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Going from vol-vol to vol- blend?

LowB-90

LowB-90

Jul 2, 2014
366
326
USA
#1
Just bought a carvin sb5000 wired vol vol and I personally can't get used to it.

Am going to be buying a blend pot and was wondering if I need to buy a vol pot as well or will one the current vol pots can work as the master vol.. any input is appreciated thanks in advance
 
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#9
LoveThatBass said:
What is M/N and A/C
Click to expand...

Lower quality A/C taper blend pots are simply two volume pots stacked together. The only times that either pot are at full volume are at the extreme clockwise and counterclockwise positions. At the center detent, both pickups are attenuated equally. Favoring one pickup turns the volume up for that pickup and down for the opposite pickup. An M/N taper blend is constructed so that each volume pot runs through its full range of control in one-half of the rotation, and stays at full volume for the other half of the rotation. This means that at the center detent, both pickups are at full volume, and favoring one pickup leaves one pickup at full volume while the other is attenuated. In short, the M/N taper will always route at least one pickup straight to the output, without any series resistance.
 
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#12
line6man said:
Lower quality A/C taper blend pots are simply two volume pots stacked together. The only times that either pot are at full volume are at the extreme clockwise and counterclockwise positions. At the center detent, both pickups are attenuated equally. Favoring one pickup turns the volume up for that pickup and down for the opposite pickup. An M/N taper blend is constructed so that each volume pot runs through its full range of control in one-half of the rotation, and stays at full volume for the other half of the rotation. This means that at the center detent, both pickups are at full volume, and favoring one pickup leaves one pickup at full volume while the other is attenuated. In short, the M/N taper will always route at least one pickup straight to the output, without any series resistance.
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I haven't seen balance blend mention M/N . If they have a center detent and say balance blend does that mean they are M/n taper
 
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#13
LoveThatBass said:
I haven't seen balance blend mention M/N . If they have a center detent and say balance blend does that mean they are M/n taper
Click to expand...
usually not unless the pot has "M/N" printed on it.

plenty of them are A/C, where the detent has both pickups turned down a little like @line6man mentioned. (by the same token, they'll say "A/C" on them)
 
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#16
I run an A/C in a couple of my basses. Don't believe the hype. Warwick, bartolini and many more manufacturers use these. I expect much of the bad press is due to people installing them incorrectly. They work fine, they just have a different "feel" to the sweep. I'm a professional touring and recording musician. I wouldn't use them if they didn't work.

The most important thing for a blend to work nicely is to have your pickup heights correct so that the outputs of each pickup are as close to each other as possible. For 99% of basses, this means the bridge pickup will be much close to the strings than the neck pickup. I've set standard jazz bass pickups to Fender spec and there's sudden volume loss/jump with the blend in the middle because the bridge pickup is too far and/or the neck pickup is too close to the strings.

usually not unless the pot has "M/N" printed on it.
Click to expand...

But anyway, yeah, also make sure you don't buy a dual gang linear pot ("B" taper). I've seen these on ebay sold as pickup blend pots, and they simply won't work as a passive blend. You really will get a big volume drop at the centre with a linear blend pot.
 
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#17
Man, I'm sure glad I ran across this thread. I have a Squier P-bass special, P-J pups, with twin volume controls and I don't like it. I want to swap one of the volume pots for a M/N blend pot now. Thanks, guys for the great discussion. You guys rock - but you already knew that!!
 
#19
Glad to come upon this thread, because I've been researching moving my jazz bass from VVT to VBT, and hadn't heard about M/N vs A/C.

I also want to throw a series/parallel switch in there, just to get a few extra chances to mess up the soldering. Would that make any difference with the M/N vs A/C blend pot?
 
#20
Just a quick note here. I had also thought a blend+volume combo would be better than vol+vol. I put an M/N (as it is called here) pot in my bass and I saw it was good. However, after a while, I saw that I did not very much need the delicate adjustments I can do with the blend. I tried replacing a the blend pot with a Les Paul switch, and now I am even happier. The reason is that this 3 state switch (neck pu-both-bridge pu) is very easy to control, and I can even change it during a song. It is just a quick movement instead of an adjustment that takes some attention. Of course your reuirements may be completely different, but to me this has been the way of evolution (and the first thing I do with a bass I put my hands on is this mod. I also put a parallel-series switch on them, but that is another story).
 

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