Modifying volume and tone pots

[tonequester]

tonequester here.

Does anybody have experience with modifying volume and/or tone pots, to which the cover is removed and an x-acto knife is used to scrape off some of the resistance path, to allow for full output in the "wide open' position. I am getting things together to replace pick-ups and completely re-wire my Kramer Strat clone, and am thinking of doing this. I would like to know if it is a real b----, any tips, etc. i am using Stew-Mac CTS pots. 1 meg for the volume and 250k for both tone controls. Is it worth
the effort, in the change in sound one might expect ? Any comment is as always, quite welcome in advance. tonequester.

[soundguruman]

No, I wouldn't modify it with an x-acto knife. There already IS full output in the full on position.
whoever told you to do this is mental.

[Steve Conner]

It won't work with a volume pot. You would get pretty much full output in any position, or if you cut the other end of the track, no output at all.

With a tone pot you can scrape away the clockwise end of the track. Or you can buy it pre-done, it is called a "No Load Tone Pot". Fender No Load Guitar Tone Pot-Split Shaft I recommend buying the factory-made one in the interest of long-term reliability. A hand-scraped track might disintegrate on you after the wiper has been over it a few hundred times.

I believe my reissue Strat has one of these pots in the bridge tone position, and it certainly has lots of crunch and bite with the tone turned up to 10.

[rjb]

With a tone pot you can scrape away the clockwise end of the track.

An alternate way of doing the same mod is to carefully paint the track with nail polish, insulating it from the wiper.
I can't speak for the long-term reliability of either method.

[tonequester]

tonequester here.


Greetings Steve. Thanks for the lead on the Fender- no load pots. This mod is all over the web, and has been recommended in books for years. In Gerald Weber's 1997
book : Tube Amp Talk for the Guitarist and Tech, he has re-printed much of the Trainwreck Pages(Trainwreck Amps, by Ken Fischer,founded 1981) and the mod appears there. Gerald Weber
founder of Kendrick Amps, after outlining the mod states : "And now a word to the guitar companies...I've been using and teaching this trick for over 30 years. Don't go running off to the patent office, it won't stick ! I didn't think that it would be of use with a volume pot, but figured I'd cover all bases. If I've learned one thing on this forum, it's don't take anything for granted, when you are just getting started in electronics at the basic level. It gets to be a chore in itself for one like me to sort all of the opinions and advice out, once you've got them.
As to the effect itself, it sounds like from your personal experience, the mod would be well worth the extra $2.00 a pot, especially when factory made. Thanks once again my friend !
Thanks as well to rjb and soundguruman for your relpies. tonequester.

[Sweetfinger]

It won't work with a volume pot.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

[tonequester]

tonequester here.


Greetings Sweetfinger, and pleased to "make your aquaintance". Hell, I don't have a clue whether it will work or not, but I like your attitude. I might just buy a cheap pot and try it out. Enzo keeps reminding me that "hands on" experience can't be replaced with any amount of book work. I'm thinkin' you really need both in order to excell, but I sure do like
tearin' things apart anyway. I've run onto the strangest things during my years of "disassemblement". Keep that finger in the sweet stuff ! tonequester.

[Sweetfinger]

Oh, it'll work. You just have to think "outside the standard wiring diagram". As far as physically opening and re-assembling pots, I primarily work with the CTS pots. You need to find just the right set of cutoff pliers to uncrimp the tabs cleanly and just the right size of longnose pliers to bend the tabs back into place. I have a set of wire strippers that works pretty well for that as well- mine have a semi-circular cutout used for crimping house wiring. It is just right for cradling the opposite edge of the pot housing while bending the tab back into place. I've been doing it since about ten minutes after reading the Ken Fischer article in the 90s. The Fender no-load pot is nice... unless you don't want the detent or need the cut in the track to be somewhere else.

[tonequester]

tonequester here.


Thanks for the reply on the pot mod Sweetfinger. It sounds like you've got a pretty good methodology. Damned, if the right tool for the right job isn't true. I have a couple of 250k tonepots that are cheap, probably Radio Shack. I thought that I'd try my luck on one of those. No big loss if I screw one of those up. The CTS pots(esp. with shipping) are just too expensive to take a chance on, at least until you have it down pat. What gets me is that like you, I read about the mod years ago, and yet for some unknown reason never gave it a second thought until I started to upgrade the Kramer. The Good Lord knows that I've monkeyed with everything else possible on electrics. Hey ! You have a great day! tonequester.

