Blend pot question

[tiorunder]

Can I use a blend pot to split a humbucker ? The center detent would be a full humbucker and from there I could dial in any percentage of the 2 coils.

Ex: 90/10 - 60/40 - 87/13 - 100/0 - would this work ?

Thanks in advance.

John

[tiorunder]

Another thought - 2 humbuckers, 1 volume, 1 tone, 3 way switch and 2 blend pots - 1 for each pickup. Would this work, would it be practical and how would you wire it?

[KoreanGuitarMan]

I don't think so. Perhaps I'm understanding you incorrectly but here goes what I think you're stabbing at.

With a blender pot, one coil is always full on and you're adding more of the other coil during the sweep.

So 0-4 is top coil full on adding various amounts of bottom coil, 6-10 bottom coil full on adding various amounts of top coil, with 5 being both coils full on. This is essentially a dual "Spin-a-Split" pot, in that either coil can be full on.

The other type of pot commonly mistaken for a blender pot is actually a Pan control, but this will only partially accomplish what you're trying to do. A pan pot at either extreme will have one or the other coil full on.

From 0-4 you're going 100/0 - 80/20 - 60/40.
From 6-10 you're going 40/60 - 20/80 - 0/100
Center position is essentially both coils at 50% output since a pan pot must produce constant output. There is no position where both coils are full on. Unlike a blender pot, at the center position boil coils are still under significant resistance (to produce constant output over the sweep of the pot).

[KoreanGuitarMan]

In your case, I really think that a blender pot would be the more useful of the two since, IMO, having a position where you have the humbucker full on is the utmost. I don't think the effect of a pan pot on a single, split humbucker is really going to produce a terribly impressive effect because the coils are right next to one another.

In the end though, you might find that a "spin-a-split" is sufficient for your needs. You may discover that with a blender pot on a single pickup there might not be enough difference in the sound of the pickup coils to necessitate the ability to have either full on blending the other. Perhaps a spin-a-split with the top coil full on blending the bottom coil would be a better choice, also affording you more finite control since you'd have double the sweep for a single control over a blender.

A pan pot would be much more useful as a replacement for a three way switch in a two humbucker guitar, giving you finite adjustment.

Can't really begin to tell you how to wire up such a rig though as I've never done it.