Relax, Take a Load Off
In this video I demonstrate how to modify a tone pot to be no load, for true bypass. The change in brightness is subtle, but worthwhile. Don’t be afraid to open up your pots and have a look – it’s pretty easy to do. But be forewarned, some pots are easier than others to put back together! These Bourns pots are a bit dodgy, as you can see in the videos. In contrast, the CTS EP086 is very nicely constructed and easy to reassemble (as I showed in How Pots Work: Disassembly and Exploration).
October 31, 2009 @ 3:48 am
Man, I love your videos. Learned something today,
thanks a lot.
Is it ok if I put your blog on my blogslist?
Cheers
Ben
October 31, 2009 @ 9:33 am
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the kind words.
Sure, feel free to link!
-John
Guitar Electronics Comparisons :planet z
December 29, 2009 @ 11:32 pm
[…] new electronics include CTS 500k audio taper pots, no-load mod on the tone pot, an Orange Drop .01uF tone cap, all new shielded wire, and a new Switchraft L12A […]
February 7, 2010 @ 1:53 pm
February 11, 2010 @ 5:18 pm
Hey this is really great, thanks for sharing this great and easy mod. It has really brightened my tone a bit (much needed on my often muddy esp baritone guitar)!
I was wondering though – would this be a good idea to do to a volume pot as well? I have one tone and one vol. pot, and was thinking my pickups might enjoy being fully unleashed!
Keep up the good work, and thanks for your time.
David Dec
February 11, 2010 @ 8:49 pm
Hey David,
Glad to hear it worked well with your tone!
This mod wouldn’t work on a volume pot. Cutting or blocking the trace on a tone pot works ok because you’re only using one side of the pot (one side lug and the center lug) as a variable resistor (or rheostat). The other side lug of the pot is rendered useless (open circuit) because of the cut trace. Confirm by using your multimeter between the other lug and center lug- no matter what the pot position, you’ll see infinite resistance (there is no connection!)
A volume pot is wired as a voltage divider, with one side variably connecting to ground, and the other side variably connecting to the output. So it won’t work if the trace is cut.
For more info, take a look at my video on how pots work: https://www.planetz.com/sophie/?p=261
One thing you could do instead is use a push/pull, where when you engage the switch, the volume pot is entirely bypassed. You could experiment with alligator clips to find out whether it’s really worth it 🙂
Hope this helps,
John
February 12, 2010 @ 12:05 pm
Hey thanks for the reply. After I posted here I got curious and looked at the volume pot and came upon the conclusion you just gave- on the tone pot we’re using two of the lugs, but on the volume pot the third lug is essential to it’s functioning and cutting through that would prove a bad idea.
But installing a switch would be a way around this, and I may experiment with it.
Thanks again for the big help.
David
February 18, 2010 @ 8:05 am
pots… i got 3 little questions 1. Why you didnt scrape the carbon exactly
on the spot that the pot stopped but a little more to your left ? 2. Its
this recomendable to do on the volume pots as well ? 3. (off topic) Does a
shielding a guitar with copper tape helps at all with noise if your power
source its not grounded (Most power sources in my country dosent have
ground) Great videos bro !, i subscribed !
February 18, 2010 @ 11:04 am
at the numbers on your knob, you could say you want it to change at 9 or
between 9 and 10, or whatever. If you only scrape at the very end, you may
sometimes not quite engage no-load when you turn it up, if the wiper
doesn’t make it all the way to the end of the track.
February 24, 2010 @ 7:27 pm
February 24, 2010 @ 10:52 pm
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April 4, 2010 @ 1:22 am
but I didn’t want to risk tearing up a tone pot
May 10, 2010 @ 2:25 pm
July 1, 2010 @ 8:04 am
July 17, 2010 @ 1:07 pm
i soldered it back in, and now when i play no sound comes out. Both of the
potentiometers i installed so i do know how to do it, so I’m wondering why
the sound won’t come through. I’ll go through the electronics and look them
over but would any mistake cause this to happen?
July 17, 2010 @ 9:53 pm
right? If so, must be a wiring mistake– double check with a multimeter if
you’ve got one. (You can’t do this mod on a volume pot).
