I'm doing a dual humbucker strat. Plan on 3 knobs. Planning on 2 volume and one tone unless people talk me into something else.
My question is: do you do a single tone for both OR tone for the neck and no tone for the bridge?
Thanks,
Phillip
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Single tone for both.
I'd do single volume, dual or single tone.
Jacob
1v, 1t. The tone is optional in my book :)
i yank the tone pots out of mine.
My cabronita is the first guitar I've had where the tone knob actually gets used. And being able to change volumes to another preset just by changing pickup is very useful!
Alternatively, wire up a G&L PTB size (Passive Treble and Bass Cut). Far more useful than the standard tone knob, though you lose the ability to have two volumes. Schematic is easy to find on line.
Have you considered a push-pull pot for coil tapping. I really dig it for the neck pickup, but I really like a strat neck single coil. Sorry to complicate things:-)
Both pick ups are only two wire humbuckers. So coil tapping is out.
The passive trouble and bass cut sounds interesting.
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Hmm, if I did chrome knobs, I can do a concentric pot for the volume and then the other two pots could be a treble and bass cut.
Just not crazy about chrome knobs
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My ibanez with humbuckers only has one tone - one volume.
Jimmy Herring has a strat with two humbuckers and uses two volumes and a master tone, and his tone is beatiful.
I choose my guitars by how many volume and tone pots they have. I have two guitars where each has two humbuckers, two vol pots and two tone pots. Wouldn't have it any other way.
As Alan mentioned the "preset" way of thinking can get pretty addictive. Especially if you go for the sort of od/fuzz that can clean up very well via the vol knob. While for two single coil pickups I would advise something else, I think you should do at least two vol + one tone on a dual humbucker guitar.
Even with a zendrive (and don't get me started on the fuzz face) I like to do the bridge pickup volume on 5 and neck pickup volume on 8 or 9. Then the bridge position is twangy anc super clean, the middle both pickups give me that ac/dc sorta thing and the neck position is for leads.
Some of the best guitar tones I've heard in my life have been made by setting the amp very bright and then keeping the tone pot on like... 3.
There's so much to explore with those controls. Do the two vols and one tone thing. You won't regret it.
@micro - jimmy herring is a fabulous beast master of a man and I second everything you've said. he has great tone and is a helluva guy!
Definitely keep both volumes, but one or no tone controls.
For many years I've gotten more use out of two volumes on a les paul rather than two tones on a strat, just sayin
Quote from: snz728 on April 22, 2015, 12:13:40 AM
For many years I've gotten more use out of two volumes on a les paul rather than two tones on a strat, just sayin
^this
I think 2 volumes makes a lot a sense. 1 Tone: to me it'd make more sense to have the tone affect the neck only.
What is your experience?
Love this forum btw. Great feedback, really helping me think this through. Really can't afford to try a bunch of options, money wise but more importantly time wise. So many projects in the que.
Just found out I'll be putting a chicken coup together Monday!! Someone we know is moving out of town and has asked us to take their chickens and they've bought a brand new coup to sweeten the deal. Not really sure how I feel about that ???
2 volumes, tone for neck pup only.
+1 on volume + treble + bass control.
The bass roll-off even seems to be the most useful of the 2 tone controls. Makes working with Fuzz and distortion a breeze
I even add one in my single coil guitars when possible
2 volumes and 1 tone for me.
2 volumes and 2 tones even better.
Having 2 volumes also makes it very easy to go from clean (neck pickup, volume wound down) to dirty (bridge pickup, full bore) on single channel valve amps.
Quote from: raulduke on April 22, 2015, 09:17:17 AM
2 volumes and 1 tone for me.
2 volumes and 2 tones even better.
Having 2 volumes also makes it very easy to go from clean (neck pickup, volume wound down) to dirty (bridge pickup, full bore) on single channel valve amps.
This.
Just 2 volumes. Who needs tone knobs anyway?
I don't put tone knobs in my guitars.
But with a tone knob on the bridge, you don't really even need a neck pickup-like an Esquire.
I'm pretty sure I'll do 2 volume one tone (neck-for fuzz stuff).
Thanks for all the feedback!!
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Funny, i just had this discussion with a band mate during rehearsal. He has always played his Ibz les paul and he really need two volume pots. I myself really prefer only one volume knob to control it all. The other are sortof optional to me.
Cheers.
What about a dual pot for the Tone? 8)
It wouldn't necessarily be set-and-forget BUT... at least you would have that control with the 3 pot hole option.
Thought about that but just need to KISS-keep it simple stupid.
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I do single tone on all of my guitars. I understand why someone might want the ability to change the neck and/or bridge tone separately but that's too finnicky for me.
I like to use a spin-a-split as a girth control and a tone pot with a small cap as a high control, of course that's where I have 4 knobs though.
But, if you can fit a dual ganged 100kb in there you could have it wired up as a spin-a-tap for both pickups and have one volume and one tone, and keep the simplicity of a 3-way switch (you still wouldn't have the option of running them in parallel though without a push-pull or other switch)
Edit: I usually go for KISS from a user interface standpoint but beneath that I go for complicated stuff (although my definition of complicated is child's play for most of you guys) - for example my telecaster deluxe has a neck humbucker with a tap on the screw coil which means I had to run a 5th wire from it. This allows me to use a push-pull volume for series/parallel, and a dual ganged 100kb pot for simultaneous spin-a-split and spin-a-tap. It's not perfect - the volume jumps before going back down again when I'm using that knob, but there aren't any extra knobs or switches and I can get strat sounds, Tele sounds, p-90 sounds and vintage neck humbucker sounds and switch between them with minimal knob fiddling. On my les paul I have a similar setup but the dual ganged potentiometer acts as a spin-a-split for both pickups rather than just one like in the telecaster.
The only problem with those setups is it took a while to figure out how to do everything and it's kind of a birds nest under the hood so you do have to spend time planning it out and be really neat with the wiring otherwise there will be problems haha.