Installing a blend pot

[thelemac]

I think this is what it is called. Here is what I am trying to do. I have a Yamaha RGX-A2-Neat little guitar but two problems:

1)no tone control.

2)the pick-up selector is pure thrash a rotary dial with 3 stages.

 

I want to replace the pick-up selector with a potentiometer and wire it to "blend" or fade from front to bridge pick-ups. I am hoping that this will allow more options and solve part of problem #1 and all of problem #2. Will this work? Also how do I wire this? Help.

[thelemac]

Could I just install two volume controls and accomplish the same thing?

[PunkKitty]

I'm not sure what the pickup config is in your Yamaha. I'm planning to install one of these in my Strat when I rewire it next week. I'll use the diagram recommended by Mojo.

[thelemac]

It has two Yamaha Alnico soapbar humbuckers. They go to a single volume and a 3-way switch. The 3-way switch also controls the L.E.D.'s.

[guitarcapo]

Could I just install two volume controls and accomplish the same thing?

 

 

 

Not exactly in terms of tone.

 

Individual volumes will add some mud to the tone when they are attenuated. Some people get around this problem by using treble bleed caps across the lugs of the volume pot...but without this you can usually hear a pickup get muddy as you turn down the volume.

The blender setup will do this MORE because you are always attenuating one of the two pickups throughout the play of the pot. You never have both pickups putting out a signal unattenuated. Another problem is that the output of the combined pickups is reduced through the entire sweep of the blender pot because you never have the two pickups running flat out and combining for maximum output. One will always be attenuated. I think this is why blender pots aren't popular.

It's a recipe for more mud and lower output coming from the two combined pickups.

[cratz2]

I'd definitely go for the blender.

I'm a strat guy and I think I've had maybe 6 or 8 guitars with a blender to mix the bridge and neck pickups. I had one guitar that had a master volume, master tone and bridge volume. That guitar had a Quarter Pounder in the bridge (fairly high output) and HS3s in the neck and middle (low output) and was never happy with that setup.

[thelemac]

Not exactly in terms of tone. Individual volumes will add some mud to the tone when they are attenuated. Some people get around this problem by using treble bleed caps across the lugs of the volume pot...but without this you can usually hear a pickup get muddy as you turn down the volume. The blender setup will do this MORE because you are always attenuating one of the two pickups throughout the play of the pot. You never have both pickups putting out a signal unattenuated. Another problem is that the output of the combined pickups is reduced through the entire sweep of the blender pot because you never have the two pickups running flat out and combining for maximum output. One will always be attenuated. I think this is why blender pots aren't popular. It's a recipe for more mud and lower output coming from the two combined pickups.

 

 

Does this mean that the best option would be to do 2 volume pots and add a cap to each maybe a .020 to bleed some of the treble off.