Notched/Stepped Tone Knob?

[acidbass]

Hi all

 

Watched BTW's recent review of the Mantle preamp pedal, and Gregor made a good point regarding notched pots (i.e. ones which don't turn smoothly, but in fixed increments)

 

He said it's really easy to replicate a tone in a studio etc, as soon as you find the sweet spot you are looking for, you can easily access it again next time by recalling your preferred 'notch' on your tone knob e.g. 8 out of 10 etc.

 

It makes me question - why are more tone knobs on basses for example not notched? It seems to make sense for some applications. Do any such instruments feature this? I know a lot have a centre detent of course.

 

Would like to hear your opinions!

 

Danny

 

 

[BlueMoon]

Bernie Goodfellow (GB Guitars) uses them on many of his builds.

 

As you say, it’s really helpful and with no forseen downsides.

[PaulThePlug]

I have the 5 Poistion (4 RC settings and ByPass) QTP Tone Control in my Ibby SR with a Tonerider P.

Maybe could benefit from being say 7 positions to give a bit more flexibility with different pickups.

But that is more of a tonestyler type switch than an indented pot.

Edited 10 hours ago by PaulThePlug

[itu]

A step attenuator has fixed steps that can be decided in the soldering phase (log or lin, 3 or 6 dB steps, or whatever). I have built few to some of my basses. Metal film resistors, Elma rotary switches. 

 

[Chris2112]

It's not like it's even a new thing! The stack knob jazz basses of the early 60's had detents on the tone controls back then (which someone on Talkbass pointed out would have been fiddly and costly to make). I like them and I think they're a good idea from a practicality point of view. You lose a small amount of very fine tuning within the 'sweep' of a normal control but most players would probably prefer being able to quickly get back to their reference point. 

 

When Jeff Berlin recorded the audio parts for his Bass Mastery books back in 2017 or 2018, he had the tone control on his bass held in place with tape, so that the sound of the bass would be consistent across all the different cuts and videos they recorded on that session. A notched control would have sorted that.

[MartinB]

🤓 Stepped potentiometers do exist, but for a bass tone control you're more likely to see one of the solutions already mentioned, i.e.
- A rotary switch that allows you to select different resistors

- A standard smooth-sweep potentiometer attached to a stepped knob, as in the old Jazz basses; there's a special sprung washer underneath that clicks into notches on the underside of the lower knob as you turn it