July 18, 2010 @ 2:25 pm
though
September 13, 2010 @ 2:44 am
can be properly balanced. Adding additional capacitors 100pf – 2nF between
ground and signal is very nice, because often overall capacitive load (low
capacitance cables, some amps) is insufficient, leaving your resonnant
frequency up in bats echolocation range. Then your guitar sounds thin with
normal treble, and muddy with low treble. Adding permanent capacitive load
moves resonnant pick downwards for warmer, deep sound.
September 13, 2010 @ 2:56 am
to ground like tone pot, but without capacitor. Then I adjust it with flat
eq on my amp, to sound fat, and move treble around on my amp to see if it’s
useful – maxed treble cannot sound ice picky and painful for ears, but
usable. After proper adjustements i detach this pot and measure its
resistance. -> then add proper overall resistance using pots and fixed
resistors. This way You can make your guitar sing your own way.
September 14, 2010 @ 2:36 pm
pickup and brighten up the sound a bit. If you don’t use your volume knob
much, it might be worthwhile. You can see/hear in my video “Epiphone P-90
Pickup Experiment”, it defintely brightens up the sound to connect the
pickup directly to the jack.
September 24, 2010 @ 12:11 pm
October 20, 2010 @ 11:03 pm
noiseless pickups, i used the strat stock pots 250k. recently i changed
them to 500k for volume and tone. now im getting a grounding hum… i
switched back to the 250ks and now im still getting the hum… any help?
does the quality of wire that i use have anything to do with the hum?
thanks bud
November 15, 2010 @ 3:34 am
a no load potentometer- thanx!
November 15, 2010 @ 3:36 am
November 16, 2010 @ 1:15 pm
November 20, 2010 @ 5:08 pm
a diagram?
March 2, 2011 @ 10:03 am
slightly brighter sound. the taper will also feel a bit different when
turning the knob. hard to quantify exactly, as it really depends on the
pickups and the rest of the circuit. I’d say noticeable, but not extremely
different. i suggest you buy some pots for a few bucks, and use alligator
clip leads to do the experiment for yourself.
June 19, 2011 @ 9:17 am
better way for the sound. This Epiphene 0.022 cheap cap’s insulator is
mylar film.
July 26, 2011 @ 1:12 pm
nail polish to that same spot. Is that true?
July 26, 2011 @ 1:23 pm
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October 6, 2011 @ 9:14 pm
This is great! What exactly does this do to the sound? Can I use this for both volume and tone pots? Thanks so much!
All The Best,
Sam
October 9, 2011 @ 8:51 pm
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February 24, 2012 @ 5:34 pm
No pretentious graphics and so on, just good advice.
Thanks for posting.
March 3, 2012 @ 6:16 am
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March 22, 2012 @ 2:07 pm
If you cut it there you will effectively cut the entire circuit and the tone pot will not work at all.
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November 19, 2013 @ 11:43 pm
(from many people) that a no load volume pot *isn’t* impossible, but just
difficult.
(And that there are *many* ways to do it.)
However, it’s never explained in a simple way.
If you could figure it out, & make a video, that’d be awesome.
January 12, 2014 @ 4:29 am
make it.
June 22, 2014 @ 9:53 am
dismantled, may be worth coating the inner workings with some electrical
grease. Could extend the life of the switch considerably?
October 5, 2014 @ 8:01 am
do these work… https://www.bourns.com/data/global/pdfs/PDB241-GNL.pdf
November 25, 2014 @ 6:30 am
be easier for you to build a partscaster so you dont have to keep pulling
the electronics from the sound hole? It just seems like you go through alot
of work for the demos. Either way I have learned a ton from you and you
have really helped me out with important information when putting together
components for my builds. Awesome job John!
November 25, 2014 @ 6:41 am
was my project at the time. I actually had the guts hanging out the f-hole
for quite a long time, so there wasn’t so much uninstall/re-install.
February 27, 2015 @ 9:24 am
Seymour Duncan TB-6, a volume pot, and a push-button killswitch (for Rage
Against The Machine type stuff). I know many players swear by “proper”
usage of tone and volume pots, but a vast majority of guitarists have at
least one set of pickups that we like full up all the time. If that’s the
case, a mod like this can be really useful if you want to emphasize the
tones from your pickups.