Could I use a regular volume pot to pan between two pickups?

[scandoslav]

Would a garden-variety 1 meg linear-taper pot work as a blend pot if wired like this? I know there's such a thing as a blend/pan pot, but I'm not one for doing things the easy way.

[dvadneau]

I doubt it's going to do what you think. All you're doing is adding a 1M (full to one side) resistor between a pickup and the output. That's not the same as what a volume or blend pot does.

I think you'll just end up adding noise.

Easy to try though, and easy enough to throw a blend pot in there when you're done

[trevorus]

Yeah, it may produce an effect, but not quite the desired one. A blend pot is two volumes with a different taper.

[scandoslav]

I doubt it's going to do what you think.

I've thought about it a little more and I think you're right.

My real goal, I should've stated, is to find a position on this pot at which there's a 1-to-1 relationship between the signal from one pickup and the signal from the other. I don't particularly care what happens to either side of that "sweet spot," if said sweet spot even exists.

Here's my thinking, based on a spectacularly shaky understanding of guitar electronics and electronics in general:

On a regular volume pot, at "zero", the wiper is shorted to ground at the rightmost* lug, yeah? If it were another pickup's positive wire instead of ground it'd "short" to that pickup, I figure. If it were a zero load pickup, then at the left* lug, 10, the wiper would be shorting to the other pickup. So far so good, I think.

I'm not sure what'll happen in between, given the involvement of the resistant element. I hope it's some approximation of two pickups in parallel. I imagine the 1-to-1 relationship sweet spot is far more towards the leftmost* pickup than the center position of the pot... I'm actually thinking that a lower resistance pot would be a better choice...

Easy to try though, and easy enough to throw a blend pot in there when you're done

Amen! Though this is a roller pot ala the Jaguar/Jazzmaster's rhythm circuit, so a true blender could be a problem!

*(rightmost and leftmost in relation to the above diagram)