Pickup straight to Output, no pots.

[crazykarl]

Has anyone else here tried this?

I have a single PU Kramer from the 80's. I threw a Duncan JB in it and just wired it straight to the output for shits and giggles. (I obviously grounded it too).

I've only played it through a practice amplifier so far, but it sounds MEAN! I'm getting sorely tempted to try this on a guitar with two humbuckers, using only a 3-way toggle. If you've done this, what are your thoughts on it?

 

[lolzgreg]

I have.

Being attached to pots, as I recall, eliminates some of the sheen of the high end and solidity of the low end. Straight to the jack is less practical, but sounds great!

 

[006]

Def man, I wish I had a guitar with just one volume pot in it. Right now my Explorer with H-X-H has 3 pots, only the two volumes are wired in and the tone is left out. I noticed that the tone opened up a slight bit just by removing that one pot. Next I will be removing the other volume from the signal and using a single volume, as a master, so that's all that will be between the pickups and output. Besides that I seriously never touch the tone knob anyway.

Just like with amps, the less things in the path, the more fidelity you get.

 

[Metal Overload]

Sounds good, i will try it too, after all, who need the tone volume?? seriously, never met someone who uses it.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Sounds good, i will try it too, after all, who need the tone volume?? seriously, never met someone who uses it.

A fuckload of players adjust their guitar sound on the fly by using the volume pot. Not that useful in metal, though. I use the volume pot pretty much every moment I'm not playing, like in between songs for instance.

 

[Metal Overload]

Yeah i mean the tone knob, i use the volume knob a lot!

Edit: I just realized that i write "the tone volume" instead "the tone knob" hehe.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Yeah i mean the tone knob, i use the volume knob a lot!

Edit: I just realized that i write "the tone volume" instead "the tone knob" hehe.

Ah, makes sense! I really don't have any use for the tone knob, either.

 

[Metal Overload]

Do you have your volume knob modded?? i hava a friend who modded it on his guitar so when he turn it down, it doesn´t suck the gain, or the lows or highs.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Do you have your volume knob modded?? i hava a friend who modded it on his guitar so when he turn it down, it doesn´t suck the gain, or the lows or highs.

Nope, I actually kinda dig the way a volume pot normally works with EMG's. I pretty much only use it one the neck pickup (89), though.

 

[slashvanyoung]

I thought I'd never be using a tone pot in my life... then I got my Gibson Melody Maker...

 

[16S]

can anyone point me to a wiring diagram for 2xHB + 3 way toggle and one master vol w. NO tone?? Like the scheme that 006 describes... I would like to mod one of my gtrs this way. thanks

 

[Lasse Lammert]

won't make any difference with EMGs, but does indeed make a difference with passives.
I sometimes solder in a mini-toggle to bypass the pot

 

[rlcramer]

For me, the volume is either on or off, and I NEVER touch the tone knob. Now that this thread got me thinking, the ideal scenario for me would be to wire a pickup straight to the output, with some sort of buckethead-style kill switch in the middle. That way, you have the mute when you're playing live, but don't have to waste time or tone with a "real" volume knob....

Sounds like something worth trying.

Bobby

 

[MetalJonesy]

on my ltd100 which i got years and years ago, i put emg 81 and 85s in, used a 3 way switch and just have a volume control, im my modded pacifica the tone control is just a switch to either have it fully on or off

 

[Harry Hughes]

can anyone point me to a wiring diagram for 2xHB + 3 way toggle and one master vol w. NO tone?? Like the scheme that 006 describes... I would like to mod one of my gtrs this way. thanks

You just wire it up as per normal, but completely leave the tone pot out of the circuit by not wiring that up.

 

[Harry Hughes]

My 7 string is wired up in a somewhat interesting fashion.

When me and this guy went to replace the passives with actives (Blackouts), it turns out my jack socket wasn't a stereo jack like I was told it should have been , which meant (or so we thought) I'd have to have the guitar permanently on unless I wanted to physically remove the battery.
So I decided, fuck the tone pot, and where the tone pot is, I have a switch that is connected to the 9 volt battery, so unlike a conventionally wired active pickup system that goes to a stereo jack, I can literally turn off the battery via the switch, which actually saves me even more battery life because when I'm not playing, I can just turn it off instantly (and that's handy since I often take breaks even 20 minutes or so) and not have to worry about having to unplug and re plug in the guitar cable.

Having no tone pot helped make to tame the slightly flubby low end (flubby compared to EMG 81-7s anyway, BOs are still pretty tight) too.

 

[ze kink]

Do you have your volume knob modded?? i hava a friend who modded it on his guitar so when he turn it down, it doesn´t suck the gain, or the lows or highs.

I nearly always do the treble bleed mod to my volume pots. It only retains the high end though when you turn the tone down, and maybe even makes the guitar a bit brighter overall.

I use my volume all the time to adjust between clean and distortion, since the Windsor is single channel amp. I also use the tone pot a lot too, it becomes far more usable with the treble bleed mod, since your tone doesn't get muddy when you turn down the volume as happens without the treble bleed mod.

I also have a killswitch in my custom 7, but I find I don't really use it a lot, I always turn down the volume instead. I dunno why.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Joe Satriani has the treble bleed mod done to his guitars.
Makes a lot of sense, since he uses it a lot to control the dynamics of playing.

 

[John_C]

You can spend a lot of money on an expensive volume pedal, can you spend a lot of money on an expensive guitar volume pot?

 

[ze kink]

Joe Satriani has the treble bleed mod done to his guitars.
Makes a lot of sense, since he uses it a lot to control the dynamics of playing.

Well actually, all of the Ibanez guitars I've had have had it stock. A simpler one than what I use, but still.