Replacing Volume Pot With a Kill Switch

DTrane

DTrane

New member
For example, replacing a 500k volume pot with killswitch, does it need a 500k resistor wired in series to sound right?
 
Re: Replacing Volume Pot With a Kill Switch

I did a search and they were about wiring a killswitch with volume/tone pots. My concern is wiring without a resistor would make pickup sound too bassy
 
Re: Replacing Volume Pot With a Kill Switch

Typically losing the volume or tone circuit will add presence to the sound. A humbucker wired straight to the output is like removing a muffler from a car.
 
Re: Replacing Volume Pot With a Kill Switch

would putting a 500k resister in series, put the muffler back on?
 
Re: Replacing Volume Pot With a Kill Switch

Well, the volume pot is a resistor linked to ground in parallel to the signal going to the jack. Your signal doesn't go through the 500k part. At the volume of 10, it is nominally 0 K in the path to the output and 500k to ground. As the path of least resistance is to the jack, you get signal. Some signal will go to ground even on 10 - which tends to be the highest of the highs. Only infinite resistance to ground (open circuit) will lead to no signal traveling through to ground. This is the same as having a no-load pot, or wiring straight to the jack.
As you roll the volume down, you simultaneously reduce the resistance to ground and increase resistance to output. So the only time the pickup has 500K in front of it is at volume 0....but there is a direct path to ground.

500k in series may well just reduce the output of the pickup.
 
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