I wish youtube would show these vids more. I had to do quite a bit of searching to get here. Your videos are some of the best out there for guitar electronics.
Fantastic!! There is allot of stigma out there and you leave absolutely no question as to the effect the various electronic bits make in their various circuit options.
On my 2015 Gibson Les Paul Classic sprint run guitar, there's a little toggle switch in place of one of the tone controls. It controls an active buffer circuit that can be used to boost the gain at a preset level (using an internal trimpot), intended to compensate for the loss in gain when running the humbuckers in split coil mode. It has the side effect of boosting the treble, since it has a low impedance output which is not as sensitive to the distributed capacitance of the instrument cable.
This video series is awesome. The only thing I wanted to know that he didn't cover was what happens when you roll off volume with say, 1000k pots vs 250k pots. Do the retain more highs throughout heir range or lose just as much as the 250s. Anyone know?
Great! Thanks for this video! When I put a humbucker in my strat I upgraded the volume to 500K but not the tone pots. Also I am using the 250K neck tone pot on the bridge humbucker instead. Is this 250K tone pot reducing the high treble coming from the humbucker? (If it is, I like it)
great vid. I'm currently studying electrical engineering and it's interesting to see the physics behind the real testing of pickups and electric guitar bits. I have a habit of watching the subtitles on videos and the subtitles for this video are quite hilarious. Coil = qualye, treble = trouble, peak = pete, etc. just thought i'd point that out. folks that are familiar with this will figure it out. interested in building a testing box similar to what you have. cheers.
@bass mentality: obviously he believes his videos are adequate (as do I), so asking him self-critique provides him no useful info. Why don't you just tell him where you believe the vid is lacking. I think his vids are extremely practical and useful, and presented in an easily digestible manner for those with minimal understanding of the physics involved.
+dodger916 As a teacher of adults I believe in self evaluation. But if you took the time to read these responces you will discover that people whose mother tongue is not English find the information unclear. A good teacher must understand and prepare their teaching environment to assist learning to take place. In a video this is difficult if not impossible for many teachers. Particularly if visual aids are lacking in relevence for students! Therefore one must prepare beforehand ones presentation so that the message is not lost in the language. AS is the case here. I for one did not totaly grasp the message. Visual aids should be relevent to the students not only the teacher and those with previous experience! Using and showing different potentiometers and changing them on camera would have enabled this message to be understood even if the student did not understand the techno speak fully.
ziggy bass I'm sorry but I have to disagree. Do you need to see a potentiometer being changed to understand that he is changing it? Aren't "If we change *CLICK* to this value" clear words? I must tell you, I'm not English/American/anglophone and I'm not a ingeneer whatsoever, but I DO think that these videos are the most clear, complete and instructive on RUclips. Remember, this is not a "How to change a potentiometer" video!
Have you ever heard of Mad Hatter guitar products? Its a solderless electronic system that allows you to adjust the potentiometers from 250K-750K. I don't know much about this stuff but I've been reading up on it and I'm curious to know your opinion, thanks!
Great video. So what would happen if you ran the volume through a pot without a ground on the other end, where you were just adding 0 to 220k/500k/1M inline resistance to the output?
I don't get it, I have this Squire Strat SE that has 500k linear pots, ceramic p/u's and only like 3.1k to 3.2k resistance on the p/u's when measured through a patch cable out of the guitar jack {not exact but a pretty good indication of resistance} - and the guitar sounds a lot duller than my alnico 3 equipped telecaster with about 7k resistance on the p/u's. Any ideas why? Seems like it should be a recipe for ultra brightness. And another question, why bother cutting down on your pots to get rid of highs when all you have to do is roll down your 500k pot until it's 250k? Seems like it gives you breathing room in case you should need it, for instance if you are running a 50ft long guitar cable - maybe bringing back some highs that get lost in the cable capacitance.
