Push/Pull Pots
Let’s take a look at push/pull potentiometers. Shown here are three specimens- Bourns PDB183-GTR01-504A2, Gibson PPAT520, and AllParts EP 4286-000. These are all 500k audio taper pots with knurled split shafts. The EP4286 has a longer 3/4” shaft, while the others have the standard 3/8” or “short” shaft. This Bourns has the highest torque of the bunch– it’s the hardest to turn, while the Gibson is the easiest, and the AllParts has just a touch of mechanical graininess to the feel.
A push/pull pot is just a potentiometer sitting on top of a DPDT switch. The switch actuator is the shaft of the pot itself, which drives down right into the switch. When you pull the shaft up, you are moving the switch actuator to connect the top half of the switch, and when you push the shaft down, you are moving the switch actuator down to connect the bottom half of the switch. There’s no built-in electrical connection between the pot and the switch – if you want the switch to control the pot’s behavior, you need to connect up some wires (as in the example described at the end of this article).
First let’s identify which lugs are connected in which switch positions.
The switch of a push/pull has two rows of 3 lugs, oriented vertically. I’ve labeled them in this picture A,B,C on the left and D,E,F on the right. ABC and DEF are two totally independent switching circuits, but controlled by the same push/pull actuator. I also labeled the pot lugs X,Y,Z for the wiring example below.
As with any dual-throw switch, the actuator toggles what the middle lug (B and E in this dual-pole switch) is connected to. When you push the switch down, B is connected to C, and E is connected to F (while A and D are disconnected from everything). When you pull the switch up, B is connected to A, and E is connected to D (while C and F are disconnected from everything).
This should be pretty obvious once you look at it, but you can always confirm by using a multimeter in continuity mode – touch one multimeter lead to one lug, and then touch the other lead to each of the other lugs, looking for a connection by listening for the beep, or watching for zero resistance. Each lug will only be connected to one other lug, in each switch position.
There are many useful applications for push/pulls. Let’s describe a simple one: making a pickup volume pot which cuts out the pickup signal when pulled. Kill switch!
We’ll only need one of the switch circuits here (so a SPDT switch would suffice, but they don’t make SPDT push/pulls as far as I know). Wire the pickup signal to switch lug C, and then wire switch lug B up to the center of the volume pot (lug Y). The other two volume pot lugs are the usual arrangement- one side (lug Z) to ground, and the other side (lug X) over to the tone pot or output jack.
NOTE: connecting the pickup signal to the center lug gives you independent volume wiring which is useful for 3-pickup guitars with a 3-way selector, or for 2-pickup guitars where you want to avoid interaction between the 2 volume controls. The downside is significant treble-loss when turning down the volume pot. You can instead wire the pickup signal B to the side lug X, and the output to the center lug Y. This will give you non-independent volume controls, which will eliminate treble loss when turning down- perfect for guitars with a single master volume and typical on 2-pickup Les Paul style guitars. Note that on a two-pickup guitars with a 3-way selector in the middle position- turning down one volume all the way will also kill the other (hence the term non-independent). The kill switch is the perfect solution to that problem!
Now when you pull the knob up, B gets switched to connect to A (which is connected to nothing), so your pickup goes silent. When you push down, B gets switched to connect to C and you hear your pickup through the volume pot.
Note, you can reverse the behavior so that the pickup is only active when pulled, and killed when pushed, by wiring the pickup signal to switch lug A instead of C.
For other examples of push/pull pots in guitar circuits, see the comprehensive list of wiring diagrams at the guitarelectronics website.
March 7, 2012 @ 11:59 am
Where do you connect the tone pot?
March 7, 2012 @ 12:16 pm
A push/pull is just a pot and a switch. What are you doing with it? If you’re using the pot as a volume, then you’ll take the signal output of the pot over the to tone pot, as usual.
You may find this useful:
http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/wiringresources/
-John
September 15, 2017 @ 6:37 pm
I want to use push pull to switch between 2 pickups
October 3, 2017 @ 9:01 am
Michael- look at the switch part of the push/pull as a regular DPDT switch. You can use one side of the switch to toggle between two pickup signal wires. Wire it up just as I showed in the example kill switch, but instead of leaving the A lug empty, connect your other pickup signal wire there.
