Mixing two pickups

[RedHouse]

Here you go. Each buffer is hot glued to the volume pot.
http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/P7250316.jpg

Marko

Looks good, is the battery in a different compartment?

[David Schwab]

Here you go. Each buffer is hot glued to the volume pot.
http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/P7250316.jpg

Marko

Look good! I love hot melt glue. I actually use it in pickup making.

I made my buffers like this, but mounting them on the pots is a good idea.

[Dave Kerr]

David, how do you handle strain relief for the off-board connections? I've been playing around with pedals for a little bit and haven't gotten past just extending the board a bit and tying them down with a twisted piece of wire through a couple extra holes in the board. Not that batteries get changed all that often, but I'd like a more elegant/durable way of doing it.

[Marko Ursin]

Yes, I use Gotoh battery box. I thought that by glueing the buffers to pots they would take minimum space at the cavity. And by using separate battery box I don't need to open the control cavity cover.
Marko

[Marko Ursin]

How about gluing the wires to the board with hot melt glue? I did something similar when I fixed a Bartolini pre with flush cut wire. I dug out enough wire to solder the wire back, made a short loop of the wire and glued the wire to the preamp box. Worked great.
Marko

[David Schwab]

David, how do you handle strain relief for the off-board connections? I've been playing around with pedals for a little bit and haven't gotten past just extending the board a bit and tying them down with a twisted piece of wire through a couple extra holes in the board. Not that batteries get changed all that often, but I'd like a more elegant/durable way of doing it.

I didn't do anything with that board, but I have looped the wire though holes, and I have used hot melt glue as well. Those wires are the two outputs, the battery (+) and the ground. The pickups connected via the screw terminal blocks. I took the photo with the caliper because someone wanted to see how big they were.

I've seen a few HAZ Labs preamps, and he uses wire ties. He also uses them to hold the ICs in their sockets. I thought that was a good idea.

[CRU JONES]

Ya know... Mikes right. Its just when you want to use pots to blend, that you should blend after buffering. Which means independant buffers. But Mike is a smart guy and has a lot of good stuff to say. Sometimes it is a challenge to understand what he is saying and other times his stuff sounds obscure. Whatever. He is our buddy! So.. I thinks he's cool!
Cru

[David Schwab]

I'm not going to get into this again, but the point was mutual loading between the pickups. That's why they don't always sound all that great when mixed passively. That point was being ignored. Buffering each pickup before their signals ever mix together eliminates that.

That was the point.

The next point was the loading from the pots and cable, etc., which is what you are talking about. The buffers also isolate them from that.

Mike did mention that you can restore that cable and pot tone with some resistors and caps. But the main point, and the objection by Marko, was due to mutual loading of the two pickups. They are in each other's circuit, and they exhibit inductance and resistance, etc.

It's not bad or good, just the way passive instruments are. If you want a more fidelity, you need to buffer the pickups IMO.

[Stealth]

Here you go. Each buffer is hot glued to the volume pot.
http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/P7250316.jpg

Marko

Wow. Tidy. I like how it turned out.
Any chance we can hear the blended variant soon?

[Marko Ursin]

Here's a sample. 1st round bridge full, neck off, 2nd round bridge full, neck half, 3rd round both full, 4th round neck full, bridge half and 5th round neck full, bridge off. Only vol pot on each pickup is used to blend, no other volume/tone shaping. What do you think? I like the sound a lot, but my opinion is way too subjective to be objective
Maihinnousu - Lataa - MPU - blendpickups
Marko

[RedHouse]

Yes, I use Gotoh battery box. I thought that by glueing the buffers to pots they would take minimum space at the cavity. And by using separate battery box I don't need to open the control cavity cover.
Marko

I do the same, I was just curious because some folks actually place the battery on top the controls in the cavity.

Here's a sample. 1st round bridge full, neck off, 2nd round bridge full, neck half, 3rd round both full, 4th round neck full, bridge half and 5th round neck full, bridge off. Only vol pot on each pickup is used to blend, no other volume/tone shaping. What do you think? I like the sound a lot, but my opinion is way too subjective to be objective
Maihinnousu - Lataa - MPU - blendpickups
Marko

Round 3 sounds best to me, and 4 sound too.

Are you still able to switch piockups on/off using the selector switch? or did you go with pot-blend only?

[Marko Ursin]

I have vol for each pickup, master vol and master passive tone. No pickup selector switch.
Marko

[RedHouse]

I have vol for each pickup, master vol and master passive tone. No pickup selector switch.
Marko

So you can't go from a pre-selected volume on one, to a pre-selected volume on the other instantly then, right?.

[Marko Ursin]

So you can't go from a pre-selected volume on one, to a pre-selected volume on the other instantly then, right?.

Right. I don't change the tone too much so I thought I'd need a way to find the sound I want and just keep it. I think this setup works fine for me.
Marko

[David Schwab]

So you can't go from a pre-selected volume on one, to a pre-selected volume on the other instantly then, right?.

On bass you generally keep it turned up all the way! I only use my volume knob to mute the sound when I'm not playing, to mix pickups, or to shut one off. On basses with two volumes, they are used for tonal changes. You don't see too many basses with pickup selector switches, except Ricks.

On a guitar you use the volume more for different levels of overdrive and stuff, so presets are handy.