Guitar Volume Control
Guitar volume is controlled by the amount of resistance to ground compared to resistance to hot signal line going to amp. When you turn up the volume on a guitar the pot is adding resistance to the circuit by grounding it by 500,000 ohms. Compared to a straight wired guitar, when you turn it down it should be 500k ohm or so providing a path to ground. This is the current path of least resistance. What is happening when you use the volume pot is you "Load" the circuit with resistance when you turn "Down" the volume. Electricity wants to follow the path of least resistance. So by using higher resistance pots you are passing more hi-mid-lo across the board. Some People use 2meg pots in their guits for this reason. Don't be confused by the way the knob is turned, the explanation is confusing. When you turn "Up" your guitar you are actually just opening up a path to ground in side the guitar that is higher than the impedance of the amp input. Confused? Look at it this way. If you do not use a volume knob what do you have? 100% oms resistance to ground by straight wire=full signal to amp. 500k ohms to ground=balance to amp. To my logic, this equals some loss because the resistance on full volume is not 100%. Everyone's ear is their guide. Let your ear be the judge. High output p-ups=more resistance in ground network in guitar. Ask the pickup dealer if you still have questions. I use a les paul standard classic 1960 reissue with a 500k master volume for both pickups to eliminate les paul disease and a straight wire from the output center pole on the main volume pot directly to the center pole of another 500k pot. by doing this I can vary the resistance of my volume from 0 to 1meg in 2 steps. 0-500 with the second in the chain off. And then increase the second like a tone control just increases the resistance from 500k to 1meg like a tone control with more tonal control and to account for the variance between neck and bridge pickup output and resistance. For the bridge pickup I can use both on full for more power and true output the pickup was designed for and for the neck I can pull down the second one and reduce resistance to match more the output of that p-up. Plus I don't need to worry about 1meg pots that you can't turn without a pair of pliers. Hopefully, this means different tone, hopefully better, fatter and hotter. Controlling highs is maybe more useful in this wiring scheme. You can use the regular tone controls with this setup to bleed highs if you want. I prefer to use no tone controls on my guits. Just attach the tone cap(s) to the hot wire(s) coming from the master volume(s) and you have your tone control(s).
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