Tone control as "bridge on switch"?

[Iggy]

Hi.

I rarely use the mid tone on my strat, it's always on max.
I plan to do the modified neck on mod (= bridge on) found here

I thought maybe I could use the mid tone control as an on/off device for the neck pickup.

Would something like this work?


I guess that would be more of a volyme control for the bridge pick up than an on/off switch and I will loose the ability to reduce the middle pick up's tone.
But as long as everything else works normally I'm happy.

I'm not much of an electrician so I have no idea what will happen, and even if it works, what drawbacks to expect.

[JohnH]

Id like to offer a guess. If anyone has done this or has better insight please correct!

I reckon it will basically work, but:

The bridge sound wont make much of an appearance until the very last part of the pots travel, when the resistance gets down to a few k (ie comparable to the resistance of the pots) It starts at 250k.

If the pot actually cant get to zero resistance, it will not quite get to max volume when combined with the neck. Not sure if this is a problem or not This could be checked with a multimeter.

Combining the neck and bridge in this way (in-phase), would not be hum-cancelling, unlike the middle with bridge or neck combinations. that is because the middle is reverse wound and reverse polarity with respect to the other pups.

With care though, its not too hard to try, and could be returned to original wiring if you dont like it. Take a photo first!

John

[Iggy]

You're probably right.
For some strange reason I forgot about the tone pot's resistance.
But then again, I'm just starting to learn about guitar electroncics and I often have to make mistakes to learn something.

A push/ pull switch on one of the pots would obviously be more covenient.
It would have been cool if it worked when changing just two wires though.

Thanks for your time.

[bam]

It will work, commonly known as "bridge blend pot".
If your pot can't give zero resistance, you may try to do this :

www.projectguitar.com/tut/pots.htm

[wolf]

bam
It seems to me that the link you posted is for designing a pot that will have infinite resistance at the "10" mark and not zero resistance which I think is what Iggy is looking for.

[Iggy]

My volyme pot was busted anyway so a got a new one whith push/pull for the mod.
Works like a charm.

[bam]

Isn't a "No Load Pot" is a pot that have zero resistance at one end

The mod scrapes off the resistor material off at one end, leaving the copper base intact .. Zero res, right ?

[Iggy]

According to my local guitar healer a pot with a very high impendance, like 1-2Mohms, would give zero resistance, or close to, with the tone control at max.