[David Schwab]

Where there's a will, there's a way.

No, when you get to 10 you will have no sound because the circuit is now open.

A no load pot works on a tone control because on 10 you want the circuit open.

Just get a push/pull pot and wire up the switch to take the volume control out of the circuit and wire the pickup to the jack.

Or get louder pickups.

[soundguruman]

There is no "amazing improvement" for a no load pot.
It's a slight treble boost if the tone pot is open. A slight amount...
you can scrape it, but later...you will replace it.

[tonequester]

No, when you get to 10 you will have no sound because the circuit is now open.

A no load pot works on a tone control because on 10 you want the circuit open.

Just get a push/pull pot and wire up the switch to take the volume control out of the circuit and wire the pickup to the jack.

Or get louder pickups.

tonequester here.


Greetings David ! I like your idea about the switch. A much simpler way to drop out the pot. I do have new pick-ups in the works, with new pots and 5-way. I pretty much
chose the pick-ups(Bill Lawrence) from previous experience with them. I'm not sure how they rate for output, but I sure liked the over-all tone they produced at that time. I'm going to try his Q-filter as well, but I'm going to make it switchable. I heard a You Tube demo of the LRC filter which was impressive, and it only runs $24.00. Lawrence's pivk-ups are very reasonable as well. The humbucker(stacked) that I'm placing in the bridge position is $54.00. The pickups are constructed mod-unfriendly, but nearly indestructable. Thanks for the advice on switchable pots, it never even occured to me for a volume control. Have a great day ! tonequester.


Qoute : 'Where come I, and whither go I ? That's the great unfathomable question, the same for everyone of us. Science has no answer for it." Max Planck.

[Chuck H]

FWIW, and JMHO, but... There's no real advantage to bypassing the volume control load. If you wanted to be absolutely sure your getting maximum output and response from a hot pickup just use a 1M A10 taper volume pot. There will always be a load of at most 1M on any amp input (EDIT: Some early grid leak input designs being an exception). Parallel that with a 1M on the guitar volume control and then the impedance of the pickup @ frequency. Now map the actual physical difference in loads and how that impedance affects the frequency response. The difference is truely useless for average guitar use. Unless your plugging into a purely reproduction amplifier and using a speaker cab with a tweeter in it you probably won't even hear a difference between a 1M pot full up and direct connection to the jack. So at that point it's just an extra switch to fail at some point. Why complicate it? The no load thng for a tone pot makes more sense because high value tone pots have a crappy taper. Even log pots. So lower values are often used. Ibenez used a tone cap lift switch on early JS guitars. This would be the same function as the no load pot. Joe said it was an important part of his sound.

JM2C

[tonequester]

tonequester here.

Hey Chuck H. Glad to here from you. I here where you are coming from. No sense to fool around with a volume pot that's already giving me all it can. Steve Conner replied
about this issue in agreement as did others. I'm already using a 1 Meg volume pot. My tone pots are 250kOhm and cheap pots at that. I've already received 2x 250kOhm CXTS pots from
Stew-Mac. I wish I hadn"t ordered them, as Steve clued me into Fender Drop out pots, which have the zereo resistance mode with a click in detant. I'm not sure which way I'll go yet.
I pretty much have to make several orders, spread out over a few weeks in order to get all of the pick-ups,pots,switches,wire,etc., to do the whole circuit re-do. I've found an amp kit (tube)
as well that i'm trying to swing this month as it is on sale-10% off this month at Antique Radio Electronics. A MOD 102 kit, Class A,S.E.,cathode biased hand wire job. At 10% off of $215.00
it seems a good deal, as well as a good starter kit for me. It uses one 12ax7 and one EL-84 to produce 5 big Watts. loudthud checked it out, as a matter of fact he found the sale at A.R.E.
and he thought it looked pretty good for the price. If you should get the time to take a look at it, or if you already know something about it I'd appreciate your opinion as well. The chassis ipre-punched steel/painted gun blue. It has Hammond transformers, and it sounds like the directions and drawings are good, with on-line support as well. Thanks again for the reply.
Tone pots yea,......Volume pots ney. Have yourself a great one ! tonequester.

