A technical question....
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Take a look at this scheme http://static.zoovy.com/img/guitarelectronics/-/wdu_hh3t22_02
I want small toggle switch in the front of the guitar, between original pickup volume and tone adjustment knobs. A switch that allows me to bypass the potentiometers and capacitors and send the sound directly to the amplifier. How do I do that?
I want small toggle switch in the front of the guitar, between original pickup volume and tone adjustment knobs. A switch that allows me to bypass the potentiometers and capacitors and send the sound directly to the amplifier. How do I do that?
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Wish I could help.
a full turn of the volume pot would equal 0 resistance from lugs 3 to 2 and ~500k from lugs 2 to 1, so the current would theoretically have no interruption between the pickup and output.
A full turn of the tone pot would ground all the signal going through the capacitor which would again leave no interruption.
Is there any particular reason you're doing this?
I know you're not the first person to want this, I've heard others talk about it -- but I really don't see the point of it.
using a spdt switch, take the wire leaving the pickup going to the pots, and connect that wire to the center lug of the spdt switch. On one of the side lugs (doesn't matter which one) put a wire going to the pots like pickup normally would. On the other side lug, go directly to the selector switch lug for that pickup.
Repeat for other pickup. Use a dpdt switch for switching both pickups at once.
This is not tested so don't come crying to me if it doesn't work. Mod at your own risk, and don't drill for the switches (if you're drilling new holes) unless you've tested the mod first.
It's actually a good project to bypass everything just to see what your pickups can do. I've done it with most of my guitars to hear what happens. I may not necessarily put a switch in but I bypass all the controls temporarily and direct wire to hear the pups in their natural environment. Then I can work backwards with capacitors and pots if I want to change anything:)
Some guitars and pups will sound a lot different and some it won't make much difference. It depends on your pickups, volume and tone controls and capacitors. Even with everything on 10 sometimes there will be a load on the signal and it takes off some treble.
You would need two switches for a two humbucker guitar, one for each pickup. If you just do one pickup, the bridge would be the one to try first.
http://www.allparts.com/store/electronics-switches-ep-0180-010,Product.asp
You would wire the switch so that in one position, it sends the signal from the pickup hot wire to the volume pot. The other position sends it directly to the output jack wire.
Also, if you have 4 wire humbuckers you have to make sure your switch is installed after the two coil wires are connected.
Before you put a switch in, try desoldering the pickup wire (if you're handy at this stuff) from the volume pot and running it, or and extension wire to the output jack and see if it makes a difference. Usually it will be much brighter and sometimes drive the amp harder.
Don't use Neil's guitar as an example, though. He's got a ragged loose Firebird pickup that just roars and feedsback and only he knows how to control that beast! :cool:
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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Well, I have no plans to use other pickups.
Neil Young doesn't uses gain or effectpedals for distortion. He has his so called Whizzler (or Whizzer...) he controls with his pedalboard.
Most of the time it's a phase switch . . . or a coil-tap switch . . . or both if you see two switches.
- Ian
<b><font color="red">CONTACT ME HERE</font>: www.myspace.com/ianvomsaal</b>
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that's true
Some people use toggles for kill switches as well.
Sustainer pickups utilize two toggle switches.
One of my guitars has a phase toggle which was previously a kill switch before I put in new pickups.
But, I have seen a number of people do the pot bypass thing -- I seem to hear about it more than phase or coil split switches (people usually seem to use push/pull pots for phase inversion or coil splitting).
In theory, a full turn of each pot should leave no signal degradation but I guess this wouldn't be the first time music proved science to be wrong. And then there's always cheap pots with poor tolerance which would mean even if it's a full turn of the tone pot there could still be some signal that passed through the cap, which would filter off some higher frequencies.
I say try it, and if you hear a positive difference, keep the switch.
It depends on the pickups and the quality of the pots and the quality of the solder joints. Theoretically there should be no degradation of the signal when all the controls are wide open, but there are little obstacles all along the way to the speaker that create a bit of resistance.
You can bypass the controls and go straight to the jack output to see what it sounds like without adding a switch, but also remember that if you have a long crappy cable going to the amp, you're losing signal there, too. A low quality cable will filter out the highs, too, so get a good one.
The optimum would be my pickups soldered directly to the amp input but that gets heavy when you're using a Twin Reverb!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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