November 17, 2021 @ 1:41 am
hello john, Andrew here from Malaysia, if u dont mind solving my issue, please do.
i want my guitar wiring look like this;
*1 humbucker (2 conductor wire)
*1 volume push/pull (pull for killswitch, push to bring signal back)
*no tone
can u help me draw a diagram for this? been searching everywhere, couldnt find it. hope u can solve it, thank u so much 😞
November 18, 2021 @ 2:30 pm
Hi Andrew,
You application (pull to kill) is basically what I described in the above post. See the labelled picture above, with the pot lugs XYZ, and the switch lugs ABC and DEF. You’d wire your pickup positive conductor to switch bottom C, and switch center B to pot side lug X. Pot center lug Y goes to the jack signal. and Pot side lug Z goes to ground. Pickup negative conductor goes to ground. And jack shield goes to ground.
You might find it helpful ti also look at these example circuit diagrams: https://guitarelectronics.com/guitar-wiring-resources/1-pickup-guitar-wiring-diagrams/1-humbucker-1-volume/
Try it out with alligator leads and make sure you understand it, then solder it all up and you should be good!
-John
March 7, 2012 @ 7:43 pm
Thanks.
May 17, 2012 @ 9:06 pm
So it seems Bourns is the winner here would you agree with that? Why does CTS not make a Push/pull like this? BTW Love your Youtube channel!
May 17, 2012 @ 10:30 pm
Thanks!
CTS manufactures pots for various vendors- it’s possible that the AllParts push/pulls are made by CTS. I wish potentiometer marketing/branding was less opaque!
John
July 6, 2012 @ 10:12 pm
Hi John!
If i use the push pull like a kill switch and a tone pot, where i connect the cap??
July 8, 2012 @ 5:08 pm
Referring to the picture, it would be something like this:
– guitar signal to X
– tone cap from Y to B
– C to ground (or A to ground, depending on which way you want the switch to operate)
Hope this helps,
-John
October 22, 2012 @ 11:29 am
I have a 4-string cigar box guitar I am planning out before I build it. I have three single coil pickups from a Fender and a push pull pot at my disposal. I really only want to use one single coil pickup and the push/pull pot (thinking more than one will be overkill).
I am trying to figure out if I can do anything with the pot other than a kill switch (really like the diagram and explanation above btw). Is there a way to have the pot be both a tone and volume (pull out for tone, but it always to be volume control)? Or would I be better off using two pickups and wiring the pot to have the pickups run in series or parallel?
October 22, 2012 @ 10:06 pm
Hi Brian,
You can’t make it both a tone and volume control, as there’s only one potentiometer here. To have operate on two signals, you’d need a dual gang potentiometer (which gives you two pots, controlled by the same actuator), or a stacked concentric pot (which gives you two pots with two actuators, but all in the space of a single pot).
It’s better to think of a push/pull as a single pot and a DPDT switch (and bonus- the switch actuator is the pot shaft). So anywhere in a circuit diagram that you see a SPDT or DPDT switch, you can use the push/pull switch.
Hope this helps clarify,
John
March 7, 2013 @ 4:01 pm
Hi, great information here. I have a Gibson les Paul 3 humbucker. I’m considering using 3 p/p pots as three volumes and a master tone on the way to the jack. Im going to use the wiring shown in the diagram in the lower portion of the column. I’ve been advised that turning the volume down on any of the three pots will ground the whole guitar. I thought once you kill a humbucker it’s connected pot won’t effect the sound at all…
Shawn
March 7, 2013 @ 4:19 pm
Hi Shawn,
I just amended my post text with information about independent vs non-independent wiring.
If you have a 3-pickup guitar with a 3-way switch (like my Epiphone Riviera), then that’s how your guitar will be wired. With that setup, you do not kill the other volumes when turning down one volume. However, you do get significant treble-loss when turning down. Since the 3-way switch doesn’t offer any way to isolate one pickup – the middle is always on and the only way to turn it off is to turn its volume all the way down. So, they have to use independent wiring (otherwise the whole guitar would be grounded when turning down the middle).
