No Tone Control Question?

O

Odie251

New member
I was bored messing around with wiring and hooked my Pearly Gates up with 1 volume, no tone. At least in this guitar(ash strat and maple fretboard) I thought it sounded better than going through the tone controls.

Was it just my ears, or is there a noticeable difference when eliminating the tone control completely? Anyone do this also?
 
Re: No Tone Control Question?

I think there is a difference as well - and also one of the reasons why they developed "no load" tone controls - so when you turn them all the way up, they're essentially out of the circuit.

Lots of folks clip out the tone on Les Pauls as well.

Personally, I never use the tone knobs on my guitars that do have them.
 
Re: No Tone Control Question?

I've been removing the tone pots and filling in the hole on the guitars I've been refinishing. I've been tempted just to wire the humbucker straight to the jack, I always leave the volume on "10" as well. :D
 
Re: No Tone Control Question?

Odie251 said:
I was bored messing around with wiring and hooked my Pearly Gates up with 1 volume, no tone. At least in this guitar(ash strat and maple fretboard) I thought it sounded better than going through the tone controls.

Was it just my ears, or is there a noticeable difference when eliminating the tone control completely? Anyone do this also?
Click to expand...

A tone pot at full open is still a low pass filter.

A 500 Kohm pot full open with a 22 nF capacitor is hard to hear. A 250 with 47 is easier to hear.

A humbucker like the Pearly Gator is likely not to improve from a heavy 250/47 tone control.
 
Re: No Tone Control Question?

It is interesting. I think I will leave it wired full open for a while and see how it does.
 
Re: No Tone Control Question?

I have never thought it would make any difference. I will also try and see. Thanks for the heads up.
 
Re: No Tone Control Question?

I much prefer the no-tone circuits. My Strat and my homebrew axe both have no tones. In the case of my homebrew, it doesn't even have a volume knob, just a kill switch, so I get pure pickup tone.
 
Re: No Tone Control Question?

It definitely makes a difference. Since the tone pot is wired parallel with your volume pot, you cut resistance down for every pot you add.

For example:

250K vol and 250K tone = 125K load
500K vol and 500K tone = 250K load
250K vol and 500K tone = 166K load
250K vol and 1M tone = 200K load
500K vol and 1M tone = 333K load

Then, even with the tone control on 10, the tone cap is still in the circuit.
 
Re: No Tone Control Question?

DMyers, that's not entirely correct as the cap is a reactive component thus it's impedance depends on the frequency of the signal. With lower frequencies the cap basically takes out the tone pot from the circuit.
 
Re: No Tone Control Question?

You can always use a 1 Mohm tone pot. Turned down to where it reads 250 or 500 Kohm will be precisely the same as having a 250 or 500 full open, respectively. (same trick doesn't work for the volume pot)

A 1 Mohm full open should be inaudible. There's also the "no-load" pots that have a switch at the end of the slider.
 
Re: No Tone Control Question?

Brown Note said:
DMyers, that's not entirely correct as the cap is a reactive component thus it's impedance depends on the frequency of the signal. With lower frequencies the cap basically takes out the tone pot from the circuit.
Click to expand...

I agree that low frequencies will flow through the tone pot. But as the frequency increases, more current is diverted through the capacitor to ground.

When a tone control is disconnected, or a no-load tone pot is on 10, there is a noticeable increase in the high end. This is probably due to the increased resistance, but may also be attributed to there being no capacitor in the circuit.
 
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