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Blend pot vs tone pot for tone control

#41
JeezyMcNuggles said:
I mean exactly what I said. When you wire up a blend pot, it's two pots stacked together. It has two sets of nodes. You wire one standard, one in reverse. So as you turn past center, it lowers the voltage to the other side of the knob. At center, it gives equal voltage to both nodes. In other words, it turns one off respectively as you turn the knob. Center, is both on. Its two master volumes, with very limited control, half range, and no ability to adjust tone individually. One is on, the other is on, both are on. Blending either way only alters one pickup.
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Yep, that's my understanding too. I think we misunderstood each other earlier. Cheers :)
 
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#42
non said:
i have a preamp that has a volume push/pull, active/passive pot. i love the sound of the pups in passive mode so much i never use the preamp so i took the battery out long ago. the blend pot becomes the tone control in passive mode.
i love the blend as tone control so i am thinking about converting my p/j bass to this setup. lose the tone knob and use the blend as the tone. the sounds you get from the blend as tone control seem so much more useful than using a tone pot.
why is this set up not more common on basses with two pickups?
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I’m a little confused... when you say the blend becomes the tone, do you simply
mean it in the sense that the tone changes as you shift the blend around? Or do you literally mean that the blend pot, in passive, changes to where it functions exactly like a standard low-pass tone control?
 
#47
Blend DOES change the tone, but not in the same way our "Tone" controls do. Blend changes the frequency distribution of the sound of the bass, similar to what you can do with a graphic equalizer moving the sliders around in some manner that is determined by the frequency response of the pickups. If you then want to roll off the highs, you need a tone "roll-off" control as well.

BTW - I change all my 2 Volume basses to a balance control. Besides providing a single Volume control, it GREATLY enhances the sound by keeping a resistive load on the pickups, so they don't load each other - that change in sound when you turn both V controls all the way up. That's why everyone runs their Jazz bass with the V controls at 80% - it sounds better!
 
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#48
Bassamatic said:
Blend DOES change the tone, but not in the same way our "Tone" controls do. Blend changes the frequency distribution of the sound of the bass, similar to what you can do with a graphic equalizer moving the sliders around in some manner that is determined by the frequency response of the pickups. If you then want to roll off the highs, you need a tone "roll-off" control as well.

BTW - I change all my 2 Volume basses to a balance control. Besides providing a single Volume control, it GREATLY enhances the sound by keeping a resistive load on the pickups, so they don't load each other - that change in sound when you turn both V controls all the way up. That's why everyone runs their Jazz bass with the V controls at 80% - it sounds better!
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Running at anything other than full, dulls your tone also. Rolls off the highs, and pulls some lows. Mellow
 
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#49
I don't like blend because it cuts presence/mids. The bass becomes "gutless." Just the thing for some people's preferences...but I've never played anything that called for a mid scooped bass tone.

I don't use tone controls because...well, I just do it on the amp. Most of the time, my treble on the amp is turned way down or off anyhow, so the onboard tone control is redundant/excessive.

I don't use the volume knob, except to turn the bass "on" and "off."

In other words, the knobs on most basses are pretty much not even there in my mind. They're just shiny twirly thingies.

A passive bass control, OTOH, potentially has great use, if the filter is dialed in just right to act on the low end the way the player wants. Basically a variable de-mud knob.
 
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#50
Why not both? If you are that concerned about the presence of a passive tone control in your circuit, use a push/pull pot to lift it. I often find it helpful to knock a passive TC own just a bump, and still dial in tone with a blend
 
#51
Bassamatic said:
Blend DOES change the tone, but not in the same way our "Tone" controls do. Blend changes the frequency distribution of the sound of the bass, similar to what you can do with a graphic equalizer moving the sliders around in some manner that is determined by the frequency response of the pickups. If you then want to roll off the highs, you need a tone "roll-off" control as well.

