I was just curious, I have two guitars, one is similar to a fat strat (a humbucker and 2 single, with 1 volume, 2 tone knobs) and one that is similar to a tele (two single, with a volume and a tone knob). One thing I would like to do is be able to wire either both or one of the guitars so that i can control the volume on different pickups, i was thinking i could somehow rewire the tone knobs to do this since i never use them anyhow.
Steve-0
Aren't all guitars wired like that already?
Where ever your selector switch is, you are controlling the volume of that pup/pup combo.
I've been known to miss-read things before so please correct me if I'm wrong.
Yes, that's true, but right now there is only one volume knob on each guitar and it controls the volume on any pickup. Whereas what I am looking to do is convert the tone knob into a volume. I believe that a Les Paul is wired like this, except it has two volume and tone knobs.
Steve-0
Well the tone knob pots are 250K, so you would first off have to buy a 500K to replace it.
When it comes to wiring im just along for the ride, don't ask me. But you can ask Tom Morello. He LOVES two volume knobs. He also likes cable ends, and wah pedals, and scratch effects...
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Ahhhhh, sorry.
Could be wrong but, I don't think the single coil has enough wires for what you want to do. Just the 2 basically because the green and white go together and then the hot goes to the switch.
As I see it, you'll have to change the pots. After that you will have to reverse the wiring setup. Instead of the pickup connecting to the switch and, then, to the tone pots, you will have to connect each pickup to it's volume pot and, then to the switch. The switch connects to the output jack. That should do it.
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Thanks, I've heard that tone pots are wired with capacitors, am I right to think that I'd have to replace those 250k pots with 500k AND get rid of the capacitor?
Steve-0
You'd probably want the volume pot for the humbucker to be a 500K, or so goes the general rule. If the Tele has a pair of singlecoils, there's probably no sweat, unless the manufacturer mixed linear-taper and audio-taper pots.
The capacitors on tone controls are usually 0.015 µF (microfarad) to 0.047 µF, with 0.022 µF being pretty common. Those can be eliminated from volume pots, but volume pots may still incorporate a cap or a resistor and cap (either series or parallel, depending whose guidelines you follow) as a "volume kit." This "treble bleed" (AKA "treble retainer") kit is to cut the loss of highs as the volume is rolled back.
