, didn't mean to "out" your girlfriend!!! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]Go to Radio Shack, and see if they have a pot that has the longer shaft.Or maybe this guy can help....

[Sparkytfl]

Re: Single volume and no tone, or should I drill?

I got one of the ones from stewmac and had no problems with it. If the one you got is too short that you'd have to make the wood too thin, you might want to get another if you can afford it. If you make the top too thin you could break it right in if you bumped it hard enough.