BTW - I change all my 2 Volume basses to a balance control. Besides providing a single Volume control, it GREATLY enhances the sound by keeping a resistive load on the pickups, so they don't load each other - that change in sound when you turn both V controls all the way up. That's why everyone runs their Jazz bass with the V controls at 80% - it sounds better!
Click to expand...
I haven’t met the everyone that runs J bass volumes at 80%. Everyone I know runs 1 vol at 100% and the other at somewhere between 90% & 99% or wherever the sweet spot is to get it off mid scoop and toward thick tone (neck favored) or barks tone (bridge favored).
I do remove any blend / balance control from any passive basses I have for the reason you list.
 
#52
JeezyMcNuggles said:
Running at anything other than full, dulls your tone also. Rolls off the highs, and pulls some lows. Mellow
Click to expand...

Fully agree. I have installed a pickup-to-output jack bypass switch in a couple basses to get everything off the pickup(s). The first studio I ever set foot in had a “studio modified” P-bass that lived in the studio which had the pup wired straight to the output jack. The volume and tone knobs were present, but didn’t do anything other than rotate. The reason, according to the resident recording engineer, was to unload the pup and get the cleanest signal possible to tape (yes, it was tape at the time). His comment was, “I want the whole, uncolored signal. I’ll take care of everything else”.
 
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#53
non said:
i have a preamp that has a volume push/pull, active/passive pot. i love the sound of the pups in passive mode so much i never use the preamp so i took the battery out long ago. the blend pot becomes the tone control in passive mode.
i love the blend as tone control so i am thinking about converting my p/j bass to this setup. lose the tone knob and use the blend as the tone. the sounds you get from the blend as tone control seem so much more useful than using a tone pot.
why is this set up not more common on basses with two pickups?
Click to expand...

For me it's not a substitute, choosing a blend of pickups gives me a particular tonal character, but I still use the passive tone to cut the top end and focus the mids to where I want them. In other words: I use both, they do different things.
 
#54
non said:
this is for a passive harness.
for the sake of argument lets say you wanted to do minimal electronics.
a tone control for a single pickup makes sense. for two pickups you could have a volume and blend. blend as tone control. if you have a passive harness with volume/blend/tone turn the tone all the up. now use the blend for tone control. with p/j pickups it sounds like you have a high mid boost when blending in the bridge pickup which is cool because the tone pot is just a cut.
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but no amount of blending will give you the treble cut that the passive tone control does... If you never use the tone control (a lot of people seem to leave it open all the time) then fine, but if you do use the passive tone control... no amount of blending will do the job.
 
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#55
JeezyMcNuggles said:
Well, the only "passive treble roll-off control" I've ever heard of is the "grease bucket circuit" but, thats an entirely different animal in itself.
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hmmm... every passive instrument with a tone control has exactly that: a treble roll off (which also has a more-or-less pronounced bump just under the roll off frequency, sometimes is barely noticeable but others is very prominent, which is why the Tonestyler type of control can be very cool... but this effect depends on the actual pickups too, so it's hard to exactly predict)

edit: reading further I see that you were talking about that bump, gotcha :thumbsup:
 
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#57
You guys don't even have a photo of the pot in question. It can be a special one. Concentric with two different values with a single shaft for all we know. Passive/active switch would also select which one to use for what and ta-da!
 
#58
Bob E said:
I don't know, I don't really blend pickups too often. The differences seem too subtle for me to bother. I think I'd rather have a 3 way switch with a master volume and tone and adjust the pickup heights for a good in between blend...
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Yeah, when neck is on full, its pretty much completely un noticeable to have the bridge blended in at any degree. With the bridge on 100, you do get a slight amount of extra beef (again almost un noticeable) with the neck on 90 ish though. The stronger one takes over everytime.
 
#59
Tim Skaggs said:
Nope, the discussion has been all about a pickup blend control becoming a tone control when an active bass is switched to passive. The volume pot / control hasn’t been in the discussion.
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So when my Sire P7 is switched to passive the blend becomes tone.

1. What do I call the tone knob then?
2. When in active, is the blend no longer tone?

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