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I'm planning on modding my Tele a bit more. I reversed and rewired the control plate, but I'm going to remove the tone control all together. I leave on full all the time anyway and I always hit it with my hand when I play!

So my question is: if the tone control is a 250k pot (set fully open), and the pot is acting as a variable resistor, would I simply wire a fixed resistor of the same value in the pot's place?

I'm not particularly savvy with electronics so forgive me if this is a blatantly stupid/obvious inquiry.

Thanks guys.

You could do that. It goes where the currently occupied lugs on tone pot are... one end is attached to the volume pot and the other end to the capacitor that goes to ground. Another alternative is to leave the resistor and capacitor out entirely...

nbabmf wrote:You could do that. It goes where the currently occupied lugs on tone pot are... one end is attached to the volume pot and the other end to the capacitor that goes to ground. Another alternative is to leave the resistor and capacitor out entirely...

Thanks man. What kind of effect/sound would be had if I left out the resistor and cap all together?

Think the guitar may sound "brighter" (that may not be the best word to describe it though).

It would be a lot brighter and a bit louder. If you fiddle with the volume control very much, you'll know what I mean when I say it would be like putting it on 11 or 12.

Just take out the tone pot entirely then. It'll sound slightly brighter, but nothing noticable. That's what they did on esquires.

I definitely know what you mean about it going to 12. I'm not 100% sure if that's what I want yet, we'll have to see. I really dig the tone pot wide open and can;t imagine it getting much brighter without killing me.

Blurz do you just have no tone stack in that sexy Strat build you posted?

No tone pot, the vol is 500k tho, so the difference between the pickups is much more noticeable.

well I ordered a new control plate for the Tele. Just has the switch slot and one pot hole. I think I'm gonna stick with a 250k resistor, but we'll see...

Use alligator clip jumpers to see how you like it with/without the resistor before you solder it up. You'll get a lot of interaction on the volume pot so spend some time with it.

resistor in series with the cap to ground will be the same thing.
just the resistor will be the same as putting in a lower value volume pot with no tone control.

nbabmf- good call. I'll be sure to do that.

dougie- the resistor in series with the grounded cap would be the same as the tone pot wide open?

sevenSHARPnine wrote:nbabmf- good call. I'll be sure to do that.

dougie- the resistor in series with the grounded cap would be the same as the tone pot wide open?

yeah kinda, think of it this way.

Your Volume and Tone controls set the amount of resistance between the current your pups generate and the grounding connections. if you keep with the basic water analogy it's like a pressure valve that can go two ways. on one hand you have your ground or in the tone pot's case, the cap, then ground. If you turn up the resistance you're making it harder for your current to go through that cap and to ground. if you turn down the tone pot, you're making it easier for that signal to go to ground. the cap keeps certain frequencies from getting shorted out so that's how it effects the tone.

Volume pot is the same thing. if there's more resistance between the output of the guitar and the grounding connection more current will ground out and never make it out of the guitar. so turning down the resistance on the volume pot shunts the connection basically. since there's always at least some connection to those ground points SOME of the signal goes to ground. that's why ripping the tone pot out completely will change the tone and make it brighter. with no connection to ground through that pot the signal gets hotter since nothing is leaving until it hits the volume pot.



make sense? I'm still a little new to this stuff so I know it's def more complex than that but this much has gotten me by alright with guitar mods.