But by adding kill switches, you can change the guitar to non-independent wiring to eliminate that treble loss. Referring to my picture, you’d connect B to X and Y to out. Then to turn off a pickup, you can just pull the pot. If you were to turn the pot all the way down without pulling, you would indeed ground the whole guitar.
Hope this helps,
John
March 7, 2013 @ 5:03 pm
I wasn’t going to use the toggle at all, it won’t be wired. The 3 humbuckers wire directly to 3 p/p pots then to a common master tone the out. This opens up all the options. I only use volume pots at max anyway. Thanks.
September 9, 2013 @ 7:42 am
Hi,
I’ve been doing some research to try and understand the wiring in my guitar and I came across this article (which is by far the most in-depth, yet simple to understand).
I wonder if you would mind helping me? I have a very simple set up on a Fender guitar. It’s a single humbucker and and single push/pull pot.
I very much like the idea of the kill switch, but I just tried the wiring setup from the main article, and I’m not getting anything. Any help or advice would be really appreciated. Also, I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to electronics (I’m trying to learn, but I’m really not clued up), so even when you say to ‘ground’ I’m not sure if you mean the ground on the bottom of the pot or the the main ground at the jack? There is a silver metallic strip on the back of the scratch plate that all the electronics sit on. I don’t know if that is useful?
Many thanks in advance, Phil 😀
September 9, 2013 @ 2:21 pm
If you don’t have a multimeter, you should acquire one (even a cheap $5 one will suffice).
With that, you can test the switch lugs so you understand which lugs are connected in the pushed and pulled positions.
For the ground, it must be electrically continuous to the main ground on the jack. A pot back (or that metallic strip) may be what you need, but you should confirm with the multimeter that they’re connected to the jack ground.
-John
March 17, 2015 @ 10:42 am
Hey John.
Lemme start off by saying I am a huge fan of your videos. They’re high quality and extremely informative. Keep up the amazing work.
But here’s my question; I have a three humbucker Les Paul that I am building. I have it wired like a normal Les Paul but with the neck and bridge connected to a normal selector, one volume, one tone, and a switch that brings in the middle pickup in and out of phase. Could I use the diagram above to shut off the pickups connected to the pickup selector so I can get the middle pickup on its own?
Thank you so much!
Brendan
March 17, 2015 @ 10:45 am
Yes, you can. As always, I recommend that you start with alligator leads to experiment with your circuit and make sure that it works it as you want, before you start soldering anything.
John
August 22, 2015 @ 8:24 pm
Hey John, I am planning on wiring a single coil p-bass pickup with tone control only, no volume control and use a push/pull in pull position as kill switch. How would I wire this? Thanks
August 23, 2015 @ 3:56 pm
Referring to the picture in my post, you’d do something like:
Pickup signal to switch lug C, switch lug B to pot center lug Y. Pot center lug Y (the input of the tone circuit) also goes to output jack. Pot side lug Z goes to the tone cap to ground. Other side lug of pot is unused. Switch lugs D,E,F are unused. You could optionally wire A to ground just to be tidy.
Experiment with alligator leads to make sure everything works as you expect – verify the direction of pot rotation for your tone control, and the push vs pull works the way you want – kill up vs down). Once you’re happy, write down your connections, and then remove the alligator leads, and solder some wires in place.
Good luck!
-John
August 24, 2015 @ 9:26 pm
Thank you sir, very helpful.
May 21, 2016 @ 8:51 pm
I need to use my single volume push/pull pot as a master series/par switch for both the neck and bridge humbuckers. It has no tone and a 3-way toggle. I can’t find the diagram anywhere. Can anybody help me out? Thanks
May 22, 2016 @ 9:50 pm
Hi Bo,
Here’s a diagram for a single humbucker with push/pull volume to do series parallel:
http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/WD1H10_04/Guitar-Wiring-Diagram-1-Humbucker1-VolumeSeries-Parallel.html
The reason you’re not finding a diagram to switch both humbuckers simultaneously is that it requires more poles on the switch. I don’t think anyone makes a 4PDT push/pull.
Here’s a diagram showing individual switches for the series/parallel for the two humbuckers:
http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/WD2HH3T10_04/2-Humbuckers3-Way-Toggle-Switch1-VolumeSeries-Parallel.html
Hope this helps,
-John
June 11, 2016 @ 6:13 pm
Are push/pull pots always on/off? Can they be set-up like two pots that work at the same time, for example to have two volume controls active at one time, but simply accessed by the pushing and pulling?
