Best Use of Volume and Tone Pots

[RobRed]

Without going into full detail about why it is so, I am rewiring an HSS guitar and taking up two of the 3 available spaces for pots with rotary switches. I have decided to use a stacked concentric pot for control of volume and tone. The guitar originally had the typical volume/tone/tone set-up and the way it was wired, I was never impressed with the benefit of having the 2 tone controls--I was not convinced that both contributed much to the sound.

Now I have one volume and one tone control with 3 pickups and I am wondering about the best way to put them to use. It occurs to me that the bridge pickup tends to be louder than the other 2, so it might be good to use the volume pot just to be able to back off on the bridge volume and then control the overall volume from the amp or some other controller outside of the guitar. Is that a reasonable approach? Are there other typical ways to view it, and what are the benefits and drawbacks of different approaches?

Then there is the question of how best to use a single tone control with 3 pickups. The first question that comes to mind, given that tone pots are typically depicted in relation to a volume pot, is can you run a pickup through the tone control pot if it is not run through the volume pot? Can you decide to run 2 of the 3 through the tone pot when one runs through the volume pot and the other does not? What are the considerations that would go into deciding which pickup or pickups you would like to have influenced by the tone control? I have seen some claim you get the best benefit running the bridge through and others the neck. It strikes me that is a big difference, so why might one person choose the bridge and another choose the neck? What comes of running all 3 pickups through the volume pot and a single tone pot?

I recognize that personal judgment comes into all those questions, but I would be interested in hearing some experienced folks' opinions about getting the best bang for the buck out of this limited arrangement. Thanks

Rob R

[Enzo]

Or back off your pole pieces so the pickups all make about the same amount of signal.

[RobRed]

Hey, that's a great idea! Seems simple now that you've said it. It takes care of the volume control question, anyway. Then I can tie any pickups I want into the tone control as well--I just have no idea which I'd want to ;P. Thanks.

Rob R

[Adrien]

Just wire the tone to any pickup(s) you want at the selector switch like the way Fender does it.

[RobRed]

Thanks for the response. Turns out the wiring's gotten busy enough I'm just running everything off the pickup selector set-up to the single volume and tone control. If there's something I don't like about it, I can adjust the pickups and/or rewire it later. I will keep what you've said in mind.

Rob R

[jrfrond]

From a practical standpoint: if this is a Strat or clone (I'm just guessing due to the HSS pickups, but I could be wrong) and it has a trem, don't place the stacked pot up top, or it is likely to interfere with the bar.

HAving said that, my initial impulse says that 2- Vol 1- Tone would be a good arrangement for you, with the HB having it's own dedicated volume control, and the pots wired with the pickup hots on the wiper, like a Jazz Bass.

[RobRed]

From a practical standpoint: if this is a Strat or clone (I'm just guessing due to the HSS pickups, but I could be wrong) and it has a trem, don't place the stacked pot up top, or it is likely to interfere with the bar.

Good guess! It's a Strat-like Ibanez. The down side is, that unlike the Strat, everything is mounted through holes in the wooden face of the instrument rather than on a pick guard. I have to presume having all the electronics mounted to a pick guard makes it somewhat easier to move stuff around and makes the cavity a good quarter of an inch deeper (if it goes through to the back of the body, anyway--I haven't owned a strat for about 35 years, and I no longer recall).

HAving said that, my initial impulse says that 2- Vol 1- Tone would be a good arrangement for you, with the HB having it's own dedicated volume control, and the pots wired with the pickup hots on the wiper, like a Jazz Bass.

I'm new enough at this that I haven't got a clue how a jazz bass is wired for comparison. I think I'll go look it up on line and check that out as a possibility. If I understand correctly, you are suggesting I should connect the output from the humbucker through the selector switch to volume and use the one volume for the bridge alone. I have only one other pot for tone--part of my question was, is there any natural, obvious selection for which pickup(s) should go through the tone control when you only have one and can you run a pickup through the tone without running it through volume. Perhaps that's what you were referring to when you said, "and the pots wired with the pickup hots on the wiper, like a Jazz Bass." Again, I'm going to go check that out. Thanks.

Rob R

[jrfrond]

Sounds like a Roadstar. Nice guitar.

The Jazz Bass, and other guitars, use a wiring scheme which allows you to turn one volume control down all the way to zero, without affecting the other. The pickup hot lead is wired to the wiper (center-lug), the "hot" (output) is then the left lug (looking at the back of the guitar, with the lugs facing down) and the ground is the right lug.

[RobRed]

Thanks. I looked it up, but I couldn't find any schematics, only photo images that made it hard to tell what was wired to what.

In the end, though, I've got enough other stuff going on with this rewiring that I decided just to keep this part simple and run all the pickups through the single volume pot and the tone control. I figure if the bridge pickup is relatively too loud, I can just improve the balance by adjusting the distance of the various pickups from the strings. I've got so much going on with tone in this guitar (ridiculous number of pickup selection options and a rotary capacitor selector), I'm finding it hard to worry that I won't find a tone I'll like just because I ran all 3 pickups through the volume and tone pots.

Rob R