wiring in a trim pot?

[wshines1892]

I have a Precision bass. I have a trimmer pot. I want the trim pot inside of the bass, but don't know exactly where to put it?

I bought a 100k trim pot, I was assuming it was a suitable value? It's the kind that's apparently meant to be wired into a circuit board, but I also assumed it would work fine for my purposes?

Do I just wire it into the ground? and then wire the wiper to ground?

 

[Growly Lytes]

Why are you doing this exactly ? Ive aksed on TB a few times if anybody knows if a Fender P-Lyte has a Trim Pot that can be adjusted & what does it look like but never has anybody helped.My bass has low output so i wanted to increase its output via the trim pot....is this what you want to do ??

 

[line6man]

Why are you doing this exactly ?

+1.

A trimmer pot is a component that can be used for any number of things, but it sounds like you're trying to add it in for the sake of adding it in.

It's like saying: "I have a box of nails. How can I install them in my house?"

 

[wshines1892]

+1.

A trimmer pot is a component that can be used for any number of things, but it sounds like you're trying to add it in for the sake of adding it in.

It's like saying: "I have a box of nails. How can I install them in my house?"

Nope, I have a jazz bass with decently lower output and I'd like to even up the two of them. The gain knob on the amp works, but it would be much easier just to throw this in, at least I think? Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[line6man]

Nope, I have a jazz bass with decently lower output and I'd like to even up the two of them. The gain knob on the amp works, but it would be much easier just to throw this in, at least I think? Correct me if I'm wrong.

So what you want is a master volume pot?

You could do that, but 100K is a very direct resistance, especially considering that the load to ground would appear parallel to the other two volume pots. With two 250K pots, that is a 55.55K resistance across the pickups at full volume, which is going to load them down and kill some output. That's what you want, apparently, but I would still rather do something like a 1M pot and turn it down to the right level.

 

[wshines1892]

1M you say? I think I may be returning my 100K tomorrow then. How would I wire it though? Would it be like wiring a jazz bass sort of?

 

[Samsound]

This has been proposed before as a solution for swapping basses with different outpu levels - a trimpot on the louder bass to bring it down to a matching level. Since a trimpot is a passive component, it can only turn down, not up.

 

[line6man]

1M you say? I think I may be returning my 100K tomorrow then. How would I wire it though? Would it be like wiring a jazz bass sort of?

Connect the wire that goes to the tip terminal of your output jack to the first terminal of the pot, then connect the second terminal to the tip terminal of the output jack and ground the third terminal.

 

[wshines1892]

I'm assuming you're talking about the ground terminal on the output jack? Or the hot? And by the third terminal, do you mean the wiper?

 

[Growly Lytes]

This has been proposed before as a solution for swapping basses with different outpu levels - a trimpot on the louder bass to bring it down to a matching level. Since a trimpot is a passive component, it can only turn down, not up.

So would my Active P-Lyte Bass have a TrimPot inside of it or not ?
Do most Fender P-basses with active electronics have a Trimpot ?
If your correct my P-Lyte with low output cannot be increased for more output via its Trimpot if it has one ?
Is this correct ?

 

[line6man]

I'm assuming you're talking about the ground terminal on the output jack? Or the hot? And by the third terminal, do you mean the wiper?

The tip terminal is the hot, the sleeve is a ground.

The wiper is the second terminal of the pot.

When you turn the pot fully counter-clockwise, the side that makes 0 Ohm continuity with the wiper is the one that should be grounded.

 

[bassbenj]

Nope, I have a jazz bass with decently lower output and I'd like to even up the two of them. The gain knob on the amp works, but it would be much easier just to throw this in, at least I think? Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct! That is exactly the purpose of any trimmer pot. Another common usage is to get the volume of series and parallel switching the same on basses that have that option. Another is to match the level of a passive bypass with the bass's usual active circuits. And if the bass is passive, you don't want to fool with the overall impedance seen by the pickups because that will change the tone (just like when you change your volume control from 250k to 500k or vice versa.)

However the question is how exactly to install the trimmer. This is not such a simple matter. Note, for example, that the idea of a trim pot is not to have TWO volume controls in series. You don't want the trimmer to go from full on to full off. Generally you only want maybe a 10% or 20% range from full on down to maybe 80% of full as you crank the trimmer from one end to the other. Or whatever it takes to balance the two basses and perhaps a bit more.

The real question is how do you wire it in? Well that is going to depend on the wiring that is presently in the bass! So I'd suggest giving us a hint of what's in there (the loudest bass that you intend to trim back) and perhaps we can suggest where and how to wire the trimmer to give you a decent trim on your output level.

 

[Growly Lytes]

So would my Active P-Lyte Bass have a TrimPot inside of it or not ?
Do most Fender P-basses with active electronics have a Trimpot ?
If your correct my P-Lyte with low output cannot be increased for more output via its Trimpot if it has one ?
Is this correct ?

Anybody ??

 

[Samsound]

So would my Active P-Lyte Bass have a TrimPot inside of it or not ?
Do most Fender P-basses with active electronics have a Trimpot ?
If your correct my P-Lyte with low output cannot be increased for more output via its Trimpot if it has one ?
Is this correct ?

Don't know if that bass has one - have you downloaded the wiring diagram from Fender's site? If it does have one, and it's been trimmed down, then yes you can trim it back up, but if it's already maxxed, then that's all there is unless you put an active preamp in there.

 

[wshines1892]

I returned the 100k pot! Saddly, they didn't have any 1M trimmers. They had a 1M linear pot, but it was much larger than I wanted. To the internet!

 

[walterw]

you could just wire two legs of that trimpot in series with the output, so it reduces level without increasing the load on the pickups. in that case, a 100k might be all you need.