Can I eliminate my tone knob?

[myke.nytemare]

I always play with the tone knob on my jazz bass "closed" so that I get the heaviest bass-iest sound possible (and primarily use the neck pickup). If I want some "high end" I just turn up the bridge pickup....

..anyways, if I get rid of the tone knob on my next bass (putting new pickups and pots into a squier I am getting for free from a friend), I should achieve a similar sound as when I have the pot turned to "0", right?

Ok, what I am essentially asking is if a pot turned to "0" is virtually the same as having no tone pot at all (barring some slight difference from having less resistance in the path from the pickups to the output jack)?

[JackANSI]

actually I think you need to reverse that.. The tone knob control how much the capacitor is connected to ground, filtering the high frequencies.

So you'll need that capacitor on the back of the tone knob between your signal at the jack and ground. solder it directly there if you want, then no more tone knob needed.

[Rick Brienzo]

Originally Posted by myke.nytemare

I always play with the tone knob on my jazz bass "closed" so that I get the heaviest bass-iest sound possible (and primarily use the neck pickup). If I want some "high end" I just turn up the bridge pickup....

..anyways, if I get rid of the tone knob on my next bass (putting new pickups and pots into a squier I am getting for free from a friend), I should achieve a similar sound as when I have the pot turned to "0", right?

Ok, what I am essentially asking is if a pot turned to "0" is virtually the same as having no tone pot at all (barring some slight difference from having less resistance in the path from the pickups to the output jack)?

I think you have it backwards.

If you get rid your tone knob the tone of the bass will be like you have the tone knob fully "open" or brighter sounding. You can get rid of the tone knob, but if you want the bass-iest sound you will have to put a capacitor in line too dull out the tone. All tone knobs have a capacitor that bleeds the higher frequency's to ground.

[mikezimmerman]

Nope. Having the pot tuned all the way up to 10 is (ideally) like having no pot at all. What the passive tone control does is allow the high frequencies to bleed off to ground when you turn "down". There's a capacitor in the circuit that controls exactly what those high frequencies are. You could take a capacitor of the same value as your tone control and connect it straight from your hot to your ground and get the same effect as turning the tone knob down, though.

Mike

[myke.nytemare]

so all I need to do is put the .022, .047, or .1 mfd capacitor in line with my volume control and I will be set?

[BFISHER1970]

wire the cap from the hot tab of the output jack to ground. If you wire it inline it will cut lows.