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Volume pot bypass

Discussion in 'Luthier's Guitar & Bass Technical Discussion' started by onehandfretting, Oct 5, 2005.

  1. Oct 5, 2005 #1
    onehandfretting

    onehandfretting Member

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    Atlanta
    I'll finally be getting my custom J Nunis guitar in another week or so and one of the little tricks I asked to be added was a push/pull volume pot that would be wired to bypass the volume pot when the switch is pulled out. My goal with this set up is to allow me to a) roll off the volume to clean up my amp and then be able to switch between the clean(er) sound and the full volume, dirty sound (kinda like channel switching) and b) to be able to dial the volume all the way down, while the switch is pulled out and use it like a stutter switch. That's the goal any way :)

    My question, though, is this: When the switch is pulled out and the guitar is basically hard-wired without a volume pot, wil there be a noticable jump in the treble and volume, compared to when the volume pot is in the circuit? Will I need some sort of capacitor on the switch when it's pulled out in order to maintain a balanced volume and tone between the full volume/switch in "mode" and the switch out/pot bypassed "mode?"

    This is a 500k pot, so if it does need a cap or something, can you recommend some values to achieve this balance?

    TIA,

    Bobby
     
    onehandfretting, Oct 5, 2005
    onehandfretting, Oct 5, 2005
    #1
  2. Oct 5, 2005 #2
    EADGBE

    EADGBE Member

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    I'm not sure. But here's a little story of an experiment I did once about 15 years ago while changing pickups. I was changing pickups in a Kramer that had only one lead pickup. And before I changed the pickups (from stock to a DiMarzio dual sound) I hooked the original stock pickup directly to the output jack. Before that it had had a 500K volume pot only. So what I did was I bypassed that. The tone was slightly louder and slightly brighter. But it still sounded basically the same. It didn't go from smooth and round to overly shrill. It was very subtle. And had I not be used to the original tone I would not have noticed.
     
    EADGBE, Oct 5, 2005
    EADGBE, Oct 5, 2005
    #2
  3. Oct 5, 2005 #3
    onehandfretting

    onehandfretting Member

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    Thanks for the info.

    I've been doing some reading and think that if I put a 500k resistor on the side of the switch where the pot is bypassed, it should be "balanced." Seems obvious enough :D

    Does that sound right?
     
    onehandfretting, Oct 5, 2005
    onehandfretting, Oct 5, 2005
    #3
  4. Oct 6, 2005 #4
    John Phillips

    John Phillips Member

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    Leave the pot connected and just use the switch to toggle the output between the center tag (normal volume) and the top tag (bypass). That way there will be absolutely no difference between volume-up-full and bypass, because it will be precisely the same circuit.
     
    John Phillips, Oct 6, 2005
    John Phillips, Oct 6, 2005
    #4
  5. Oct 6, 2005 #5
    onehandfretting

    onehandfretting Member

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    Awesome!!

    Thanks John!
     
    onehandfretting, Oct 6, 2005
    onehandfretting, Oct 6, 2005
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