I’m thinking of this mainly as a visual thing, to have a single strat knob instead of two concentric knobs.
Thanks! 🙂
June 11, 2016 @ 8:18 pm
A push/pull pot is a single potentiometer with a switch actuated by the pot shaft.
To have two independent pots, you’d need a concentric pot. To have two “ganged” pots controlled by the same shaft, you’d need a stereo dual-ganged pot.
-John
June 12, 2016 @ 9:27 pm
Thanks!
That really helps me a lot!
August 17, 2016 @ 4:32 pm
Is it possible to wire a single vol/vol 500k push/pull potentiometer, no tone/blend knobs or pickup selector switches, 2 single coil pickups, bass guitar. Ok, wire each pickup to its designated pot, and use the pull/out as a bridge complete circuit bypass/killswitch? Push/in would be both pickups on. Ill get my tone from my rig and pedals, running bi-amped clean/dirty. Any help is appreciated.
August 18, 2016 @ 10:05 am
I assume you mean a dual-gang push/pull like this? http://www.wdmusic.com/bourns_push_pull_pot_dpdt_a_taper_metric_knurled_shaft_500k_bourns_500pp.html
If so, you can think of it as two independent volume pots both controlled by the same shaft, and an independent DPDT switch, which you can do anything with. If you want to make the DPDT switch be a kill-switch for both pickups that would be fine. A DPDT switch is like two independent single switches controlled by the same actuator- so you can use that for your two signal paths. For one side, the three switch lugs would be the pickup signal, out to the vol pot, and ground– so when the switch is one way, the pickup signal goes to the vol pot, and when the switch is the other way, ground is connected to the vol pot (silent). Then do the same thing for the other pickup on the side of the switch and the other vol pot.
Hope that helps,
John
November 28, 2016 @ 9:04 am
Hi there! I’m thinking of wiring a pushpull pot to an emg preamp/gain boost which is by default activsted by a miniswitch because I’d like to activste it whith the pull of a pot instead of the switch. I would only use the push pull as a switch. This is the picture of the actual preamp.
https://www.google.it/search?q=emg+pa2&client=safari&hl=it-it&prmd=svin&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiCgu7b9svQAhUDiCwKHRS9ByUQ_AUICSgD&biw=320&bih=460#imgrc=5e0niWWgMNiWHM%3A
Is it possible?
Could you give me a hint on which connections to solder where? I’m quite lost here.
Thank you very much in advance!
Edgar
November 28, 2016 @ 10:31 pm
Hi Edgar,
It looks like that EMG preamp has a simple SPST switch (two switch lugs– which are either connected or not, depending on switch position). You can remove that switch from the circuit board, and connect two wires in its place. Then connect those two wires to the DPDT switch on the push/pull.
You can just use half of one side of the DPDT switch — e.g. lugs A and B in the picture in my example (or B and C, depending on whether you want the switch activated when in the pulled or pushed position).
If you’re still confused about the DPDT switch lugs, then use a multimeter and just write down a matrix of which lugs are connected to each other in the various switch positions. It should quickly become very clear.
Hope this helps,
John
November 28, 2016 @ 11:32 pm
Thank you very much! That was my main doubt because there are two pind connectinh the switch to the board, but right underneath in there are other 6 as ypu can see in this picture of the back of the preamp.
https://www.google.it/search?q=emg+pa2&client=safari&hl=it-it&prmd=svin&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijpNjGuc3QAhXINpoKHQSRApgQ_AUICSgD&biw=320&bih=460#imgrc=H2bHIBhD72EuZM%3A
Thankyou
November 29, 2016 @ 8:19 am
Those are other circuit components, not switch pins.
You can see the base of the switch has 3 pins, only two of which appear to be connected to the circuit board. (Center pin may just be a stabilizer). Desolder the switch and look at it with a multimeter to see how it works.
-John
June 5, 2017 @ 9:44 pm
Hey, if I want to use this to wire an output cut (multiple resistors wired in series) how would I connect it? I want “down” to be the resistors active, and “up” to be a bypass of the resistors.
