Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

Jet-Jaguar

Jet-Jaguar

New member
So, I was reading about Keith Richards tele "Micawber" on various forums the other night. On one, there was some speculation that he was using a blend knob to blend the sound of the neck and the bridge, which got me to thinking about blend knobs. Like, how do they work?

Am I correct in guessing that with if you have one, and you only have two pickups, you don't need a pickup switch? Is there any downside to having them? They sound kinda cool, so why don't all two-pickup guitars have them?
 
Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

If you wire your guitars for independent volume control, you can blend PU's. All you do is change which lugs the PU and toggle go on. I use blend pots on HHH guitars, and wire them so the neck & middle share a blend pot. With the toggle in the middle position, I can blend in the bridge too, so I can blend in any amount of the three PU's at the same time.
 
Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

In early Tele blackguard circuits, there's a version with a volume pot, a blend control pot, and presets for tone in the 3 switch positions...it works pretty well once you get used to it.
 
Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

blueman335 said:
If you wire your guitars for independent volume control, you can blend PU's. All you do is change which lugs the PU and toggle go on. I use blend pots on HHH guitars, and wire them so the neck & middle share a blend pot. With the toggle in the middle position, I can blend in the bridge too, so I can blend in any amount of the three PU's at the same time.
Click to expand...

That works but there are better ways IMHO...
 
Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

So let me get this straight, a blend pot can or cannot be used instead of a pickup selector if you had 2 pickups?

Also, instead of a blend pot, what if you wired two pots "backwards" so that when you turn one down it doesnt make the other pu cease to function. Think fender jazz bass. What are the downsides to this as a means of not using a pickup selector?

If I could eleminate the toggle switch's necessity on a lp, I would want to use it to add some kind of onboard effect or distortion. Like I could flip up the switch and turn on some gain, or flip it down to add something else, and wire the middle to be uneffected.
 
Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

As ES350 pointed out early Fenders had blend controls...the oldest 2 pickup Esquires, Broadcasters, Nocasters and the earliest Telecasters has a blend set up.

Since Keef plays mainly old blackguards with a few tweaks they might very well be wired in the original style...

I have a custom Cleveland Guitars Broadcaster that I had set up with period correct blend wiring...here is how it works. You have a typical looking set up of a 3 position switch and 2 knobs...

Position 1 (would be the bridge pickup in a newer set up) is the bridge pickup, the first knob is a volume and the 2nd knob blends in the neck pickup as it is turned down...so with both knobs at full it's the bridge pickup with a single volume, with the knob all the way down it's both pickups but there is no tone control...

Position 2 (the middle position) is the neck pickup with a master volume and the 2nd knob does nothing in this setting...

Position 3 (the typical neck position) is the neck pickup run throughh a .05 cap and a small resistor...the resistor knocks the volume down a bit and the cap is like having the tone control (if it had one) on zero (or all the way down)...in this position you get a volume only, again the 2nd knob does nothing.

Pro's to this set up is a lot more different tones than can be had in a typical 3 way pickup selector set up the downside is no tone control and the 3rd position is rather dark and muffled sounding however if you wanted to you could easily tweak the cap and resistor to different values for a "better" tone for what you want, even set that selection up to be a cap on the bridge pickup if you wanted...

I like it to be honest, it's different and fun to use...one thing is for sure, those tones with the bridge pickup up full and the neck blended part way in can not be gotten on anything else!
 
Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

the guy who invented fire said:
You DO NOT need a special anything to do the blend control...sorry...
Click to expand...

Oh I'm sorry, but in my understanding I thought you needed a special blend pot (like this) to have a single pot that blends the two signals together. But if you want two individual volumes, no special pot is needed... Am I right?
 
Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

arnarg said:
Oh I'm sorry, but in my understanding I thought you needed a special blend pot (like this) to have a single pot that blends the two signals together. But if you want two individual volumes, no special pot is needed... Am I right?
Click to expand...

You can use a Fralin style blend pot depending on what you need to do but there are other ways...

This is the Broadcaster set up, this uses 2 plain 250k pots and the 2nd one is a blend for the neck pickup...
 
Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

the guy who invented fire said:
You can use a Fralin style blend pot depending on what you need to do but there are other ways...

This is the Broadcaster set up, this uses 2 plain 250k pots and the 2nd one is a blend for the neck pickup...
Click to expand...

Dedicated blend pots have their advantages. Most have a centre detent so you know when its in the 'middle' position.

However, to the OP a regular pot will work fine (as long as it's linear taper). It can be used instead of a toggle switch, or as well as one, depending on preference.
 
Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

The old blend circuit is kinda popular with some of the West Coast blooz guys like Rick Holstrum, Kirk Fletcher, Kid Ramos; lots of cool tones in there you really can't get with the later circuit...I have another control plate wired for blend and swap it out every onct in a while when I get bored with the stock Tele wiring (like TGWIF said, play with the cap values to make it more usable, like 750-1500 pF).
 
Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

blueman335 said:
If you wire your guitars for independent volume control, you can blend PU's. All you do is change which lugs the PU and toggle go on. I use blend pots on HHH guitars, and wire them so the neck & middle share a blend pot. With the toggle in the middle position, I can blend in the bridge too, so I can blend in any amount of the three PU's at the same time.
Click to expand...

don't know if you do this, but how about each pickup has an on/off switch, and a volume knob. I guess it could be a cocentric volume/tone too.
 
Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

I set mine up so it comes in when I'm in the "both" position on the pup switch [Epi Les Paul] I also use a low value pot : 10K. Not so much a blend as a balance control.:cool2:

If you went to an electronic suppliers you'd be asking for a ganged pot [ Dual ganged ] . They're available in Linear or Log , different shaft sizes, mounts and body size.There's even dual shafts available.
4137_1lg.jpg



I was fooling around with a "Tapped pot" recently with a humbucker [dual coil] connecting the tap to the split point on the pup. It's noisy when it's turned to the tap point. Interesting sounds though. I figure it might work better on a tapped coil pup.

images


Any one tried it?
 
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Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

GoldenVulture said:
I set mine up so it comes in when I'm in the "both" position on the pup switch [Epi Les Paul] I also use a low value pot : 10K. Not so much a blend as a balance control.:cool2:
Click to expand...

How do you wire it so it only works in the middle position?
 
Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

arnarg said:
How do you wire it so it only works in the middle position?
Click to expand...

The pickups run directly to each pot of a dual ganged pot to the centre point.
The opposite ends of each pot are connected to the pickup switch. [where the pups would usually be connected]no grounding. One unused terminal each end.
The pup switch common goes to the volume pot.
The pot itself is only 10K and when in either of the single positions has no noticable effect. It only becomes obvious in the dual position.
It adds 10K to your 250K/500K pot which gives you a difference each way without affecting your output.
!0K is a fairly mild end to end difference.[Enough for me] 20K/25K will give you more variation.
If one pickup has a stronger output it will dominate slightly.
If it goes tinny and thin towards centre , your pups are out of phase.
It's based on mixer pan pots.
 
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Re: Blend Knobs? (inspired by Keith Richards)

A blend pot is supposed to mix in different amounts of each pickup as you turn it, right? I recently installed one in my J-style bass, but it is functioning like a 3-way switch. In the middle position I get both pickups, and then as soon as I turn it slightly one way or the other, it gives me 100% of one of the pickups - no blending whatsoever. Maybe I wired it wrong although I followed a schematic on SD website. Or maybe I misunderstand what a blend pot is supposed to do? Any ideas?

I hope I am not hijacking this thread. It seemed to have turned into general conversation on blend pots, so I thought I would present my question.
 
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