Help! Wiring to make tone pot active on bridge pickup only. Albert Lee sss

dnoltemeier

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May 5, 2016
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Port Townsend, WA
Need a diagram or "how to" to make the tone knob active on the bridge pickup only, bypassing the other two pickups on an Albert Lee sss. Thanks for any help with this!
 
It's no different than any other strat-style wiring scheme. Just unsolder the white wire from the volume pot, and instead solder it to the point on the lever switch where the bridge pickup is wired.

The reduced load on the neck/middle pickups is going to make them sound a wee bit different, though, unless you want to replace that with a fixed 250k resistor in the appropriate positions.
 
The bridge pickup is bright- so that would allow you to switch to it and not have to turn the tone back up when you go to other positions. (What a lot of players do with their Strats, given two tone controls.)
 
It's no different than any other strat-style wiring scheme. Just unsolder the white wire from the volume pot, and instead solder it to the point on the lever switch where the bridge pickup is wired.

The reduced load on the neck/middle pickups is going to make them sound a wee bit different, though, unless you want to replace that with a fixed 250k resistor in the appropriate positions.

Thank you, Beej. A wee bit different? If it doesn't darken the tone it would probably be fine. I can alway switch it back. - Cheers! - Doug
 
Removing a pot would brighten things up.

You have 2 x 250k pots providing a 125k load. Removing 1 pot will give you 250k in positions 5 (N), 4 (N&M), and 3 (M), which is the same load as having 2 x 500k pots. (Brighter.)

To counteract this, what you can do is run a 250k resistor in parallel to provide the additional load. You could do this a few ways. (I can't recall if the new ALs have a standard 5-way switch or a multipole, so that would change what you'd do.)

I'd try moving the tone pot first and seeing how you like it. If you find the neck/middle too bright, you can fix that later.
 
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A brighter AL??? Once again, I'm puzzled.

It'd be like an uglier Rickenbacker...

I only use the tone knob to knock the edge off the bridge pickup, but occasionally forget to turn it back up when switching to the neck pickup and find myself wondering why it sounds dull until I remember the tone knob was a 5-7:(
 
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