[Chuck H]

Sorry I don't know the kit. I like the idea of a gun blue finish though. I've been blueing my non stainless pocket knives since I was twelve. That and a wipe of oil now and again and they'll out perform almost any stainless pocket knife in normal use. Not too sure about wiping a chassis down with honing oil though

Just make the no load pot for your tone control. Regardless of what anyone has said it will not reduce the longevity or reliability of the pot. On most pots you just bend the tabs that hold the casing on the pot and lift it off, exposing the wiper and the resistance track. There is likely a defined margin where the track meets the resting tab that the wiper sits on when the pot is fully rotated. Be sure to identify the correct end of the track. Use an exacto blade turned backwards (you don't want to just cut the track, the gap needs to be a little wider than a cut) and scratch the track away where it meets the tab. Blow clean and test. Repeat as needed. Then put the back on and mark it with a sharpie (in case it ever ends up back in component circulation). You may want to include a 10M resistor from the center lug to the no load lug. Some effects do place a small DC charge on the line and this could cause a small pop sound if the cap doesn't keep a 0VDC reference.

[tonequester]

Sorry I don't know the kit. I like the idea of a gun blue finish though. I've been blueing my non stainless pocket knives since I was twelve. That and a wipe of oil now and again and they'll out perform almost any stainless pocket knife in normal use. Not too sure about wiping a chassis down with honing oil though

Just make the no load pot for your tone control. Regardless of what anyone has said it will not reduce the longevity or reliability of the pot. On most pots you just bend the tabs that hold the casing on the pot and lift it off, exposing the wiper and the resistance track. There is likely a defined margin where the track meets the resting tab that the wiper sits on when the pot is fully rotated. Be sure to identify the correct end of the track. Use an exacto blade turned backwards (you don't want to just cut the track, the gap needs to be a little wider than a cut) and scratch the track away where it meets the tab. Blow clean and test. Repeat as needed. Then put the back on and mark it with a sharpie (in case it ever ends up back in component circulation). You may want to include a 10M resistor from the center lug to the no load lug. Some effects do place a small DC charge on the line and this could cause a small pop sound if the cap doesn't keep a 0VDC reference.

tonequester here.

Greetings Chuck, Glad to hear that you are aquainted with this modification. I've "heard" about it for years and I'd like to think that it is plausible when
somebody like Gerald Weber includes it in one of his books. I appreciate the tip on the 10 Meg from center lug to no-load lug. I'm not a big-time effects user, but I so play around with some on occasion. It's good to know these little "extras", like the fact that some effects do place a DC charge on the line. First time that I ever gave that a thought. It sure was providence that led me to join this, my first forum. It sure has reinforced something that I learned as a young press operator, and had kinda' forgot about. All the textbooks in the world are no substitute for first hand knowlege ! I'm not anti-theory by any means, but without the experiments, without the experience,
theory becomes nothing more than something to talk about. This forum gives one both sides of the equation. For all I know you may well be a professor, angineer, or tech
but whether or not, I always know that yoiu have real world experience. I know that when somebody else goes a little over my head, I can always count on guys like you,
Enzo, loudthud,big_teee, and a dozen others to relate such things to me in a "common Man';s" lingo. As for the amp kit, I'm in hopes that I'll get some more comments.
I don't thimk that i'll get "stung" if I go with it, but I do know that it will only be a starter. Someone made the comment that "I should know that this is addictive". I've
had many obsessions in my life. Some were good and some were bad. Whether for the good or for the bad, there will probably be such a project on my work-bench on the
day I die. I will be doing much bigger and better things at that time, for having come across you and all the other guy's I dig, on this forum. Thanks, and all of the best to you and YOUR projects. tonequester.

Quote : 'I had to fight all of my life to survive. they were all against me....but I beat the bast____ and left them all in the ditch. Ty Cobb.

Another Quote : " Cobb was a pri--, but God, could that man hit" ! Babe Ruth.

Crude attempt at humor.

[Mark Hammer]

The value of the "no-load" option will depend on the pickups you start out with, and the tone style one normally adopts. It's prejudicial on my part, admittedly, but my sense is that someone playing a Kramer Strat is not typically aiming for a clean sound (i.e., you'd never see one in a Dire Straits cover band). In that vein, if one played something like an Ibanez JEM guitar with a pair of HBs and a SC in the middle, or if one like to always play with at least some dirt at the amp or pedal level, then the advantages of a no-load pot will be either minimal or non-existent. The rationale behind this declaration is simply that "unloading" the pickups mostly serves to retain top end glassiness, and if the pickups themselves can't deliver it, or if the tone you want does not make use of it, then there is no advantage to be gained.

