At first I was like, "What's a blade switch?" and then I was like...

[DustyCat]

...What would happen if there were no switch?
Crazy right? For those of you without an obsession for AAAAAA high quality two- tone wood grain with satin dusting (to satisfy warrentee/pretzel act prevention)  "wood burned" binding (because as awesome as Ivory is, it just might be a little too bright, and psychedelic flames/spilling/flaming charcoallike wood burned binding would be awesome) and aren't thinking about "open tone" single volume, secret piezo pickup hiding "Under The Bridge," (Phew! Gasp!)

I pose this question to you:
Two Humbuckers (or 2 P90's!) One Neck, One Bridge
One Master Volume for each
No switch

Would this configuration work essentially the same. (Except for the automatic 0-100% strength advantage the switch would provide) in terms of Pickup volume and blend?

-DC

 

[line6man]

The volume pots would have to vary the impedance against the pickups, rather than the output, since there would be no switch to remove the unused pot when you want to solo a pickup.

In any case, this is how some people prefer their Les Pauls for independent volume controls, and Jazz Basses have been wired that way for 50 years.

 

[DustyCat]

I was just thinking that on my LP, sometimes I find 2 tone pots to be downright cumbersome. And most of the time I like both pickups together! (Although there is something to be said about the bridge pickup on lower frets and the neck pickup on higher frets.)

Maybe I'm just not using my tone controls to their full potential. Maybe I'm just not trying hard enough.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!...

 

[Cagey]

I think in theory you might be able to pull that off with three pots. Wire the hot leads from two pickups to either side of a lower impedance linear pot, say 50K. The wiper from that would then go as "hot" to a typical volume/tone control circuit. The first would act as a "blender", and the following as control. But, I suspect you'd end up with a lower output since there'd almost always be some series resistance in the signal path, which as we all know is a cardinal sin. Of course, power boosters are cheap, but they're no substitute for the real thing. Might be worth experimenting with, though. Could just be a matter of picking the right values so the compromise is acceptable.

 

[Justinginn]

If you want to clean up the top, how would removing a switch and adding a volume help?  :icon_scratch: Master volume and one switch looks cleaner and (in my experience) is a lot more practical when you're playing music.

 

[line6man]

How about two volume pots, each with push/pull on/off switches? (Volumes varying output impedance.)

 

[DustyCat]

@Lineman6: Now we are cooking

I've never heard of "blade" switch" before, but it makes sense as to the wide arc it moves or cuts to.

What if it was a real blade? On a white guitar with razor edges everywhere, and razor frets and razor edged strings and you have to play "Crazy Train" solo and all, otherwise the kitty gets it!  :evil4:

 

[Death by Uberschall]

I saw a guy who built all of his guitars with no pots, only a selector switch if they had multiple pickups. Single pickup went straight to the output jack. He said he used a mute foot switch to kill the guitar live.

As funny as it sounds, I've considered having just an on/off switch. I use my picking attack and how hard I play to change the volume level coming out of the guitar. I can play so softly at times I can make a distorted amp sound clean. I've already eliminated the tone pot and my guitars always stay on 10 or off. So it could work, LOL.  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Cagey]

Somebody here, I don't remember who, doesn't use onboard controls but does go through a volume pedal. Seems like a reasonable idea if you don't use controls much. I could see going without a tone control pretty easily, but volume controls are useful. I don't know if I'd want it off the guitar or not, but it wouldn't hurt anything.

 

[line6man]

I don't understand players that don't use their volumes. The volume pot is the best way to control your overdrive. Roll it down for a cleaner tone, turn it up a bit for more bite, and crank it to 10 for full blown distortion.

 

[Cagey]

Not everyone wants to control their overdrive. Full-tilt boogie is the order of the day.

 

[DustyCat]

Not everyone wants to control their overdrive. Full-tilt boogie is the order of the day.

You must not like techno music, or the slamming bass drum quarter notes on every. single. beat. Beat. Beat. Beat....

Snare drum?
Forgeeeeetabout it! We're not trying to break up the rhythm and cut the beat in half, we're too busy doing the new dance craze called, "The Defibrillator!"  :laughing7:

-DC

 

[Dan025]

ok I'm all for zero controls. but if you have two pickups and like to use them how about a stereo guitar. each pickup could have different signal chains and if you must different volume pedals.

another idea is hardwire your favorite pickup and cut the other one in or out with a push/pull pot. I'm a neck pickup guy but adding the bridge adds harmonics which is nice at times. that's my comfort zone is those two positions and I'm considering running that on my next guitar. or I might go with 1 pup and have a push/pull tone circuit.

