Standard Vol/Tone pot configuration

[Frenchie]

Can anyone tell me how the pots work, or direct me to a website?

I figure that the body of the pot is ground. How do the three arms work?

The reason I ask is because my 01 MIM strat has the wires and the .022 cap on slightly different arms of the mid pu tone pot from the diagrams, and I want to do some of the mods.

Thanks

[RandomHero]

Volume and tone pots can theoretically be wired in a variety of different ways. The center lug of all pots is connected to an internal "wiper" that is moved along a resistive, semi-circular strip inside the pot housing. The lugs are usually numbered 1, 2, and 3. When the shaft is turned all the way toward lug 3, the resistance between lugs 2 and 3 is almost nothing, whereas the resistance between 1 and 2 is as much as the pot can provide.

It's difficult to explain without being in person, and I'm unsure as to the method of your instrument's wiring. www.stewmac.com has a great many helpful pages on guitar wiring that may do a better job at explaining than I will, I suggest you check them out.

[bam]

Go here.

www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/potsecrets/potscret.htm
sound.westhost.com/pots.htm

[x189player]

or check out the writeup of the Superblend mod here:

guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=wiring&action=display&thread=1114523696

there's explanations of how pots can be wired as bypass or inhibit volume controls. And if you understand volume pots, you can think of a tone pot as a volume pot that only affects higher frequencies. (the cutoff point is then determined by teh capacitor value)

[Frenchie]

Thanks guys, I'll check that out.

[dinis64]

There's also a good explanation by John Atchley still at the original forum, right? I would really like to copy that somehow while it's still up.