The Norm is Freely Moving Pots... But Why?

[Crungy]

I thought I had seen a ring piece you could add to a knob and potentiometer to make it detented somewhere... Like a StewMac paper catalog a million years ago.

 

[Andromalia]

I think my next adventure is going to be a guitar with two TS instrument outs - one for each pickup.

For some reason, this conjured up the image of a guitar with one out per string with each string having individual pickups.

 

[spudmunkey]

I do like the idea of a knob with detents. It's like my car's infotainment system. I can navigate through multiple menus and select options without even looking at the screen, because I remember how many "clicks" of the knob away that certain options are.

 

[spudmunkey]

I think my next adventure is going to be a guitar with two TS instrument outs - one for each pickup. Then, maybe run those into an two-in one-out ABY switch. Then I won't even need a control cavity, just a cavity big enough to house two outputs.

That was pretty common back in the day...zero idea how common it is today. Lots of Carvins from the 70s were stereo, for example.

 

[Crungy]

Rickenbacker still has some stereo/dual out instruments.

 

[bostjan]

That was pretty common back in the day...zero idea how common it is today. Lots of Carvins from the 70s were stereo, for example.

Hmm never seen one in person.

 

[tedtan]

I'm an always at 10 kind of player, but get my dynamics with MIDI expression pedals to manage the gain at the amp / Triaxis, and with different coil combos for different guitar parts... and without losing the fluidity of the playing on both hands... gain swells within the riff or lick is something else...

That’s not surprising.

When would you have time to adjust the volume knob when you’re busy switching between the 10,352 different pickup combinations you’ve rigged up on your guitars?

 

[BornToLooze]

... and how about a rotary switch working as a volume pot? Each position has a different value that you can tailor to your preferences with trim pots instead of fixed resistances, in one extreme it's full open sound and on the opposite is a kill switch. The more positions, the more options. Regarding the trim pots, either all equal or with different value and taper, but surely with the possibility to precisely open or close as you like, leave it there and access to that trim pot value via the rotary switch... easy-peasy... right? as long as there's room inside the cavity that is...

I've asked on here about wiring up a simpler version of that, basically a 3 way switch where one position is volume on 10 for leads, 8 for rhythm, and around 4-5 for cleans, and somebody on here told me how to do it...then I remembered I'm shit at wiring and that would involve using a multimeter.

 

[odibrom]

I've asked on here about wiring up a simpler version of that, basically a 3 way switch where one position is volume on 10 for leads, 8 for rhythm, and around 4-5 for cleans, and somebody on here told me how to do it...then I remembered I'm shit at wiring and that would involve using a multimeter.

... only to check on continuity... the different volume values could be done by ear using trim pots...?

@tedtan you sure are right there, however, the possibility of using the volume knob to get different dynamics is there and I never use it... I think I find it unreliable... switches are better

 

[budda]

When I had a single channel head I used the volume knob to get to a clean tone. Worked well. I normally play with vol and tone controls when Im playing clean, not so much high gain

 

[adrianb]

Cool ideas here. For the volume control-only guys, what pot values do you typically use? Do you use shunt resistors as a "virtual" tone control?

 

[adrianb]

1. For simplicity's sake
2. To reduce noise
3. Reliability
4. Because that's what Leo Fender did

Personally, I've tried switches to bypass volume and tone controls, and then noticed how little I used them and how much clearer everything sounded without them, so I just ripped out my pots. I think my next adventure is going to be a guitar with two TS instrument outs - one for each pickup. Then, maybe run those into an two-in one-out ABY switch. Then I won't even need a control cavity, just a cavity big enough to house two outputs.

How often do you use your tone control? Ever thought of a volume pedal in place of the volume pot?

Man this is eye-opening for me. An on-off switch for the guitar (and no volume control) sounds like something i could actually get into. How do you have your pickup heights set? Do you lower them to at least cut the highs? For that matter, what pickups do you use? I imagine you use darker pickups?