I’d just like to preface this reply with the fact that this is mostly educated guesswork on my part. I’m an electrician by trade, but I’m rookie when it comes to audio/ guitar electronics. I have been doing some research into this for my next wiring project on my strat though. There could be a number of reasons why the strat sounds duller than the telecaster, but the most obvious one to me is that the pickup design itself is inherently different, strat and tele pickups, although they are both single coils, simply aren’t built the same way. To answer your other question, yes, with 500k pot turned down to 250k you will have the same DC resistance between your amp output and ground - however, it also means there is now 250k of resistance between your pickup input and amp output, this resistance is not present when you use a 250k pot. I can only assume that this means that if a comparison was made between two guitars that were identical in all other factors, the guitar fitted with a 500k volume pot will have a lower volume than the guitar with a 250k volume pot when the 500k pot is turned down to 250k due to the 250k resistance introduced between the pickup and amplifier. In the research I’ve been doing for my next project build, I’ve seen some guitar circuit diagrams that call for a fixed resistor to be soldered between the pickup input and ground on the volume pot. This reduces the overall resistance of the potentiometer because it is placed in parallel to the resistance track inside the pot, and the idea I’ve had for my strat wiring sort of develops on this; If a combination of a fixed resistor and potentiometer (connected in series) is placed in parallel across the terminals of the volume pot, the potentiometer can be used to vary the resistance across the volume pot between the pickups and ground, thereby changing the signal bleed effect without introducing resistance between the pickups and amplifier. It’s basically the same connection method as a regular tone control, but it changes the capacitor out for a resistor, so I can only assume this would provide a different response to a regular tone circuit. In the calculations I did, by using a 1M volume pot, a 10M pot for the “tone” pot and a 170k fixed resistor soldered between the L1 terminals on the volume and “tone”, this would allow you to change the resistance at the volume pot from 150k to 910k. I’m interested in what this mod would sound like if used as a tone pot variation, but it should effectively provide the ability to dial in to the “sweet spot” of any pickup set that might be getting overlooked because the initial potentiometer values chosen were less than ideal for the set.
What If use 200k ohms pots pn my bass guitar? I'm looking for warm and muddy tone. Is there any point doing that or should I order some 250k/500k from the internet? Those 200k were only available at my local store.
Any suggestions about changing a Fender tube amp tone pots to 1meg ? I heard the Blues Deluxe comes with 1 meg treble pot from the factory. It has a distinguished bright tone.
Unfortunately I have no suggestions or opinions on this. Everything I work on is at the guitar end of the cable and I leave the amp work to amp techs as a separate specialty.
Can anyone explain to me why loading volume pot changes resonant peak? Volume 10 means zero resistance which is no signal loss by the pot. voltage divider calculates Vin * 500 / R1+R2 = Vin because R1+R2 == 500
@@WakizashiSabre no, if you look at the third video about volume, 10 amplitude signals. my conclusion is that his volume knob 10 is not zero resistance.
Thank you so much for this video series. You can read soooooo much mystizism around the net. This videos are extremly helpfull to me.
I wish youtube would show these vids more. I had to do quite a bit of searching to get here. Your videos are some of the best out there for guitar electronics.
Fantastic!! There is allot of stigma out there and you leave absolutely no question as to the effect the various electronic bits make in their various circuit options.
what is this magic every guitar you can possibly imagine box?
😆
this is great to see all the sounds i have been using on guitars for so long.
Your vids are extremely informative. They answer RELEVANT questions for those wishing to experiment with tone. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Great videos! What a perfect way to understanding guitar electronics. Off to watch the rest now, please keep them on coming.
Many thanks!
On my 2015 Gibson Les Paul Classic sprint run guitar, there's a little toggle switch in place of one of the tone controls. It controls an active buffer circuit that can be used to boost the gain at a preset level (using an internal trimpot), intended to compensate for the loss in gain when running the humbuckers in split coil mode. It has the side effect of boosting the treble, since it has a low impedance output which is not as sensitive to the distributed capacitance of the instrument cable.
