See, your volume potentiometer actually leaks a little bit of the signal to the ground. It's only a resistor, after all. The most unfortunate aspect of this is that it's the high end that is lost first, so pickups always end up a little muddier than they really are.
What you can do?
The mod is pretty obvious: Just upgrade to a higher value volume pot in your guitar. Typically, single coil guitars employ 250k pots while guitars with humbuckers (or a combination) use 500k pots. And the results? There are two consequences of this modification, and both are advantageous. |
Instead of tracking down and installing a new potentiometer, a 250 or 500 kOhm resistor can be added between the volume knob and the ground and effectively accomplish the same thing, but will alter the function of the original volume knob. Specifcally, there will be resistance to the ground. Thus, turning the knob down will never completely remove the signal, just halve it.
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