Adding a trim pot to an active guitar

[bjjman]

I have a Jackson Jeff Loomis Signature Kelly which comes with his signature Seymour Duncan Blackout pickups. I like the sound of the pickups but they are ridiculously hot and this causes issues with my workflow when switching guitars. I basically want any guitar to plug and play without adjusting levels on the interface. This is so I can switch between projects or come back to them later and have tones match exactly. For this same reason, turning the volume knob down isn't going to work as it'll never match up perfectly.

Given the pickups are active, I thought adding a trim pot in the cavity would allow me to set the volume to something manageable and shouldn't impact the tone.

Questions for the brains trust:
Am I missing anything that means I shouldn't be doing this?
What value pot should I use?
I'm assuming I'd just wire the pot between the current volume pot and the hot connection on the output jack. Is that right?

 

[lost_horizon]

You don't have a True-Z/Balanced input to use? My interface automatically adjusts for hotness...

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Pickup height? Lowering the pickups might help in that regard.

 

[bjjman]

I'm using an instrument input on my interface but it doesn't auto adjust in any way. I can set it up for these pickups but it's sub optimal for all my other guitars then.

Unfortunately, the pickups are direct mounted so I can't lower them.

 

[oversteve]

I'm using an instrument input on my interface but it doesn't auto adjust in any way. I can set it up for these pickups but it's sub optimal for all my other guitars then.

Unfortunately, the pickups are direct mounted so I can't lower them.

they are still mounted on some spring/foam under them and can be moved down unless they are already down as far as possible

I have a Jackson Jeff Loomis Signature Kelly which comes with his signature Seymour Duncan Blackout pickups. I like the sound of the pickups but they are ridiculously hot and this causes issues with my workflow when switching guitars. I basically want any guitar to plug and play without adjusting levels on the interface. This is so I can switch between projects or come back to them later and have tones match exactly. For this same reason, turning the volume knob down isn't going to work as it'll never match up perfectly.

Given the pickups are active, I thought adding a trim pot in the cavity would allow me to set the volume to something manageable and shouldn't impact the tone.

Questions for the brains trust:
Am I missing anything that means I shouldn't be doing this?
What value pot should I use?
I'm assuming I'd just wire the pot between the current volume pot and the hot connection on the output jack. Is that right?

Regarding the trim pot - that should more or less work the way you describe it, since actives use 25k pots I guess you should start with similar value and see the end result but going with a higher value is ok too, it's just that it will adjust differently
You can either place it between the pup switch output and vol pot or between vol pot and jack, there might be subtle difference

 

[Mechanos71]

Things you could try:
You could just use tape or some similar marking method to know where you want to set your volume pot by default.
You could use your current volume pot to figure out the resistance value that gets you to the desired level, and solder a resistor in line. It would be smaller than a pot and since your intention isn’t to change the value, a pot doesn’t make much sense from a practical perspective.

That said I think lost horizons suggestion is probably the best. It’s almost always easier to fix a problem in software, having an interface that adjusts for level just seems like the easiest most future proof solution.

 

[JimboLodisC]

The input dial on your interface should really not be touched at all for any instrument. Most recently NeuralDSP advised just leaving that dial at zero. They calibrated all their plugins to expect 0dB of gain added by the interface. For Scarletts and some UAD interfaces, just leaving it all the way down is fine. This way it emulates plugging directly into the amp sim as if it were a physical one.

So in that regard you may say "but if I plug this Jackson into a real amp then I'm going to have to dial in the tone specifically for this guitar"... to which case I say welcome to recording/engineering.

If it's just an attenuation thing then write down the amount of dB you wanna cut and just apply that in software. There should be an input dial in any guitar sim plugin for this very purpose.

 

[BasilBadger]

Hi

Cut or unsolder the wire at the blue cross and connect a 47KΩ trimpot as sketched.
That'll give you up to 12dB drop in volume. The Tone capacitor might need to be replaced with one ½ to ¼ the original size, depending on your liking.

Have fun;
Basil

 

[Carrion Rocket]

Basil, your first post needs to be about keto/cbd gummies or totally alive authentic female dating.

 

[DECEMBER]

Is there a pad on the interface input? You could use any pedal with a volume knob that goes below unity (EQ, some comps & clean boosts).
I don't see how a 2nd pot will let you turn it lower, since the volume pot already goes to 0. Active pickups use 25k pots. I've seen some people talk about using 50k.

 

[bjjman]

Thanks everyone for the input. @Mechanos71 figuring out the desired value and using a resistor is a much better idea than mine. @BasilBadger that's super helpful, thank you and welcome to the forum!