Blending Pots Instead of Switches?

[konfyouzd]

Hey guys...

I'm working on a project right now, the RG7620BSB. Some of you may have seen the thread.

Anyway, I have a D-Sonic 7 and a Liquifire 7 that I'm going to be throwing in that beast and I wanted to know if anyone had any experience using a blending pot instead of a toggle/blade switch. It sounds like a cool idea as it seems like I could have an infinite number of tones in between the bridge and neck pup. I could even use a push/pull to make the blender a kill switch as well.

I was wondering, though, if anyone had used this before and could list some pros and cons. Maybe this just sounds really cool in theory and is just a huge pain in the arse hehe.

Thanks in advance, guys!

[toneboy]

A blend pot is really no different than having independent volume controls for each pickup. You're not going to get "an infinite number of tones" or any where near that. In a way, blending between (2) pickups is more akin to using a tone control - you can mix in bass neck pup and treble from the bridge pickup.

Consider this - if a blend pot was the be all end all, a lot more people would be using it.

[Vim Fuego]

There are a couple of problems with a blend pot...
1) You cannot change the overall volume of the instrument, just the blend between pickups, unless you add another pot.
2) The pot needs to be dual track e.g. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electron...lend_Pots.html

(The wiring is shown in the instructions tab of the stewmac site.)

The Jazz bass just had two volume pots, there at least you can adjust the overall volume, bit like a Les Paul without a selector.

Jim

[konfyouzd]

hmm... you guys raise good points. just an idea i was throwing around because when i was talking to a guy about having a custom pickguard made i told him i wanted the volume/tone holes drilled but no blade selector because i was going to use a 3-way toggle and he brought up the idea of using a blending pot so i thought i might be worth asking about. thanks everyone for your responses!

[toneboy]

Originally Posted by konfyouzd

i think i may not have said what i wanted to say clearly... i want to have a volume pot and a blending pot. the blending pot will be the "pickup selector" and then i'll have a volume pot to do what those do best.

...and that's still no different than having a master volume and a volume control for each pickup.

[Vim Fuego]

OK, that solves the master volume problem then

The stewmac pots are only $5 or so, so I'd be tempted to give it a go...

From my experience with a Les Paul style guitar blending pickups in phase is ok, but you get the best tonal variation if you reverse the phase of one of the pickups, then you are subtracting the tone of one pickup from the other and there are some interesting sounds to be had...

Jim

[konfyouzd]

hmm... i may just use a switch then. and use a push/pull as a phase shift. is that possible?

[Vim Fuego]

Actually, I have a 7620 and the sounds as is are pretty ok... I'd use what you've got and add a phase switch as a push pull on one of the pots, for the bridge pickup (the neck already has series/parallel so has complicated wiring!)
Jim