The Steel Guitar Forum

I am building a semi hollowbody electric lap steel. Ive built laps with both control pots. my question is about having a volume control only.
are there any drawbacks?
the pickup is a nice Seymour Duncan Antiquity tele.
my idea is to build a very simple,yet well crafted, front porch lap steel. one control knob fits in well with my design.

what do you think?

Every lap I've ever built has had a volume & tone control and a series/parallel switch (I've got this thing about humbuckers.) Last I heard, though, there ain't no law that says you've got to have a tone control....Since the purpose of a tone control is to cut the treble, you can accomplish the same thing by just reaching over and turning down the treble, presence, or tone control on your amp.

my thoughts too. I wonder, is there a split pot or push pull vol/tone pot made? I haven't seen any.

There are several reasons why I prefer to have a tone control:

- Adjusting the tone from the guitar gives a different result than adjusting it on the amp

- I like to be able to adjust the tone 'on the fly' without having to reach over to the amp while I'm playing

- BOOWAH!!

Steinar

For me, personally, I find them to be unnecessary. I don't even like them much on my guitars anymore. I've learned to embrace the highs and play on different parts of the guitar for tone variations. That's the one thing I don't like about a lot of jazz guitarists' sound--many of them roll off the highs too much.

StewMac carries push pull pots:

Stewart-Macdonald online.

I imagine some of the other electronics houses do too.

The push pull pots that StewMac sells can be used for either tone or volume, but not both. The push pull action activates a switch.

My CruzTone has the Turner system with separate volume and tone pots. If you pull up on the volume knob the entire tone/volume circuit is bypassed, so that you hear just the pickup.

StewMac also sells Concentric pots. You can have your volume and tone in one control, best of both worlds IMHO.

I haven't built one without a tone pot, but my old frypan doesn't have one, and I like it that way. Changing the tone on the guitar is different than on the amp. Tone controls in amps are almost always after the pre-amp stage, and it sounds different than one on the guitar.
Regards BILL

great responses, thanks. I am aware of the differences in tone control on guitar and amp. that is why I bring the question up.
I use the tone control on the vintage lap steels Ive bought. I like the control I have on these solid bodies.
the concentric pot looks like a nice answer.
I missed that!

I wouldn't omit the tone control - I like to use it for certain effects (like imitating train sounds), and I also usually set up my amp with the guitar's tone control slightly rolled back (not only on my lap steel, but also on my Tele) - that way, if I need to cut through in certain situations (densely arranged parts in a song), I just need to open up the tone control, without raising the volume; it is also useful for rolling down harsh treble frequencies and getting 'singing' sounds while using an overdrive pedal for solos.

the fellow I am making this lap for is not an enthusiast, as those on this Forum. he wanted to try lap steel;
play on his front porch when chores were done sort of thing.
I made him a solid body (2 controls!) but he didnt plug it in.
so I am going semi acoustic. that way he can hear it on that damn front porch of his.
I get the solid body back.
Roman, well said. I do too look at my lap steel and both controls that way.
the Seymour Duncan pickup I am going to use is based on the idea that early telecaster players took lap steel pickups and switched them with the factory pickups on their guitars. the lap steel pickups had more of the bite they were wanting.
Seymour Duncan made this pickup (Antiquty Series) to those specs. I guess I am merely completing the circle.
if this steel I am building we're mine I'd add a tone pot.
so perhaps I will rework the design.
thanks.

I have built four guitars with the concentric vol/tone pot. Both are 500k, but seem to work ok, but for using them for volume swells takes a lot of getting used to. Great space saver though.

BILL