# Tone pot removal



## Jonisbrutal (Aug 28, 2011)

Hi, I have a 2000 MIJ Ibanez RG 470, and I was curious as to how should I go about removing my tone pot. I always jam with it up all the way anyway. I'm going to be replacing my volume pot, so I figured I'd remove the tone pot too, and kill two birds with one stone.

Thank you for your time.

-Jon


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## MobiusR (Aug 28, 2011)

Well its easy depending whats connected to it. Just make sure no ground wires/input jack wires and toggle/5way wires are connected. If its just connected to the volume knob by a couple of wires then just disconnect thoses and your fine. 

If you can show us a picture or something


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## jordanky (Aug 30, 2011)

I run wide open tone in all of my guitars but leave the pot in so I don't have a hole in the guitar. Post a pic of how it's wired up. If it's stock wiring on a newer model, you should just be able to desolder the ground from the tone pot to the volume pot, and then desolder the hot wire connecting the tone pot to the volume pot. It's pretty easy, unless it's wired differently. Hook us up with a picture!


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## Nick1 (Aug 31, 2011)

I never use my tone knobs either so what I do is swap the stock tone pot for a No-Load Tone Control. That completely bypasses the tone control when turned to 10. They are pretty cheap too.....

Opentip.com: Pot - Fender, No Load, 250K Solid Shaft


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## rippedflesh89 (Sep 1, 2011)

DONT GET RID OF YOUR TONE KNOB!!!

heres a great idea: just rewire it to be a high pass filter instead of a low pass filter...

basically, a regular tone knob filters off highs as you roll it; but even when the tone knob is not being used, it still has a capaciter that slightly rolls off some highs...

if you reverse this, then when you roll the knob, you will filter out the bass.... and when the knob is not in use, it filters out a very small amount of bass that actually is very useful.... it does a good job at tightening up the low end..

i got the idea from here, check it out; its very simple to do and you dont even need to buy any new parts, just rewire you tone knob to a "tight" knob:

The 'Tight' control - simple passive bass cut


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## Sephael (Sep 1, 2011)

rippedflesh89 said:


> i got the idea from here, check it out; its very simple to do and you dont even need to buy any new parts, just rewire you tone knob to a "tight" knob:


or duel pot with one a tight and the other a tone


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## TelosHedge (Sep 2, 2011)

> heres a great idea: just rewire it to be a high pass filter instead of a low pass filter...



never heard of this mod - maybe i'll give it a go.


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## Jonisbrutal (Sep 14, 2011)

I always have my tone at 10 too. So I wouldn't really miss the pot, plus my guitar has a "relic'd look" so the hole would just add more charactor in my opinion. I'm just a bit concerned about the treble boost I'll get from removing the tone pot. Dont want to sound too "trebly". I'll post some pics when I get home.


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## Sepultorture (Sep 14, 2011)

you could also put a temp kill switch where your tone ot used to be to fill the hole and do quick stutter on/off effects with it


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## heminder (Sep 14, 2011)

i wired my tone pot to short one of the coils of the neck humbucker. gives me a single coil sound which i can turn up to morph into the full humbucker.


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## Norjen (Feb 1, 2013)

Hi, sorry for necro, but I don't wanna make a new thread for the subject.

I got a Jackson PS-3T loaded with Seymour Duncans from eBay, and I need the tone removed since it's working kinda odd, and I want the instrument cable jack installed in it's place for ergonomical reasons. I looked up the diagrams from SD's website to see how to pull this off, but the actual wirings in my guitar seem rather unorthodox compared to the ones I found online.

2 humbuckers, 2 volume pots, 1 tone, a 3-way toggle switch. The tone has to go. Should I rewire everything, since I'm also experiencing problems like considerably lower-than-normal output and ridiculous treble levels after trying to remedy the output problem by raising the bridge pup? Strange enough, the treble level increase is only audible when I play through a tube amp head, and not noticeable at all when using a solid-state combo amp.

