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Okey dokey... so this isn't a PBG, but Andy has supplied me a set of Toneriders for my Strat and rather than just do a standard fit out, I've read about installing a blend pot in the 2nd Tone spot to get the bridge + neck pickup combo happening and thought "That sounds like a good idea!"
Has anyone done this? And what exactly is the blend pot? I know nothing about them....
Cheers, chaps and chapesses..
John
I’ve done it on a strat. You can get the Tele middle position sound pretty easily. I ended up taking it out because I kept getting side tracked fiddling with it and not actually playing 😂
A blend pot is also called a balance pot sometimes. Two potentiometers stacked with a shared centre post. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong).
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That's what I thought, too, but I've seen a Fralin pot that is a single gang so I'm all at sea at the moment! And do I need to use "no load" pot for the blend and master tone?!Quote:
Originally Posted by brisboy
Anyone?!
A Balance/Blend circuit uses a stacked centre-detent pot, essentially two opposite pots in one unit. Both halves (A and B) are on full in the middle, turn it one way and A stays full while B reduces, turn the other way and B is full while A reduces. This allows you to balance the sound/volume from two pickups.
What Corsair is asking about is a blender circuit, where a standard volume pot connects a pickup into the circuit allowing you to 'blend in' as much or as little as you like from that pickup. Doing it on a Strat allows bridge plus neck Tele combos, or blends it with the middle, or all thee pups. Here's a layout that uses a push/pull to swap the neck tone to a neck blender:
Attachment 29735
When the push/pull is down it acts as a normal tone for the neck, but pull it up and it swaps to being a blender for the neck. Then you can have bridge + neck, bridge + middle + neck, middle with a touch of neck etc.
There are different layouts you can use, depending on what you want. One option is a master volume, master tone and a permanent blender pot, or something similar, which sounds like what Corsair is wanting. A 'No Load' pot allows a permanent blender to be taken out of the circuit without needing a switch, turning it all the way essentially disconnects it.
Thanks, Scott; yeah, that last is what I was thinking. So, a no load, A taper pot for a blend control and a standard B taper for the master tone with its attendant cap, which is something else I'm gonna have a play with, although my reading would indicate that a no load pot there could be benficial as well, by removing it from the circuit and allowing just the capacitor to work on sound shaping!! Thought I might put in a treble bleed as well...
You can modify a standard pot into a no load pot fairly easily...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IQ8gS1PEO8&t=7s
Except I'd scrape the track at the other end, so 10 on the dial would be no load and maximum brightness, then at 9 the pot would kick in with maximum resistance (so normal max brightness) and 0 is then your normal max dullness.
Of course, proper no-load pots have the full pot resistance at the 9 position, whereas when making your own like in the video, you are loosing some of that resistance. So the 9 position on a home-made pot will sound a bit duller than 9 on a bought no-load pot.
Thanks Simon, that's good to know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
So I was thinking maybe you should scrape a pot with a little higher value, like a 300K instead of a 250K. So I looked on eBay and realized that no load pots are no more expensive than any other decent pot....Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
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