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I want to change the wiring in my Jackson KE3 Kelly. It has one volume pot, and a 3-way selector, and I'm keeping the pickups. What I want, is a volume pot for each pickup, so I've gone for getting a stacked pot. (http://www.allparts.uk.com/online-s...ic-p-15687.html)

I'm not 100% if this is the correct size, metric or CTS. I believe it should be as the guitar currently has stock electronics and is MIJ. My other problem is how to wire it. It currently goes like this: Bridge pickup to back side of pickup switch, neck pickup to front side of switch. (This is looking from the back routing, not the top of guitar) Middle portion of switch goes to one lug of volume pot, and another lug goes to the output jack. What doesn't make sense to me there is the switch positioning. Putting the switch to the back makes connection only to front side (closest to volume pot) of two connections, and vice versa, where the middle makes connection to both sides. But the pickups themselves are wired opposite to this, yet still select the correct pickup. I dunno.

The other thing I'm confused on is how I'd wire up two volume pots (and which set of three lugs is top or bottom of stacked pot) with the selector switch. Would I go as it is now, except now wire the pickup selector to individual volume pots, and have both volume pots go to output jack; or would I wire the pickups to their individual volume pots, then to the pickup selector, and from selector to output jack?

Cheers for any and all help on this matter. Just wanna clarify that I'd rather get a stacked pot than to drill a new hole, and be severely restricted to how much space I have on each of two volumes (there wouldn't be much).

Phoenix V

Before we continue, your definition of a stacked pot is what?

There are ganged pots and concentric pots.

Ganged pots use two pots in one chassis, but have one overall control shaft that controls both pots at the same time, so both pots turn equal amounts. This means when you select one of the two pots for a pickup and adjust it, the other pickup will adjust also.

Concentric pots have two pots and two shafts, but the shafts are arranged so that one pot control shaft forms an outer shaft ring and one forms the inner shaft ring, concentrically. So you still only need one mount hole. You can adjust each pot independantly of the other, but your controls need an inner turning knob and outer turning ring to make this work.

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Stacked Concentric is what I'm looking at then. Two individual volume pots, one for each pickup, that are to be used individually, but mounted into one hole, rather than two separate pots in separate chassis.

Phoenix V

You want this then.

Attached Images

 

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Lavatain

Aha, thank you! So volume comes before switch in this case. I shall try it, and hope for the best

earthwormjim

Yes, if you put the pots after the switch, you wouldn't have independent volume controls.

Lavatain

It makes sense when said like that, but I couldn't see before.

Lavatain

Just an update.. I bought the pot that I linked in the first post, it seems to be a dual blend pot. Both of the two controls on the stacked pot have a notch in the middle, like my Ibanez SR300 bass has where active bass and treble can be boosted or reduced. I'm sure this isn't the correct type of stacked control for doing standard volume for the pickups. Have I bought a product that is different to what is listed, or is it the wrong type of pot in the first place?

earthwormjim

Sounds like you got a non concentric pot, they sent you a dual ganged pot with a center detent.

The one in your link looked correct, the picture is even of a concentric pot.

Are there part number markings that you can look up? They might have just made a mistake with your shipment.

Phoenix V

What you got doesn't sound like what you ordered.

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It can't be a dual ganged pot, as it has 6 lugs, where a single ganged pot also has 6 lugs. I think? It has what looks like someone who wrote "A500" on it, without quotation marks. There's also a scribble after it, without a space which could be a k indicating that it's an audio taper 500k pot. It looks exactly as advertised on the website, could take a picture but there's no point as it's exactly as is on website.

earthwormjim

I missread your description. You're right it does match.


The center notch might just be a half way point on the taper. If you have a multi-meter you could quickly answer your question about whether or not you can use that pot.

Phoenix V

I tried looking again but theres no where on the description page on the website that suggests the pots have a centre detent.

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I noticed this too, but having bought various things from the website before (and always getting what I ordered), I noticed they don't seem to put a lot of description into much of what they sell.


What setting on a multi-meter would I use? Ohms? Volts? Not sure on this one..

earthwormjim

Ohms. You want to measure resistance. Put one probe on the wiper (center lug) and the other probe on either of the two outer lugs. Do this for each of the pots, and watch the resistance as you turn the knob.

It's audio taper (supposedly), so you'll either see a huge change when you first start, then a slow change after, or the opposite depending on which outer lug you're probing.

Lavatain

Got a multimeter to it, it's definitely a stacked logarithmic pot. Both pots go to about 80k at the halfway notch, and 500k(ish) at the full mark. Why it has a detent in the middle is beyond me, and that the website didn't say anything either.