So, how do I pull this off? 2nd post in this thread mentioned that it's just a matter of desoldering the wires if it's only connected to the volume pot by 2 wires, and as you can see, it's not like that in this case.


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## DespoticOrder (Feb 3, 2013)

I have a tone pot, but its just for cosmetics right now. The electronics aren't wired into my guitar. I like the added presence I get in my mahogany bodied guitar without the tone pot. Its a brighter sound, but its definitely an organic one. To me, it sounds more natural than just boosting treble or presence on the amp, but it gives me a more distinct sound. 

Not to mention that it doesn't take much to remove your tone pot when rewiring. I just did it as an experiment, and I've grown fond of it it very quickly.


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## DespoticOrder (Feb 3, 2013)

Norjen said:


> Hi, sorry for necro, but I don't wanna make a new thread for the subject.
> 
> I got a Jackson PS-3T loaded with Seymour Duncans from eBay, and I need the tone removed since it's working kinda odd, and I want the instrument cable jack installed in it's place for ergonomical reasons. I looked up the diagrams from SD's website to see how to pull this off, but the actual wirings in my guitar seem rather unorthodox compared to the ones I found online.
> 
> ...



Forgive me if I missed the point, but you want to add a tone pot to a guitar that you bought without one? From the pictures, it looks like the soldering is a mess. Soldering should be a very quick movement, which would leave it smooth looking. Yours looks bumpy as shit.

Too much treble sounds like a preference issue regarding tone pots. An extra pot definitely takes away a bit of brightness. Just look up the wiring diagrams, and see if you can change the wiring to include an extra pot. It should be a fairly quick experiment if you have access to a soldering iron.


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## Norjen (Feb 3, 2013)

DespoticOrder said:


> Forgive me if I missed the point, but you want to add a tone pot to a guitar that you bought without one?



No no no. Like I said, I need one _removed_.



> Too much treble sounds like a preference issue regarding tone pots.



Dunno about that. It's a regular pot, and I have many like it in my other guitars. And the treble is really over the top - so much that I need to rework my EQ settings to get any decent sounds.

I forgot to mention earlier, that the tone pot also affects volume when rolled down, and there's signal passing through even when volume is at 0. Only when I roll both volume and tone down to 0 the guitar is completely silent. This, combined with the low output and treble issues, makes it clear that something is broken, and it's likely that the tone pot is to blame.


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## Rook (Feb 4, 2013)

All you need to do to stop a tone pot from doing anything is disconnect one leg of the capacitor usually. If you want to remove it completely it may depend on wiring but simply taking the cap off should just about cover it.


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## Norjen (Feb 6, 2013)

Rook said:


> If you want to remove it completely it may depend on wiring



Yes, this is exactly why I'm posting here in the first place...


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## HRC51 (Feb 6, 2013)

Thanks for starting this post. I've wondered the same thing.


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## Stuck_in_a_dream (Feb 9, 2013)

I got rid of it in two of my guitars, never looked back  Since I use EMG's I just wired the pickups to have two volume knobs instead, and I enjoy the in-between tones in the middle position a lot more than the tone knob.


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## Norjen (Feb 13, 2013)

Nvm, I tore the tone out and rewired everything to match seymour duncan's diagrams. Haven't tested it yet but everything should be fine unless there's more defective parts.


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## GizmoGardens (Feb 14, 2013)

Jonisbrutal said:


> I always have my tone at 10 too. So I wouldn't really miss the pot, plus my guitar has a "relic'd look" so the hole would just add more charactor in my opinion. I'm just a bit concerned about the treble boost I'll get from removing the tone pot. Dont want to sound too "trebly". I'll post some pics when I get home.



Why not just replace it with a 500k resistor? That way you won't boost your highs at all, and you still get the satisfaction of ripping that son'bitch out.


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## Konfyouzd (Feb 14, 2013)

Usually you can just cut all the wires that connect it to the rest of the circuit and pull it straight out. I like it because they're typically attached to the volume pot in a manner similar to how a killswitch is attached so it makes the change really easy for me.


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