Excellent video, great use of technology to demonstrate the signal difference in an understandable manner. Liked the presenter's style, too!
Thanks. Your explanation clarified things I knew but didn't really understand. The scope and sound demo were great.
This man is a ¡REAL ENGINEER! CONGRATULATIONS you are the best I've ever seen on RUclips.
Excellent video and demo completely
Answered my questions on pots thanks
A very nice set of demo videos! That is an incredible setup for making comparisons!!
i really like this video, i needed some education about guitar pot values, and finally found it :D
Great vid. Really properly shows the thing visually on the scope. :)
I want to thank you so very much for putting out these videos they are very interesting and informative best ones I found thank you so much
Thanks a lot ! I've been waiting for those explanations for very long !
thanks so much for this series.. incredibly helpful
Never thought pots could affect the sound so much, I knew there was some effect but not to this extent. Nice comparison, thanks.
+Kurt De Smet Volumn ? or Tone? does that help?
wonderful demo. thank you!
Great demonstration!!
Do you have a wiring diagram of your decade box thing?
I also want to know what that magic box is. Looks like he built it himself
Thank you very much !!
Great stuff
This is awesome!!
great video
This video series is awesome. The only thing I wanted to know that he didn't cover was what happens when you roll off volume with say, 1000k pots vs 250k pots. Do the retain more highs throughout heir range or lose just as much as the 250s. Anyone know?
Great! Thanks for this video!
When I put a humbucker in my strat I upgraded the volume to 500K but not the tone pots. Also I am using the 250K neck tone pot on the bridge humbucker instead. Is this 250K tone pot reducing the high treble coming from the humbucker?
(If it is, I like it)
great vid. I'm currently studying electrical engineering and it's interesting to see the physics behind the real testing of pickups and electric guitar bits. I have a habit of watching the subtitles on videos and the subtitles for this video are quite hilarious. Coil = qualye, treble = trouble, peak = pete, etc. just thought i'd point that out. folks that are familiar with this will figure it out. interested in building a testing box similar to what you have. cheers.
@bass mentality: obviously he believes his videos are adequate (as do I), so asking him self-critique provides him no useful info. Why don't you just tell him where you believe the vid is lacking. I think his vids are extremely practical and useful, and presented in an easily digestible manner for those with minimal understanding of the physics involved.
I can't believe you understood what he said.
+dodger916 As a teacher of adults I believe in self evaluation. But if you took the time to read these responces you will discover that people whose mother tongue is not English find the information unclear. A good teacher must understand and prepare their teaching environment to assist learning to take place. In a video this is difficult if not impossible for many teachers. Particularly if visual aids are lacking in relevence for students!
Therefore one must prepare beforehand ones presentation so that the message is not lost in the language. AS is the case here. I for one did not totaly grasp the message. Visual aids should be relevent to the students not only the teacher and those with previous experience! Using and showing different potentiometers and changing them on camera would have enabled this message to be understood even if the student did not understand the techno speak fully.
ziggy bass I'm sorry but I have to disagree. Do you need to see a potentiometer being changed to understand that he is changing it? Aren't "If we change *CLICK* to this value" clear words? I must tell you, I'm not English/American/anglophone and I'm not a ingeneer whatsoever, but I DO think that these videos are the most clear, complete and instructive on RUclips. Remember, this is not a "How to change a potentiometer" video!
Have you ever heard of Mad Hatter guitar products? Its a solderless electronic system that allows you to adjust the potentiometers from 250K-750K. I don't know much about this stuff but I've been reading up on it and I'm curious to know your opinion, thanks!
Great video. So what would happen if you ran the volume through a pot without a ground on the other end, where you were just adding 0 to 220k/500k/1M inline resistance to the output?
