I just made my ASAT more versatile

Thu Apr 04, 2013 9:08 am

I think this would work on any ASAT model with the MFD pickups, large or small, 2 or 3 pickups. Mine's a Special. I replaced the volume pot with a dual-concentric 250k pot and combined the volume and tone functions into it. I replaced the tone pot with a 1meg pot and wired it as a bass contour pot, like Leo's S-style guitars have. Why is this great for ASATs? Same as why it's great for S-500s and so on: it trims out that beefy bass of the MFDs and gives you a little more traditional sound. In this case, just a little more like a Tele bridge and/or neck, and the MFDs still have enough tone to sound good with bass rolled off.

I can post a wiring diagram later, but I used a simple .001 cap on the bass pot (not the .0022 used in the S-500), because the big MFDs are so much beefier than the smaller MFDs that I wanted more cut. But with a 1 meg pot you get a nice long sweep, so halfway is a nice tone, too.

Re: I just made my ASAT more versatile

Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:44 am

thanks for the post I think I'm going to try that on my tribute Will Ray. I'm use to the tpb tone controls on my s500 & Nighthawk. I find sometimes I would like to thin down the z coils a little but have the beef when I need it.

willy

Re: I just made my ASAT more versatile

Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:55 am

Good stuff! Let us know how it works out, the only drawback I can think of with using a dual volume and tone pot is that if you do volume swells, you'll sound like you're getting closer (as you get louder) and further away (as you get quieter). It's a mixing trick that people use, if you want something to sound further away, reduce the volume and cut some high end. From your sig, I'm guessing you play mostly jazz, so I doubt it'd be a problem for live gigs in small-to-medium sized rooms :)

Re: I just made my ASAT more versatile

Thu Apr 04, 2013 5:44 pm

my issue is using a dual concentric for volume, i like a linear low torque volume for volume swells, i am yet to try a dual concentric that works well for that.

Re: I just made my ASAT more versatile

Thu Apr 04, 2013 6:18 pm

I use a volume pedal so that's not a issue for me.