 

[dspellman]

To my brain, it makes more sense to have a stepped pot (if that makes sense? Physical detents so you could click it to different settings).
Is there a downside to this other than cost & possible noise when switching? I'd much prefer something where I could go "click-click-click" thats my volume where I want it!
But I have funny ideas about electrics on guitars. I keep meaning to trial a neck-bridge fade/blend knob, and an on/off switch to manage unwanted output.

I used to think about a "stepped" pot, but then started to use my pinky for swells and volume fades while playing. Steps don't work for that. And I'm sure I'd probably end up wanting something between clicks at some point. Most guitar players instantly and reflexively run a standard volume pot down to zero when a song is over.

A blend knob can be fun, but it's even more fun when you have the neck and bridge pickup switched out of phase. You get a whole bunch of different sounds that way. While you're at it, though, start thinking about all those guitars that were set up so that you could run one pickup out of one output jack and the other pickup out of another output jack, running each cable into a different amp/FX chain. A blend knob works pretty well there.

I have several guitars that can be switched OFF. The Gibson MkIII has that available, as does the Carvin DC-135. On the latter, each of the three pickups can be switched on/off individually (mini switches), and switching them all off turns the whole guitar off. Unfortunately, its fairly easy to do that accidentally as well.

 

[dspellman]

I never use my tone control, In fact only one of my guitars has one. A volume pedal does make a lot of sense. Actually that reminds me that when I used to play live I used my tuner pedal to mute my guitar for quiet parts & between songs rather than turning down the volume. I'm sure I've seen you mentioned the pedalboard-switched-pickups idea before now and I love it.

I routinely play a pair of Variax JTV-89F guitars (Line 6). When coupled with a Helix or HD500X (via a VDI cable, which is essentially a "hardened" ethernet cable), the options are mind-boggling, including the ability to use the tone and volume controls as FX parameter controls and the ability to control the guitar options from the Helix. Worth a look.

 

[dspellman]

Yes! That's pretty much what I meant but I seem to have totally forgotten that a rotary switch was a thing

Take a look at the setup for a '70's LS6. The pickup selector is a 6-way rotary switch. Take a look at what the options are...

 

[BornToLooze]

... only to check on continuity... the different volume values could be done by ear using trim pots...?

@tedtan you sure are right there, however, the possibility of using the volume knob to get different dynamics is there and I never use it... I think I find it unreliable... switches are better

No, I wasn't going to use pots, just that thing you use on pots for ohms or resistance or something where the switch drops the volume down. Like I said, I don't have near the understanding of how guitars work to actually do it.

 

[Lemonbaby]

I've asked on here about wiring up a simpler version of that, basically a 3 way switch where one position is volume on 10 for leads, 8 for rhythm, and around 4-5 for cleans, and somebody on here told me how to do it...then I remembered I'm shit at wiring and that would involve using a multimeter.

You've picked the right user name then.

 

[odibrom]

No, I wasn't going to use pots, just that thing you use on pots for ohms or resistance or something where the switch drops the volume down. Like I said, I don't have near the understanding of how guitars work to actually do it.

Ok, the idea then is to:
1 - position on 10 = no resistance
2 - position on 8 = some resistance
3 - position on 4-5 = more resistance.

You can do it with trim pots where you set the desired amount of resistance...

 

[Drew]

I never use my tone control, In fact only one of my guitars has one. A volume pedal does make a lot of sense. Actually that reminds me that when I used to play live I used my tuner pedal to mute my guitar for quiet parts & between songs rather than turning down the volume. I'm sure I've seen you mentioned the pedalboard-switched-pickups idea before now and I love it.

It's mostly precedent at this point, but I've seen Tele players get awfully convincing wah effects out of their tone knobs. And, speaking personally, I'll absolutely ride my volume knob a bit in a solo, as a gain control.

I've used mic pres with click-detent knobs and while it's fine, it feels weird to me not to have a continuously adjustable throw. Still, they sound fucking awesome, so I live with it.

 

[spudmunkey]

Puscifer's guitarist has a guitar with one volume knob, only one bridge pickup, but a 3-way blade switch for tone control. All the way back, it's in "tone 'knob' bypass", all the way forward is a "slight notched tone", and center is more "rolled back" which he likes to use when he uses an eBow.