I don't get it, I have this Squire Strat SE that has 500k linear pots, ceramic p/u's and only like 3.1k to 3.2k resistance on the p/u's when measured through a patch cable out of the guitar jack {not exact but a pretty good indication of resistance} - and the guitar sounds a lot duller than my alnico 3 equipped telecaster with about 7k resistance on the p/u's. Any ideas why? Seems like it should be a recipe for ultra brightness. And another question, why bother cutting down on your pots to get rid of highs when all you have to do is roll down your 500k pot until it's 250k? Seems like it gives you breathing room in case you should need it, for instance if you are running a 50ft long guitar cable - maybe bringing back some highs that get lost in the cable capacitance.
I’d just like to preface this reply with the fact that this is mostly educated guesswork on my part. I’m an electrician by trade, but I’m rookie when it comes to audio/ guitar electronics. I have been doing some research into this for my next wiring project on my strat though.
There could be a number of reasons why the strat sounds duller than the telecaster, but the most obvious one to me is that the pickup design itself is inherently different, strat and tele pickups, although they are both single coils, simply aren’t built the same way.
To answer your other question, yes, with 500k pot turned down to 250k you will have the same DC resistance between your amp output and ground - however, it also means there is now 250k of resistance between your pickup input and amp output, this resistance is not present when you use a 250k pot.
I can only assume that this means that if a comparison was made between two guitars that were identical in all other factors, the guitar fitted with a 500k volume pot will have a lower volume than the guitar with a 250k volume pot when the 500k pot is turned down to 250k due to the 250k resistance introduced between the pickup and amplifier.
In the research I’ve been doing for my next project build, I’ve seen some guitar circuit diagrams that call for a fixed resistor to be soldered between the pickup input and ground on the volume pot. This reduces the overall resistance of the potentiometer because it is placed in parallel to the resistance track inside the pot, and the idea I’ve had for my strat wiring sort of develops on this;
If a combination of a fixed resistor and potentiometer (connected in series) is placed in parallel across the terminals of the volume pot, the potentiometer can be used to vary the resistance across the volume pot between the pickups and ground, thereby changing the signal bleed effect without introducing resistance between the pickups and amplifier.
It’s basically the same connection method as a regular tone control, but it changes the capacitor out for a resistor, so I can only assume this would provide a different response to a regular tone circuit.
In the calculations I did, by using a 1M volume pot, a 10M pot for the “tone” pot and a 170k fixed resistor soldered between the L1 terminals on the volume and “tone”, this would allow you to change the resistance at the volume pot from 150k to 910k.
I’m interested in what this mod would sound like if used as a tone pot variation, but it should effectively provide the ability to dial in to the “sweet spot” of any pickup set that might be getting overlooked because the initial potentiometer values chosen were less than ideal for the set.
What If use 200k ohms pots pn my bass guitar? I'm looking for warm and muddy tone. Is there any point doing that or should I order some 250k/500k from the internet? Those 200k were only available at my local store.
what happens when you factor in the input impedance of the guitar amplifier?
If you didn't get the responce to this vid, you wanted it should help you understand why if you watch it yourself. Thanks
Any suggestions about changing a Fender tube amp tone pots to 1meg ? I heard the Blues Deluxe comes with 1 meg treble pot from the factory. It has a distinguished bright tone.
Unfortunately I have no suggestions or opinions on this. Everything I work on is at the guitar end of the cable and I leave the amp work to amp techs as a separate specialty.
Difference between audio and linear pot?
& what about tripl coil pickup ?
Can anyone explain to me why loading volume pot changes resonant peak?
Volume 10 means zero resistance which is no signal loss by the pot.
voltage divider calculates
Vin * 500 / R1+R2 = Vin
because R1+R2 == 500
Is ot it oppsoite like 10 means max resistance and when it is 0, there is no resistance
so the signal goes directly to ground with no sound coming?
@@WakizashiSabre no, if you look at the third video about volume, 10 amplitude signals. my conclusion is that his volume knob 10 is not zero resistance.
What do you think about 500k vol + 250k tone for a HSS strat?
I had this and I hated it. It sounded like the Humbucker was choked all the time.
I think gibson neck with 1m pot .. bridge with 250k pot