What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

[GilmourD]

Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

Why has papersoul been necrobumping threads?

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[darthphineas]

Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

Thank God there's finally an answer here. I've been hitting refresh literally every hour for the past year and a half.

LOL!

 

[Artie]

Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

The higher the pot value as a volume control for instance,the brighter the circuit,or the less highs that get sent to ground . . .

In short, they let more treble through to the amp. They give you more of the entire range of frequencies that your pickups produce, because they don't let as many of those frequencies go to ground.

Not exactly. It has nothing to do with "going to ground". That's a tone control. :nervous:

Consider the following circuit:



I'm using a transformer to isolate the pickup/vol circuit from ground. This circuit will work just like any other pickup installation, and the pickup itself will still be sensitive to volume pot value variations. But no connection to "ground". The pickup, (combined with the vibrating strings), is a tiny AC power supply. As you increase the load, (lower the the pot value), you increase the current flow. Up to a point. At some point, the voltage will start to be pulled down because the pickup just doesn't have much "power" capability. As the current increases, the electro-magnet flux increases. There's more interaction between adjacent windings and the inductive affect increases. This suppresses the AC current flow. There are so many other resistive/capacitive elements in the signal path, it's hard to predict what the effect will be.

But generally speaking, the treble will be the first to go. It's just not going to ground. :naughty:

Your long-winded friend;
Artie

 

[Petros]

Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

The way I see it, the guitar has more variation in tone if you allow more high frequencies through using a 1 meg pot. You can't get back something that isn't there, so if you go with the traditional 500k volume pot for a humbucker there's untapped potential tone. Whether it's good or bad tone depends on your own personal taste, how you use your tone control, and other factors. I like to use my tone control more at a mid point for the "normal" setting. I may have been fooled about this, but the 1 Meg volume pot also gave me the impression that the guitar had more output.

I also think it's not common to use a 1 Meg volume pot and also a 1 Meg tone pot. The response you get from using the 1 Meg pot for volume vs tone is not the same. In the end, this is another way to fine tune a pickup response.

 

[hermetico]

Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

Not exactly. It has nothing to do with "going to ground". That's a tone control. :nervous:

Consider the following circuit:

View attachment 47188

I'm using a transformer to isolate the pickup/vol circuit from ground. This circuit will work just like any other pickup installation, and the pickup itself will still be sensitive to volume pot value variations. But no connection to "ground". The pickup, (combined with the vibrating strings), is a tiny AC power supply. As you increase the load, (lower the the pot value), you increase the current flow. Up to a point. At some point, the voltage will start to be pulled down because the pickup just doesn't have much "power" capability. As the current increases, the electro-magnet flux increases. There's more interaction between adjacent windings and the inductive affect increases. This suppresses the AC current flow. There are so many other resistive/capacitive elements in the signal path, it's hard to predict what the effect will be.

But generally speaking, the treble will be the first to go. It's just not going to ground. :naughty:

Your long-winded friend;
Artie

OMG. :eyecrazy:
Bro, I've opened a thread some months ago asking about how to implement an audio transformer with pickups, to isolate the ground and, I had no answers!. :15:
Well, that's the answer I was looking for.
Thank you, Artie!!.
:thanks:

 

[Securb]

Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

I use 1 meg pots with humbuckers past 16K because they are dark enough. Really powerful humbuckers often sound choked with 500K pots.

Same here I have 1 megs ( vol, vol, tone) on my Iceman with the Dimebucker/SD Jazz and it is not overly bright at all. It is actually one of my best sounding guitars. Even the Jazz which is not an aggressive pickup sounds great.

 

[Artie]

Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

OMG. :eyecrazy:
Bro, I've opened a thread some months ago asking about how to implement an audio transformer with pickups, to isolate the ground and, I had no answers!. :15:
Well, that's the answer I was looking for.
Thank you, Artie!!.
:thanks:

You're welcome. However, if I was going to isolate a pup using a transformer, I'd probably place it before the volume pot. Unless, of course, you were using it to isolate dual-volume pots too.

 

[Guitaraxz]

Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

Not exactly. It has nothing to do with "going to ground". That's a tone control. :nervous:

Consider the following circuit:

View attachment 47188

I'm using a transformer to isolate the pickup/vol circuit from ground. This circuit will work just like any other pickup installation, and the pickup itself will still be sensitive to volume pot value variations. But no connection to "ground". The pickup, (combined with the vibrating strings), is a tiny AC power supply. As you increase the load, (lower the the pot value), you increase the current flow. Up to a point. At some point, the voltage will start to be pulled down because the pickup just doesn't have much "power" capability. As the current increases, the electro-magnet flux increases. There's more interaction between adjacent windings and the inductive affect increases. This suppresses the AC current flow. There are so many other resistive/capacitive elements in the signal path, it's hard to predict what the effect will be.

But generally speaking, the treble will be the first to go. It's just not going to ground. :naughty:

Your long-winded friend;
Artie

Awsome! I´ll have to try it out some day!

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By the way, on the 1 meg thing, I prefer what David Myka calls a "blow switch". Just a 2P2DT switch to bypass the volume pot, simple but effective. It gives you all the volume and bright tone the pup has. Here it's called the "solo switch". http://www.1728.org/guitar4.htm

EDIT: I'll have to try both the "solo switch" - transformer thing, but what transformer ratings do you recomend?

 

[p4vl]

Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

Same here I have 1 megs ( vol, vol, tone) on my Iceman with the Dimebucker/SD Jazz and it is not overly bright at all. It is actually one of my best sounding guitars. Even the Jazz which is not an aggressive pickup sounds great.

A 1 meg with a Dimebucker? Wow. I'm not critiquing your tone or anything, but the Dimebucker is known for being excessively bright.

I tried the 1 meg with an Anderson pickup (HN3+). I had it an Agile LP copy, so between the mahogany guitar and the nature of the magnet (and possibly low tuning, I don't remember), it was nothing but low mids and no highs. A 1 meg pot will not 'right' the wrong pickup.