Selector switch or blend pot or two volumes and why?

lungimsam

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Which do you prefer and why.
Thanks.
This is for a 2 pickup, one volume, one tone harness.
 
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fronobulax

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Third option - two individual volumes.

The Pilot has two PUs, a volume for each and a tone pot that applies to the mix. You still get sound even if one of the PU volumes is off.

If I am actually playing I try very hard not to make adjustments. I have enough things to worry about. I tend to dial in the tone I want and then live with it until the song, or even the gig, is over.

If I insist on fiddling while playing a toggle is easier to use than a pot if only because I need two fingers or a well placed pinky to turn a pot and can flick a switch with whatever body part is in the vacinity.

If I'm not playing then there is really no preference. I can figure out how to do what I want.
 

lungimsam

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Thanks for your thoughts, frono.
I have upodated the thread title with the third option.
Pilots are stock V/V/T?
Yes, a toggle sounds quicker to switch. I am not quick enough anyway.
 

fronobulax

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Pilot is VVT

I've never been able to get the pinky thing to work well but I have seen guitarists simulate a wah pedal with a pinky wrapped around a volume control while picking, at least high on the neck and on the higher pitched strings. Big hands, small guitar?
 

Tiki295

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Pilot is VVT

I've never been able to get the pinky thing to work well but I have seen guitarists simulate a wah pedal with a pinky wrapped around a volume control while picking, at least high on the neck and on the higher pitched strings. Big hands, small guitar?
Usually, the wah trick is using a tone knob. You need to have a pretty bright pickup and push the amp right to the edge of breakup to make it work well.

You can do volume swells with the volume knob, like Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton
 

fronobulax

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Usually, the wah trick is using a tone knob. You need to have a pretty bright pickup and push the amp right to the edge of breakup to make it work well.

You can do volume swells with the volume knob, like Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton

If you had asked me to describe a wah wah I would have said "volume swell" but since I don't use either a wah or a volume pedal I'll just not make the mistake again. Volume pinky trick changes amplitude like a volume pedal. The tone pinky trick changes tone or frequency like a wah wah pedal. Got it. Thanks.
 

jte

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Electronics are different. A toggle switch give you either or both PUPs. A toggle with a separate volume for each PUP, if wired like a Gibson guitar, has the two volume controls interacting so in the middle position turning down one volume control turns down the whole signal. A VVT wired like a Fender Jazz Bass lets you turn down one PUP without changing much of the other PUP's volume. But there's still interaction VBT, assuming you use a real blend pot is essentially the same as the two Jazz bass style volume controls on one shaft. At center both PUPs are on full. As you pan towards the neck PUP, it does nothing to the neck PUP volume but instead rolls the bridge PUP out of the circuit until it's full grounded and you only have signal from the neck PUP. The problem with that circuit is that when you add the master volume, you now have three volume controls and that additional loading can cause an audible loss of signal or tone (dependent on cable capacitance, the load the PUP sees, etc.) And with a VVT you can get say the neck PUP at 80% and the bridge at 55%, something you can't get with VBT.

Whether all that makes real sonic differences depends on the PUPs, what the bass is plugged in to (pedals, DIs, amps) and then how you're hearing it (in a band on stage, in ear monitors, through a computer interface, through pro studio gear, etc.).


Regarding the pinky on the control knob. Depending on one's hands, a Fender Telecaster or Strat can have the volume knob right where one's pinky can easily wrap around it. That way volume swells are real easy to do. If you rewire the guitar so the first knob is the tone control you can get sort of a wha sound with swelling the tone knob back and forth, but it really doesn't "quack" like a wha. The tone knob just shunts highs to ground so the tone gets less highs coming out, a wha is a filter that sweeps the frequency that's being boosted.
 

mellowgerman

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Not to go too deep down the rabbit hole, BUT you can also get a no-load blend pot (or make your own by cutting the tracers at either end of the resistive track), which will allow you to still solo one or the other pickup without extra signal loading. There are also others that get around the loading in the center position, but I rarely ever want two (or more) pickups on full anyway, thus my aversion to switches. When it comes down to it, I would probably prefer volume-volume-tone or volume-blend(no-load)-tone. I am sometimes willing to sacrifice blend-ability of potentiometers if it's a switch with extra options like series/parallel, which can be worth it depending on the pickups.
 
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