Which way should the blend knob turn?

[allanhearn]

There is no forward and back, is my point. A clock hand moving clockwise will move to both the right and the left. 9 to 3 is moved to the right, 3 to 9 it moves to the left. A knob moves in a circle, like a clock. If looking at the part of the knob closest to you (further from the floor) then clockwise points to the neck. If looking at the part of the knob further from you (closer to the floor) then turning clockwise points to the bridge. That's why the question references clockwise and and counter-clockwise in the first place.

 

[gerryjazzman]

I voted "1" but you might like it the other way if you are in the Southern Hemishpere.

 

[atquinn]

I am used to clockwise point to the neck. However, if I was starting from scratch, I would have ended up doing it Roger Sadowsky's way, because this felt backwards to me before I got used to it

As others have written, it's easy to change to suit your preference, so no big deal either way.

 

[Reedt2000]

Every bass I've ever had, except my Sadowsky, the blend know turns clockwise for neck. Why Roger decided to do it backwards, I don't know.

Because it sorta emulates a tone knob "up" for brighter, "down" for darker.

I don't prefer it that way, but probably because the myriad of other basses I've had with blend knobs work the opposite so its what I've become accustomed to.

 

[J Wilson]

I prefer them with the center point 'up' and turning the knob as I'm looking down at it towards the neck for the neck pickup and back towards the bridge for that pickup.

I've had them where it was installed backwards to this. It's counter-intuitive to turn back for the front pickup (?!?!?), so the wires got reversed and the Disturbance in The Force ended . . . .

 

[Bob_Ross]

This question seems to come up a lot. As I wrote the last time it did (in this thread)

Easiest way to deal with a Blend pot whose rotation/pickup assignment seems backwards to your preferred way of thinking is to A) get a knob that has a pointer indication on it; then B) depending on your preferred orientation, have the pointer either at the 12:00 (facing up at you) or the 6:00 (facing down at the floor) when in the center detent both-pickups-on-w/-even-balance position.

If you want to turn the Blend pot clockwise to favor the Bridge pickup, have the knob's pointer at the 6:00 position for the center detent; now when you turn the Blend pot clockwise the knob is pointing at the Bridge pickup! And vice-versa.
If you want to turn the Blend pot counter-clockwise to favor the Bridge pickup, have the knob's pointer at the 12:00 position for the center detent; now when you turn the Blend pot counter-clockwise the knob is pointing at the Bridge pickup! And vice-versa.

And if your bass is wired opposite just reverse the above.

You're welcome.

 

[FatOwlBass]

Nobody's wrong. It depends on how you imagine the knob is marked.
View attachment 7570273

Think the lower knob is upside-down? Not necessarily while you're wearing the guitar
Of course this is all the other way 'round when you're playing left-handed.

It would remain clockwise toward the neck pickup regardless. What would change is the marker move toward the neck on the top and away from the neck lower picture. The only way clockwise pans to the bridge pickup is if you wire the pickups in reverse order.

 

[MrWolf14]

Nobody's wrong. It depends on how you imagine the knob is marked.
View attachment 7570273

Think the lower knob is upside-down? Not necessarily while you're wearing the guitar
Of course this is all the other way 'round when you're playing left-handed.

I'm surprised (very) to see the majority is favoring the top picture.

I had several active basses (the only ones which had a blend) and all of them were using the bottom configuration, that is CCW for neck. In my very humble opinion makes sense both sonically and "physically" (look at the bottom picture).

 

[Pep]

Clockwise, for the neck pickup (like tuning up the volume)
Counter-clockwise, for the bridge pickup (like turning down the volume)

 

[darwin-bass]

If it was software, there would be some setting to reverse it.

CW favors the neck.

 

[Hans Gruber]

Nobody's wrong. It depends on how you imagine the knob is marked.
View attachment 7570273

Think the lower knob is upside-down? Not necessarily while you're wearing the guitar
Of course this is all the other way 'round when you're playing left-handed.

It's really this here. My old Ibanez had no line markers and it was counter clockwise I got used to it, and then once I got other basses with the lines, everything felt backwards. Unfortunately my main basses line/markers run horizontal.

 

[Wasnex]

I prefer clockwise for neck. Some of my basses allow me to change it.

 

[DaveParker39]

I think of it less like clockwise/counterclockwise, and more just knob toward neck knob/ knob toward bridge, which is clockwise.

If it was a switch, switch toward neck would be neck and switch toward bridge would be bridge.

 

[Passinwind]

I view it like this: the bass is hanging on me from my strap, and I'm standing up playing a gig. The volume knob typically turns clockwise from my perspective (looking down at it from above) to increase the volume. So, also looking down at the blend knob from above, I want the knob to turn counter-clockwise to increase the neck pickup volume, and clockwise to increase the bridge pickup volume. THAT'S what makes the most sense, to me.

In essence, the TOP of the knobs from my gigging perspective is actually the BOTTOM of the knobs from the perspective of someone watching me play. I want the TOP of the knob (from my playing perspective) to move in the direction to point toward the pickup I want to increase. Not a fan of it the other way.

That way makes more intuitive sense to me too. When I take a solo I would prefer turning a single knob "up" to get me where I want to go, which for me involves favoring the bridge pickup more. But at the same time I don't want to turn the neck pickup down from my typical ~95% setting at all, I just want more overall volume and a brighter sound with no low bass dropout. A VV setup gets me there more or less perfectly, an MN blend gets somewhat close, and for me an AC pot is usually not so swell.

 

[ulty_arnie]

Every bass I've ever had, except my Sadowsky, the blend know turns clockwise for neck. Why Roger decided to do it backwards, I don't know.

My understanding is that Sadowsky did it 'backwards' as to mimic a typical VVT set up.

If you turn the blend knob clockwise (on Sadowsky bass), it'd be like turning the bridge pickup volume up all the way in a typical VVT bass. If you turn it counter clockwise, you'd be turning the bridge pickup volume all the way down in VVT setup, which is balance towards the neck pickup.

Not saying right or wrong, or whether intuitive, but that is the why from what I've heard

 

[ezstep]

Right-handed bass, or left-handed bass?

 

[Dbassmon]

In my collection, Sadowsky basses are the only ones wired counterclockwise for the neck pickup. I can visualize a Les Paul-style pickup selector: up for the neck, down for the bridge. I see the hash on the selector knob point up when turned CCW; that would be the position of an LP-style selector, neck position. What I really should do is open up the control cavity and switch the polarity on the Sadowsky preamp pickup poles... too much work. It would be nice if bass builders would agree to do it one way, but they don't.

 

[aprod]

Have you never played a Fender Jazz bass? This is not a mystery.

 

[UntitledProject]

Have you never played a Fender Jazz bass? This is not a mystery.

All my jazz basses have had volume volumev not volume blend.

 

[ShadowGroover]

Every bass I've ever had, except my Sadowsky, the blend know turns clockwise for neck. Why Roger decided to do it backwards, I don't know.

Roger SadKnobsky.

He apparently also favors the nonstop blend. It turns continuously through pickup blends in both directions.

Invented to end the debate of which knob direction is best.