Basic Guitar Electronics I - Volume and tone control

[eananstrain]

great video thanks, id never looked inside a guitar before and was able to install a new volume pot on an older guitar tha had it volumepot ripped out ages ago. very clear, thanks a million!

[RagMama123]

Great video! Nice and clear. Also, your diagrams are very well done.

Thanks,

Rick

[muaythai4lifelife]

Hi, a question for you. Many famous guitarists at one point decide to disconnect their tone potentiometer on the bridge pickup to get more sound ( as a tone & cap could suck high freq. even all the way open )

With a stock SG, how many connections must be unsoldered to properly do that?

Thanx!

[MitjaShi]

About the diagram you showed in this video. Is this the modern wiring scheme (lowering volume also cuts treble) or the 50s wiring scheme (lowering volume doesn't affect treble)?

[aaronstonebeat]

@MitjaShi

In this schematic lowering the volume will affect tone because part of the resistance of the potentiometer is in series with the hot side of the circuit when the volume is less than 100% up.

To prevent this you could use a 'treble bleed'.

[MitjaShi]

@aaronstonebeat thanks for the clarification!

[aaronstonebeat]

@MitjaShi

There is one hot lead from each of the volume controls to each tone control; if you cut those the tone controls are out of the circuit. Don't worry about the ground connections (or perhaps capacitors between the tone control and the casing of the volume control, depending on how things are connected). Disconnect those two wires and you're good to go; if you want to go back to having tone control there is only one wire for each set of controls to reconnect.

[muaythai4lifelife]

You can test it with a multimeter.

The bad point is that guitar companies use STD pots for left handed guitars :(.

Fortunatelly CTS still makes reverse log pots! Also called vintage pots.

I have problems making/explaining my luthier how to set up the wirings for both Volume, Tone ( capaciors) controls.

Thanx in advance!!

Cheers!

[muaythai4lifelife]

Thank you!! :) I'm making a luthier building a left handed guitar and I have to tell him the specs I want.

After many researches I found out I need antilogarithmic / reverse log potentiometers and wire them in a reverse way ( opposite from a right handed guitar configuration ).

If I won't use reverse log pots and use standard right handed pots and wire them reversed the result would be awful.

Awful because the response of the pot would act almost as an "on off" switch.

You can test it with a m

[aaronstonebeat]

@muaythai4lifelife

Yes, you need a 'mirror image' pot. I'll try to explain it as simple as possible with images of life like pots and connections.

Thanks for the idea, it will be a nice and useful addition to my videos.

[muaythai4lifelife]

@aaronstonebeat thanx so much to you :) it will help a lot og left handed guitarist, trust me :)

uh another bad point is that you can't correct do volume swells with a stock-standard right pot ( left handed wired ).

take care!

[muaythai4lifelife]

Hi there, a left handed player in here :)

Could you please make an explanation using CTS 250k reverse logarithmic potentiometers?

Let's say for a Sg type guitar.

I need to easily find out how to make wirings.

Thanx!

[aaronstonebeat]

@muaythai4lifelife

Sure, I'll do that. It's a nice subject; left handedness hadn't crossed my mind yet.

I'll try to make a clip before the weekend is over.

[hezzart]

Quick question: Does the type of electrical-wire matter for guitar-electronics or will typical household-electrical wire do?

(I have from the Formido some "Montage-draad" & "huishoud-snoer voor het vervangen van huishoudelijke apparatuur".)

[aaronstonebeat]

@hezzart

Hoi,

It doesn't really matter, any wire will do. Lengths are short so resistance is low; even for the very thin pickup wire (about 0,05 mm) it's in the range of 1 Ohm per 10 cm. Stiffness of wire can be a problem if it's too thick and space inside the guitar is limited. Shielded cable reduces hum but also adds parallel capacity to the circuit and thus takes away some of the high frequenties.

Te weinig tekens over om het hele verhaal in het Nederlands te herhalen ;-)

[hezzart]

Dankje Aaron! Super informatief voor iemand zoals mij... die dus geen hars snapt van bedrading maar wel graag zn gitaar aanpast!

[aaronstonebeat]

@hezzart

Dank je Hessel!

Inmiddels is het al een hele serie geworden. Ik denk dat ik onderhand de meest voorkomende zaken wel heb behandeld. Misschien nog wat dingen als super switches, varitone en wat beroemde schakelingen zoals de Jerry Donahue-telecaster, de 50's tele wiring enzo; voorversterkers wellicht.

Min of meer hetzelfde staat in geschreven en geillustreerde vorm op mijn eigen website.

Groet,

PS

Mooie foto's trouwens; ik heb net even jouw site bekeken.

[FriendOfLeoF]

Good job, informative video!

[aaronstonebeat]

@FriendOfLeoF

Thank you! The next one is in the making already.