Getting along with the 1MEG volume control

[hwestman]

Had an epiphany the last days which culminated during rehearsal yesterday...

Although having a treble bleed circuit on my volume control I could never make it work as well as it does on my telecaster... When turning down I would loose brilliance even if the sound didn't get super dull as it does without the circuit.

In addition I have had problems getting the sounds I wanted - everything seemed shrill and generally ungood (litterary quote :-D)...

The solution was to dial the volume down to 8,5-9 and use that as my starting point. Below that the sound stays much more consistent... so the perceived loss of brilliance was really the attenuation of some super high freqencies the 1MEG pot lets through.

And as a bonus... after compensating with some more treble on the amp the sound suddenly improved a lot... more body and a more pleasant treble. The middle position that previously was overly thin (to the point of being hard to use) suddenly made sense.

Maybe this is common sense to most players but for me it was a breaktrhough... I am contemplating switching the volume 1MEG pot to a 250 or 500 K one so I can max it out instead of having to keep an eye on it...

Harald

[Glimmer]

The solution was to dial the volume down to 8,5-9 and use that as my starting point....

And as a bonus... after compensating with some more treble on the amp the sound suddenly improved a lot... more body and a more pleasant treble. The middle position that previously was overly thin (to the point of being hard to use) suddenly made sense.

This is what I do, and what frankly seems most logical.

I am contemplating switching the volume 1MEG pot to a 250 or 500 K one so I can max it out instead of having to keep an eye on it...

This is what I suspect most who complain about “icepickyness” do (i.e. keep volume and tone dials on 10), because when you turn your volume to 8.5–below and adjust treble accordingly on the guitar and amp, icepickyness is gone, and the need to switch to a lower value pot eliminated.

[Nick and the Noise]

Yes, I just experienced it can be awkward to notice only after playing a while you hit your volume knob and it's not on your default any more (8 on mine). I'm not a solderer myself, so I'm afraid to change the pots by someone else and not being content with the new ones. If my hotspots are volume 8 and tone 8, what pot values would be best? 500k + 500k? And what would 250k + 250k correspond to? 5 and 5 on default JM pots? Or perhaps 5 and 7 since the volume pot is linear and tone is logarithmic?

[DanyoSound]

Jazzmaster? Jaguar?

What are you talking about?

[jvin248]

If my hotspots are volume 8 and tone 8, what pot values would be best? 500k + 500k? And what would 250k + 250k correspond to? 5 and 5 on default JM pots? Or perhaps 5 and 7 since the volume pot is linear and tone is logarithmic?

https://www.tubesandmore.com/tech_corne ... per_charts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[PJazzmaster]

Jazzmaster? Jaguar?

What are you talking about?

THATS THE RIGHT QUESTION!!! It sounds rather like Jaguar problem to me than a JM one...

[spacecadet]

Jazzmaster? Jaguar?

What are you talking about?

THATS THE RIGHT QUESTION!!! It sounds rather like Jaguar problem to me than a JM one...

Agree - whenever I read threads like this, all I can think is "huh?"

I only have JM's (and a Mustang). But maybe some people are just hearing stuff I don't, I don't know.

[Nick and the Noise]

https://www.tubesandmore.com/tech_corne ... per_charts

That doesn't tell the whole story does it? As I understand, the volume pot affects the volume of the pickups' peak resonance but there is also interaction between the two pots. For people that don't get it, see this chart. The frequencies sound much more balanced across the spectrum when the volume pot is lowered (in a standard JM configuration). This is especially noticeable with some nice amp distortion. Of course, a total lack of resonance can also be bad.

I think it's a good idea to try some pot values and see what you like best (but only if you find the alternative of not maxing the knobs annoying).

[hwestman]

Jazzmaster? Jaguar?

What are you talking about?

JM

[hwestman]

Jazzmaster? Jaguar?

What are you talking about?

THATS THE RIGHT QUESTION!!! It sounds rather like Jaguar problem to me than a JM one...

Agree - whenever I read threads like this, all I can think is "huh?"

I only have JM's (and a Mustang). But maybe some people are just hearing stuff I don't, I don't know.

Very much a JM experience and very audiable even with my attenuated high frequency hearing...

[Mad-Mike]

I just back down to 7.5-8 on the Jazzmaster I have and the high end is rolled off just right without losing the tonal characterists that I like from that guitar. I also notice 1meg pots increase the amount of interference one can pick up - the 60 cycle hum when playing the Jazzmaster with super-high gain goes away pretty much when backed around 7-8.

[Nick and the Noise]

Can anyone with multiple pot configurations confirm a 500k configuration corresponds to 7-8 on the stock 1meg configuration? This is according to the Lollar Guitars site. What about 250k?

[jorri]

well the tone pot would be 250k at that setting, i've measured that before. Its just a plain log pot and would sound exactly the same.

The volume pot would not correlate however:
Its a linear pot, but don't forget its wired as a potentiometer, so changes are actually log in effect.
But not only that a lower value pot just won't produce the sound of the change in pot values....for one you'd have it on full volume with no attenuation...

I had it wired up with a switch that could turn the volume to produce the effect of changing pots. Seemed that it was remarkably different. Changing the pot value was very subtle and mostly sounded like the 1meg on full, but without so much ice-pick. However turning the 1meg down, it of course turned down the volume, and made it very noticeably darker.....so i'd say maybe 250k, because its as low as you can really go, but it won't sound like what you are doing now....

*closest thing with that experiment i got was just leaving the tone on half...that was close enough to both pots at 250k in brightness terms.
But it seems others prefer the turning down of the pot, in which case do that. I preferred that sound too. It was certainly useless having that 'pot value' switch on my guitar- well it was only really a prototyping thing anyway.
To change it more like that, i dunno i guess you'd wire up some resistors to get something similar instead so there's a permanent attenuation.

[jorri]

but also the treble bleed only confuses that matter as well....too complicated to say. try it.