guitaristz
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
|
Post by guitaristz on Jul 19, 2007 11:20:36 GMT -5
Somebody told me I have to use a special "blend pot" where the diagram says "blender pot". Is this true? Can I just use regular alpha pots?
|
|
guitaristz
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
|
Post by guitaristz on Jul 19, 2007 11:24:12 GMT -5
I have to leave for the electronics store pretty soon, so a prompt response would SOOO help me out please!!!
|
|
|
Post by warmstrat on Jul 19, 2007 11:40:53 GMT -5
I'm not precisely sure what your "blender pot" is designed to do here, and i don't have time to decipher your circuit right now. Could you describe what it is you're trying to achieve?
BTW, speaking in general terms, a standard guitar pot would probably work, but may not give you a pleasing even blend from one setting to another. My gut-feel response would be to suggest a linear taper pot as opposed to the standard guitar logarithmic variety, but i speak from VERY little experience here... so thats just a shot in the dark. Someone like ChrisK, sumgai or JohnH would be your best bet here, my friend.
Oh... and welcome to guitarnuts, if noone's said that yet!
|
|
guitaristz
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
|
Post by guitaristz on Jul 19, 2007 11:45:40 GMT -5
thanks for the warm welcome the pot is to blend in the neck/bridge pickup into other pickup combinations. The only reason somebody said I couldnt use a standard pot, is that when the normal alpha pot is on 0, it wont be out of the circuit. The special blend pot is a no load pot supposedly, that takes itself out of the circuit completely when it is set to 0...how much of a difference this makes is what I need to know. If its not a big deal, I will just use a regular pot or forget the mod altogether and use the eric johnson strat wiring.
|
|
|
Post by ChrisK on Jul 19, 2007 12:14:40 GMT -5
Yeah, the blended-in pickup will not be completely out of the circuit when the blend pot is at its maximum value.
However, in the case of a 250K Ohm blender, that pickup which usually has an internal resistance (and minimal output impedance) of about 6 to 9 K Ohms now appears to have a minimal output impedance of about 260K Ohms.
Since pickups in parallel have their signals averaged (in the most simplest explanation), a pickup with an output impedance of 6 to 9 K Ohms is being averaged with one with an output impedance of about 260K Ohms. This means that the blended-out pickup will contribute at a level only about 30 to 50 times less than the one without the blend pot. This is around -30dB.
You will still hear this, but not a lot.
If you really need the blended pickup to be completely out of the circuit, you can either use a Fender Delta Tone tone pot (which magically has the resistive element internally cut at the appropriate place) or search for JohnH's Blend Pot Resistive Element Cutting posts a'board here (which magically show the resistive element being internally cut at the appropriate place).
As mentioned in this thread, the resistance taper of the tone pot used for blending may not give the best adjustment "feel", Again, search a'board for info.
|
|
guitaristz
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
|
Post by guitaristz on Jul 19, 2007 12:48:36 GMT -5
thanks
|
|
guitaristz
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
|
Post by guitaristz on Jul 19, 2007 12:51:46 GMT -5
so basically, I do this
|
|
|
Post by ChrisK on Jul 19, 2007 12:52:41 GMT -5
IMHO, if one wants to blend in a pickup, one should try a "Blend Pot", which has both a right-hand tapered element and a left-hand tapered element (choice is).
I tend to think that a traditional "right-handed" tone pot has a backward curve than what is best for blending. Some prefer the use of linear pots for blending.
|
|
|
Post by warmstrat on Jul 19, 2007 16:05:21 GMT -5
So it blends in either the neck or the bridge pup - depending which one is already in use by the five-way... basically the "other" one of the two... the currently unused one.
Right?
|
|
guitaristz
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
|
Post by guitaristz on Jul 19, 2007 17:31:48 GMT -5
yeah exactly...im going to wire it in about 10 min...so yeah lol
|
|
|
Post by ChrisK on Jul 19, 2007 20:18:11 GMT -5
I'm not at all sure what you mean by this photo. What do the red and blue lines mean?
Hopefully you aren't cutting BOTH ends of the resistance element.
What do the green dots mean?
|
|
guitaristz
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
|
Post by guitaristz on Jul 20, 2007 11:07:19 GMT -5
I mean like cutting where the red line it.
|
|