FWIW, I like a glassy top end, so one of my guitars has a simple 3-position tone switch, instead of a tone pot, with the center position being no tone cap at all. Using that in conjunction with 1M volume pot and over-value compensation cap, it's instant Nile Rogers and Johnny Guitar Watson tone. Not everyone's cup of tea, though.

[tonequester]

tonequester here.


Greetings, and thanks Mark for your reply. You are correct in assuming that I'm not aiming for an exclusively clean tone. however, I would like to retain that option.
The cheap Kramer that I bought a year ago was purchased because after playing it for some time, I decided that it was perhaps totally by accident, a very good guitar. I,ve owned some high-end guitars before, although they were always factory issue, and the ACOUSTIC properties of the Kramer were quite surprising to me. After having repaired and modified guitars for 30+ years, I decided it would be a "hoot" to do as much of an upgrade to it as was possible. It's not the guitar that I purchased now. Quality tuners, saddles, fret work, new nut, 4 roller string trees, blocked tremelo, and the additioin of added mass to headstock and body are complete. The improvement gained thus far has set me back 3x the price that I gave for it originally.
I saved the best for last. I'm now going to completely replace all electronics. I've selected 3 very different pick-ups and a Q-filter to go along with quality pots and switches. The biggest problem the Kramer had was lack of tonal variety when amplified. I expect to have $500.00 plus, and around 25-30 hours of work in it when it is completed. I guess that I'm just saying that I enjoy the whole modding thing, whether it be guitars or amps. I've been lucky enough over the years to have oinly one "disaster" to my credit. I modded a vintage(back when it wasn't called vintage) Fender Princeton that was immaculate(circa 1960) and when it began to have problems a couple of years later, I merely scrapped it and bought a new amp. I still have bad dreams about that one ! No, I won't be doing a Dire Straits cover anytime soon, but I think that I'm going to be pleased with what I end up with. The whole tone pot thing was just something that I had read about many times over the years, and the use of it to get a little extra "clean" was the idea. I've decided to make the drop tone and the Q-filter switchable
so I'll still have "stock" tone controls. Steve Conner informed me about Fender drop out tone controls, so I don't even have to "jack" with them if I don't want to, as I can purchase the pots already modded. I'll take your(and others as well) opinion about how little the change is for fact. I've never come across a guitar that had the feature, so I truly am not in the know.
I'm most into blues/blues rock, but I also like a variety of other styles and I think that when I'm done with the "project' it will have a great blues tone and still play clean enough for the other things that i like to do. Man, I really appreciate your interest and especially the time you took to reply, and I always give all replys due thought, often comparing yea's to nay's to
help me come to a conclusion. I hope that whatever you are "up to" goes to plan, and you have my best reguards. tonequester.

[Sweetfinger]

Quote Originally Posted by Sweetfinger View Post
Where there's a will, there's a way.

No, when you get to 10 you will have no sound because the circuit is now open.

A no load pot works on a tone control because on 10 you want the circuit open.

Just get a push/pull pot and wire up the switch to take the volume control out of the circuit and wire the pickup to the jack.

Or get louder pickups.

Obviously, you do not have the will!

[rjb]

Where there's a will there's a way.

Oh, it'll work. You just have to think "outside the standard wiring diagram".

OK, I'll play. Here's my suggested mod:
Cut any track inside the volume pot in any manner you want; reassemble pot.
Jumper all three pot lugs together. Do not connect any lug to the pot's shell or cavity shield.
Solder "sig+ out" wire from selector switch and "sig+" wire from jack to any volume pot lug(s) you want.
Solder all "sig-/gnd" wires to volume pot shell.
Control volume at the amp.

Are you saying you have a mod that:
1) Removes the volume pot from the circuit at position 10;
2) Functions as a normal volume control below position 10?

If so, some members may like to see a schematic.
(Not me; I'm just playing Devil's Advocate.)

[Sweetfinger]

OK, I'll play. Here's my suggested mod:
Cut any track inside the volume pot in any manner you want; reassemble pot.
Jumper all three pot lugs together. Do not connect any lug to the pot's shell or cavity shield.
Solder "sig+ out" wire from selector switch and "sig+" wire from jack to any volume pot lug(s) you want.
Solder all "sig-/gnd" wires to volume pot shell.
Control volume at the amp.

