Is a no load pot the same as direct wired?

[Hfan]

So, if your guitar has a no load tone pot, is running the pot in the no load / detent position the same as having the pickup bypassing the pot?

I keep reading of guys (mostly Strat players) removing the middle pickup from the no load circuit and direct wiring it. They swear they hear a difference, my non cork sniffing ears can't and I miss having the pick up on the tone pot, I like to roll down the tone on the middle pickup. Yes I tried the mod and I will be putting my Am Std back to stock. I thought I would ask the question here to get a somewhat non biased view. Is it me?

Thanks guys.

[dragan]

The tone potentiometer, or "pot," in your guitar redirects a portion of the signal from the pickup to ground through a capacitor. A capacitor tends to act as a low-pass filter, rolling off the high frequencies. The less signal goes through the capacitor, the brighter your tone. However, even with the dial turned all the way to 10 the load from the capacitor still affects your tone. A "no-load" potentiometer avoids this by removing the tone control from the circuit entirely when the dial is turned all the way up. ....... I got this off the web , never really done or heard this , not sure how accurate this is .... but if you can't hear a difference I'm quite sure the audience cannot either so put it back the way it was IMO ... if this is "true " I think it would depend on the cap value & at what frequency it drops to ground !?

[veatch]

Someone out there has pretty good ears if they can hear a wire going to a pot that is going nowhere (which is what a no-load does when it is engaged)

I guess if they have a crapp-quality pot that is bleeding, bad enough shielding that the wire is acting as an antenna, or if the pot is connected wrong to begin with... Otherwise, i have a hard time believing they can really hear the difference.

Of course, at my age, my ears are full of peanut butter anyways, so what would i know.

In the end, opinions vary - if it sounds good, it is good, so trust yer own ears.

[cynic]

There are people that will claim to hear splices in audio cables too, but I'll be damned if I can.

So, if your guitar has a no load tone pot, is running the pot in the no load / detent position the same as having the pickup bypassing the pot?

I keep reading of guys (mostly Strat players) removing the middle pickup from the no load circuit and direct wiring it. They swear they hear a difference, my non cork sniffing ears can't and I miss having the pick up on the tone pot, I like to roll down the tone on the middle pickup. Yes I tried the mod and I will be putting my Am Std back to stock. I thought I would ask the question here to get a somewhat non biased view. Is it me?

Thanks guys.

This is really the only thing that matters.

[gorch]

In case the no-load pot does it right it performs like a by-pass switch in pedals. If that's ok for you?

[dragan]

In case the no-load pot does it right it performs like a by-pass switch in pedals. If that's ok for you?

OK for me !

[Hfan]

Thanks guys. There's a guy on the Strat forum who swears removing the tone pot from the middle pickup on a newer Am Std Strat is his favorite mod (bridge and middle connected to the no load pot on these) and all sorts of righteous tones result that are not available with the no load pot connected. Thought I was missing something, I drank the kool aid and it was not sweet. Oh well good thing I like to tinker and good to know my ears are still somewhat functional. Thanks again.