June 6, 2017 @ 10:08 am
You’ll need to experiment a bit. (Try out your ideas using alligator leads, before soldering). Referring to my picture with the letters A,B,C on the switch lugs, I guess you could wire the pickup signal to B, resistors between C and the pot lug, and also wire A up to the same pot lug. So when pushed, B connects to C which sends the signal through the resistors to the volume pot. And when pulled, B connects to A, which sends the signal directly to the volume pot.
-John
October 24, 2017 @ 10:25 am
I just received an Epi Riviera P93. I am looking at your information above to wire in the push-pull ‘killswitch’ for the middle pickup. The one think I can’t wrap myself around (based upon the wiring schematic you provided elsewhere for the Riviera) is won’t this also ‘kill’ the output to the tone pot for the entire circuit? Thanks for any enlightenment here!
October 24, 2017 @ 12:17 pm
Hi Craig,
I never did post my revised Riviera circuit explanation. I have a draft of it here somewhere, and will post it soon. Check back this evening!
-John
October 24, 2017 @ 12:39 pm
Oh, fantastic! That would be a HUGE help. For such a great Guitar, there does not seem to be a lot of information available on it. Your site is certainly the exception. Thanks so much!
October 24, 2017 @ 2:20 pm
Hey Craig- here you go: https://www.planetz.com/riviera-p-93-middle-pickup-mods. Hope this helps!
-John
Riviera P-93 Middle Pickup Mods – Planet Z
October 25, 2017 @ 11:21 am
[…] In this circuit, I’m using the push/pull’s potentiometer as a master volume, and I’m using one side of the DPDT switch as a kill-switch on the middle pickup. For more on push/pull pots, see my previous article on the subject. […]
December 31, 2017 @ 1:56 am
Some great info here, thanks John! I am just getting into learning about push pulls as I have a rather adventurous project ahead…I can’t work it out however. Basically, I want to create a circuit with 2 humbuckers, 1 volume (no tone) and a 3-way toggle switch but have a light up display in the guitar (lit by LEDs). I want the guitar to sound when push-pull is in both positions but when pulled up, it also lights up the display (but cuts off lights when in push position)…I’d be very grateful for any help. Cheers!
January 1, 2018 @ 7:32 am
Hi Oliver, that sounds like a fun project. So it sounds like you want your switch to only affect the power to the display- the humbuckers are always sounding. In that case, just use one side of the push/pull DPDT as a switch to provide/cut power to your display.
Hope this helps!
-John
January 14, 2018 @ 4:23 am
Hi John!. Great post!
I have a guitar with 1 Humbucker (bridge) and 2 singles (neck / middle). I have a toggle switch DPDT. The connection on the toggle switch is:
up: neck pickup
middle: neck / middle pickups
down: bridge pickup.
I want to put a push/pull DPDT to turn on/off only the middle pickup no matter where the switch is. But I can’t do it. But there is a problem. When I put the switch down (bridge pickup on) and I pull the push/pull pot, it turns on the middle pickup, but also the neck pickup. I can’t leave only the middle pickup on with the bridge pickup. With the toggle switch in the other positions everything is fine. But with the toggle switch on the bridge position and the push/pull up all pickups are actives. I’m going crazy with this! Can you help me please?
Thank you very much in advance!
Francisco
January 15, 2018 @ 9:57 pm
Hi Francisco, It sounds like your idea isn’t really compatible with a 3-way pickup selector switch. You should draw out a diagram of your switch in each of the switch positions so you can understand why you’re hearing what you’re hearing. I don’t think you should have the middle pickup connected to the selector switch at all. You really just need a two-way switch to select neck or bridge and the middle pickup would be added into the output via the push/pull.
-John
January 16, 2018 @ 3:29 am
Thanks John! The toggle switch is DPDT, 6 lugs. It’s made for wire 3 pickups. I already have this guitar wire this way when I bought it. I decided to change the pots and the all the wires. I pulled everything out but now I can’t remember the connections on the toggle switch and on the push/pull. Anyway I really want to keep this configuration on the toggle switch: neck – neck/middle – bridge. And use the push pull to turn the middle pick on. I can send you a diagram of the toggle switch so you can visualize better the connection. Cheers!