Are you saying you have a mod that:
1) Removes the volume pot from the circuit at position 10;
2) Functions as a normal volume control below position 10?

If so, some members may like to see a schematic.
(Not me; I'm just playing Devil's Advocate.)

Good lord. Take yer Fender "no load" pot, ground the usual lug, wire up your Strat just like you would normally but jumper the first and second lugs of the pot. Instead of a voltage divider the volume control is now a variable resistor that removes itself from the circuit when all the way up due to the cut track.

[rjb]

Good lord. Take yer Fender "no load" pot, ground the usual lug, wire up your Strat just like you would normally but jumper the first and second lugs of the pot. Instead of a voltage divider the volume control is now a variable resistor that removes itself from the circuit when all the way up due to the cut track.

Tell ya what.
Wire it up, try it out, then get back to us.

[Sweetfinger]

Tell ya what.
Wire it up, try it out, then get back to us.

Did it 6 days ago before the first post just to be sure there wasn't some stupidly obvious reason it wouldn't work. There isn't. It works.

[rjb]

Did it 6 days ago before the first post just to be sure there wasn't some stupidly obvious reason it wouldn't work. There isn't. It works.

OK, gotcha, it finally sank in.
You're loading the pickup with a variable resistor.
But doesn't that really kill the highs when you lower the volume?
No more than in a JBass, I suppose.
Never mind.....

[Chuck H]

Just because I don't want the OP to get any kookie ideas... Doesn't the taper on the pot, as a control function, kinda suck when wired as a strictly variable load? This has been my experience.

Will repost... I'm going to work on something.

[tonequester]

tonequester here.


I guess one Can have the will to no avail ! Hey Sweetfinger ! Yea, I've got this one figured out now. The mod for tone pots will work, and now the argunent is : how much does the mod accomplish, and whether it shortens the life of the pot. Steve Conner steered me to factory made drop-out pots made by Fender. They are only a couple of bucks higher than
CTS standard pots. So it seems that for tone pots this isn't a problem as far as reliability is concerned. With my whole rig being maxed for an overdriven,warm tone, I figure that it can't hurt to try in order to retain as much clean tone as possible when I want it. A couple of bucks more : "nothing gained.....nothing lost. Thanks for the opinion. Thats what it's all about for me
on the forum anyway. To get as many opinions(and hopefully facts) as possible, is the quest. Have a "good 'un" ! tonequester.

[Chuck H]

OK... For anyone who want's to try it... Here is a way to wire a no load volume pot that should act like a normal volume pot anywhere but the fully cranked position (fully cranked = no load). I've done the demonstration diagram with a standard "strat" type wiring. If you want to add a "bright" cap or circuit it would be parallel to the B pot.

[Sweetfinger]

Just because I don't want the OP to get any kookie ideas... Doesn't the taper on the pot, as a control function, kinda suck when wired as a strictly variable load? This has been my experience.

Will repost... I'm going to work on something.

If you're the kind of person who has ordered every different pot from every different manufacturer in search of that "perfect" taper and has experimented for hours with added tapering resistors, you may be disappointed. It had a decent enough taper on the Fender pot. I've heard worse.
Volume controls wired as variable resistors have been used in amplifiers and effects pedals for decades so the taper must be at least acceptable. I never promised that this mod would be perfect. If it were a truly superior method of wiring a volume control in a guitar that's how they would all be wired. Personally, I think it is a bit goofy and there are indeed other ways to get where you want to go tone-wise.
I only posted because the OP wanted to try it and 2 or three other forum members chimed in saying it wasn't possible. You can do it, but you do change how the volume control responds and interacts with the other controls, pickups, etc. If you find that this is a useful way to wire your guitar, well, happy birthday! Other than that, it is one of those tricks you can file away until you need it, if ever.

[David Schwab]

There is no "amazing improvement" for a no load pot.
It's a slight treble boost if the tone pot is open. A slight amount...
you can scrape it, but later...you will replace it.

For a tone pot? Absolutely wrong. As a matter of fact I have them in several instruments, and also some TBX tone pots.

If you want that brighter tone why would you replace them?

[David Schwab]

OK... For anyone who want's to try it... Here is a way to wire a no load volume pot that should act like a normal volume pot anywhere but the fully cranked position (fully cranked = no load). I've done the demonstration diagram with a standard "strat" type wiring. If you want to add a "bright" cap or circuit it would be parallel to the B pot.

