Please Explain What This Means

Yngwiestein

Yngwiestein

New member
"The Fender No Load Pot is used on some USA Strats, Teles and Fender basses and is wired like a standard tone control. From settings 1-9 it works like a standard tone then clicks in at 10 (full clockwise/ bright setting) and removes the pot and capacitor from the circuit. This eliminates the path to ground that exists with standard pots even in the full treble position. By eliminating the path to ground thru the pot, the only load on the pickup is the volume pot. So if 250K pots are used, the load is reduced from 125K to 250K and if 500K pots are used, the load is reduced from 250K to 500K (high resistance = low load) The reduced load allows more power output from he pickup and reduces the amount of high frequencies that bleed off to ground. This gives a noticeable increase in brightness and output in the full treble setting. The no load pot can be used in place of any standard tone control on any guitar or bass."
 
Re: Please Explain What This Means

If you replace your tone of volume pot with a No Load, when it's at full, you get a bit more treble and a touch more output as compared with the stock pot.
 
Re: Please Explain What This Means

Yngwiestein said:
"The Fender No Load Pot is used on some USA Strats, Teles and Fender basses and is wired like a standard tone control. From settings 1-9 it works like a standard tone then clicks in at 10 (full clockwise/ bright setting) and removes the pot and capacitor from the circuit. This eliminates the path to ground that exists with standard pots even in the full treble position.
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Got all that and I agree 100%

Yngwiestein said:
By eliminating the path to ground thru the pot, the only load on the pickup is the volume pot. So if 250K pots are used, the load is reduced from 125K to 250K and if 500K pots are used, the load is reduced from 250K to 500K (high resistance = low load) The reduced load allows more power output from he pickup and reduces the amount of high frequencies that bleed off to ground.
Click to expand...

I dunno about all that. On "10" the no load pot disconnects itself from the circuit. Even when a normal tone pot is on "10" some highs leak through it to ground and the tone is less bright than if there were no tone control at all. With a no load tone pot you get a tone pot and when it's on "10" it's like there's no tone pot at all. Eddie Van Halen didn't use a tone control on his early one humbucker Strats for the same reason - he used just a volume pot.

Yngwiestein said:
This gives a noticeable increase in brightness and output in the full treble setting. The no load pot can be used in place of any standard tone control on any guitar or bass."
Click to expand...

I don't hear an increase in output - only an increase in clarity and a slightly brighter tone.
 
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Re: Please Explain What This Means

It means exactly what it says. No-load pot = removing the tone control completely as if it wasn't there in the first place.
 
Re: Please Explain What This Means

So is it just a different kind of pot that you can simply replace the current pot with in a strat?
 
Re: Please Explain What This Means

A no load pot is also the right pot to use as a blender pot in a Strat to combine the neck and bridge pickups.
 
Re: Please Explain What This Means

It might be worth mentioning that pickup companies design their pickups to sound as they intended with a tone pot in the circuit. Nonetheless, great tone is in the ear of the listener. If you like the sound without a tone pot in the circuit, then it's good!
 
Re: Please Explain What This Means

grumpy said:
Don't you have or had Yngwie strats?

They have two no loads installed.

The part about the ohms changing is bull crap. Listen to the others and especially LEW.

The point of the no load is to brighten the pickup because a normal tone pot is usually coloring the tone a bit (.02, .047 usually). It gives it that instant Eddie no tone pot tone on 10 with the ability to have a normal strat on 9-0.
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I'm new to strats because Les Pauls are really my thing. On Les Pauls I usually set the tone knob of my bridge pickup to 8 and leave it. I never paid attention to the tone pots of my YJMs until I realized there was a little notch in the bottom tone control when it went past nine which reminded me of a delta tone circuit. I looked it up and found out about the no load pot.

Now that I know about it I realize the harshness of the HS3 has something to do with it. On 8-9 it loses the harshness. On 10 it gets a little harsh. It's not a bad kind of harshness. It's kind of a raspiness that Dimarzio pickups have. I think it sounds amazing on a cranked amp when you can hear it grinding.
 
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