The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

[Artie]

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/7-killer-mods-push-pull-pot/

I absolutely love the good folks at Sweetwater. They are easily my #1 favorite online retailer. Can't tell you how much money I've spent there over the last few years. But this has got to be the most misleading description of how it works I've ever seen.

The push-pull pot unlocks a lot of tonal possibilities by routing your pickups through different signal paths. It may seem a bit complicated at first glance, but it’s really pretty simple. We start with a stacked pot, so instead of one potentiometer, there are two — one stacked on top of the other — and you switch between them by pulling up or pushing down on the shaft, hence “push-pull.” When you pull up on the shaft of the pot, you activate the top four lugs, which are connected to the top pot, creating continuity between the top two left and top two right lugs. When you push down on the shaft of the pot, then the bottom lugs, connected to the bottom pot, are activated. You can probably see where this is going; by using two different pots, you can make your guitar sound two different ways, opening your guitar up to different tonal and even functional possibilities.

Dual pots???!!! Really? I can't believe Sweetwater editors let this slip by. Fortunately, they clarify everything with their graphics, but still, horrible description.

 

[VinceT]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

Yeah, that sentence reads like it was lifted from a dual concentric pot description, doesn’t it?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Artie]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

It strikes me that whoever wrote it doesn't understand the difference between a "pot" and a switch.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

Kinda surprising - you'd expect a place like Sweetwater to have somebody proofread these things. Maybe not a tech, but at least a musician.

Actually what they describe in the beginning could be kinda cool - maybe stacked 500K/250K pots that you can switch between.

But reading on below it's obvious that the item in question is a standard push-pull with a DPDT underneath.

 

[Artie]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

Yeah, when I first started reading it, I was thinking . . . cool, there's something new out there.

 

[BowerR64]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

I dont care for that technology myself. Ide rather just pick up a different guitar then to make a gibson sound like a fender.

I do use the coil tap once in a while on the gibson but imo it still doesnt sound like a fender single coil.

The best sound i got was using a vintage chrome pickup cover off e-bay that has the pole holes cut in the center of the cover and i glued a single coil pickup in it and then used single coil screws. Now that was the best single coil sound in the neck position on a les paul ive had so far.

 

[Adieu]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

I had an old Japanese explorer/destroyer copy called a Quest ATAK-somethingorother that got quite nice results from its dual factory pushpulls... went from hotrodded PAF to tele twang

Pickups were Dimarzio-looking but presumed Japanese open bobbins with double rows of hex polepieces and 8.9k DCR iirc


So pushpull coil taps CAN deliver, with the right pups

 

[Blille]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

When you pull up on the shaft of the pot, you activate the top four lugs, which are connected to the top pot

 

[Adieu]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

Somebody ask them about wax potting~!!!

 

[Artie]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

So pushpull coil taps CAN deliver, with the right pups

Don't get me wrong. I love push-pulls in the right setting. This thread is more about the verbiage they chose to describe their operation.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

I dont care for that technology myself. Ide rather just pick up a different guitar then to make a gibson sound like a fender.

I do use the coil tap once in a while on the gibson but imo it still doesnt sound like a fender single coil.

The best sound i got was using a vintage chrome pickup cover off e-bay that has the pole holes cut in the center of the cover and i glued a single coil pickup in it and then used single coil screws. Now that was the best single coil sound in the neck position on a les paul ive had so far.

There's more than just coil splits you can do with a push/pull pot. You can control phasing, do a tone bypass, turn on another pickup, and plenty of other things. One thing I used to do quite frequently was build by own DIY version of the Bill Lawrence Q-Filter and attach that to a push pull pot on the tone control.

Using a resistor in series to ground from the red/white wires (assuming it's an SD pickup) creates a much fuller tone for a coil split. I use 4k7 myself and I enjoy it. I also find I got a lot happier once I stopped judging coil split tones based on how similar they sounded to a Strat and started judging them on their own merit.

 

[Mincer]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

I still want a better push/push pot. I like the S1 and use one, but it only works for certain knob styles. My guess is that anyone looking for a push/pull pot on the Sweetwater site knows what they are looking for and might not even read the description.

 

[Artie]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

I still want a better push/push pot.

Me too. My biggest obstacle to using a push-pull pot is simply that I hate having that knob sticking up while I'm playing. I mainly use them for experimentation for when I want to compare series/parallel/split modes.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

Me too. My biggest obstacle to using a push-pull pot is simply that I hate having that knob sticking up while I'm playing. I mainly use them for experimentation for when I want to compare series/parallel/split modes.

Then get a push/push.

 

[Artie]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

Just ordered a couple.

 

[akio]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

Push/push knobs stick up just like push/pulls. They're also easier to wreck when taking the actual knob off, if you don't have it in the up position.

 

[devastone]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

Yep, that is an amazingly wrong description.

Also included, the standard forum derails from those that didn't read the OP.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

Reminds me of the time when non-electronics web designers redid the wiring diagrams on a famous manufacturers web site, resulting in occasional wiring hilarity (like no ground connection, trivial stuff like that)

 

[Artie]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

Yep, that is an amazingly wrong description.

Also included, the standard forum derails from those that didn't read the OP.

Not a problem. It was meant as a light-hearted thread to begin with.

I can't wait to get these push-push pots. I don't think I've ever even seen one before.

 

[devastone]

Re: The worst push-pull pot description I've ever seen.

I've used them, just never on guitars, let us know how they work.