Tone pots, what do they do? Take it out?

[tubedude]

I'm wondering what the actual function of the tone pot is... does it add treble when turned all the way and add bass when turned the other, or does it roll off the high end when turning it towards the bassy side? What I'm wondering is, if I were to remove the pot completely out of the circuit, how would it affect the sound. I'm assuming it would open up the sound a bit getting a crappy pot out of the way, I'm just wondering what the actual sound will be like without the pot. Similar to all the way treble, or all the way bass, or somewhere in between? Or maybe not even close by any means?
I've never really had any instance where I preferred a tone pot in any position other than all the way trebled out if that should help my decision. I'm going to toss a Duncan Custom 5 in this Epi Les Paul Pearl I picked up cheap and I'm considering bypassing the tone control.
Any thoughts? Ideas?
Thanks

 

[Zaphod B]

In my experience, with passive circuitry, tone pots roll off high end - they're high-frequency attenuators. In this case the tone of the guitar is least affected when the tone pot(s) are in the full treble position.

With active circuitry, the tone pots can do whatever you design them to do - boost, cut, or both.

 

[mshilarious]

http://guitarelectronics.zoovy.com/category/wiringresources.1basicwiringfaqs/

Check the entry on tone pots . . .

 

[tubedude]

Hey, thanks for that link. Fender makes No-load-pots that can be turned all the way til they click and it removes them from the circuit. Now THATS cool stuff. Is there a volume pot that will do this also?
What should I expect if I bypass both? Clearer more present top end for the most part? Sounds like a great idea to have a guitar set up this way for recording.
Off to find a bypassable volume pot.... let me know if you know where to look.

 

[Light]

Is there a volume pot that will do this also?

There isn't such a thing. You can do it with a tone control because you are just using one end of the track, but a volume control is a voltage divider, so you need both ends of the track.

As for what a tone control IS, it is a low pass filter. It only cuts out high as it is turned down, it never adds anything.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Zaphod B]

Fender makes No-load-pots that can be turned all the way til they click and it removes them from the circuit. Now THATS cool stuff.

My new MIA Deluxe Tele has just that. The tone pot has a detent at the no-attentuation position (full treble) at which position the tone circuitry is bypassed altogether.

 

[mshilarious]

There isn't such a thing. You can do it with a tone control because you are just using one end of the track, but a volume control is a voltage divider, so you need both ends of the track.

You could do the 1Mohm pot thing though, that's kinda close.

 

[Dani Pace]

If you want to (I wouldn't) you can wire the pup straight to the input jack, no tone/volume at all. If you do this it will be like you have the volume turned wide open and the tone on full treble. You would have to make all tone adjustments on your amp.

 

[mixsit]

If you want to (I wouldn't) you can wire the pup straight to the input jack, no tone/volume at all. If you do this it will be like you have the volume turned wide open and the tone on full treble. You would have to make all tone adjustments on your amp.

I'm barely squeaking by here.. Doesn't it also mean you lose the high mid resonance boost/interaction of the tone, volume and p/u?

 

[FALKEN]

the volume pot sends signal to ground. the tone pot sends the highs to ground. tone pot removed is like having it on 10 (but maybe a little louder) and vol pot removed would be like having it on 10 (but maybe a little louder). I have a guitar set up with the tone pot bypassed. I dont think I would remove the volume pot on a guitar tho. you also could experiment with different cap values to change the cutoff frequency.