Blend/balance pot instead of pup toggle switch

[guitalias]

I'm thinking of installing a blend/balance pot instead of a pup toggle switch. I've noticed it seems more common on basses than guitars. Is there a reason for this? I'm hoping to be able to dial in whatever mix of two humbucker without having toggle in mid with separate vols for each, ie so will have 1 x blend/bal, 1 x vol, 1 x tone.

[peterherman]

I'm thinking of installing a blend/balance pot instead of a pup toggle switch. I've noticed it seems more common on basses than guitars. Is there a reason for this? I'm hoping to be able to dial in whatever mix of two humbucker without having toggle in mid with separate vols for each, ie so will have 1 x blend/bal, 1 x vol, 1 x tone.

It's how the Gibson Marauder worked. I liked it when I had one, and I definitely wish I hadn't sold it.

[guitalias]

Cool. Funny thing is, in my mind blend knob has been chicken head also! What are the R & T indicators on blend? Edit - remembered les paul's Rhythm = neck, Treble = bridge

[bodhi]

My understanding is that with a blend/balance pot, the pot it will have an effect on the sound always as it's never completely out of circuit. Haven't tried it on a guitar, have one on a bass, but don't know what it'd sound like without. There are also f.e. strat wiring setups with a blend pot to include another pickup. It'll definitely work, don't know how easy it'll be to operate in a performance situation.

Note that there are some differences in blend/balance pots in how they function, I believe one version is 0-100 % sweeping across the full range while another might be 0-100% up to half way and then stay at 100% for the "fade" portion of the other side of it. Might be worth testing a few different ones, details should probably be on potentiometer shop websites.

[jorri]

Definitely want one that's 100/100 on halfway. This means the pot will kind of have half the travel.
Many 'dual concentric' just end up as 80/80 which is a volume drop, and sounds like a guitar on 80.

More pots will darken much like lowering the pot resistance.
It can be hard to find 1 Meg blends too.
So be wary that from a single 1 Meg, to maybe two 500k would be more like a 250k is in there.

I find on a jazz bass, there is a desirable tone with one pickup slightly off 100% which is maybe why more common. It's a bit of the p-bass mids on that. But tbh is just one extra sound it doesn't vary much.
You get it 'snap out of phase' when both on ful but slight deviations from full kill the out-of phase mid scoop and rather add mids together.

Simple solution since I found blends finicky was to use a rotary on my jazz bass! It's a 5-way selector for two pickups. With the slightly non-full positions on 2+4 with resistors. On the sweet spot! Found it lacked the treble suck on middle position now too (effect of pots in parallel vs. One) and just added a resistor to ground to simulate the standard pot loading.