HB's "balance' control?

[petemoore]

I don't have a guitar switch, and so got to thinking. Uh oh...
 I've been entertaining the idea of using a volume control as a balance control between the bridge and neck pickups...but want the lowdown...since I've never seen wiring like this I'm suspect that it might be hard' to implement, or not possible without actives.
 How am I doing so far?
 I'm picturing each pickups output going to either side of a pot, the wiper going to a regular volume control, then to the booster or output jack.
 BTW I slapped an Epiphone Special LP neck [absolutely no signs of fretwear whatsoever], on my Super Dense body, I'm experiencing Low Action New Guitar playfeel again...amazing how fretwear can creep up. 'Frank' [Einstien] and I became instant new lifelong friends, I couldn't put the new AXE down...had to play for over 3 hrs.       .
 I think 'enstien' deserves a Neck Pickup [part of a set, I just haven't gotten the Neck HB in there yet] before his debut this Friday.
 Happy Birthday to me,  Happy Birthday to Me,  Happy Birthday: dear Meee' eeee,  ....Happy Birthday to me ! and LOL!!!

[gtech]

I think it would be better to decide on one of the pick-ups as being ON all the time, and use a pot in series with the other pick-up to add it partially or completely.

That's what people do with Strats.

http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/_gtr/strat_blend1.pdf

That way, you would be able to have both pick-ups on FULL. It would not be the case with a blend pot.

Gilles C

...Happy Birthday. :?:  :?:

[Eric H]

I put a blend control on my franken-epi-335 in 1975. I also had mini switches for combining the four coils of the 2 HB'ers every way possible --Mark Hammer was probably doing this around the same time ;-)

Gilles is correct --even with a dual-pot with log and anti-log it drove me nuts not being able to have them both full on. I ripped alll that stuff out 6 months later and went back to a standard gibson 3-way, a master volume, and master tone. I have so many things going on on the floor, and with my hands, simple controls work better for me --YMMV.

-Eric

[petemoore]

Thanks Guys !!!

[vanhansen]

I had thought about this kind of idea before but realized that I would never be able to get the full potiential of the pickups with the control in the middle.  They would be working only half of their output, like have 2 volume controls (one on each) turned down half way.  I decide one volume (or two) and a selector switch suits me fine.

[petemoore]

For a while I may just wire it as tho the switch were in the middle position.
 For this wiring each pickup would go through a 'regular volume control, then the outputs from the volumes get tied together then and sent to output.
 Sorry for the borderline OT< not knowing if I can find such a 'funky setups page. I'll get a switch in there...
 Well I Do have DPDT. Possibly theres an easy way to get one only / both pickups using that.

[vanhansen]

pete, just use a 3-way toggle switch, either strat-style or an angled LP style.  That would be much simpler.

[puretube]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PETE !!!

[gtech]

You could also install this kind of volume/switch.

http://guitarelectronics.zoovy.com/product/CPM250P

Gilles

[Tubebass]

Stew-Mac, and probably others, make a blend pot that has both p/u's all the way up when the pot is set in its centre position. My Carvin bass has one of these as a standard feature. I modded mine so the pu's are in series when both are on.....huge, meaty tone!

[WGTP]

Was the Gibson Maruder wired that way?  

[Peter Snow]

Here's one way of doing it with a dual ganged, centre tapped, linear pot.

Each pickup has its "hot" wire connected to each of the wipers on the ganged pot.

On one pot a wire jumper goes from the left lug to the centre tap.  On the other pot a jumper goes from the right lug to the centre tap.  The remaining lugs on each pot (left and right respectively) go to ground. The centre tap from each pot is the output.

At the start of the rotation, one pickup is touching the grounded lug - so no output.  At the same time the other pickup is touching the lug connected to the lug/centre tap combination that is going to the output, so it has full output.  As the shaft rotates there is no change to the pot with the connection to left lug/centre tap, it's still at full output.  But on the other pot the wiper leaves the grounded lug and moves closer to the centre tap, thus increasing the volume of that pickup.  When the wiper is in the centre position (a click detent would help here), both pickups are on full.

As the shaft continues to turn past the centre point the reverse happens - the pot that started out on full volume now starts to decrease and the pickup that started off at zero volume is now on full and remains on full for the rest of the rotation.  At the other end of the rotation, one pickup is on full (and has been since the centre point) and the other is now off completely.

Problems?  The first would be finding a suitable dual ganged, centre tapped, linear pot. Try Mouser.
The second would be in getting the value of the pots right so there is not too much overall volume drop or not enough gradual control (low volume then suddenly full volume at or near the centre tap).

Does this make sense?  Can it be done with a single centre tapped pot?  I don't know, I don't have time to figure it out  :?

Cheers,

Peter

[petemoore]

So now I have options enough to try to figure out !!! Cool.
 That's basically what I'm looking for,
 I thought maybe I saw that type of control on a guitar once, not sure. Certainy not a common thing, probably there's a reason for it....and as always ..YMMV.
 Getting the switch from Stew Mac is looking like a reasonable option, after having considered others. BTW, I did some minor fret filing and setup..I could easily say too much about how nice having a new neck is.