Removing tone pots

[southadc]

Hi all,

I've picked up a couple of EMG 707s, which come with the usual tone and volume pot each.

I'm intending to install these into my guitar such that I have a volume pot per pickup, with no tone controls.

I'm sure I've read here that tone pots on 10 still bleed off some highs, so to remove a tone pot from the circuit (and keep the sound of a tone pot on 10) you need to replace the pot with a resistor of equal value.

Is it worth it for the 707s? The pots are only 25k. Should I leave the capacitors in the circuit and replace the tone pots with 25k resistors?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Removing tone pots

Hi all,

I've picked up a couple of EMG 707s, which come with the usual tone and volume pot each.

I'm intending to install these into my guitar such that I have a volume pot per pickup, with no tone controls.

I'm sure I've read here that tone pots on 10 still bleed off some highs, so to remove a tone pot from the circuit (and keep the sound of a tone pot on 10) you need to replace the pot with a resistor of equal value.

Is it worth it for the 707s? The pots are only 25k. Should I leave the capacitors in the circuit and replace the tone pots with 25k resistors?

No. If you're going to remove the tone pot from the circuit, just remove it. Don't replace it with a resistor. Lew

 

[Artie]

Re: Removing tone pots

I wouldn't normally disagree with Lew, but since they are 25K pots, that tells me that this is probably an active tone control. (As opposed to passive.) Simply removing a component from an active circuit could cause some strange circuit behavior, such as oscillation or bizarre "seeking" gain anomalies.

If any of these things happen, you may want to put a 25k resistor back in.

Edit: Does this guitar use an internal 9-volt battery?

 

[southadc]

Re: Removing tone pots

I wouldn't normally disagree with Lew, but since they are 25K pots, that tells me that this is probably an active tone control. (As opposed to passive.) Simply removing a component from an active circuit could cause some strange circuit behavior, such as oscillation or bizarre "seeking" gain anomalies.

If any of these things happen, you may want to put a 25k resistor back in.

Edit: Does this guitar use an internal 9-volt battery?

The guitar at the moment is passive, but the two humbuckers I've bought for it are active EMGs, which will run from a 9v battery.

As far as I know, the volume and tone pots are 25k because 250k pots etc will switch off an emg if you turn them down.

http://www.emginc.com/displayproducts.asp?section=Guitar&categoryid=6&catalogid=89

 

[Artie]

Re: Removing tone pots

Ok, looking at the EMG-707 pdf file, it appears as though the tone control itself is passive. So there shouldn't be any electronic problems per se.

However, a 25K pot with a cap will bleed off a lot of high end. If the sound is ice-picky, piercing, you can always put the resistor back in later.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Removing tone pots

Ok, looking at the EMG-707 pdf file, it appears as though the tone control itself is passive. So there shouldn't be any electronic problems per se.

However, a 25K pot with a cap will bleed off a lot of high end. If the sound is ice-picky, piercing, you can always put the resistor back in later.

Yep! And please feel free to disagree with me any time I'm wrong about something. It happens! :smack: :duh: Lew

 

[southadc]

Re: Removing tone pots

Ok, looking at the EMG-707 pdf file, it appears as though the tone control itself is passive. So there shouldn't be any electronic problems per se.

However, a 25K pot with a cap will bleed off a lot of high end. If the sound is ice-picky, piercing, you can always put the resistor back in later.

Yeah...I guess it would thinking about it. I could just be really cheesy and tape up the tone pots on full and hide them inside the cavity :biglaugh:

 

[Artie]

Re: Removing tone pots

Yep! And please feel free to disagree with me any time I'm wrong about something. It happens! :smack: :duh: Lew

Lew: Don't worry . . . I will. :laugh2:

southadc: I just picked up on something else you said. A 25k pot and a 250k pot are the same value when turned "down" . . . 0 ohms. If the higher value, 250k as opposed to 25k, causes the pickup to shutdown, then infinity, (much higher than 25k), might do it also.

Just something to think about if the system doesn't work.