Switches instead of Pots...

chipbasschao · #1 01-23-2011, 12:58 AM

I'm about to start my second Tapping Bass project and I was interested in the possibility of using 2 way Mini Toggle Switches instead of Rotary Pots to turn On/Off 2 x Single Coil Pickups and a Tone Control. I found on the first Tapping Bass project I built that I needed Full Volume on the Pickups to get the full sound, so a Switch would be better than a Pot. There is no Selector Switch for the Pickups, just the On/Off control. Can anyone suggest a Wiring Setup for this. For Reference, the 2 way switches have two rows of 3 Connection Points on the bottom. Thanx in advance....MARK

**line6man** · #2 01-23-2011, 01:04 AM

You might consider this scheme:

It's like a VVT setup, but with simple on/off switches instead.

chipbasschao · #3 01-23-2011, 03:13 AM

Hey Line6man...

Cheers for the reply - much appreciated. How do I wire in the One Switchable Tone Control for Both Pickups?.

**line6man** · #4 01-23-2011, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chipbasschao

Hey Line6man...

Cheers for the reply - much appreciated. How do I wire in the One Switchable Tone Control for Both Pickups?.

It is on both pickups.

chipbasschao · #5 01-23-2011, 10:08 PM

Cheers for clearing that up dude - not great at reading schematics!!!! Is that a Capacitor on the Neck Pickup Switch and the Tone Switch? Usually there is just a Capacitor on the Tone for a Jazz Bass VVT Setup? Are they the same Capacitors?

**line6man** · #6 01-23-2011, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chipbasschao

Cheers for clearing that up dude - not great at reading schematics!!!! Is that a Capacitor on the Neck Pickup Switch and the Tone Switch? Usually there is just a Capacitor on the Tone for a Jazz Bass VVT Setup? Are they the same Capacitors?

The two white rectangles are resistors. (I left the color code off of them, as the values were up for question for that diagram.)The orange rectangle is a capacitor.

The resistor on the tone switch is optional. With it, the tone switch takes you from "0" to "10." Without it, the switch takes you from "0" to the tone control being removed from the circuit. This gives you a bit brighter tone, as the capacitor will not pass any of the high frequency content to ground.

The resistor on the neck pickup's on/off switch is necessary, as without it, switching both pickups off will leave you with an infinite output impedance, which may result in the "open guitar cable buzz." The resistor is meant to simulate the resistive load of the volume pots the switches are replacing against the pickups.

chipbasschao · #7 01-24-2011, 05:42 AM

Man - you certainly know your stuff. Have you ever tried a configuration like this before? The other thing I thought about doing was different size Capacitors on the Tone Control to give a Treble/Bass Boost option - is that feasible? And what size Resistors would you recommend? Cheers for putting up with my crap dude - this Luthier **** is really infectious!!! Cheers again....MARK

**line6man** · #8 01-24-2011, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chipbasschao

Man - you certainly know your stuff. Have you ever tried a configuration like this before? The other thing I thought about doing was different size Capacitors on the Tone Control to give a Treble/Bass Boost option - is that feasible? And what size Resistors would you recommend? Cheers for putting up with my crap dude - this Luthier **** is really infectious!!! Cheers again....MARK

I like pots, so no, I've never tried this. The function of the switches will be identical to having a standard VVT setup with the only options being "knob at 10" and "knob at 0," however, so that's the kind of functionality you would get.

You could use a DPDT On/On/On switch to get two different cap values, if you wanted.

0.047uF would be the standard for most basses, but you could try a 0.1uF cap for a lower frequency cut, or perhaps a 0.22uF for a higher frequency cut.

As far as the resistors, the one on the tone switch would be 250K. If your bass had 500K pots (Or you prefer 500K pots, or whatever.), you would be better off skipping the resistor, because the difference between a 500K tone at "10" and being removed from the circuit is very slight.

For the "volume pot" resistor, if you had 500K pots, use a 250K resistor. If you had 250K pots, use the closest value you can find to 125K.