Well that's an interesting twist...

[tonequester]

tonequester here.


Hey Chuck !

A very intersting circuit you have provided. I printed it off for "the journal". I've tested some pots that I had laying around, and got from 3-5 ohms where one would expect zero Ohms. This was true for each side of the pot. The "full value" was even further off. One 500K pot read 573 Ohms. One thing that I have been concerned with on my mod,
which is directed towards a "brown" sound, is that I still want to be able to get a decent clean tone as well. Your circuit looks good and i like the idea of a bright switch. I like the idea that the signal could be "brightened" BEFORE amplification. I'm leaning toward simplicity in controlling or adjusting the amp's tone, and this type of bright switch would change nothing at the
amp. Just switch to bright at the guitar, and leave the amp set for whatever tone that you have "dialed in'. The standard Strat wiring works for me. I had planned to go that route, as close as possible. I've always liked to be able to access varying tonal effects from the guitar, and most of my mods have reflected this. I've almost always had at least one added switch on my guitars, whether it was for an on-board pre-amp, or my take on a Varitone. Thanks for sharing your circuit, it may be just what I will need to clean up a little bit. I don't expect to have to go to far with this, this circuit may be all I need. The double-ganged pot even eliminates the need for a separate switch. Can't wait to hear it man ! Have a great day ! tonequester.

[Chuck H]

Thanks TQ (can I call you TQ?). The "bright cap or circuit" I mentioned would be a cap or a combination of cap and a resistor or two that compensate for the treble loss as the volume pot is turned down. It's not a bright switch. And it does nothing to the tone of the guitar with the volume up full. But... Since you did mention that you like to have a lot of tonal control with a minimum of peripherals, I would recommend a circuit like this. With many tube amp models a "bright circuit" on the guitars volume control can allow you to set up the amp for distortion and then turn down the guitars volume control for a clean tone with plenty of highs and very little loss in volume! The exact values for the circuit depend on the pickups your using, the value of your volume pot and, most important, your personal tastes.

[tonequester]

Greetings Chuck ! tonequester here.

TQ's fine. You can sall me s--- for brains if you want, for all the "good stuff" you've sent my way since I joined the forum. I picked up(no pun intended)
on the bright "switch" pretty quick. I had actually done this before. I got it from a book by Adrian Legg in"81, called Customizing Your Electric Guitar. He recommended a .001uf cap across
the volume pots tab that comes from the pick-up(s), and the output tab. He showed it switchable with an SPDT. I had a cheap a-- Fender Squire and I ended up with 4 SPDT's on it. I had one for a coil tap, one for a phase reverse(2 conductor pick-up, one for an on-board pre-amp(by Craig Anderton), and of course the .001 treble by-pass. Never could remember which switch was which ! The results were great, tone wise. I did get a lot of laughs though. Your ganged pot is a great improvement. I have only one toggle to use this time. i intend to use it for a switchable Q-filter(Bill Lawrence). I heard it demo'd on you tube and the variety of sounds it "produced' were impressive. This time I won't use a sub-mini though. They're too hard to grab in the middle of a solo. I gotta say that your "thumb-nail" circuits have been a great help. I've looked at a lot of circuits on this forum, and I gotta say some of them have looked like they might be left over from the space shuttle. You get to the point right off and you somehow seem to know just how much tech I can tolerate up front. You'd make a fine teacher. I always print off your instructional posts for my notebook. I swear, all too often a post of mine becomes a "battle of opinions". I end up having to try to Goggle them anyway. I don't believe that I've had
to do so with anything you have commented on. Some posts that I make I actually expect to end up with nothing but opinions. In those cases I'm prppared to take it all down, and then go looking for the simplest, and often the cheapest way out. Like I said, TQ is no problem for me. Hopefully I will get some I.Q. in time by sticking to this forum, in addition to what studying I
am doing. I hope that you realize that when I'm done with guitar and amp, I'll have to make room on the "name plates" for Chuck H. Have a fine time at whatever you are up to.(I'm scared to ask a "Yanker" like you just what you ARE up to). TQ.....out.

