Where to find and how to wire a Blend Pot?

[ericmeyer4]

I am adding a neck pickup to my HotRod Esquire and a blend pot aswell.'

I'm adding a blend pot so I can mix the sound of the neck and bridge pups together and because I wont have the selector switch. I am going to leave that as a tone switch like on a standard esquire.

I don't know much about blend pots and I hope this will do what I think it will do.

If I understand it correctly in the middle it will be both full on? At 0 it will be just the neck and at 10 just the bridge? Then more or less of one pickup at the different inbetween settings?

How would I wire this? And were can I find a blend pot? Or is it just a standard volume pot?

Thanks,
Eric

[AniML]

Not sure if you want 250K or 500K but just click thru to the correct page

http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/POTS_C12.cfm

This is Strat wiring but should give you a start

http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/pdf/W...at_Blender.pdf

BTW I did a blender w/ master tone & volume on my Squire strat & really like it

[BigAlTheBird]

You could go the Duo Jet way, with four knobs.

Master Tone
Neck Volume
Bridge Volume
Master Volume

The best electronic setup I've ever used. You can blend them however you want without dipping in volume, it's beautiful! More precise too. Just add a knob at the top of the guitar.

I think that's an awesome idea, lots of work though.

As far as bland pots work, I don't know. Sorry! Artie can field that.

[BigAlTheBird]

Not sure if you want 250K or 500K but just click thru to the correct page

http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/POTS_C12.cfm

This is Strat wiring but should give you a start

http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/pdf/W...at_Blender.pdf

BTW I did a blender w/ master tone & volume on my Squire strat & really like it

I don't get it at all, the way that's supposed to work. I believe it does, but it's over my head. Why do you turn the pot CCW to blend???

[ericmeyer4]

You could go the Duo Jet way, with four knobs.

Master Tone
Neck Volume
Bridge Volume
Master Volume

The best electronic setup I've ever used. You can blend them however you want without dipping in volume, it's beautiful! More precise too. Just add a knob at the top of the guitar.

I think that's an awesome idea, lots of work though.

As far as bland pots work, I don't know. Sorry! Artie can field that.

My plan is Master Volume, Blend Pots, Master Tone with Tone Switch.

I will add the pot on the horn ala Gretsch. I might even put a Gretsch knob on there as well. lol.

I figure if I get the setting I like put the volume is a little off I can adjust the pickups up and down. Once I find a setting I like I usually just set and forget.

[BigAlTheBird]

Good plan.

Very cool guitar dude!

[ArtieToo]

My plan is Master Volume, Blend Pots, Master Tone with Tone Switch.

Once again, be aware of the problem you'll have with that setup. Since you're talking about a blend pot, instead of a selector switch, you don't want the "Acme" diagram. You need a true blend pot. If you use one of those with a 500k master volume, your pups will "see" a 166k load. Thats going to be a pretty good treble hit. If you make the master volume a 1 meg pot, you can bump that up to 250k. That won't be quite so bad.

Somewhere around here I have that diagram. I'll post it when I find it.

[ericmeyer4]

Once again, be aware of the problem you'll have with that setup. Since you're talking about a blend pot, instead of a selector switch, you don't want the "Acme" diagram. You need a true blend pot. If you use one of those with a 500k master volume, your pups will "see" a 166k load. Thats going to be a pretty good treble hit. If you make the master volume a 1 meg pot, you can bump that up to 250k. That won't be quite so bad.

Somewhere around here I have that diagram. I'll post it when I find it.

I was planing on using a 250k pot for the master volume control.

[ArtieToo]

That will give you an effective 125k load on the pups.

[ericmeyer4]

That will give you an effective 125k load on the pups.

This will be with single coils in a tele. Would that be a problem or should I go for the 1 meg?

[ArtieToo]

Personally, I'd go with the 1 meg. 125k is in Livewire territory for pup loads.

[BigAlTheBird]

Oh I didn't realize no pup switch. Crazy.

I think you should still have a switch somewhere.

[KeeperOS]

Hmm, if you want to use a blend pot INSTEAD of a 3-way then you'd probably need a dual no-load pot with a center detente and I'm not that sure you can find a 1 Meg one...

[ericmeyer4]

Looking for the stuff I'm starting to think to go with a series of switches. I plenty of time to think about it.

[ArtieToo]

You know . . . you could get very close to your original plan with a simple compromise. Just use a Fralin-style blend configuration on the neck pickup. The bridge pup is the foundation of an Esquire. Just dial in as much additional neck as you want, when you want. No weird pots, and still remains a fairly clean control layout. Just a thought.



The blue line is where you'ld make the cut in the carbon trace to make a no-load pot.