vintage control

[Andy Le Blanc]

I've been liking the old volume and tone set up you find on most really old
instrument amps. It sounds good, and is high impedance, so it comes without
the consequences of more elaborate control scheme's, and they are a snap to
dress when your completing the hook up inside the amp.

The one I have been using is fed by the coupling cap from the first stage to
the top of the volume pot, the wiper of the tone pot is connected here to
provide treble bleed and bypass around the volume pot. This set up is in a
huge number of amps made by many companies.

I finally had the occasion to notice that there is another way to dress the
same circuit. In very old Fenders the coupling cap from the first stage is
hooked to the wiper of the volume pot along with the treble bypass cap,
and the signal out is from the top of the volume as is the wiper of the tone pot.

It appears to be the mirror image of the previous confiquration, but
the difference is that the driving stage "see's" a changing resistance that
most affect the gain and frequency response of the stage.

This is contrary to how one wires a volume control.

Which one is better from the players stand point?
Does the dynamic of the amp improve by reversing the function of the volume control?

[Vince]

Why not to try both configurations and choose
better sounding in your ears?
I like best "first" configuration. In friend's tweed Deluxe clone
we change vol-tone set to this configuration, seems better working,
eg. changes in volume were more related with knob rotation.

regards
V