[Mark Hammer]

The volume pot compensating cap is EXACTLY the same as what the "bright switch" on an amp, or the bright channel on amps with two volume pots (e.g., 5F6-A Bassman) does. The effect of the bypass cap works exactly the same way. As the volume pot is turned down, a low-impedance path is provided for higher frequency content, such that more attenuation is applied to the bottom end than to the top when the volume is below full.

Where they differ is in the manner that the volume control is used. On amps, we rarely set the volume to full, more often having the volume pot below halfway, where on guitar we tend not to turn down below full all that often.

The net result is that, even though the bypass cap works exactly the same way, we have many opportunities to hear what it does with amplifiers, and few opportunities to hear what it does with guitars. Of course, if one DOES intend to turn down below 10 on the guitar, compensating caps can be very useful.

Context is everything.

[tonequester]

tonequester here.


Greetings Mark, and thanks for the reply. In all actuality this is one Mod" that I've been using for years. it was the first such thing that I ever did to a guitar(1981 Squire).
I got it from Adrian Legg's book "Customizing your Electric Guitar"(1981).He called it "the switchable .001 treble by-pass. It was the first "mod" in the book, probably because it was the simplest. You basically just placed a .001uf cap across the volume pot's output tab, and the tab which takes input from the pick-up(s). Even with that piece of junk Japanese Strat, I could tell the difference that it made. No "big deal" mod for sure, but so easy that I've always used it for decent improvement in treble at lower volumes(guitar). You might not believe it, but the Squirer cost me $350.00 in '81 and it was horribly made. It did come with a now "vintage" 15W. s.s. Squirer practice amp. It had all of the tone of a $10.00 transistor radio set to AM.
That's how I got started doing guitar mods. That Japanese Strat ended up with 4 mini-toggles and a push-pull volume pot. It had the switchable "bright' mod, coil tap on the stock humbucker,out-of-phase on the single coils, and also series-parallel. When I got done with it, the darned thing had a lot of tonal variety, but it's playability was so bad I couldn't give it away.
I toyed with it for a couple of years, even putting one of the early on-board pre-amps in it, which involved routing a cavity for it and a 9 volt battery. My oft' used pawn shop wouldn't even touch it, but I sure learned a lot in my steady experimentation with it. The biggest lesson learned : No amount of money can make a bad foundation into a mansion. Now when I look for a "fixer upper"( and I only do for the enjoyment ), I spend a lot of time playing and checking it out UNPLUGGED ! I'd much have to come up with improvements to make to the circuitry,
than to have to try to improve the basic acoustic foundatation. Perhaps the worst thing about trying to do that, is the cost of all of the specialized tools one really needs for what amounts to
luthiery. Take for example doing a nut properly. Stewart-Mac prices(and I've been a loyal customer since '81) : one set of 6 guaged nut files-$77.70(my local music store does a replacement nut for $70.00), but first you need a set of rough-in nut saws, 6 for $39.90, how about a nut seating file ?, $19.23-$35.23 depending on width needed. If you want a file to rough-in the shape of the nut, that,s $26.75 for 2(different cutting surfaces). That works out to at the least : $163.58. Whoops ! I forgot the $13.95 for shipping. Maybe for most that's a good deal when you are looking at doing "nut jobs". Me. I try to avoid them. I just did it to the Kramer I'm modding. It turned out
damned good. I used a few pieces of used strings, and a Dremel tool. I know that dimensionally it's right because my brother(metalworker/welder) let me borrow his mic and feeler guages
to check it out. It also plays great in all positions, and stays in tune. I'm not quite as "dumb" as it might seem from my posts, but above all other things on this forum, I try to approach it like I'm the "low man" in everything. There's a lot of good people here who are helpful, and a lot of real experts. I've already been shown a dozen things that I didn't know and I've been corrected on another dozen where I thought I knew what I was doing but was dead wrong. I don't kiss a--, but I am truly amazed at how many try to help here WITHOUT attitude.
I can't but repeat over and over again. Thanks for your reply, I really appreciate it. I had a guy who "listened" in to one of my ongoing posts about the best way to go about getting more electronics theory under my belt. He sent me the 1957(my birth-year) ARRL Handbook. It was $3.50 then, it's $69.00 now. The kicker is that he paid $28.37 to ship it to me. I sent him
the shipping, but the book is priceless to me. The new ones don't even really get into tubes. The '57 edition barely gets into transistors ! Didn't mean to go on and on. I do truly appreciate
your reply. I hope to here from you anytime you have the interest. Best wishes to you and yours. tonequester.