Phat Cat, volume and tone controls

H

Huntermb

New member
I'm sticking a pair of phat cats into an older guitar I have here. It is currently set up for one volume one tone. Should I hook the phat cats up the same way or just go with two volumes and no tone? I'm probably goingto use 250K pots but I'm open to suggestions on that and capacitors as well.
thanks for the help
 
Re: Phat Cat, volume and tone controls

What kind of guitar are you putting these in? I've got a bunch of Phat Cats in various guitars, and have switched the magnets in all of them. Personally, I don't like the A2's they put in them, for my LP, SG's, and 335's. But the stock A2's seem to work better in Strats and other bright guitars.

In some guitars, Phat Cat necks can pretty dark with the twin A2's, too dark for some on the forum, so a number of us put in an A5 or two. I've used these pairs in the neck: A5/A2, A5/A3, and A5/A4. A5/A5 would give you a Gibson P-90 type tone. These give them more open, single coil tones with some bite. In any magnet pairing, they require 500K's on the neck.

By comparison, the bridge Phat Cats sound on the thin & weak side to some of us. Again, magnets come to the rescue. I like an A8/A4 pair with 250K's, although an A8/A5 or even two A5's would also be good. Being single coils, they don't have the focused midrange of an HB, and I like a bridge PU with some body & fullness.

For me, I'd make one pot a 500K volume for the neck, and the other, a 250K volume for the bridge. On a two pot guitar, I've also hooked up a 250K tone pot to the bridge volume, wrapped it in bubble wrap, and put it inside the control cavity, to get the extra warmth from it. The neck doesn't need a tone pot.
 
Re: Phat Cat, volume and tone controls

Hey Blueman thanks for the thoughts on this. The guitar they are going into is one a friend of mine made, it's got a poplar body, with a set maple neck/maple fretboard. The body is very similar in style and size to a les paul dc special. It's a very plain guitar and I'm looking for something I can use for a little old school punk maybe.

I like the idea of having the tone control in the bubble wrap. I do have room to drill and add more pots if I wanted to as well.
 
Re: Phat Cat, volume and tone controls

Why not use 500K on the neck, 250K on the bridge, and try the Phat Cats with the stock magnets and see what you think. If they need tweaking, magnets should get you there.
 
Re: Phat Cat, volume and tone controls

I think that is a great place to start. I'll give it a go this weekend and report back.
Thanks again
 
Re: Phat Cat, volume and tone controls

I wouldn't use 250k pots with Phat Cats. I tried them and they sounded too dark with 250k. Love them with 500k, though.
 
Re: Phat Cat, volume and tone controls

To keep the output but smoothing out the treble I put a 820pF cap across the Phat Cat bridge lead to ground. It works very well.
 
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