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pickup blending knob - is it possible?


FrankS1281734010

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Posted

I was looking at amplifiers online last week and saw one with a very novel concept - a knob that you could turn to utilize two different types of tubes, or blend them together depending on how far left/right it was turned. That got me thinking, do you think it's possible to replace the pup selector switch with a knob that did the same thing?

 

I know next to nothing about how pots are wired, maybe some of you can shed some light...

 

EDIT: another thing that came to mind was phasing issues, would that be a huge deal?

Posted

If you put the selector switch in the middle position then you can use the volume controls to blend the pickups in any proportion you want. The caveat is, at least on two pickup Epi models, that the pickups are now wired in series. If you put infinite resistance (no volume) on one pot then no current passes through so you get no volume at all.

Posted

Rickenbacker has that...the small tone/blend knob, that's most effective in the stereo application, but it works

quite well, in mono too-with the selector switch in the mid or neck pick-up position. No effect with the bridge

pickup alone.

 

Another possibility, is the 5 or 6 way rotary switch (like on "Lucille" variton), but used as the pickup

selector switch. Similar (kinda) to the Gibson SG-3's.

 

CB

Posted

You could also conceivably replace the toggle switch on a Paul or an SG with a blend pot, although that would have a bit of an adverse effect on tone, since you're adding the resistance of another pot to the signal chain. If you did that, you would probably want to use 1M pots for your volume knobs at least, if not tone as well, to counteract the effect. Stewmac sells a blend pot with a stop point in the center position that would work great for that purpose... I was considering doing it on one of my Pauls as an experiment, but nobody has the blend pot locally and I am not quite ready to do my stewmac order yet, I think they have a minimum order.

Posted
You could also conceivably replace the toggle switch on a Paul or an SG with a blend pot' date=' although that would have a bit of an adverse effect on tone, since you're adding the resistance of another pot to the signal chain. If you did that, you would probably want to use 1M pots for your volume knobs at least, if not tone as well, to counteract the effect. Stewmac sells a blend pot with a stop point in the center position that would work great for that purpose... I was considering doing it on one of my Pauls as an experiment, but nobody has the blend pot locally and I am not quite ready to do my stewmac order yet, I think they have a minimum order.[/quote']The problem with using 1m pots is unless the pups are high output they have a bad taper characteristic.
Posted
I was looking at amplifiers online last week and saw one with a very novel concept - a knob that you could turn to utilize two different types of tubes' date=' or blend them together depending on how far left/right it was turned. That got me thinking, do you think it's possible to replace the pup selector switch with a knob that did the same thing?

 

I know next to nothing about how pots are wired, maybe some of you can shed some light...

 

EDIT: another thing that came to mind was phasing issues, would that be a huge deal?[/quote']

 

My Godin Radiator tries to the same thing by 'cheating' - wiring each pick-up to it's own volume control.

 

It's annoying. One day, I'm going to wire in a toggle switch.

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