Single vs multiple volumes

[skolacki]

Well I’ll most likely start with the 500k and .0022uf for starters, since I already have those. This was a cheap guitar $500 and I’m going to try to live with the stock pickups for now. Compared to the Duncan P-rails on 2 of my guitars the PRS pups don’t sound as P90ish and higher output. If I’m not happy with that then I’ll try the 1M pot with the .0033uf. Going to put it on the neck only. Nice having 4 knobs.

Updating my post. I converted my neck tone to a simple bass cut. Left the bridge as is. Definitely does what it’s supposed to do, cuts the mud out of the neck. Especially with overdriven tones. There are some variations on the circuit and after awhile I’ll play around with it. It cuts it enough to where I can leave the neck at full volume and it’s still spanky. If I dial the bass cut out of the circuit then it’s a complete flubfest at full volume. It’s a winner right now and probably will keep it in one fashion or another. I recommend it to anyone who wants to take the flub out of a distorted neck pickup. There is interaction with the bridge in the middle position but I would have that anyway with stock controls.

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

Updating my post. I converted my neck tone to a simple bass cut. Left the bridge as is. Definitely does what it’s supposed to do, cuts the mud out of the neck. Especially with overdriven tones. There are some variations on the circuit and after awhile I’ll play around with it. It cuts it enough to where I can leave the neck at full volume and it’s still spanky. If I dial the bass cut out of the circuit then it’s a complete flubfest at full volume. It’s a winner right now and probably will keep it in one fashion or another. I recommend it to anyone who wants to take the flub out of a distorted neck pickup. There is interaction with the bridge in the middle position but I would have that anyway with stock controls.

A thought for the bass cut knob - a left-handed pot (i.e., reverse taper) will give you a wider, smoother onset of bass cut. WD has them, IIRC. Just ordered a bunch in 250k and 500k - just enough to get up to their free shipping threshold, since the difference between the quantity I wanted and the threshold wasn't much $$, and I ended up getting some spares out of the deal. These are going in some guitars here over the "winter"....

 

[Eliziah Smith]

How many of you guys prefer individual volumes for each pickup on a 2 pup guitar? Seems that the majority of new guitars are single volume. I have both and like the tones you can get from balancing the pickups in the mid position. Single volume guitars just can’t get those tones. My best guitar is a US PRS with 2 knobs. So I wired it for 2 volumes and have a pull tone set to where I’d normally be if I wanted to roll it off a bit. And then there’s my Strat. 3 pickups so the single volume is easier to deal with. With the bright pickups in it I find myself using the tone controls often. So now I’m thinking about putting my PRS back to stock. Just got off work so rambling a bit before I crash. Thought I’d get some opinions from the Fractal crowd.

I can imagine that two tones and one main volume could be different. But again, I rarely use tone or volume controls to get started.