 

[line6man]

ok I'm all for zero controls. but if you have two pickups and like to use them how about a stereo guitar. each pickup could have different signal chains and if you must different volume pedals.

another idea is hardwire your favorite pickup and cut the other one in or out with a push/pull pot. I'm a neck pickup guy but adding the bridge adds harmonics which is nice at times. that's my comfort zone is those two positions and I'm considering running that on my next guitar. or I might go with 1 pup and have a push/pull tone circuit.

I seem to recall a ridiculous YouTube video in which a guy set up some elaborate system of three outputs on his Strat, in order to switch pickups from a stompbox.  :blob7:

Dual outputs are not unheard of in the world of basses. Billy Sheehan's Yamaha Attitude basses, and many Rickenbackers come standard with two outputs. Guitar tones tend to be more about pickup switching than blending, however, which makes the concept a bit impractical in some regards. The general consensus seems to be that there is little advantage to dual outputs over simply buffering one output to separate rigs. This is especially significant when you take into account the general notion that amps and effects tend to contribute more heavily to guitar tones than the voicing of the instrument itself.

On the other hand, it's a wonderful idea to try separate outputs for piezo and magnetic pickups. Maybe you could blend acoustic and electric tones, panned to different sides in the mix.

 

[stubhead]

Here's a good article about tone control:
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2008/Jun/Improving_Tone_Control_Effectiveness.aspx
His point is, is that if everything on your tone control consists of "10" and "suck" your capacitors are too strong - dial them back so your tone control has some useful range.

Obviously if you turn all the knobs on your guitar to "10" then set your amp for it's best tone, everything you do to the guitar knobs is going to be subtractive - it can only get worse-sounding. I grew up on the Gibson four-knob arrangement, and I'm used to it but it does have  a learning curve. If you start with the switch in the middle, both volumes on "7", the bridge tone on "7" and the neck tone on "10" - and THEN set your amp for it's best, you've got a whole rainbow at your fingers, assuming the pickups were matched wisely. 

If you look at the videos of... everybody on Tone Mountain - Chris Poland, Jeff Beck, Eric Johnson, Julien Kasper, Oz Noy, Duane Allman, Steve Morse, name it - Jimi Hendrix? ol' what's his name, that Zeppelin guy.... they're all over the knobs, all the time. The modern idea to have a massive pedalboard with switches to do all the variants is probably an improvement in consistency - when you want to play specific parts each with one tone only - but there's not much learning about what signal strength and initial tone do, if you can't change them. Compare the tone of a humbucker into an all-midrange Marshall amp into really bright Celestion speakers, to the sound of a single-coil through a bright 6L6 amp, into a clean "bass/PA" speaker - Allman used Altec/Lansings, Santana used JBL... hmmm. This all takes a while.

 

[DustyCat]

:binkybaby: Not using tone controls effectively has been a bad habit of mine since I was twelve.
You might like the book  :headbang: "25 Guitar Gods" (see  :hello2: Duane Allman's "manipulation of tone controls like few other guitar players" to prime your point which now has been driven home)

And chalk another technique up on the practice agenda: Tone/Volume.  :icon_thumright:

 

[stubhead]

F.E.: the hardcore tele guys are all over the idea of getting just the right special tone pot and capacitor so you can do wah-wah stuff just likelike Danny Gatton... at least, before he was dead. On a Gibby-style, just set your neck PU to 7 volume and ZERO tone, and the bridge to 7 volume and TEN tone - then messing with either one of the volume knobs you've got 

:hello2: wah-galore  :hello2:
with, like,  a little-finger-hook movement of 1mm.​

 

[DustyCat]

Phew...I thought you were going to say 152 mm

Thanks for the cool tips!  :icon_thumright:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I used to remove the tone circuitry on all my guitars before the tele, I use it on the tele all the time.

In fact, with the 4 way blade switch, and the push/pull pot to split the bridge p/u, I can pretty much use the same amp setup and make all the changes on the guitar itself.