Removal of pots

[snaar]

Hi

I've just joined the forum. I would like to remove the pots from my guitar (strat copy) and would like to know if there is any resistors or caps that need to be put in place to keep the sound roughly the same. I found that just removing the pots result in a lot of overtones and harmonics. I never use the tone pots (always set to 10) and use foot volume, so the pots on the guitar are just a nuisance.

Thanks
Snaar

[sumgai]

snarr,

Hi, and to the forums!

Yes, you can remove the pots with no problems, you don't need to replace them with anything.

HTH


sumgai

[snaar]

Thanks for the reply and the welcome. To get rid of the extra overtones, will it help to add a resistor in the place of the volume pot? If so what value will be best? I don't know much about electronics, but I would think that if the pot is 250k then maybe a small resistor would help a bit in killing overtones without doing too much to the volume, or doesn't it work that way?

[sumgai]

snaar,

Thanks for the reply and the welcome. To get rid of the extra overtones, will it help to add a resistor in the place of the volume pot? If so what value will be best? I don't know much about electronics, but I would think that if the pot is 250k then maybe a small resistor would help a bit in killing overtones without doing too much to the volume, or doesn't it work that way?

From your earlier post, I see that you consider harmonics and overtones to be roughly equivalent, and that's a good thing. But then you say that you wanna get rid of them, you found that by removing the pots, you no longer had "roughly the same tone" as before. Too many overtones? There are some folks here would gladly give you "debate" over that contention. ;D

Well, aside from the fact that most players want those overtones (harmonic richness of the signal), I can only say, yes, you could substitute a resistor and a capacitor back into the wiring. But here's a thought to occupy your time..... why not just pull the pots out of their holes in the scratchplate, set them to max, then leave them still wired up but stuffed inside the cavity where they won't show? No de-soldering that way, eh?

If there's just no room for that method, then simply place a 220KΩ resistor and your old tone capacitor in parallel with the output jack. Essentially, you're replacing your tone pot (250KΩs) with a fixed resistor. That will kill the harmonics just as if you'd left the tone control installed, and set at 10 (max). If you had a 500KΩ pot installed, and you liked that tonality, then use a 470KΩ resistor instead, and the same capacitor as before.

The beauty here is, you can try this outside of your axe, so you can experiment to find the most pleasing value to you, then go back inside and solder the replacement components in place. A little jury-rigging with some alligator clips and a couple of guitar cords with the solder connections of their jacks exposed, and you're all set to play the part of The Mad Scientist! ;D

HTH


sumgai

[snaar]

You see, that's what happens when you don't know what you're talking about, but I'm glad to see that you figured it out anyway. The harmonic richness is very nice in some applications, but I found that with effects like distortion and overdrive, it becomes a bit much, so I just want to mellow it a bit down. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give it a try. As the guitar I'm busy butchering is a cheapy, the pots are unfortunately also not of the best make and are giving me loads of problems, so I'd rather remove them than just burying them. I'm suddenly starting to wonder about earthing and hum if I remove them, but I'll tackle that when I get there.

Thanks
Snaar

[UnklMickey]

hi Snaar,

if you remove both the volume and the tone, the largest effect will be caused by the removal of the volume control.

the loading of the volume pot on the pickup(s) changes the frequency response, by creating a low-pass filter in conjunction with the inductance of the pickups(s).

with that in mind, i'd start by simply putting a resistor of similar value to the volume pot in parallel with the output.

if you wanted to take it one step further and ALSO use a resistor with a similar value to the tone pot, in series with your old tone cap, and add that in parallel with the "volume" resistor, that would be just like having volume and tone "on 10".



cheers,

unk

[snaar]

Thanks Unk

Now I wonder, if I want the volume permanently on "9" should I just increase the resistor size?

Snaar

[UnklMickey]

hi Snaar,

no that would be closer to the tone of straight thru, no pots, with all the overtones.

to approximate the effect of volume "on 9", use the lower diagram

[snaar]

Thanks Unk

Now I can start butchering to my heart's content.

Snaar