Removing Tone control- Is the Tone affected?

  • I don't use the Tone control on my guitar. Its always set on "10", so, would removing the pot from the circuit affect the tone in anyway?

    The pot, i'm certain, is 250k (not sure of the capacitor value) so theoretically there will be less resistance to earth and to the tone-capacitor.

    Will the results be negligible or should i install a 250k resistor and reinstate the tone-capacitor to "simulate" a tone-pot locked off at max?


    thanks for any info

  • If you change the load of the pickup(s) it does of course alter your sound (brighter, different frequency response).


    Why not just "hide" the currently used pot under the pickguard or control cavity?


    If you want to replace the pot you should measure the actual resistance of the pot.


    The capacitor is not important, when the pot is on 10 - so you just need a close value resistor.

  • 1) why not try a different value capacitor first? you can get very subtle tonal variations that make a lot more sense (to me at least) than the often way too dark when turned down tone controls


    2) I removed the tone pot from more than one guitar I used live very often and I like the way they sound just fine - maybe try it first before worrying about how it might affect your tone


    hth

  • I don't use the Tone control on my guitar. Its always set on "10", so, would removing the pot from the circuit affect the tone in anyway?

    The pot, i'm certain, is 250k (not sure of the capacitor value) so theoretically there will be less resistance to earth and to the tone-capacitor.

    Will the results be negligible or should i install a 250k resistor and reinstate the tone-capacitor to "simulate" a tone-pot locked off at max?


    thanks for any info

    I've done many guitar wiring projects, so many configurations and mods on all kinds of guitars, including no tone no volume. Yes, there's less resistance to your output signal if you remove the pot, sure there might be a measurable difference (slightly louder, slightly brighter), but it's barely detectable (if at all) when playing. Go for it.

    These days I usually do something simple to new guitars (I also never use the standard tone pot):


    Tone control: swap out the tone pot for a way lower value. Instead of .047, add a zero to that- .0033 uf (also called 3300 picofarad) Try anything between .0012 and .0045 uf. The treble gets cut at a different point, so it sounds more like a midrange boost, sort of like a wah pedal.


    Tone control: Convert it to a split coil switch for the bridge humbucker. Easy- disconnect the capacitor, then connect (on a 4 conductor pickup) the 2 humbucker split coil wires. When you turn the knob to zero (connects to ground), humbucker splits- Use this one much more than the midrange control.


    So many other things you can do with push pull pots, but these days usually do one of the above.

  • Follow up to the recent messages, the removal of the pot does have a noticeable affect on the tone.

    There is a 1M ohm resistor across the tone-pot from signal to earth (see image)


    Follow up to I'm not sure of the capacitor value but it's absence seems to have the biggest impact on the tone.
    So, i've had to replace the pot with some resistors in order to mount it inside the body.


    Surprised to discover the 1M ohm resistor connecting the signal to earth, though this is via the 5-way selector switch and only active on positions 1-4 (bridge position is excluded)

  • When the poti (really) is 250k then it acts like a 200k poti in the 4 positions. That is what the 1 M ohm does.

    But maybe it is a 300k poti with some tolerance it could easily be close to a 250k poti in these positions (and maybe 330k in bridge position).

  • Does the 1M ohm resistor in your wiring also affect the (master) volume? For example the 4 positions then only see around 330k for single coil tones instead of a 500k volume pot.

  • This tone control and its 1M ohm resistor is only in circuit when using the single coils, neck, neck+mid, mid, mid+bridge.

    Its deffo a 250k pot (its stamped on the casing and measures as such)

    It actually goes to the selector switch which then in turn goes to the volume pot. (i wrote on the image like that for simplicity)

    I've not compared varying the volume with/without this so cant comment on how the audio is affected.