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stacked pot value help

V

voodoo92

Jun 14, 2009
217
2
Brisbane, Australia
#1
Im trying to go through ideas for the pre i might be modifying to go into my nexy build and need a little help.

this isnt something that is essential but would be great if i could get it.

im looking to use a stacked pot for 1. active mid and passive tone. i know that they are different values (50k and 500k i think) so was wondering if i could get these at all? Cheers
 
#2
Hey Voodoo,

The only real answer I can give to this question is yes and no. It's no in the fact that I don't believe that they make a concentric pot with those values. On the other hand, it is possible to make a pot like that out of an easy to find pot.

Danelectro used a pot (they might still use it) like that for a while with a top value of 100k and a bottom value of 1M. To make those the right value all you would have to do is put a 100k resistor on lugs 1 and 3 of the top pot and a 1Meg resistor on lugs 1 and 3 of the bottom pot. This would give you a value of 50k on top and 500k on bottom.

Unfortunately, the tapers on those pots would be changed a bit, so you might not get the exact right taper you're looking for. If you do decide to do it, you can find the pot by searching "danelectro concentric pot".
 
#3
voodoo92 said:
Im trying to go through ideas for the pre i might be modifying to go into my nexy build and need a little help.

this isnt something that is essential but would be great if i could get it.

im looking to use a stacked pot for 1. active mid and passive tone. i know that they are different values (50k and 500k i think) so was wondering if i could get these at all? Cheers
Click to expand...

Aren't we all! I'm doing the same thing for my UncleFuzzy stingray pre so it can switch passive and active and still have the tone work in passive. The guys here found this for me:

Link Removed

Down the page you can find a 1 meg/250k Fender dual that is almost perfect for me. (treble uses 1 meg and 250k not too far out of line for tone).

As for your case, hard to tell. Just have to search. {goes into reminisce mode} Time was when there was a pot company that sold these snap-together units. You could pick each snap-in section out of the standard values and tapers! Too cool for words. Naturally was too cool for anyone to bother selling them like that now. There is a possibility that a company like Bourns that makes stacked pots in various values which I believe are riveted together can be taken apart with sections swapped and put back together with thin bolts. I was going to try that before I found the Fender pot.
 
#4
What type of pots would i need for these 2? like linear, audio etc? and with that pot on the fender website, could i use capasitors or some other fancy shindig to change it without ripping it apart? cheers

as you might have notied, i no sweet FA about this kinda work. haha
 
#5
voodoo92 said:
What type of pots would i need for these 2? like linear, audio etc? and with that pot on the fender website, could i use capasitors or some other fancy shindig to change it without ripping it apart? cheers

as you might have notied, i no sweet FA about this kinda work. haha
Click to expand...

Hey Voodoo,

For tone, I typically like linear taper pots. Of course, you can use audio or any other taper, for that matter, but linear seems to work out best.

As for the Fender pot, you can change the value by adding resistors in parallel with it. Once again, adding a 1M resistor across lugs 1 and 3 (of the 1M portion) will get you 500k. For the other part (the pot with 250k), adding a 62.5k resistor across the first and last lugs will get you 50k.

You can always lower (you can't raise it very feasibly) the value of any potentiometer by adding a resistor in parallel with it. It's all based on the rule:

1/R(final) = 1/R(pot) + 1/R(resistor)

where R(final) is the resistance you want the pot to be, R(pot) is the current value of the potentiometer, and R(resistor) is the value of the resistor to be added along the first and last lugs of the pot.
 
#7
voodoo92 said:
what about for the active mid? what type of pot would i need there?
I found another stacked with different values so i should just need a cap on one if it will work.
CTS 500K/500K
DUAL CONCENTRIC
STACK POT
AUDIO TAPER
Click to expand...

I prefer linear taper for both active and passive potentiometers. That isn't to say audio would not work, some people do prefer audio taper. For the pot you found, you would only need 1 resistor (not capacitor, they are different), of value 55.5k (to make the pot 50k) across lugs 1 and 3 of either the top or bottom pot. Any of the three potentiometers mentioned in this thread (danelectro, fender, or CTS) will work, they all just require different valued resistors to make them viable for you.
 
#9
voodoo92 said:
what about for the active mid? what type of pot would i need there?
I found another stacked with different values so i should just need a cap on one if it will work.
CTS 500K/500K
DUAL CONCENTRIC
STACK POT
AUDIO TAPER
Click to expand...

This all depends on what preamp you are using. What kind is it and what value pots does it use?

They normally use smaller values than 500k.

For the active/passive tone, try the 25k/250k here:

Link Removed

But once again, depends on the pot value needed for the preamp.
 

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