From a guitar hacking point of view, the two major parts that are interesting to us are the pickups and the volume/tone control circuit that lets you adjust the sound while playing. Today, I’ll get into the latter part and take a close look at the components involved — potentiometers, switches, and a few other passive components — and show how they function, what alternative options we have, and how we can re-purpose them altogether.
Not ideal but it will do
In that sense, it’s time to heat up the soldering iron, get out the screwdriver, and take off that pick guard / open up that back cover and continue our quest for new electric guitar sounds. And if the thought of that sounds uncomfortable, skip the soldering iron and grab some alligator clips and a breadboard. It may not be the ideal environment, but it’ll work.
When Music Meets Electronics
If you missed my last article, we covered the basics of electric guitars and the origin of their tone. To recap: steel strings vibrate over the magnetic field of a pickup, creating an electric signal that is shaped by all the pickup’s internal characteristics. From here, the signal is then routed through a volume and tone control circuit to the output jack, from where we can amplify and alter the sound however we want.
Before I start, I’d like to say a few words about guitar wiring diagrams you’ll come across on the internet, and the general state of electronics terminology within the guitar world. Since the average musician isn’t necessarily versed in electronics, actual schematics are rarely used to ..
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