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DIY Stompboxes => Building your own stompbox => Topic started by: loss1234 on June 14, 2008, 11:21:41 AM

Title: how to make a one pot TONE KNOB circuit as found on a guitar?
Post by: loss1234 on June 14, 2008, 11:21:41 AM
i am making a circuit that uses an octave divider. it sounds WAY Better with the tone knob on my Gretsch turned down. so i want to build a tone circuit into my final project that has the tone turned down automatically. (basically i want to cut out the treble in a way similar to my tone knob)

so, are there any schematics out there for a one knob tone control? i assume its a passive control. its amazing how much it does help with octave pedals and the like. it doesnt (And shouldnt be) have to be fancy.

one thing that might help is if anyone knows what a typical tone control does to the high end (does it cut everything above 3khz,etc,


also, is it possible that my guitar uses a ganged pot to control a bass and treble control or is this more common on amps?

my guitar has 2 humbuckers, one tone and one volume and a three way switch. basically when i have the tone down and the pickup switch flipped all the way up, i can get good octave dividing.

thanks all!!
Title: Re: how to make a one pot TONE KNOB circuit as found on a guitar?
Post by: aron on June 14, 2008, 02:11:21 PM
It's just signal to outer lug,  middle lug (wiper) to capacitor, the other end of capacitor to ground. Use the same value pot that's on your guitar. Usually 500k for humbuckers, 250k for single coils. .022uf to .047uf for the capacitor.
Title: Re: how to make a one pot TONE KNOB circuit as found on a guitar?
Post by: joegagan on June 14, 2008, 06:11:21 PM
to use it the way you described, if you would like a fixed highs rolloff, wire up a pot like aron outlined above, try a few different cap values if possible.

then , once you find a setting on the pot that you like, mark it's position, remove it and measure the value. replace the pot with a resistor of a similar value to the pot's resistance.