Are there any 3-way push/pull potentiometers?

[eldie3d]

I found a thread that kindasorta asked the same question and a few people said, "I don't think so". The last reply was, "Tell us what you are trying to do and maybe that will help us understand what you are looking for". There was nothing after that.

Here's what I'd like to do. It's a new custom guitar that isn't wired yet. I have an HHH setup. I'd like to have a Push/Pull pot (pushed the pickup is off/unselected and pulled the pickup is on/selected). I would like to be able to rotate the shaft for volume control, and rotate the bottom knob for tone control.
Is that 3-way? On/off - volume - tone??? Or is it a 4-way On - Off - shaft rotate for volume - bottom knob rotate for tone???
I would like to do this because I hate the way 5-way toggle switches look. I'd be able to pull the first and third to turn on the neck and bridge pickups. Pull the middle and have all 3 pickups on. Push the first and middle and just have the neck pickup - and so forth. Maybe I don't need volume on each. Maybe I could have pull on, push off and either the top or bottom knob rotate for tone, and have a 4th knob for a master volume. I was thinking about using the push/pull to separate humbuckers; push in = humbucker, pull out = single coil. Maybe I'll get a 4th push/pull to separate just the neck pickup. I don't need single coils in the middle or the bridge. Or maybe 6 p/p pots top 3 is humbucker on/off and rotate for tone control and the bottom 3 pots to push humbucker and pull single coil. My question is; do they make push/pull pots that have at least one knob (top shaft or bottom) that rotates for volume control or tone control? And the big crazy question is, do they make push/pull pots that have the top shaft and the bottom rotate?

Or do the push/pull pots only push and pull with no rotation? I mean, if it was just a push/pull, it wouldn't be a potentiometer. It would only be a switch. So I'm guessing that they have push/pull and one rotate - making it a potentiometer. I guess I answered that question myself... Do they make them with the top and bottom rotating? Thanks for your help!!!

[newey]

eldie3d-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

A pot that has an inner and outer shaft, with separate knobs so that one shaft can be a volume control and the second a tone, is called a "concentric pot" or a "stacked pot". Such a pot has 2 potentiometers (called "gangs"), one controlled by the outer shaft and the other by the inner shaft. This is the sort of pot that you are describing.

These do exist, but are fairly rare birds and AFAIK aren't really used outside of the guitar market- which means the market is small and therefore the price is high.

Here is a link to one such pot:
www.bestbassgear.com/noll-250k-stacked-volumetone-pushpull-control.htm

A search for "concentric pot with DPDT Push/pull switch" or similar search terms will probably net you more options. But I suspect all options will be pricey.

This is a 250K pot however. You would probably want 500K for humbuckers. I didn't look further to see if they had other values, they might well have a 500K version as well. But as you see from the price, you'll have > $100 invested in pots to buy three of these.

You should also consider that, if you have all 3 pickups "on", you will have 6 pots in the circuit at once. This will dull your tone quite a bit due to the extra load all those pots have on the circuit. You might not care about that if you won't be using the "all 3 HB" option very much, but it is something to consider. This is the reason people use "no load pots", but I doubt this type of pot is available as a "no load". While pots can be DIY modified to be no load, I don't think you'd want to try dismembering a $35 piece.

If you went with just tone controls for each pickup and a master volume, that would lessen the loading issue and would be much cheaper. The master volume after the tone controls will result in some interaction of the pots with more than one pickup selected, but people who play HH guitars with separate tones, as on a Gibson Explorer and on some Flying Vs, seem to be OK with that.

[guitarnerdswe]

Jul 19, 2021 5:20:53 GMT -5 newey said:

eldie3d-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

A pot that has an inner and outer shaft, with separate knobs so that one shaft can be a volume control and the second a tone, is called a "concentric pot" or a "stacked pot". Such a pot has 2 potentiometers (called "gangs"), one controlled by the outer shaft and the other by the inner shaft. This is the sort of pot that you are describing.

These do exist, but are fairly rare birds and AFAIK aren't really used outside of the guitar market- which means the market is small and therefore the price is high.

Here is a link to one such pot:
www.bestbassgear.com/noll-250k-stacked-volumetone-pushpull-control.htm

A search for "concentric pot with DPDT Push/pull switch" or similar search terms will probably net you more options. But I suspect all options will be pricey.

This is a 250K pot however. You would probably want 500K for humbuckers. I didn't look further to see if they had other values, they might well have a 500K version as well. But as you see from the price, you'll have > $100 invested in pots to buy three of these.

You should also consider that, if you have all 3 pickups "on", you will have 6 pots in the circuit at once. This will dull your tone quite a bit due to the extra load all those pots have on the circuit. You might not care about that if you won't be using the "all 3 HB" option very much, but it is something to consider. This is the reason people use "no load pots", but I doubt this type of pot is available as a "no load". While pots can be DIY modified to be no load, I don't think you'd want to try dismembering a $35 piece.

If you went with just tone controls for each pickup and a master volume, that would lessen the loading issue and would be much cheaper. The master volume after the tone controls will result in some interaction of the pots with more than one pickup selected, but people who play HH guitars with separate tones, as on a Gibson Explorer and on some Flying Vs, seem to be OK with that.

Luckily, the company that makes these (MEC Pickups) take custom orders. So you can get a A500K/A500K concentric pot with a DPDT push/pull switch. They already have several options for concentric P/P pots, but none of them have the right pot values.

www.mec-pickups.de/en/Home--Category.html?category=D0280243001488551977A18
www.mec-pickups.de/en/Home--Category.html?category=D0928327001488459311A211

Shot them an email, they were very friendly when I contacted them.

[Deleted]

Wow never seen a pot like that before.
Guess if you can dream it they can build it.. where did i park my flying Unicorn.

Was just trying to think if possible to make a 2p3T push pull
Having taken them apart, i think be very hard to edit to make ot so that.
Its basically a sliding draw on a spring with some notch to hold it in place.

Then wanted dual stacked WoW with the push pull. Guess if building this top push pull to be on or Off and the lower one could be on and on to make a 1P3T off on on switch . Take a bit of design