Fender Telecaster volume and tone
A guitar’s pickups, switch, volume and tone, with the cable and amp input, solved part by part. Flip the switch, split a coil, turn the knobs and watch the curve. Pin a setting to compare, change any part, and listen.
A single-coil pickup with 250 kΩ volume and tone pots and a 47 nF tone cap. The lower pot values load the pickup more, which trims its resonant peak.
Swipe sideways for the whole drawing. Tap a part to change it. The pickups are on the left, and the cable and the amp input hang on the right.
At this setting
0 dB is the pickup’s raw voltage, before the coil, knobs, cable and amp input shape it. The peak up top is the pickup’s resonance.
Pin this curve keeps what the graph shows, up to three pins in their own colors. Pins stay when you switch guitars, so you can lay a Strat’s neck pickup over a Les Paul’s. In a sweep, the lightest line is the knob at 0 and the darkest is 10.
Listen
The amp input
Driven by
What the cable plugs into
The knobs
- Volume
- Turning it down puts the top part of the track in series with the pickup. That damps the resonant peak, so the 2 to 4 kHz presence goes before the level drops much. With the treble bleed or the 1950s wiring, more of that presence stays.
- Tone
- Turned up, the tone cap hangs off the circuit through the whole pot and does little. Turned down, the cap sits across the pickup and the resonant peak drops to a few hundred hertz, for the dark, vocal sound.
Parts
- Coil R
- 5.94 kΩ, The pickup coil’s resistance, measured on a vintage-style Strat single coil (5.94 kΩ DC, 2.96 H at 1 kHz).
- Coil L
- 2.96 H, The pickup coil’s inductance, measured on a vintage-style Strat single coil (5.94 kΩ DC, 2.96 H at 1 kHz). Together with the winding capacitance, the cable and the pots, it sets the resonant peak.
- Winding C
- 120 pF, The capacitance between the coil’s turns, across its output. A typical figure, not a measurement.
- Volume
- 250 kΩ, Volume, 250 kΩ audio taper. Even at full it loads the pickup with its whole track.
- Tone
- 250 kΩ, Tone, 250 kΩ audio taper, used as a variable resistor in series with the tone cap. Its resistance goes up as you turn it up.
- Tone cap
- 47 nF, Tone cap. With the tone pot down, it shunts the pickup’s treble to ground, and together with the coil’s inductance it pulls the resonance down.
- Bleed cap
- 1 nF, Treble bleed cap across the top half of the volume pot. It keeps the treble as the volume comes down.
- Bleed R
- 150 kΩ, Sits in parallel with the bleed cap so the treble lift doesn’t get too big at low volume settings.
Source and load
Driven by: ideal. Driving: cable and amp, 1 MΩ. Source: the pickup’s own voltage, from the string moving in the magnet’s field. The coil’s resistance, inductance and winding capacitance are part of the network. Load: about 15 feet of cable (450 pF) into a 1 MΩ amp input. With the 1950s wiring option on, the tone network hangs off the volume pot’s wiper instead of its input lug, so turning the volume down cuts less treble.
Warnings. The summary above the graph turns red if the guitar can’t be solved as set, usually from a part at zero or a shorted pot track.
How this tool works. We solve each guitar with the circuit bench’s engine at 161 frequencies from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, cable and amp input included. Each pickup is a voltage behind its coil’s resistance, inductance and winding capacitance, and a humbucker is two coupled coils. With several pickups on, each one’s share is solved with the others shorted, and the shares add up.
The curves are linear. They leave out the pickup’s magnetic nonlinearity, the width of string under it, and the body and neck. The played string has the first two. Coil values are measured where a part’s description says so, typical otherwise. For an amp’s tone stack, try the tone stack and filter tool. To play a guitar into a whole pedal or amp, use the circuit bench.
Spot an error, or want a circuit added? Email info@swellamps.com. A schematic or a clear photo of one helps. Anything you send may be used to improve these models and our desktop app.
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