Bypassing the pots - experiences?

[djetz]

The main guitar I'm using at the moment is a Godin Radiator, but I am in the process of buying a strat clone, which I will be using as my main guitar.

I was thinking of bypassing all the pots and wiring the pickups direct to the switch and the switch direct to the output. I never use the things: I have a volume pedal and I'd much rather use the AMP pots to adjust tone.

HOWEVER, reading stuff online has got me spooked, a little. I've done this in the past, and noticed what I felt to be an improvement in sound. But that was some time ago, back in the days I was using humbuckers and distortion/overdrive. In the last few years, my sound has cleaned up considerably.

So - getting to the point: does bypassing the pots change the sound in any negative way, considering I never use them anyway? I understand that changing from a 250K pot to a 500k one will change the sound a little, so I'm assuming that the reason is that even with the pots on full there is a little "bleeding" of the signal. I would expect a slight loss of top end.

Can anyone comment on this, or will I just have to experiment and see what I like? I'm thinking I'll just do it and if the guitar sounds shrill, I'll reconnect them.

I like top end, I like a crisp sound. I like to cut through the mix rather than create a wall of sound. Any comments appreciated.

[Chris Kinman]

djetz, changing pot values from 250K to 500K certainly does make one big difference, throwing them out all together makes a hell of a difference.

What happens is the resistive loading across the coils shapes their dynamic response, attack characteristics, Q and point of resonance. A lot of how Pickups sound the way they do is attributed to this resistive load.

Having no load will mean an extremely bright sound with unbelievable presence. Whether this works for you or not is a matter of giving it a go. Give it a try, you can always reconnect the pots or use higher values to achieve the desired result.

A simple way to bypass the pots is to de-solder the wire going from the switch to the left terminal of the vol pot, then do the same to the wire from the middle terminal and then connect these wires together (wrap tape over the join).

Have fun experimenting.

[guitar_ed]

Hi,

A little while back I read an interview with Dick Dale on this very subject. He said that he by passed the tone controls. He thought that his guitar sounded much better this way.

I don't recall where I saw it, but if I can find it, I will post it.

Guitar Ed

[guitar_ed]

I found the link!! I did not think that I could do it.

http://www.fenderplayersclub.com/art...gends/dale.htm

Guitar Ed

[djetz]

Thanks a lot for the info, guys. Dick Dale is a player I like a lot, as it happens, I'm pretty into the surf & instrumental sound in general. Hank Marvin is a favorite player, too.

And I feel kind of honoured that Chris Kinman himself answered my question. I've been seriously considering buying a set of Kinmans for the strat clone I'm getting, but $400 Australian or more is a pretty big investment for me. I'd like to try out a guitar that has them in it, to see how I personally feel about the sounds.

I'll try bypassing the pots and make my judgements, anyway. The idea of adding a cap (or resistor) so there is a permanant load on the pickups has also occurred to me, any thoughts on that?

[Teleologist]

A fixed resistor in there will be electrically the same and sound the same as a volume pot of the same value(cranked full up). You can simulate the tone control the same way and even connect it just for certain switch positions. You loose the functionality of the controls, but if you'll never use them.... Oh, and you won't have to clean scratchy pots ;)

[r-senior]

Originally posted by Teleologist
A fixed resistor in there will be electrically the same and sound the same as a volume pot of the same value(cranked full up). You can simulate the tone control the same way and even connect it just for certain switch positions. You loose the functionality of the controls, but if you'll never use them.... Oh, and you won't have to clean scratchy pots ;)

But you wouldn't go to all that trouble surely? If you wanted to keep the same resistance but not have a variable volume or tone control, wouldn't you just:

(a) wire the pup across the outer terminals of the pot

(b) take the output from the same terminals rather than the ground and the pot wiper?

I suppose if you wanted a different resitance, resistors are cheaper than pots but if you want the same resistance you might as well use the resistor that's already in the pot?

[Teleologist]

A resistor is a resistor is a resistor, so yeah ;) If you're going to keep the same value, there's really no need to rewire at all, just keep the pot full up. Some folks may want to remove the pots to get the knobs out of the way or they're building a custom guitar or want different loads or tone caps on different PUPs/switch positions, so.....

Besides, a single PUP Strat with a custom no-knob guard and an near-empty cavity with only one resistor in there could be kind of a mystery thing. Maybe mount it on a circcuit board and seal it in epoxy like a Dumble amp ;) ;) ;)

[djetz]

Sorry for my technical lack of knowledge: I can solder stuff pretty well, but I never really learned about how pickups interact with pots: I like r-seniors idea about (as I understand it) wiring the volume pot permanantly open, so moving the knob has no effect on the sound.

I want the guitar to look normal, the only reason I'm thinking about this at all really is that on a strat copy I use for slide, I've managed to accidently turn myself way down onstage a couple of times. I managed to deal with that by changing the wiring so that the second and third knobs act as a master volume and master tone. The first knob is now a dummy, there for looks only. I kept the volume and tone functions on that guitar because I was unsure about any effect on the sound... which brings us back to the original question.

I guess it's been answered now, in that I've been told that bypassing the pots completely might well turn the sound into shrillness. On an ash-bodied strat with a one-peice maple neck, I'm thinking that there may well be too much top end even for me. Thanks anyway, for everyone's input - I'll be saving this page and referring to people's ideas when I finally get my hands on the thing, hopefully tomorrow...

[Louisa M.]

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/skgs/sk/repairtips.htm

I`ve had the same problem of bumping the volume control down a few notches and wondering why my guitar ain`t sounding so good near the end of a solo. I just foundf this link, and he suggests a felt washer under the volume knob to make it harder to move. just another option for you, if maybe you sometimes want to use the volume control.

[djetz]

Originally posted by Louisa M.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/skgs/sk/repairtips.htm

I`ve had the same problem of bumping the volume control down a few notches and wondering why my guitar ain`t sounding so good near the end of a solo. I just foundf this link, and he suggests a felt washer under the volume knob to make it harder to move. just another option for you, if maybe you sometimes want to use the volume control.

Thanks for that tip, too, Louisa. I have a particularly horrible memory of hitting the volume knob right as the rest of the musicians came in during a song when I had a solo intro part on slide. I was playing away, and since the volume level had changed I assumed that it was some freak of sound that caused me not to be able to hear my guitar after the others had come in. I must have played for a full minute before I figured out what happened. I am determined to never do that again.