February 5, 2019 @ 2:32 pm
Hi, great site! I’m wanting to build a tile with 3 singles but I want be able to play THE B, M, N together, just the B & N , N & M,
B & M with using just 3 pots, 1dpdt volume & 2 tone pots, will this work or is there a wiring diagram already out there I can use? I don’t want to use a mini toggle, thanks harry
February 5, 2019 @ 3:31 pm
Hi Harry,
You should be able to add a middle pickup to a regular 2-pickup, 3-way switch tele circuit. You can enable/disable the middle pickup signal using the volume push/pull (like like a kill switch on the middle pickup signal). Teles typically only have a single tone pot, but if you use two, you’d need to make a choice of connecting the middle signal to one or the other. Or take a look at the Fender Deluxe tele circuit- three pickups and a 5-way strat style switch – but that won’t give you B+M+N without a mod or push/pull. You might be interested to read about the Fender S-1 switch: https://www.fender.com/articles/tech-talk/how-the-s-1-switch-gives-you-more-tonal-options/
Good luck with your project!
-John
May 8, 2023 @ 8:29 am
Lots of great info on here.
Old thread I see, so I’m taking a chance at some advice.
I have an Ltd viper 401. 2 active emg 81/85’s humbuckers, 2 pots, and a 3 way toggle.
I took the emg’s and wiring out and am installing fishman KSE’ pickup set that uses 2 push pull pots.
I’m trying to figure out what wires from the input Jack connect to the pickups for both to have push pull capabilities. Also the wires from the 3 way toggle to what goes to what on the pots. Both these pickups have the quick connect signal clips and a quick connect signal clip that’s bigger. The neck has a purple and blue wire (not power)
Bridge has and orange and yellow wire.
With 2 push pull pots. I think that one color wire from neck connects to a colored wire from the bridge. Then the other 2 colored wires ( 1 from neck one from bridge connect together. Then, I’m not sure where they connect to on the push pull pots. These are so confusing to me for some reason. Maybe I’m overthinking it. I can’t find a diagram for hooking those pickups to 2 push pull pots and a 3 way toggle.
All I can find are diagrams for fishman fluence modern pickups with 2 vol and 2 tone.
I’m needing just 2 pots and 3way toggle. Ugh.
Hopefully someone will see this old thread and be able to point me in the right direction.
Thanks.
May 10, 2023 @ 2:20 pm
Hey Nic- I don’t have an easy answer for you. I’d recommend going through the other Fishman wiring diagrams to get ideas: https://www.fishman.com/support-fluence-wiring-diagrams. Then use a multimeter to experiment with your switches and push/pulls so you understand which lugs are connected in the various switch positions. Then, based on what you want to happen with the push/pulls and the 3-way switch, maybe draw it out on paper, and experiment with alligator leads until you get it working as you like. Then replace the alligators with soldered leads. Hope you figure it out!
-John
May 27, 2023 @ 2:18 pm
Hi, John!
Thanks for you article!
I have a such Treble Bleed: https://i.postimg.cc/4yTWyLfW/Push-Pull-3.jpg
But I want to have a double Treble Bleed with two different caps, so I got a push-pull pot.
Tried to soldier it this way, but the sound doesn’t match: https://i.postimg.cc/Y0pSp7W8/Push-Pull-4.jpg
P.S. In the 1st case it’s grounded to the chassis along with a 3d lug.
In the case of a push-pull it’s grounded to a ground lug at the bottom of a pot.
May 30, 2023 @ 9:27 pm
Just a quick glance at your diagrams, it seems sensible. What do you mean by the “sound doesn’t match” ? I recommend you experiment with alligator leads. Makes it very easy to experiment with various configurations/options, and should help you diagnose the issue.
-John
June 2, 2023 @ 11:47 pm
I mean that I used the original pot trying two different caps, 0.1nf and 4.7nf, and I heard the difference between them very clear.
I wanted to keep both variants for playing. But when I used a push-pull for both of them I didn’t hear their work, as if there were no caps at all.
Here I drew my guitar’s wiring for easier understanding. Check it out, please: https://i.postimg.cc/3wvdkKYD/my-RIC-330-wiring.jpg